The sphynx was left with no memory of what had come before, of the forest, the ruins, or entering the chilly pod. All Sakhira knew was that she was in some place that seemed to be a combination of Monoceros and Hydra. She felt the wind ruffle her feathered mane, purple eyes gazing out at the expanse before her. Dunes of glittering sand also held gemstones of all colors. And then there was some strange hybrid walking towards her. It was no gembound she knew. Yet they were familiar. Their gait... and then it clicked. This was who had once been the owner of the gemstone that she had given new life to. And all these gemstones around her, they had so much potential. It was up to her to give them another chance just like the first had been given.

But something was wrong. This was not a task she could undertake on her own. She needed to meet new gembounds, to experience the past lives of all these gems to truly give them to a fitting life giver. It was not something she could do here. It could only be done by meeting gembounds she had never met before. Sakhira knew that it would be best to leave.

The panic and confusion was quickly swept away by the egregiously perfect malaise haze scene—scenery. The scenery kept shifting. It was like it couldn't settle. The majority was easy to take in; an outstretched field of rainbow interlaced in green. A glorious sea of beautiful sound, buzzing so loud it threatened to drown all other thought, subsume her. But occasionally a familiar figure would stand, blip into being. Different in form every time. Sometimes tall, slender legs; sometimes small, stubby; sometimes covered in oil, long. Each new face that Maw barely at the time to recognize sent another wave of shock down her throat through her spine—except they each abruptly stopped. She didn't have all that much time to process, but it felt like a system, this system... was frustrated. Confused in tandem with her own self. And so the buzzing got louder, and louder, but no amount of bumbling noise could withstand the memory of thunder's call. Maw could not bring herself to stay. She could feel it threatening in the air, hell poking out from under loose seams. She had to go. She could not stay.

Despite Yellow's words of caution, the spirit was freed, and life returned to the woods around them. While this was not the ideal outcome (Juggernaut much preferred the quiet of the cold and desolate landscape before), its sibling's fears had still been proven wrong. No harm had been done, and its mind hummed pleasantly. See? No threat.

The scene shifted again. The group gazed upon the frigid ruins, the yawning black entrance. This time it could not deny the unease - though what caused it most discomfort was the thought at traversing stairs. It had not done so before, would it be forced to? The meadow beyond stirred no interest, yet it seemed favourable compared to navigating surfaces clearly not designed with him in mind. Here, he felt the absence of Mother's guiding light, the lack of her wisdom painful. No, he would not back down! He need not think to waste her time with matters as trivial as these. He would continue in her absence - in her honour.

"Stay close." It rumbled, still anxious. Though directionless outloud, the shiver of discomfort from its connecting threads makes it clear that his worries are mostly directed at his present sibling. The thought of losing track of his only connection to his larger family frightened him greatly.

The descent is tense, the clash between narrators largely unnoticed. Lights and colours and sounds blurred into one, distressing experience that the drone was eager to see the end of. The sudden flat surface and the opening pods came as a comfort, a moment of rest. Separated from the Hive, he was easy to lure into the alien embrace. The interior was soft and enveloping in a way it had never experienced before. It lost itself easily.

The dream came - it was a wonderful one. His mind flickered back to a beautiful connection, a network far bigger than his own. His limbs clacked on an endless glass desert, reflecting the white of an endless void above. it was bright, it was oblivion. He felt mother at the centre of it all, knew that the end was coming. A few more planets and they'd have won the war, and nothing could hurt them. Everything loved them and everything was loved, and what had once had been cold and unfeeling rock and soil and space was bleached of all that apathy, hurt and chaos. His thoughts disappeared in his family's endless embrace. They had finally built a home.

But he had no memory of how they'd got here. How they must've fought for this. It ached like a debt unpaid, and he shrunk away from Mother's touch. No, they were not finished - his siblings still struggled, he knew it. He could see the acidic eyes and oil-slick hides in his mind, familiar tissue shredded in gruesome jaws. They were not done. Juggernaut was not done.

In your version of paradise, a doe appears: she lifts her head to greet you.

