Daisy is a good girl. Mommy says Daisy has to stay in the box because Daisy has art-ism. Mommy doesn’t seem to like art-ism, but Daisy thinks it helps make the world more fun, the colors swirl around, mommy doesn’t see the colors, but that’s because she’s not art-istic. Mommy says Daisy has to not make noise in the box, so Daisy won’t tap her feet or make “unnatural” gestures which come quite naturally to artistic people. Poor mommy, if she was artistic too she’d notice when it’s different, she’d notice when the chair is wrong, when the food is wrong, when the cloths are wrong, but she’s not. She gets frustrated when she doesn’t notice that things are wrong, so she yells allot.
Daisy is a good girl. I wonder when mommy’s coming back. The quiet box is wrong now. Normally it’s dark, dark like the gray skies before a storm with just a thin trace of light around the edges. It stayed like that for a while, when Daisy was hungry, when the loud noises intruded on the quiet box, when bad strangers were calling Daisy’s name, but Daisy knows to be quiet, to wait until mommy opens the box. Now the box is green, the green of fresh vomit, but mommy says Daisy shouldn’t call it that. She says it’s lime green, and that it’s pretty, just like Daisy. Even though mommy is wrong again Daisy will pretend she’s right, the nice lady who comes to help artistic people tells Daisy that sometimes you have to pretend wrong people are right because you love them and want them to feel like they’re not always wrong. The nice lady says it’s hard to show people you love them, so Daisy should do it this way.
Daisy is a good girl, even when the box turned lime green Daisy continued to wait, she even continued to wait when she found the weird shiny thing. It was like a tv show, there was sun and clouds and weather. Daisy wished the sun and spring breeze were with her. The box doesn’t feel cold ever since the hunger stopped, but it’s not warm either. Of course Daisy knows the sun won’t come just because Daisy wants it to, but Daisy still wishes it would. Daisy never learned to read like the kids who aren’t artistic, but somehow she can read the words.
[+0.0001 manna]
Daisy is a good girl, she doesn’t want to read about the thing she doesn’t understand, so it stops appearing, instead she just looks up at the sun. Mommy always said some things aren’t for children, the strange words were probably one of those things. Daisy watches the weird TV show, it’s less boring than the box, maybe when the video ends mommy will open the box.
[Congratulations you have reached level 1]
[You have matured, name now viewable in status]
[Daisy, The Dungeon of Goblins]
[You have gained the ability Uncontrolled]
[Congratulations as a mature dungeon you have gained a manna field]
[manna field 0/25]
Daisy is a good girl, she didn’t touch anything, but the TV show is changing, maybe it’s starting. A wormy worm is wriggling happily on the ground, growing bigger and bigger, and greener and greener, soon it’s grown little lizard arms. Now it looks like a little green alien man like on the TV. It spends a day poking around the ground and eating grass before sleeping in the sun. Then a beetle starts doing the same thing. Now there are two little alien men running around having fun, but then one stole and ate the other’s cricket! Daisy knows how this works! In some TV shows you have to talk to the TV and tell the people in it what to do so they can be good people!
Daisy is a good girl, she told the green man to stop, but the red blood still dripped from the rock. Daisy wonders why, why did the green man stop moving, why doesn’t the other green man look sad? The green man wants to eat his friend, but Daisy says not to. More and more green men are appearing, and Daisy is busy teaching them what things are wrong. You should never do wrong things, you should be good like Daisy!
Daisy is a good girl so she knows that it’s bad to hurt people, instead you should be like the good guys, you should love and protect each other, you should live peacefully and only fight when you have to. You should share and love each other and never complain, not even when you’re really really hungry, because mommy will open the box and feed you, so you should never loose hope, you should never give up on being good just because it hurts, because that’s wrong.
