An Age of Mysterious Memories

B 2 C 7: I’m All Agog

As excited as I am to experience a party, I’m more excited to just do something for my family. Something tangible to make up for what I’ve put them through. I know they feel I don’t have any amends to make, mostly, but I’m still, well, I’m me. I overthink, and overguilt myself. Hm, is that a word? It should be. I’m overdramatic, prone to strong emotions. I always assume I’m failing in some way, and even when I’m succeeding, I feel like it was luck, or not my own success. Take this journey to the caves for example. I’d require a lot more time to get here, and back, if it weren’t for this tattoo. This tattoo that I didn’t earn, my beloved Valkyrie, before she ever even evolved, earned it. I was just there, being eaten by a box.

Speaking of boxes, that’s why I claimed this stupid wicker basket with our equipment in it. I was too afraid to reach inside at the time. How pathetic can I be? Sighing, I try to shake the negative thoughts from my head. I’m also pretty hard on myself. I’d never call someone else pathetic for struggling with their fears.

I’m a couple minutes deep into the caves when I realize I probably wasn’t overreacting after all. Back when I first feared entering these deeper caves, rather than following the tunnels up to the plateaus. Why might that be? Because I just stuck my hand in an enormous web. How did Mataalii get around in here, without freaking out? I’ve got to give him credit, he doesn’t have the same mental hangups I do. Or maybe he didn’t go this deep, and just happened to notice a geode one time on the way up the plateaus.

As I cautiously extricate myself from webbing, trying not to shake it at all, I do my best to achieve stealthiness. Minimizing my breathing, and reducing the impact of each footfall, I slowly inch through the caves, deeper still. There are starting to be more and more offshoots in the tunnels, and I’m worried that the right hand wall rule won’t hold out. The tunnel has curved so many times that I can’t tell which direction I’m facing anymore. Me, me, I’m the one who can’t tell which direction I’m facing anymore. The person who named North on their first day of existence, with no guidance. Hopefully it’s pretty understandable why I’m starting to get a little more freaked out.

That’s a weird noise off to my left. I can’t help but hiss out loud, mostly to myself, “Why’d I have to be right!?” Spying a creature with a long vertical eye situated above a pair of mandibles, and three eyes on each side of that one, I fall to my rear, scrabbling backwards. I see at least two pairs of legs just up front here on this side of the corner that it’s peaking around. There’s probably at least two more pairs of legs behind the corner.

Nope, nope, nope. Noooooope. As it lunges forward, I beat a hasty retreat. Do I fight it? Do I kill it? I’m the one who is trespassing. I came here searching for treasures basically. Now that I’m sprinting down the corridors, making sure I hug what is now my left wall, I’m disturbing many more webs, accidentally destroying them. If it wasn’t already annoyed at me, it will be now. Or worse yet, they will be. Of course there’s more of them, why wouldn’t there be? Three more of the creatures are ahead of me, one on the ceiling, one on each wall. At least a familiar move will get me out of this situation without hurting anyone. I tuck in all my limbs, shrinking down as much as possible while leaping between the three of them. They bump into one another as I pass through.

I thank all that is holy, all the heavens, anything good for all my good fortune. If it weren’t for having spectacular darkvision, this escape would be nearly impossible. Humans aren’t supposed to see this well in the dark, right? I can’t be a human after all. Hm, that same old internal argument again. My memories are of how human society is supposed to work, how humans age and develop. Oh, right, pay attention, flarblegarble. I ran into a massive patch of webbing, tripped, and now I’m laying face down, sprawled out, stuck basically across my entire surface area.

Okay, okay, don’t panic, this is no time to panic. Who am I kidding? This is the perfect time to panic! No, no, don’t. Okay, breathe, just breathe, I have a few options here. I can try to claim the webbing, I’d almost rather not. I can try to saw through the webbing with laser-thin precision with radiant copies of things from my inventory. That sounds like a recipe for disaster. I could see if I can summon lightning in here, and set the webs on fire. That also sounds like a recipe for disaster, and maybe wouldn’t work if I need access to a sky above me. Fricklefrack.

No time to deliberate, gotta choose, they’ve caught up to my danger wrap sensory range! Ugh, I hate claiming things with my face, it feels so gross, and wrong. I claim the webbing I’m currently stuck to, and shudder. It feels like a load of silky goop just passed through my system. This imaginary feeling had the texture of, hm, shampoo I want to say. It’s as if I’d swallowed it. Ugh.