"You are finally here. For so long, you were lost." Her voice is strange but you cannot figure out why. In fact, you almost feel like you are not supposed to figure it out. You forgive the strangeness. Then she is gone, and you forget her. You blink and return to your visions.

It is difficult to know how much time passes. You are at peace. But there is an uncomfortable feeling that starts to crawl its way into your heart. Your mind is uneasy and you have the thought to look toward the sky. There is a growing light, trailed by a cosmic tail that shimmers like sand—and then it is close, swooping down to you, a METEOR. It flies toward you with stardust wings, its shape slowly changing to an owl. Before it collides with you, you hear it:

"Wake up." A soft, warm voice, like being wrapped in a heated blanket. You feel funny, dizzy. You feel like if you have to be in her presence any longer, it will surely drive you mad.

"Wake up." The owl gets closer, and its image changes back to a meteor—before you can think of anything else, it collides with you.

You are forcefully ejected from your sleep and awaken back in Eridanus, near the Eyes. The Visitor is frantically checking on all of you, patting your shoulders and confirming life.

"I'm sorry," it says. "I will fix that next time." It fumbles with its notebook and scurries back to its rift where it disappears.

As you come to a little more, you remember everything: the story, the ruins, the weird egg pods, and even the events of PARADISE. And then you remember the owl, looking down to find a glowing pink-gold feather near where you were sleeping. This item is warm to the touch. Holding it, you know it can grant you a single wish; once its power is used, it will disintegrate into cosmic dust.

The feather awakens something else: you can mimic the wings of the owl you saw, stretching cosmic feathers that trail stardust in their wake. You remember the warmth of her voice. You remember the heat of the meteor before its impact. You remember.

FOLLOW ME TO PARADISE has been concluded.

---

PARADISE
Participated in or completed FOLLOW ME TO PARADISE.

---

A new dye has been unlocked.

Meteor
This dye is a shimmering pink with light gold iridescence. Wisps of glittering gold cosmic dust follow in your wake.

---

For those that completed the story and saw its ending:
You have been freed from the eternal slumber of paradise. You awaken with a feather.

Feathershard
This item is warm to the touch. Holding it, you know it can grant you a single wish; once its power is used, it will disintegrate into cosmic dust.

*Unique: Wish magic has a wide range of potential. Please check with @Game Master CJ either on-site or in Discord to confirm and then receive your wish. The feather does not need to be used right away, your character is free to hold on to it, but it cannot be stolen; it is bound to your character's essence. It does not expire until it is used.

Additionally, we have decided Wish magic can return previous, deceased characters to the caves. It does not matter if their stone was already revived or if it was lost, the Wish magic will create a new version of the stone and return the character as its wish-bearer last remembered them: with any mutations and scars. However, returned characters start aging again from Cycle 1 with brand new accounts, though they are born fully adult and matured if that is how they were remembered. They begin again as Fledglings, reborn with a single low intensity spell of their element and the 50 starting magicka. Returned characters retain vague major memories, such as previous partners and major life events.

The wish-bearer for returned characters can be you, as well. Wish magic goes beyond the veil of the fourth wall and touches your mind to find the memory of those once lost.

The following characters have Feathershards:
@Maw, @Yvan, @Pollen, @Lumut, @Sakhira, @Mossie, @Fahl, @Wilder, @Pride, @Kass, @Giggle, @Five seven and two, @Reverend, @Casimir, @Juggernaut

Rewards Unlocked
Two new spells have been added to the shop based on your poll descisions:

---

You have freed an ancient spirit and returned life to the Palewoods. For this, you have been granted the ability to release allies as you have done the spirit.

Release (Non-elemental)
Low Intensity Defensive. Break the hold of an incapacitating ability such as a hallucination or trap on a target, whether it requires magical or physical effort. Cannot be used on self. (Uses neutral roll threshold.)

---

You chose to descend the stairs and enter PARADISE. For this, you have been cursed with the ability to send others to their own paradise.