The man with lime green skin looks sorry, he stops eating the other green man and lets him sleep in peace like a good person would. Then he takes the camera into the ground. He builds walls around a tunnel, then he builds a big room, and fills it with mud, then he builds his own box. There are more green people now and they’re building a box for each of them. Work goes easier when you work together. If you help each other everyone will be happier. Now they’re happier together like mommy used to be back before daddy had to go away. I wonder if daddy will ever come back.
Daisy is a good girl, but Daisy is still a kid, there are many things she doesn’t know yet, like what to do with the green man who won’t wake up. He is starting to smell bad and other animals are coming to eat him. Daisy told the green men that they can eat those animals, and the weird letters that Daisy shouldn’t be able to read came back.
[Congratulations on reaching level 2]
[Detecting observed immorality and tried to change the world for the better]
[You have gained the ability Chivalric]
[Congratulations on reaching level 3]
[Detecting a genuine attempt to communicate and understand those around you]
[You have gained the ability communication]
[Congratulations on reaching level 4]
[Detecting goblin grass being grown and harvested within manna field]
[You have gained the ability farming]
Daisy is a good girl so she wants these little green men to have a home where they can live happily rather than always sleeping outside. Mommy says only poor bums sleep outside every night and that everyone needs a home. Daisy learned how to build walls! Daisy begins building walls and tunnels and rooms underground, she even decorates with shiny rocks that aliens like! The green aliens help with digging, apparently rocks disappear if they stay near the TV screen too long so Daisy is helping too! Once a big room is dug Daisy has the green aliens bring some dirt and grass down and Daisy helps build them some houses, but now there are even more green aliens! They are getting more too fast! No! No fighting, you should hug and love each other instead! You’re hungry? Daisy is hungry sometimes too, but Daisy still waits until mommy gets back!
Daisy is a good girl, you should be good like Daisy! Daisy shows them how hungry Daisy was before the room tuned green and the aliens fall over crying like babies. Daisy thinks it looks funny, but knows better than to make people sad, that would be wrong. Daisy apologizes and the little green aliens begin to cooperate and share the grass more fairly. Some have begun collecting shiny rocks as they dig which helps distract them too. More animals come, super tons of them, and the little green aliens are super happy to eat them!
[Congratulations on reaching level 5]
[Detecting directed rationing of food]
[You have gained the ability Sustenance]
[Congratulations on reaching level 6]
[Detecting encouragement of team building and cooperation]
[You have gained the ability Camaraderie]
[Congratulations on reaching level 7]
[Detecting various ores collected]
[You have gained the ability mining]
Daisy is a good girl, so she likes watching all the happy people with green skin building things. It’s weird, even though she’s in the box, even though the first green skinned guy took the camera with him, Daisy can still see all the rooms. Is that wrong? No, Daisy didn’t break anything and she didn’t bring the camera into the box, this should be okay right? Maybe mommy will thank Daisy for finding it! Maybe mommy will even smile and not look angry when she tells Daisy she’s a good girl! Daisy will do her best!
Daisy is a good girl, today Daisy told the little green aliens stories about knights and princesses. Daisy always liked stories about knights and princesses, because back when Daisy had a daddy, mommy used to call Daisy her little princess. The little green aliens seem to like the idea of knights and have begun practicing their stick fighting skills and some have even started raising cute little doggies to ride on into battle. They’ve begun treating the little green women better too, bowing and kissing their hands, and calling them “fair maiden” like knights do. The little green women look happier too, and hit the little green babies less. Daisy tells them about how delicate and vulnerable children are, and how it’s a knight and princess’ job to take care of children and teach them to be good people so that they’ll be good girls and boys like Daisy, and so that they too can grow up to be knights and princesses. After all Daisy heard from the nice lady that nicer parents make nicer kids and that Daisy should tell her if mommy is ever a bad mommy, but Daisy knows mommy is the best mommy Daisy has ever had, so Daisy always told the nice lady so. Now the little green aliens are nice mommies and daddies which work hard to raise good children. Daisy is so happy for them, their giggling laughter rings like a song through the grassy rooms, but it’s not a song with words, just a song with happiness. The little green men say they’ve evolved into goblin knights and goblin princesses. Is that what they are, goblins? Daisy wonders what a goblin is, but just looking around she already knows the answer. A goblin is a happy nice person who aspires to be a princess or a knight, a kind and honorable soul who will do their best to help everyone be happy.
