[Now viewing scenario 1]
Kahli looked at Sahdi and G'athoong with anger painted all over her face. Why hadn't they been taking her seriously?
"Look, you two, I don't know what's gotten into you both but this is a serious situation. We're literally walking in a circle, somehow, and I have no idea how! It's incredibly disturbing and it's got me concerned for our safety. Something sinister is afoot, and-"
I don't think your left foot is sinister, Kahli.
Kahli did a double take as her mouth dropped wide open in shock at the cruelty of G'athoong's joke. "Why, you... you scaly little twerp! Do I need to kick a rock far, far away from you?"
No, no, I was just kidding.
"Well it wasn't funny."
Sorry, uh, just to clarify, I'm much younger than I was when you originally met me, so I'm a little less mature.
"So? That doesn't make it any less rude."
They stood there in silence for a moment.
"So, what do you want to do, Kahli?" asked Sahdi.
"I want to break the cycle that this strange place has us trapped in," said Kahli with determination. It was time to walk off the trail. And so she did starting with a step off from her big left foot. However, Kahli noticed something curious as soon as she began this task. First, was that it seemed like the weight of her limbs was increasing exponentially as she stepped away from the trail. But most gripping of all was what happened to her face. She could feel living wood growing all over it at an impossible rate, and then hardening, and then too Kahli could see her right hand aging and deteriorating... In but mere moments, Kahli had dissolved to dust itself.
[You died]
[End scenario]
Kahli was back in the void, and for the first time in a while she was feeling fairly shaken by the experience of dying in the scenario.
"Froufrou, that was the freakiest death yet. Suddenly feeling yourself aging into dust is... not a way to go I'd wish on anyone. I'm sorry you were along with that ride."
Froufrou squelched in appreciation of Kahli's consideration, though by the smell of it, she too was quite offput by the experience.
Kahli gave a bit of a pause, remembering something. "Hmm. Before we go into the next scenario, do you mind if we talk through it, Froufrou?"
Froufrou squelched in the affirmative - anything to put some distance between them both and the wretched experience they'd just had.
"See, Froufrou, that last time I was in a nest [checkpoint] before we got our [class], I spent some time theorizing before each scenario to see if I could plan it out a little. Now, it had decidedly mixed results, but I think considering the terrible danger we're in, it might just be the best fit for this situation."
Froufrou squelched - she doubtlessly agreed with this sentiment.
And so it was that Kahli and Froufrou deliberated on possible courses of action, sometimes with more success than others, until the decided on a plan for scenario 2. See, Kahli now knew that the effect of leaving the trail while they were in this strange, event horizon-like status within the forest caused whoever left to age up rapidly, oftentimes indeed so rapidly that they just ended up dying. Kahli's first scenario was case in point there. However, what if a being that constantly rebirthed itself - a being like, say, G'athoong the water dragon - left the trail? Would she just keep aging and rebirthing over and over again? Most likely, whcih would be inconvenient and uncomfortable, but it also probably wouldn't kill G'athoong, which would allow the dragon to go out and scout for them.
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With that, Kahli and Froufrou had their plan formulated and were ready to get to it. Kahli looked down at her big left foot.
[Now viewing scenario 2]
"I know you guys are having trouble taking me seriously, but I'd really appreciate it if you'd level with me for a second," started Kahli.
Sorry, I don't have enough [XP] at the moment, replied G'athoong.
"I might be able to level with you soon, Kahli, but I don't have enough [XP] either at the moment," replied Sahdi.
"That's not what I meant, sorry, was speaking figuratively. What an onerous saying. Anyways... I need you guys to take me seriously, because Froufrou and I are in a time [checkpoint] right now and we're trying to pick out the best scenario. We just died in the last scenario, so we're definitely not picking that one, and-"
"I'm sorry, WHAT?!" said Sahdi. "You're in a what with a what in a what now?"
I think what Kahli is saying is, if she doesn't like what happens in this timeline, then she's going to nullify our existence.