Enter Paradise (Arcane)
Medium Intensity Offensive. Temporarily trap a target in their head, creating a blissful or otherwise peaceful scene that would make them want to remain. Incapacitates target and user for the duration it is successfully held.

---

You chose to leave PARADISE but the vote was alarmingly close, almost tied. It is not your fault. By design, it is made to keep you, like it had kept the ancient spirit for so long. Eternal. But a voice calls to you. Wake up. You remember her voice, warm and whole and welcoming. You remember the spread of her wings as she descended like a meteor. You remember.

Meteor's Flight (Specialty Spell)
Medium Intensity Transformation. Spread your cosmic wings: shimmering, ethereal feathered wings of your chosen color sprout from your shoulders (or whatever likeness you have). They leave a trail of stardust in their wake and can support limited flight. This spell can be assumed to have been cast off-screen and does not need to succeed.

---

Bonus content!

Below is the alternate route that was not unlocked in case you are curious to read it!

Rewards not unlocked:

Do not free the spirit: Curse of the Palewood (Plant) - Ethereal Palewood trees trap a target, their blood-red leaves harmful to touch.

Do not enter ruins/garden: Clearheaded (Tactic) - Deflect a trick of the mind.

Stay in PARADISE: You are plagued with the haunted nightmare of being trapped in the Palewood with other trapped beings, or being trapped in the paradise that your mind wants the most.

---

> You did not free the ancient spirit. The Palewood claims you.

The party leaves the wagon behind to continue into the night, but their legs grow weary and their eyes grow heavy. "Just another soul," the narrator says woefully, "to spend its days under the frozen earth of the Palewood." They fall asleep and awaken to the forest lit by the sun, the bark of its trees sickly offwhite, its leaves blood-red.

"Here you will eternally slumber, as I have." Notably, this is not the narrator's voice. It is like static, pained; it is the voice from the wagon. They catch glimpses of wildlife but it is still, like taxidermy. Everything is frozen in time, but the party can move freely. There are no scents and the sun is not warm.

"This is the tale of the forgotten, who have died beneath the final winter's snow, which would never again thaw; their bodies lost to permafrost, but alive in a world we will never know: apart from this realm and the end..." the scene shifts to show the Palewood lit by the sun. Pretend creatures, like figurines, dot the woodland. A million tired eyes... The still creatures wrought an uneasy scene. The party finds themselves as stuffed corpses among the trees as they continue forth.

You see a doe. She lifts her head and greets you.

"You've made it." Her voice is soft and feminine, but its edges are mechanical. When she moves, there is a slight afterimage. "Let us join the others..."

"Where did you go?" the narrator's voice whips by you on the wind, and the doe flicks an ear while glaring into the sun.

She stomps a hoof and continues to lead you to the entrance of a grand archway. It is made of white stone with gold marble veins, gold filigree decorations, and pillars wrapped with green ivy—it looks like the entrance to something grand, something holy. You hear the tranquil trickle of a fountain, and when you pass through the archway, you are met with serenity: gardens and fountains, fruiting trees and laughing visitors. There is peace.

The doe continues to lead you to a sleeping chamber, where she had prepared food and beds.

"Take your rest. I will see you soon..."

You eat yourself full and then you are tired. When you go to sleep, there is a fog in the room. You do not feel it. You do not sense it... You have already succumbed to PARADISE.

((Story continues with party seamlessly entering their PARADISE and being saved by the METEOR.))

Five Seven and Two's feather blows away in a breeze as it dissipates into stardust, and the inside of the house-thing is filled with cozy furniture: rugs, couches, pillows, tea sets, baubled frosted glass lights, silk curtains, plants—everything it could wish for to make a cozy atmosphere. Creatures that enter Five Seven and Two are calmed by its appearance and can easily find themselves relaxed and at peace in its irresistibly cozy and comfortable living space.

The next thing Casimir knows, he is awake, feverish and trembling. The sounds and smells of Eridanus flood over him, but he's disoriented and frantically combing over his memories as they return to him. His claws dig into the dirt as he raises himself, lifting his heavy chest up with a great effort. He barely notices the pink feather tangled in his chest fur.