Daisy is a good girl, so when a stranger came today Daisy didn’t talk to them, but then they told Daisy their name was Sen-Gin and that they had a little TV too. "Ha-ha-ha, I've never seen a single one of us who isn't broken beyond repair, but it's nice to see someone coherent enough to converse even if those are the most broken among us." That’s weird, how can two people watching TV talk to each other, but sometimes there is a TV in the TV, do they not know they’re in the show? Sen-Gin starts telling Daisy about him, like that his favorite color is red and that he likes watching the funny expressions that people make, and that he is often bored so he runs around trying to bring more fun to the world to keep it a happy place. “See?” He says “Now you know me, so I’m not a stranger anymore, we can talk now can’t we?” That, that makes sense! Daisy tries her best to be a good friend even though it feels weird when the red outline around Sen-Gin scrapes against the goblin home. Then Sen-Gin says he has to go for a while. Daisy doesn’t mind, waiting is what Daisy does best! There are so many happy goblins for Daisy to watch now.
[Congratulations on reaching level 8]
[Detecting encouragement of tender love and care towards the immature]
[You have gained the ability Parenting]
Daisy is a good girl, but Daisy doesn’t know how to deal with mean people. Usually Daisy just curls up, pulling her legs in and wrapping her arms around herself with her head down. It’s important to keep your head down or your face will hurt from the mean people.
Daisy is a good girl so she doesn’t cry. Mommy says crying is annoying and annoying people is wrong. Daisy doesn’t try to run away, that makes mean people mad, and making people mad is wrong. Daisy doesn’t know what to do, mean people are bullying the nice goblins. Daisy doesn’t know what to do to make mean people stop. At first Daisy had the goblin at the entrance curl up into a ball like Daisy does, but then the mean people laughed and started talking about how if it was this easy they’d kill all the goblins themselves. Then Daisy saw them put the goblin into a forever-nap. Daisy still doesn’t know how to deal with forever-naps, over time more and more goblins fall into them. They stop eating and start smelling bad, so Daisy had the goblins construct a big bedroom for all the forever-nappers to sleep until they wake up again, but none of them have woken up. Daisy doesn't know what to do, she doesn’t want to be mean to people, but she doesn’t want all the goblins to take forever naps either!
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Daisy is a good girl, so she closes her eyes and tries to curl into a ball, but Daisy still sees. She sees the mean people laughing evilly and joking about how they can clear the whole hive. She sees the goblin knights charge. When they charge they scream out things. They shout the things and run forward, and go to sleep. They don’t shout out wise things or witty things or conversational things, but Daisy thinks it’s meaningful because the things they shout out sting her heart like a bee. They shout out things like “For our home!” and “You won’t get my son you baddies!” and “Even if I cannot stop you others will!” One of the older goblins even raises his arms to the sides and says “Killing is wrong, but if killing me will satisfy your bloodlust I will gladly die, but please, please turn back and leave the children alone!” After twenty six goblins and three mean people take forever naps the two remaining mean people finally leave while saying they’ll have to tell the guild, whatever that is.
Daisy is a good girl, she knows that when people talk sometimes it makes them not fight, but after talking with the goblins Daisy noticed something bad. She can talk to the goblins, the goblins can talk to her, and the mean people can talk to her, but she and the goblins can’t talk to the mean people, and the mean people and goblins can’t talk to each other. They just don’t understand when each other opens their mouths. Daisy isn’t sure how to help the mean people to not be mean when she can’t explain to them that that’s mean and that they shouldn’t do that because it hurts our feelings.
