Have you ever swam in syrup? In sweet, sweet, sweet pink strawberry syrup? With pieces of marshmallows and whipped cream foam? If you're of flesh and blood, it's probably not easy. But when your body is just bones, though covered in caramel icing, it’s a game changer.
Whatever you say, being dead has its advantages. Luckily there's plenty of caramel in this pink syrupy ocean. Together with sugar, they cover the bottom and form the reefs. Much more beautiful than the old coral ones.
Marabelle plucks a caramel stick off the reef. She enjoys crushing it with her teeth. The caramel passes through her ribs and falls down in small crumbs. Slowly and majestically, a rainbow bubble floats up from the crimson twilight of the bottom.
+ 0.5 point to Architect skill
+ 1 points to Landscape Design
+ 1 point to Motivation
0.56% of world creation completed
Marabelle waits with impatience for the bubble to burst. Glazed letters and numbers blur apathetically in the syrup. Her favourite is the purple % symbol with a berry sourness. She snatches it from the mass and pops it into her mouth. Another couple of three thousand years and there will be enough sand in the ocean. Beaches can be created. To lie in the pearly sunshine and drink the lemonade left over from people. Not much else left of them. Also, mountains of strawberry and dark blue blackberry flavoured dragees. Marabelle admires them from afar, perched on a huge, snow-white piece of marshmallow. People really loved sweets. Perhaps more than anything else in the world. They produced it in such great quantities that a new world can now be created from the leftovers.
An odd glint catches her eye. Marabelle whips the marshmallow higher and climbs to the soft top. Something gold and bright continues to glisten attractively in the distance. A ball. A large golden ball. The kind of dragee Marabelle had never seen before. Wonder what it tastes like? Orange? No, everything that tastes like orange is usually orange, not gold. Lemon is lemon yellow. Peach, then?
If Marabelle were a living mermaid, she'd be drooling right now. She hadn't tasted anything peach-flavoured in a long time. She really, really, really needs that delicious ball! But how to get to it? Marabelle had never left her pink syrupy ocean before. Not once since her lonely awakening in this sugary paradise.
Pristine silence reigns. No living thing disturbs it. Only the sweet coconut breeze blows. Marabelle is used to thinking out loud. It's probably a handicap of every creator of the world from scratch. They have no one else to talk to.
‘Marabelle, you are a mermaid. Mermaids don't climb mountains of dragee.’
The coconut silence around her sighs in agreement.
‘On the other hand what's stopping a mountain of blackberry dragees from rolling into the ocean? Nothing. Right? Right.’
A dragee mountain more, a dragee mountain less. Unless the ocean gets even sweeter. Marabelle won't argue with that. She claps her hands in joy. There's a dry crunch, like two oatmeal biscuits bumping into each other.
Hmm... She'd seen something suitable somewhere. Aha. Here! Marabelle dives into the sweet pink haze. She comes back with a praline shell.
Swing it, throw it!
It's all about shaking the dragees mountain. She had once seen one of these peaks crumble into a blue valley. In this new world, the landscape can change in a minute.
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0% of hitting the target - another bubble apathetically pops and bursts.
Marabelle dives in again. Luckily there's a whole heap of praline sea fruit on the bottom.
Swing it, throw it!
0% of hitting the target.
Swing it, throw it!
0% of hitting the target.
Swing it, throw it!
0% of hitting the target.
The praline sea fruits flop into the syrup without reaching the mountain.
***
Marabelle lies pensively on the pink surface. She chews another % symbol. With sourness. One advantage of being dead is you get plenty of time. Especially if you're the only being in the whole world. If only her arms were a little longer...
Arms! Of course!
Marabelle dives again. Somewhere in a mount of sea fruit, she'd seen an extra pair of arms... Or even several pairs. The bottom, or some kind of it, is strewn with wrecks, remains, and scraps. Marabelle had not yet had a chance to check if there was a real bottom beneath this mass. What there is plenty of, however, are skeletons. In sugar. In glaze. In caramel.
She grabs the longer arms out of the pile. She spreads it’s curled fingers. Nice CA-TA-PULT. A new word pops into her head. Marabelle savours it for a while. The word is like a candy baguette. Her vocabulary becomes one more point sweeter. With this new palm she can now hold several praline shells at once.
Swing it.
Thro-o-o-w it!
Gotcha!!!
One of the shells crashes right into the dragee mountain! It responds with a pensive rustle.
Target hit at 1.5 per cent
Dive.
Collect shells.
Swing it.
Thro-o-o-ow it!!!
Target hit at 1.5 per cent
Target hit at 1.5 per cent
Target hit at 1.5 per cent
Another new turquoise-coloured bubble bursts with a loud pop as a blue dragee crashes into it. The mountain sighs and avalanches into the syrup. The wave hits the mermaid, smashes through an iceberg of marshmallow, lugs everything away under a thick, thick layer of blackberry dragees. Above it all, there's a golden ball.
Marabelle can't see it. Being buried alive is a dubious pleasure in itself. And to be buried alive when you're already dead is ridiculous! Marabelle is pissed at herself. How could she have screwed up so badly?
What could help her? Of all the skills available to her in this world, her strongest is landscape design. Plus, you can't get too much sand in the ocean. Even the sugar one. Marabelle chews hard and persistent, one dragee after another. Well, something, but her teeth are tough. After an eternity of time and 5% to the proverbial skill she gets out through the tunnel she gnawed through in the avalanche.
The world is still quiet. No one sees her failure. That's relief. Except that the immense eating of so many blackberry dragees has changed her colour to dark blue. And a part of the ocean has turned purple. But the golden ball is now glistening right in front of her.
Warning! Vitamin C overdose!
Warning! Vitamin C overdose!
Warning! Vitamin C overdose!
Ignoring another bubble, Marabelle wades through the resulting soup of pink syrup and blue blackberry powder.
The ball!
Marabel sinks her blue-tinged teeth into it in triumph. The ball bursts with a pop! It's not even that sweet. And certainly not peachy. What kind of dragee would that be? Unless it was never a dragee.....
A small bird skeleton falls out of the golden flecks into the purple mass. Another skeleton! What a disappointment!
Marabelle watches it sink deeper and deeper. But it never reaches the bottom. A large rainbow bubble, the largest she has ever seen before, explodes out of the sediment pile with a squelch.
Congratulations, you've just created the Lagoon of Life!
1.5% of world creation complete.
And a bunch of other % symbols with sourness that Marabelle doesn't pay attention to. Before her eyes, the bird skeleton straightens up, stretches, and begins to move its legs and wings at the same time.
Life! Oh dear, another life!
Warning! Vitamin C overdose! There's a nasty crimson-coloured bubble floating again.
The baby bird pokes it curiously with its tiny beak. The bubble bursts. The birdy starts cheerfully pecking up letters and numbers. And for landscape design, and for geography, for chemistry, for motivation and for the ability to create Life. Can there be anything comparable to that last one?
Marabelle feels amazement mixed with fascination. Thickly infused with awe.
‘Mummy,’ the baby bird declares looking up at her with the tiny hollows of its eye sockets.
Marabelle clutches him to her chest. The birdy slips between the bones of her rib cage and nestles comfortably inside. Now Marabelle has a heart! A real heart! Was there ever a more beautiful bird cage? Marabelle presses her hands to it with affection and feels small, dark-blue sweet drops trickle down her cheekbones.
3% to care.
5% to love.
New skill is available - Mother.