His pale blue eyes look around blearily, surrounded by the strangers he had entered the rift with. But-- there. There's Pride, and suddenly very little else matters. His vision narrows to focus on the deer, the rest of the details fading, and he stumbles to his feet, pushing past the Visitor to reach his father.

"Are you okay?" He asks in a quivering voice despite all attempts to sound brave, and he shoves his face into Pride's shoulder. "I'm going home," he says, though he makes no motion to leave, instead plastering himself further against the deer's flank. "I hate adventures."

@Pride

The ache of sorrow held him in its grip, a wound he'd thought healed scooped hollow again by what he'd seen. He stood silent, staring, pale gaze empty. The memories came back--not only the soft voice of Nassir and the determination of Fireheart, but the pod, the doe (an echo of himself, or--long-lost family? An ancestor, perhaps? Had the others seen that-? a white doe?!), the strange structures formed of unnatural, angular metal.

He took a shaking breath, eyes cutting to the feather shard. That's mine, he knew, with sudden certainty. The Visitor--oh, it was leaving! "Wait-" he called, taking a jolting step forward--but they were gone.

But Nassir...

Casimir's voice brought him back around, and he blinked, turning to look just as the hybrid's face pressed his shoulder. He leaned down, in, impulsive warmth bringing his neck and head to hook over the larger Gembound's shoulder in turn. His gut twisted; the child's (forgive his eternally thinking of younger family as children) first impulse was to check on him? Gratitude and love flooded him. "I am fine. Are you all right?" he asked gently, warmly.

And he wondered, then, what Casimir had seen.

His memory drifted over it all again, dazed, still fuzzed by the warmth of the meteor//owl that had impacted him. Ahh--the feather. The- ...the what? "Pick up a piece of the feather-stones, Cas. I think... they're meant for us." Gold and pink wisps of dusty light lifted from his back as he turned to look, wings growing, spreading, arching-...

Pride turned, and settled one of them over Casimir. "We can go home," he told him softly. His eyes sought out Alek, and his other wing rose as if to beckon him. "Alek. Are you all right?" he called.

red deer img credit - dan seagrave

@Casimir @Alek

She liked to style herself a shaman, or a warrior-witch--protector of the Bonebound--or a mother, or a bone-reader, an advice-giver. Right now, though, cast from her Paradise and finding her feet with a lurching gasp, she just felt... old. Old, and wearied. A creature past her prime, one who'd struggled with life and failed again and again. A fleabitten, scar-faced animal carrying loss and horror with every step. Helpless, powerless.

You can't take him from me again, she thought, but it wasn't demanding, determined. It was desperate, crying, begging, even in her own mind.

She stood, stumbling after the Visitor, calling out for it to wait--as Pride had--and broke into a run, nearly falling as she scrambled for the portal. Maybe she'd have screamed, howled her begging calls, but it was gone--and Giggle skidded to a halt, lips peeled back in a grief-stricken grimace, and whispered instead. "Please bring him back," she pleaded. Even for a few more minutes. Even just for one.

The old mother came back slowly, the memory of others here--cats included--sobering her. She couldn't fall apart in front of strangers. Shame and anger trickled through her, faint, and she stalked back to where she'd been. The distant tug of Omen at her mind brought her around further, and she began to pad away, her attention only by chance miserably shifting back to where she'd been asleep.

The feather--it drew her, she touched it, and the certainty of what it could give her chased away all her grief on a wash of something brighter and far warmer: hope. Giggle did not hesitate.

Feather-stone held gently in her teeth, the hyena closed dark eyes and thought: bring him back to me. ...Bring him back to us. Everything else she'd done to try and hold the Bonebound together was piecemeal, patchwork: aiding a child, guiding a son. Not as a group--but as a family. There was only one who could tell Eythan it's all right. Only one to give Aure a father.

Please bring back my friend.

This child was young, so much so that the euphoric sensations of Paradise had brought with them no remembered horrors, no loss tugging at her when it faded. For Lumut, it was all a lovely thing to have experienced: something to have watched, as if from the outside. She raised a hairy arm to wave goodbye to the Visitor, coughing out a "THANK YOU," after it. (It seemed polite.)