[Congratulations on reaching level 9]
[Detecting strict control and management over your domain]
[You have gained the ability Rules]
Daisy is a good girl, Daisy hopes the world can be a better place, the rule is people must be good!
[101 manna required, rule cannot be instituted.]
Daisy is a good girl, the rule is nobody can fight! The rule is nobody can be mean! The rule is people should all be able to understand each other and get along!
[101 manna required, rule cannot be instituted.]
[101 manna required, rule cannot be instituted.]
[101 manna required, rule cannot be instituted.]
Daisy is a good girl and the goblins are nice goblins, but more and more mean people have come! There’s even an angry man who walks around ignoring goblins and just glaring at everything. At least he’s only mean with his eyes. The mean people come in in small groups and put the goblins into forever-naps, some of the goblins and mean people in forever naps are even disappearing, dissolved into mid air! The mean people come and dig in the walls to get the shiny stones that the goblins collect. Daisy tried having the goblins stand still arms raised in silent protest to their slaughter, but the mean people who call themselves adventurers just say that they are stupid goblins and than kill them anyways. Daisy tried having a goblin bring bags of shiny rocks to the adventurers, but they kill the goblin. Daisy tried a few more times and now all the adventurers talk about wanting to find and kill goblin thieves who run around with bags of stolen ores; even though Daisy knows the goblins never stole any! Daisy wants to curl up and hide but she can still see everything. She tries her best though, instead of the shouts that sting she looks at the happy goblins lower down in other rooms. “You will never take my homeland!” “Your blade is nothing before my wife’s tongue!” “You trespassers think you can kill us all? Not if I can stop you!” “For honor!” “For duty!” “For a better life!” Down on the seventh floor the goblins are safe in their rooms, an old goblin is telling stories to a young goblin and tucking them in. The young goblin asks the older goblin “Can I be a knight too?” and the older goblin replies “Of course you can, all you need is a heart filled with kindness and compassion. An arm which is strong enough to swing a sword, all balanced with a heart which is strong enough not to swing it.” She watches as the children play a new game, knights and adventurers, and Daisy cries inside. She wishes these games didn’t exist, she wishes everything was peaceful like it used to be, but how do people get along? It’s such a simple question but it’s so hard to answer. Why do people fight, why do people hate each other, why do people get caught up in old conflicts and refuse to forgive each other. The goblins are nice so they might be able to if they really really try, but the past has shown it’s useless for just one party to make up while the other keeps hating, and the roots of hatred are beginning to sink deeper and deeper into the hearts of the goblins.
[Congratulations on reaching level 10]
[Detecting strict core has grown]
[You have gained the ability Cloning]
[Congratulations on reaching level 11]
[Detecting you have inspired your residents towards kindness even in the face of death]
[You have gained the ability Martyr’s Camaraderie]
[Congratulations on reaching level 12]
[Detecting your moralistic teachings have taken root even in a militant populace.]
[You have gained the ability Chivalric Code]
[Congratulations on reaching level 13]
[Detecting your moralistic teachings have grown from a code to a way of life]
[You have gained the ability Chivalric Order]
Daisy is a good girl but she can only watch silently when a goblin knight stares down at the remains of what was once the first floor nursery, what is now the horror set to some kind of gory adult movie. The first floor won’t have a nursery anymore, now the first floor will only be for war, they’re already pulling the children out of the second floor. Their parents are sad, and the children are sad, but the parents know why they need to do this, they will entrust their relatives to raise the children. As it happens goblins have allot of children, Daisy sometimes wonders about that. How can there still be so many after the mean adventurers took so many? How can there still be so many adventurers after so many die? Every time she thinks of them her thoughts circle back to just one question. Why? Why do we fight? Why do we die? Why can’t we just get along?