Sahdi screamed.
"That's not what I'm saying!" said Kahli. "It's just that I'm going to choose the most opportune timeline is all, it's really no big deal. Your timeline will probably just go on existing with another version of me in it that chose the timeline." While Kahli said this last bit with confidence, she was not althogether certain that she was genuinely confident about it. That is to say, she really had no idea whether or not they'd keep living on. Sure, they potentially did - after all, the timelines that Froufrou was able to access with her massively leveled up [LIN] [attribute] had to come form somewhere, now didn't they?
"I hate this, I hate this, I hate this," said Sahdi with deep breathing and a flustered facdial expression. "You cannot seriously be telling me that I'm an optionset for you right now, Kahli. An optionset!"
"You're not an optionset! This is just the second timeline, it's a glowing orb that I see under my big left foot that I select and-"
That sounds even worse than an optionset, repleid G'athoong. Really it sounds like we're clothes you're trying on. I wonder if this timeline will be a 'good fit' for you or not.
"G'athoong, don't make things worse than they already are! And to think, I was going to ask you to help me out by going out of the pathway for us."
Help? What do you mean? How could I help in a way that you can't?
"Well-
"AAAAAAAGH!" screamed Sahdi. She'd apparently decided to hop off the pathway herself and had immediately aged to death.
Oh. That's why you wanted me to. Now I get it.
[End scenario]
Kahli was there in the void again, and she was feeling quite perturbed indeed. She was not entirely certain how she should proceed.
"Froufrou, that was an absolute dumpster fire."
Froufrou squelched. She was of the opinion that Kahli had botched that scenario worse than any she'd seen yet, and considering as such, the ideal path forward for Kahli would be to keep her mouth shut and let Froufroun herself do the squelching, thank you very much. Of course the problem with this, as Froufrou herself realized, was that taumans generally could not understand squleching. With this considered, Froufrou felt the whole situation was quite hopeless and squelched in a manner that was quite indicative of this sentiment.
Then, Kahli had an epiphany. She thought about how, when G'athoong was older, she just flew everyone around due to the fact that her dragon body was all the more larger. With that, Kahli wondered if the upcoming third scenario could be one wherein she, instead of trying to get G'athoong to go out off the trail in order to explore, intentionally made G'athoong age herself up using this quirk of the trail's perimeter. Maybe, if G'athoong became old enough to fly the party over the strange time anomaly they'd encountered in the forest, the whole situation would end up resolving itself. It was the kind of quirky plan that seemed a perfect fit for what was otherwise an incredibly sticky and risky situation. However, there were a number of challenges implementing such a plan within this current time [checkpoint] that Kahli was all too glad to go over with in talks with Froufrou. She really did feel she'd progressed more in manipulating her timelines recently, which was a bit of a glowing endorsement of the [Time Manipulator] [skill], although there was still a lot more Kahli had to learn.
The challenges with Kahli's plan were intimidating, but not impossible to mitigate. One big issue, of course, would be that it would be very difficult to convince everyone else that indeed straying from the trail activated some sort of a power or [enchantment] that immediately and rapidly aged whoever collided with it. Another, of course would lie in convincing G'athoong to subject heself to such twisted aging in order to correctly set them up for success in this situation.
Wait. Kahli was having yet another idea still. This one was simple enough - she was going to use her [Tale Teller] [skill] to lie her way into getting Ga'thoong to go off the trail. Then, after the dragon had grown up a little, she could fly them all out of the forest.
Of course, there was always the true final option - twisting a timeline. However, Kahli wasn't eager to use this part of her [skill], as she knew all to well that it had to ability to not only affect the future and present, but the past as well.
With all that considered, Kahli walked through her thoughts with Froufrou. With considerable squelches, Froufrou broke down the pros and cons of Kahli's ideas, eventually in surmising deciding that her plan to use [Tale Teller] to get out of the mess altogether was the ideal situation.
With that, Kahli looked down at her big left foot. It was time to see what this scenario was all about.