Wait, wait, wait wait wait, I’m following the left hand wall rule now, going out exactly reverse of the way I came, I should have been out by now. Unless, oh no. Unless these creatures had a boulder, or a door at some point. One that was close to flush, and mostly indistinguishable from the normal wall. If I passed one of those while it was closed on my right side, and they opened it on my way back out. Oh no. I’m lost. Have I ever been lost? Oh no, oh no, oh no. Think, think think think. I could probably just fight, taking on all comers as it were, then slowly explore my way back out, but then I might miss the party. I know for sure that I need to turn around, and head back towards the things that are chasing me, until I come to a T-juncture. At that juncture, there should be some sign of a door or boulder, then I just go left from there, and I should be back on track to follow the left hand wall rule all the way out.

Oh, hey, geodes. Or at least, round smooth stones. I’d better grab those while I can. That was easy enough. Oh no, why did I have to think that?

Sure enough, after thinking something so cliche, life becomes a whole lot more difficult. I’ve reached a dead end. It doesn’t make any sense, I know that if I went down a certain path, following a single wall, and came back along the same wall, but that wall opened up, that this is how to find the way back out. Supposing the entrance is point a, and the place I first got spooked enough to turn around is point b, then the trick offshoot would be point c. There weren’t any dead ends from point c to point d, so how did I run into one on the way back to point c? Unless this is point c.

I struggle against the wall, and sure enough, it feels like there are seams, as if a massive boulder is in the way, one far too large for my inventory. Or wait, is it? My inventory capacity grew recently. But this thing is massive, and my maximum energy is so much lower. Hm, also, how did I not pass the creatures on the way back to point c? Ugh, they’re probably either waiting on the other side of the wall, or taking another tunnel to come around and flank me in this dead end, or both.

If they have the concept of doors, tracking, and trapping, they’re pretty intelligent. Does that make them sapient? Could I maybe try talking to them? Well, if it weren’t for my own communication difficulties that is. Bluh, sucks to be me at the moment. Hah, how awesome is that? I can just poke fun at my own situation, and not panic about it. If I claim this boulder, it’s likely going to take all of my energy, and there’s probably at least one of the creatures, if not the front three, or all four that I’ve run into so far, all standing on the other side.

I check behind me in the tunnel to make sure nothing is coming just yet. It seems as if I’m okay for the moment, so I walk back far enough to get enough of a running start for a good leap. Dashing towards the boulder, I leap, left hand outstretched, fingers out past the edge of my shield. Just as I make contact with the stone, so that I don’t break my fingers. I claim the whole stupid thing to my inventory, and sure enough, four creatures lay in wait on the other side. They were not however, expecting their door to disappear, or for me to be barreling through at this speed. Skidding between all of them, I flick my tattoo tendrils downward, thrusting myself the direction I know is right, now that I’m back on track.

I’m glad I took the time just the other day to go for a swim, and make sure my muscles are in good order. Alternating between sprinting, and flinging myself around bends in the tunnel has me gaining distance, breaking away from the creatures fairly quickly. Up ahead is the exit, which is great news, but I veer off to a certain side tunnel that I know leads upwards, now that I’ve got my bearings.

When I finally leave the cliff-face tunnels, it’s onto the first plateau that hangs off the cliff like a balcony. Panting, I flop down against the exterior wall for a moment. I sit with my back to the wall that lays between both sections of the tunnel, the section that leads up, and the one that leads down. When my energy recovers enough, I eject the boulder from my inventory, and it’s a hilarious sight. Pfoot, out into midair this massive stone ejects from my inventory, traveling barely a few dozen feet off the edge before plummeting. I want to say like a rock, but it is a rock. Can a thing be like a thing, if that other thing is itself? Or well, a category that includes itself? I mean, I suppose I am like me. If I weren’t like me, then I wouldn’t be me, so I couldn’t not not be me, because the me that is me wouldn’t exist. Oh wow, I hurt my head there.

The skittering sound from one side is my cue to keep ascending. It feels like mere moments pass before I’m up in the Fire Biome, gazing out across the volcanic plains. Taking a few breaths, I calm my breathing, and try to picture exactly how far I traveled before spying Lil for the very first time.

If I were Lil, I’d probably be able to spot an aura trail or something. Lil has no idea how powerful their analysis aura vision stuff is. I rarely ride along on Lu’s senses when I’m blinded, because Lil just perceives so much more. Lil was right though, basically to anyone other than me, my aura is on display, which includes my emotions. Flitting up into the air, swiftly across the plain, traveling via tattoo tendril gets me to the spot I met Lilagni soon enough. There we go. Now how much of this stone should I claim? Enough just for Lil’s base form? Or enough for their Lilagnewt form? I guess I’ll play it safe and go big, I can always whittle it down after if the sentiment doesn’t come across.