Then, she sat, simply watching the others. A piece of grass was picked up and settled between her lips, idly chewed on. Casimir was stared at, as she noticed that he was the first she'd seen whose fur truly looked like hers (if pure white). And--oh. Five Seven and Two.

She picked up the piece of feather, marvelling at its warmth and magic, and the gift that it offered. She was a gentle and impulsive sort, though, and there was nothing she'd long desired clawing at her. Instead she turned it over in her hand. It was ironic that Five Seven and Two--her closest friend--turned their wish inward; because Lumut's, given at once, went outward. The Visitor, and this Paradise, had shown her glimpses of sky and forests she'd never seen. Creatures and materials alien to her. Spirits drifting, curses lifted, entire other worlds just beyond her own--and isn't that where the Visitor had gone-?

I wish to be able to do that, she thought to the feather at once, clutching it with gentle warmth. She wanted to be able to cast her mind through the cosmos in a blink, traversing it at meteoric speeds, flashing between worlds to pick for knowledge among distant cultures or observe the working of witches in faraway lands. She wanted to be unbound, as the Visitor was, to travel freely--her mind, at least, even if her body must stay here. Perhaps in dreams, in deepest sleep or meditation, could she cast herself to places that she sought, to find knowledge or simply wonder.

Could the feather grant her that..?

The wonder of the meteor surged through Wilder. She watched as it hurtled closer...the owl...bright and wondrous. She felt warm, forgetting the hollow loneliness she felt, trying not to think about how Aure had vanished, how all the others had vanished, how the world was suddenly gone and the meteor was colliding with her.

She was waking up, jerking into the waking world, feeling strange and dizzy, remembering that strange feeling of madness creeping in at the corners of her mind. What...what was that owl? What was the meteor? What was any of that? It had all been very strange, but she didn't have time to ask any questions before the Visitor was gone, leaving all of them back in Eridanus.

Wilder sat there for a few long moments, her brain trying to catch up with her, remembering all the events of Paradise. She'd seen...Aure. Aure was there. She remembered that sense of forgiveness, of reuniting with old friends, of forgetting all of the pain that had happened in her life. And doubt. Because she didn't deserve forgiveness, did she? She was...too unfortunate. Too much of a failure. She had never done enough to deserve to be forgiven.

Wilder...friend. The thoughts were so clear in her mind she thought, for a second that someone had truly invaded. She flinched, but then calmed when the warmth of Vaati pressed against her side. A moment later, he began to groom her fur.

You aren't....a failure. You don't need....forgiveness. It happened long ago. You are different....now. You learned. If it means....much....then face it. Move on. You can do it....friend. He was trying so so hard to form his thoughts into words so that they were direct, they could not be mistranslated (not that she had ever mistranslated before) and his dedication to helping her, to helping her see truth...oh by the skies of Let, it meant so much. It shook her deep within.

And then her eyes moved down to the feather before her, shimmering golden like the sunrise. A shaky paw reached out to pull it close. Perhaps...she should wish for forgiveness. She should wish for all the pain to go away. But then she realized that she didn't want it to be gone. She might as well just lock herself up in Paradise. Without it, she would keep making the same mistakes. She wouldn't understand what she'd done wrong. She would never be forgiven.

For now, she carefully pulled open the drawstring bag that hung from her neck and carefully placed the feather inside, along with the stones from the Surface. Once it was safely stored away, she pressed against Vaati and whispered her thanks into his fur. Behind her, shimmering wings slowly faded into existence, sprouting from her shoulders. She looked back at them, feeling warm and hopeful again, watching them sparkle for a moment before they faded away.

And then her resolve hardened. There was something she needed to do.

She turned towards the stag - he was still here, thankfully, and made her way over, Vaati trailing close behind. "Hey...Pride? Can we talk?" She glanced at the Gembound close by and her whiskers twitched, feeling a little awkward. "Maybe...not here. But I want to talk to you."

@Pride