ORIGIN - Tunnel N

where did you go?

Tue, 18 Aug 2026 11:22:38 -0500

Moss had long grown over the chrysalis burrowed away in an old alcove of Tunnel N, where once, many many cycles ago, beasts had gathered to wage war on their apparent enemies. Where they had created a child, and then left her here to await their return that would never happen.

Oh, she had waited. She had remembered their faces. Their words, their harsh comforts, the blood splattering a wolf's muzzle. The scent of death and hatred and insanity that wound its way through a child's early psyche. She had stewed in it, and then was lost in it. And she knew nothing else but the embrace of sleep as her loneliness gave way to its own kind of insanity.

There wasn't particularly anything that stirred it now. There was no passerby, no old ghost come to wake her up. There was just a moment of blissful nothing and then the cruel wrench of consciousness that dragged her back to the world. Blue Moonstone cracked, the awakening energy of her magic shedding off the layer of moss and dew, and then the last moment of darkness gave way as she was ejected into the light.

Without a sound, the bird slid onto the springy ground of the tunnel, blinking in surprise. She wasn't used to being awake. It was a lot of light at once, a lot of visual input. But instinct said "its ok, because mom is near." Because surely, she would be. She had been told at a young age that she would always be there.

...right? Right?!

Her head looked to the side. No mother. No others. Other side. Nobody there. No nest, no remnants of food, no trace of anyone having been there in a long, long time.

Confusion gave way swiftly to terror. She was suddenly naked and alone under the lights - too bright! - with no soft feathers to protect her, no close family to keep her safe and warm, no...no ANYTHING.

A sob welled up in her throat as she scrambled back into the alcove, into the shards of her own chrysalis, soggy wings flopping about as she tried to curl back into it, wishing that it would grow around her again, that she could retreat into its embrace for anther decade. She quivered and trembled in the middle of the shards, trying to stop the quiet sobs escaping her, and failing.

@Azure

mr. suave guy

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 21:21:18 -0500

Turned down at the gates of heaven, and yet a spark of hope was held within. Coming off of the talk with the lady in Tunnel M, Audland had sought to make his way to wherever Master Astraea might be. Audland didn't want to go to back to the coliseum in Orion. He didn't want to stay in Polaris either, given the people he was trying to avoid. Orion was the better choice.

Finding Astraea might be a difficult task regardless. Audland had no idea how to predict where the Master should be. He didn't even know the Master had existed until that fateful day. Did the guy only come when there were crowds? Events? Gladiatorial combats?

Audland would work himself into a desperate tizzy as he walked through the tunnel from Polaris to Orion, wracking his brain for ways to attract that kind of attention by himself. Damn that spark of hope to hell. He didn't want to do ANY of this. But it wouldn't go away. It just wouldn't leave him. He had to see this through, whatever this was.

Passing Through

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 15:09:04 -0500

I used to think that the day would never come
I'd see the light in the shade of the morning sun

She didn't linger long in Tunnel N, familiar, too, with the very limited space it offered. She travelled to and from here quite often on her way from Scorpio. Still, she took the time to sit and sketch.

There wasn't...much to draw, but she captured the things she wanted - the three exits, the small hollow against the wall where old bones sat, a small stream trickling from the ceiling into a little pool. She paused. The moss. Tunnel N had a lot of moss in it. It didn't feel right without it and she'd already drawn all the rocks and stuff...

She immediately jumped to her feet, setting the paper and wood board to the side as she began to search around the area for something green. A crystal? A feather? Something that would work for her...

That my life would depend on the evening moon
That the night would never comе

Small World

Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:34:58 -0500

Mosaic was trotting through the tunnel to Polaris when a vaguely familiar scent caught her nose. It wasn't the weirdly sweet scent of this tunnel, oddly enough. It smelled like dog, maybe even... like her. What?

Then the blurry shape coming from the opposite direction came into focus, and she froze. It really was a mirror image of her. And... she remembered them. A low growl rose from her throat as she stayed rooted in place. She'd been sickened, kidnapped, and almost died. All because this kid--well, they weren't a kid anymore--looked exactly like her.

"You." her voice was low with a mixture of anger and horror. "Back again? Small world."