Leaning forward, I mentally trace an oval on the ground. I want to claim it as more of a hemisphere with a taper, rather than a cylinder, which is a little harder to imagine. I don’t have x-ray vision, so I’m not sure exactly where the tapered end should meet up. Still, my space skill, or the inventory magic itself seems to figure it out. As I’m leaning over, claiming this patch of ground, it disappears out from under my hands. This wouldn’t be much of a big deal, as I’m pretty constantly eating dirt as the phrase goes, skidding on my face and whatnot. But I just created a pool of lava. Freaking out, I thrust my tattoo tendrils down into the lava to push myself away from it. Bad idea, the tendrils give tactile feedback, and it’s excruciating. I hope I didn’t just ruin them, oh holy cows and crows and bats and ravens and poop, oh that hurt. I’m in the middle of the act of falling away from the pool I made, thrusted away by my tendrils, when I noticed I splashed lava into the air, which is now following me, about to land.

My shield rises up to meet the small splash of lava just in time. I find myself laying flat on my back, laughing in a hysterical panic. That was too close, way too close. Even if convection doesn’t seem to do anything, I do not want to risk contact with actual molten rock. I want to be sure I haven’t damaged the tattoo, so I divest it for a moment, looking at the needle it becomes. I can’t see any differences from the last time I’d seen it, so I guess it’s okay. I reapply it to my left arm, and test out the tendrils. Things seem alright after doing some push ups with them, as well as flinging myself up into the air several times.

Hm, I’m running short on time, the caves were a fairly long excursion, and so was traveling west to them, then back east to here. If I’m right, I’m pretty close to home, just above it. Am I crazy enough to attempt this, to save some time? Yeah, yeah I probably am. Plus, falling is really, ridiculously fun. Teuila took me in the air not so long ago, and it was amazing. I sprint towards the cliff’s edge, and fling myself away from it with the tendrils towards the nearest tree, which is honestly a bit further away than I judged.

I’m not ashamed to admit I’m panicking a bit as my arc becomes more of a, what’s the word for a vertical line, perpendicular to the ground? Oh hey, wait, ground. I can make my own ground. I really am a dingus, this would have been smart to do during the fight with the serpent. I eject a bit of spare lumber into the air, with upward velocity intended, just under my feet. Sure enough, it slows my descent, and gives me something to spring off of with my tendrils, to make it the rest of the way to the treeline. Once within tendril’s reach, I wrap around a tree and let myself spiral down it, slowing my descent. I accidentally land with a bit of a thud on the roof of our home. Huh, I didn’t realize I was that close. While I’m up here, I may as well set up the anchor for the zipline, or ziplines.

Teuila and Luni have already worked together to string up vines with flowers and leaves in the form of streamers and banners. Lil has made a massive pile of charcoal, heh, you went overboard buddy, thanks. Wow, the dance floor and stage are coming along really nicely, how do Sugar and Spice even do that? Ag and Lao are setting up a small, uh, did I use the right word, pavilion? I told the Mana twins to make some mud, and they’ve taken their job to heart. I have no idea what I’m going to do with the mud, but I wanted them to feel included. Mat already helped me pick out presents.

Speaking of, just in case there’s something better I could give a few of my family, I’d better check out some of the things I’ve gotten recently. Some things I won’t be able to look at, things I got at a certain time that I should stop vaguely thinking around. Anyway, the stuff from Vampguppy I pull out from my inventory.

It includes a tiny gemstone that, when inspected, begins to orbit my head. As it does, I feel my muscles slightly bulge. It spins pretty rapidly, so it actually takes me two swipes to grab it out of the air. Hm, if it enhances strength in some way, Teuila would get the most use out of it. Make our strongest stronger. Is that the right choice? Hopefully.

There’s also a pair of stones that each vaguely resemble an open flip phone. I jokingly ask one "What do you do?" The other one actually repeats my question, instantly. It seems to only work for a short while, hopefully reusable once a day or something. Actually, with how often I’ve interacted with magic stones, I can just feel that each of these can be used to open a communication with the other, once a day. This, this is the right gift for Lao. Well, one of them. The inner circle will have the other when we’re out on adventures.

There’s also another small potion bottle, the entire bottle and fluid inside seems translucent. Not just in the way glass normally should, but like it's slightly blurry. The liquid inside seems to be more viscous than other potions as well, like it’s an oil, rather than a drink. Huh, I guess maybe some potions are topical. I really wouldn’t want to try to ingest this.

Welp, that settles that then. I’m pretty happy with how today has turned out so far, and as the phrase goes, I’m all agog for what comes next. Tonight’s festivities include feasting, then partying into the eve with my family, then cuddling the night away amongst all of them. I leap off of the roof of our home, and manage to scare the everliving snot out of Sugar, Spice, Mata, Agwai, and Lao. I guess they didn’t hear me impact the roof earlier, oops. I can only blush and mumble an apology as I grin like a dork. Luni and Lil break into laughter at the reaction I garner, and Teuila seems to have disappeared around the other side of a tree.