Daisy is a good girl, but Daisy has been watching the lights. Whenever somebody dies a little speck of light comes out and goes to Daisy. The bodies disappear and become a gentle light which goes to Daisy. Daisy is scared, why do the lights go to her? Daisy is growing, not like how Daisy normally grows, people always say Daisy is dumb but more and more thoughts are coming to Daisy. Daisy should be happy, Daisy should be asking mommy if she’s proud, but it’s coming from those lights, daisy is growing from the deaths of the goblins and the mean people, she’s eating them like how Floofles ate Mr. Whiskers! That was wrong! That was bad! Is Daisy wrong?
Daisy is a good girl, Daisy listens to people, and Sen-Gin talked about the lights when Daisy asked. “Man lusts for all that glitters, it is pretty, it is shiny, and so man collects and barters with it. Those lights are perhaps prettier than all others, they are souls, bundles of thought and emotions, of experiences and growth. They hold the past and who we are, it would not be wrong to say that those glimmering specs are the people themselves as they lived, everything that they are. You’d be amazed what can be bought with them. So wars are fought, kingdoms fall, and they are harvested and spent aplenty to buy power, to buy wealth, to buy things that bring us personal satisfaction. Those lights you see are the glimmer of souls as they dance through our world, unaware of their own inner light, of the great value they truly hold to those around them.”
Daisy is a good girl, Daisy knows it’s true because Daisy tries really hard to never do wrong things and to always do good things! Daisy knows it’s true, but when will Daisy believe it? When will Daisy stop wondering if she’s a bad girl, if she did something wrong, or if people really genuinely don’t like her? Someday, someday Daisy will loose the doubts, she’ll know she did her best and that everyone knows she tried really really hard. Someday, or maybe that’s not what being a good girl is like, maybe being a good girl is meant to feel like walking on eggshells, waiting for mommy to yell at Daisy for doing things the way she said to do them last time instead of the way she wants them done now. Maybe, maybe Daisy is wrong, maybe that’s why mommy isn’t opening the box, because Daisy isn’t a good girl anymore. Daisy sometimes wonders, when people get upset and say things, are they really saying things they don’t mean, or are they finally saying the truth that they are normally ashamed of admitting? Can it be both?
Daisy is is used to being locked in the box for long stretches of time, she has learned to be patient, to watch and observe the changes in those around her, looking for the flash of anger that says she did something wrong so she can try to fix it before bad stuff happens. She is used to being careful and taking her time to decide things because she knows that if she does wrong it will take a while for people to forgive her. So days pass, floors fall, first the second, than the third, and the fourth. Sen-Gin returns, his red rubs against the goblin home. He says to kill them all, he says the only way to defeat a bully is to be a bigger bully. He says that the mean people hate us and want to destroy us, that we can never get along, that we can never be nice, that there can never be peace and love and compassion in a world with them. The fifth floor falls, the sixth, down through the seventeenth. It seems like the longer passes the more people die every day entering their forever naps. The longer the span of time that passes, the more of these stupid scribbles she sees.
[Congratulations on reaching level 24]
[Detecting your goblins stand their ground and are fighting a defensive battle]
[You have gained the ability Steadfast Camaraderie]
Daisy doesn’t know what to do, the eighteenth room is now the nursery, the children are there, but even they aren’t asking Daisy for help, instead they’re being brave, they’re being strong like Daisy can’t be. “It’s okay Daisy, I’ll protect you, because you’re a princess. We’ll all protect you, so don’t be afraid, okay? It’s not sad, it’s heroic, this is what proud goblins do! This is right, and the wrong can never take that from us!”
Daisy, Daisy doesn’t know, is this wrong? Did daisy do a wrong? The goblins are good and right, but this, this, endless war, these stings in Daisy’s heart, the bad things that are happening to these good people, is this Daisy’s fault? Did daisy do a wrong? Is daisy mean, cruel, spiteful, and vicious? Do the goblins even know that Daisy is eating them? Do they care? They don’t care, they want Daisy to be happy, they want their home to be safe, everything else is nothing beside that. This infinite cycle of death, this is Daisy’s fault. Sen-Gin keeps talking, keeps telling Daisy to kill, to eat, to grow, to kill some more, to use strategy and force and push against the mean people, to kill more of them, to not be so sad and indecisive. The children charge, the children fight, the children die, no, the children die with honor, an honor Daisy taught them, their blood flows into the core room and Daisy just wishes it would end, wishes people would get along, wishes people would understand. One last time Daisy tries to use that nebulous power she never learned. “The rule is that anyone who comes here has to understand.” There were scribbles but they didn’t say the rule couldn’t be done so Daisy agreed, she felt her thoughts slow, felt the world go dimmer, but that was okay, they would know, they would understand. Maybe now they could get along.