@Scrap

the elusive cherimoya

Fri, 29 May 2026 06:27:00 -0500

Ah, there was the drool.

At least I didn't dribble all over myself in the tavern, Aurelle thought to herself as she led Lichen back out into tunnel N. They wouldn't be turning down into Orion and then home just yet, though-- they'd be going to Polaris first, but before even that, there was the matter of The Cherimoya.

She was drooling even more now thinking about custard apples, admittedly, but she and Lichen had some work to do. When they stepped out into the damp, sweet-smelling tunnel, Aurelle let out a thoughtful hum before she stepped carefully towards where they'd found the first fruit.

There was a little divot in the ground where the cherimoya had lain, but when Aurelle checked the ground around it and pat up the wall, she couldn't find anything. Maybe the tree was somewhere high up the wall or even growing out of the ceiling..? Maybe it'd grown somewhere else and someone had dropped it in the tunnel on their way by.

Aurelle let out a disappointed whine. "I don't feel any," she told Lichen. "You're taller than me when you go longways. Can you feel the tree anywhere on the wall up here?"

@Lichen

ᵗᵃʰᶦᵗᶦ

Thu, 28 May 2026 05:18:13 -0500

direct continuation of I HAVE A PLAN !!!

Tunnel N was a fairly straight-forward tunnel, or so Aurelle had thought.

Just a short, straight walk from Orion to Polaris. For years, she hadn't even considered the question that something else might have been there. It was only when she'd gone for her daily foraging quest that she'd stumbled across Scorpio at all.

She took a moment to pause and find her way. She was definitely increasingly tired, now, but on she kept going. "This way," she guided, walking with the tunnel with Lichen attached at the hand.

"But food goes bad," Aurelle answered Lichen gently. "So you can't really collect it and keep it forever." She paused, and then added-- "But there's no pressure, you know? You don't have to find something you really like today."

After a moment, she considered the coins, too. She couldn't really visualize what coins might have looked like, but she supposed it was fair. Though... "Won't you get sad if we have to give the coins away for food?" She asked softly. "Even if we have a lot, would you be okay with giving some up for good food?"

@Lichen

Babe: Pig in the Tunnel [HATCHING]

Thu, 21 May 2026 22:54:50 -0500

Nothing stirs in the blissful blackness. Nothing had stirred for quite some time. A consciousness was burgeoning on a half-light of awakening, lost somewhere between waking and sleeping. A sense of weightlessness in perfect, still, inky waters.

For a long time it lulled, inordinate amounts of time seemed to have passed.

Then, came a stirring, a single thought that caused ripples amongst the stillness. Ripples that felt as tidal waves during a time of so much quiet.

Dark.

Dark, was the single thought that blazed the through the calm. It was dark.

The second was, tight.

A tight squeeze of smooth, cool, walls containing something. It felt compelled to move its something, a sudden tension outside of where its thoughts arose from, but still attached. Meat, the consciousness provided helpfully. It was moving its meat. As the meat tensed and shifted, the cool walls squeezed tighter; then gave way. Which gave way to yet more sensations. A sound, crumbling. A muffled clatter. Air brushing against the part that had caused the break in the tightness.

A beat passed. The thing gave pause, as if holding its breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Nothing came. No shoe dropped. Just the gentle brush of crisp air against meat-- No, skin and hair.

Exhaling the breath was enough to have the rest of the walls crumble away. A squeal sounded as its stomach lurched, colours blurred through the darkness before being stolen away and the sensation of something hard again; but this time only on its side.

The ginger lump lay motionless in the tunnel, closer to the Polaris than the other branching exits, looking as if it was discarded from its slightly suspended chrysalis.

It took a few more beats before it leaned up.

Bright eyes took stock of the body, it peered at a pair of trotters, wriggling and stretching the limbs experimentally. Then further down at a soft and plump belly, pink and covered in a light dusting of reddish hair.

Hog, was the next thought to bubble to the surface. She was a hog. She was Hog.

With that, she rose to all four trotters, with an experimental sniff, she turned herself to the walls of the cave. Snuffling at the moss, the rocks, the few remains of crumbled chrysalis toddling slowly from one to the other on unstable legs.