There were no more goblins, the cave was full of mean people, they dug at the shiny rocks, they lounged in the room that once held the people taking forever naps, they spread out papers and ready their swords but there is nothing to fight, nobody left to die. Daisy sees a group of mean people, one of the nicer groups, one who never chased the goblins. Well, nobody ever chased the goblins because the goblins never run, but these guys never searched them out and hunted them through the tunnels like vicious beasts. They enter Daisy’s room and their faces go ashen, they paint the floor lime green with their mouths before stumbling out. Daisy knows what happened, Daisy saw it in their eyes, or rather they saw it through Daisy’s eyes. They saw every death, heard every cry, lived through it all just like Daisy. They knew now, knew what the goblins are, knew they aren’t bad. “Bloody halls of Mordoth, do you think, is that true?” the short one with the beard asks. “I… I think so.” replies the tall old one. “I, I don’t think I can kill a goblin like that again.” The one with the sword says, continuing “I, they, they were like us, I, we, no, I think, no, I know. I can’t do this anymore.” “You don’t mean that.” The old one snaps at him “Give it a night and think it over, they’re not all, they’re not normally like that.” The one with the sword snaps back “Well clearly some are, and I can’t tell which is which, no, I’m done, if they’re attacking me that’s one thing, but to come into their homes and…” He lets the sentence hang unspoken.
They talk to the angry man who’s only mean with his eyes and the angry man seems a little happy, not that he stops glaring. Several more groups enter Daisy’s group, but they all leave. “See?” Daisy tells Sen-Gin “See? We can all get along if we try hard, we can, we can all live, when the goblins come back they can be together, we can all be friends!”, but Sen-Gin only laughs.
Sen-Gin only says one thing but his words ring with a familiar power. “The rule is that the memories of any core who’s field touches my own will be copied into my mind upon their death.” Then he tells Daisy that she should cancel the rule that lets the mean people understand, that she should make more goblins and hurry to tell them to kill the mean people, but Daisy refuses! Daisy wants to be good, Daisy wants to prove that everyone can get along! That even mean people are nice! Just like mommy, just because they’re mean doesn’t mean they aren’t good! Daisy wants to prove that it’s right to face wrong with right, that even when we curl up in ourselves, that even when we hide from the mean people, that even when they bully us, that we can still be good. That we can still be happy. That we can still love others and be loved by others in our peaceful quiet. Sen-Gin only laughs at Daisy, but that’s okay, even if Sen-Gin wants to be wrong, Daisy will be right, Daisy will show him right even when he’s doing wrong.
The man with mean eyes looks extra mad today, he’s leading a child in sparkly cloths down towards Daisy. Than he nods with his shoulders towards the child, and the child steps into Daisy’s room. Daisy watches for the tear that will come down his cheek when he noticed killing is wrong, but instead of twisting into despair, his face twists into a smirk, than without hesitation he smashes the camera.
Daisy tried to be good, Daisy tried to do right, Daisy didn’t do wrong this time did she? Daisy hopes mommy opens the box soon, when the TV show’s over she will right? The box is lonely, and now that it’s lime green there isn’t even cold and hunger to keep Daisy company. Without the goblins she really feels alone. As the crystal shatters Daisy prays with all her heart.
Daisy will be good, Daisy will stay in the box, mommy, mommy, it’s okay, Daisy will wait, please come back.