Young Writers Society

When you awake, you find yourself in an unfamiliar forest.

There are others in the forest, too, but you are more focused on suddenly being in a place you don't recognize. An array of rainbow flowers in towering forms litter the forest floor, springing up at the roots of impressive, gnarled trees. The sky is slightly cloudy above, yet something feels off about the entire situation. You're unable to put your finger on what.

But then you open your mouth to talk to one of the others, and discover a horrible thing: you are compelled to tell lies. No matter how you try to get around this, you still tell a lie. You might try to hide the lies by not saying anything at all, but the words just come off of your tongue.

If you want to figure out what is going on, you'll have to be trusted by the others there. But how can you get strangers to trust you when you can't tell the truth?


(Characters from Trapped [Spilling the Tea] aren't allowed in this roleplay.)

The woods were lonely.

He wasn't sure where the woods were, and he doubted he would know for some time. But the woods were empty. There may have been living people there; he thought he could hear someone moving about in the brush nearby.

But the dead didn't walk among the forest.

He frowned, dusting himself off as he got to his feet and headed to the source of the noise. His phone had no signal, and none of the charms she had given him worked.

"...Hello?" he hesitantly called out.

A boy immediately popped out nearby, and it took all of his concentration not to stumble back in surprise.

"Hello back to you," he said. He looked pleased with himself, and then added when all he received was a stare as a response, "Oh, this isn't fun in the slightest!"

"...I understand," he said.

Then he stopped and hesitantly raised to his mouth, too shocked to react in any other way.

"We have to tell the truth," the boy said, spinning his bangs around a finger. "I haven't tried telling the truth at all - I totally, honestly swear."

He took his hand out of his hair and stuck it out.

"You can call me Nathan," he said, giving a grin that felt wrong, even though he didn't know why.

"Tobias," he simply replied - he frowned when that alias came out instead of the name he had intended.

Taber liked this dream.

He wandered through the forest, running his paws through the multicolored flowers that littered the floor. Part of him wanted to pluck some of those flowers out, maybe give them to Eremia, but he knew that'd be cruel to them - they wouldn't last long if they left were in some vase. Besides, since it was a dream, and he couldn't see Eremia anywhere, there'd be no way to give them to her. He could still tell her about them, though. She'd like that, even if she'd probably point out how it was one of the least concerning dream stories that he had.

Taber stopped in front of one of the trees, tapping on the bark. It sounded almost hollow - this must've been an old tree. He frowned. Hopefully this didn't mean something, because Eremia was already worried about him (not that he appreciated it, but they'd both gone through plenty of dreams and had come out fine."

"This is a very ugly tree," Taber whispered, patting the bark.

He paused. Had he just said that?

"I meant that," Taber said as he started to move away from the tree.

Ugh, his mouth wasn't cooperating with him. So much for a good dream.

The wolf stumbled his way through the bushes, trying to figure out his plan of action. His mouth wasn't working right, but everything else felt fine. As long as he didn't actually talk to anyone, he could probably find whatever building or person or thing would give him clues about -

He burst through the bushes. Two people stood in front of him, shaking hands and giving them each other's names. Whoop.

Taber threw out his paw, the words spilling out of his mouth before he even had the chance to stop them. "It's horrible meeting you!" he said as he tried to hide his grimace. It just made his face twitch. "I'm Rebat!"

Well, at least he'd used that name before. But why couldn't he tell the truth?

"It's horrible meeting you too, Rebat," Nathan said, grinning as he stuck a hand out. The boy shouldn't have been having as much as he was with this. It had been some time since he interacted with living, modern teenagers, but this seemed outside the realm of adolescent antics.

"I'm Nathan, and that's Tobias," Nathan added, gesturing back at him. "I've met other people like you before, Rebat, so I'm not at all interested in you. Where are you from? I'm from somewhere important."

...They were all lying, weren't they?

So he just had to try understanding the message as if it was the opposite instead. When he thought of it that way, Nathan had said, "It's nice meeting you, Rebat. I'm Nathan, and that's Tobias. I've never met other people like you before, Rebat, so I'm very (?) interested in you. Where are you from? I'm from nowhere important."

But Nathan said this all with an ease and a lack of care, like it didn't matter that he couldn't get any of his words out right. And he seemed to take pleasure in seeing the other two struggle over their words.

...Who was he?

For a few stressful seconds, Taber wondered why Nathan was being so mean to him. Then he realized that the others must've been having trouble with their mouths, too. He let out a sigh of relief - he really needed a hug, because this dream was starting to get to him.

"Oh, I'm from somewhere important, also!" Taber said. "It's definitely not a world named Fayne, and I'm definitely not a wolf and a lion. Also, I'm pretty sure this is okay to ask, so please don't tell me if you're comfortable with it, but how come you're so upset about all of this? It's a kinda boring dream, honestly."

"I think this is a dream," he said as he looked around the forest. It could have been one, he guessed, but neither Nathan or Rebat seemed like they were gods. "Dreams alter things like this - it's impossible."

He frowned as the last word left his lips - it wasn't what he had intended to say, even when compelled to lie.

"...It's very likely," he hesitantly said.

"I don't think you'll ever get the hang of this," Nathan said, the grin stubbornly remaining. He sounds around to face Rebat; he had a skip to his step as he bridged the distance between himself and Rebat. "And I'm upset about this because it's very not fun - we can't lie at all, and it's not alright in the slightest. We might even get in trouble for it - I've never wanted that!'

The wolf took a step back, a little uncomfortable to be around someone who didn't seem to have much of a sense of personal space or any problems lying. "I dunno, I haven't had dreams this weird before," he said. "Everyone says they are dreams, so I guess it's not relieving you two think the same way? I'm not sure what I'd do if someone disagreed with me." He laughed a little nervously. "I won't try to get the hang of this, but I like lying - not sorry about that."

"Oh, it isn't a dream," Nathan said, letting out a heavenly sigh. "Not in the metaphorical sense, at least."

Tobias raised an eyebrow at Nathan's reaction, but didn't say anything in response. He was still trying to understand just who Nathan really was, and why he was so excited about lying.

"Well," Nathan continued, stepping away from the two and heading into the rest of the forest, "we shouldn't go looking for the other people who might not be here - especially if it's more fun than this conversation."

Erm, Taber was reasonably sure he knew what a metaphor was (Eremia talked about them sometimes), but he didn't think this dream was one of them. Dreams couldn't be metaphors, right? They were either dreams, or they were not-dreams - it was simple as that. So, while following Nathan, Taber scooted up next to Tobias. He wasn't sure what to make of Nathan, but Tobias seemed nice enough. "Are you feeling not fine?" Taber said, walking alongside Tobias into the forest. "Since this isn't confusing at all. Also, do you not know anything about Nathan?"

Nathan continued on ahead of them, seemingly oblivious to Rebat's comments.

"I think I am," he said, and he once again found himself surprised by the words that came out of his mouth - not because it was a lie, but because it was a lie he had fully intended to say.

It took him a moment to get over his shock. When he finally did, he started to shake his head in response to Rebat's last question - but the shake became a nod.

"I meant that," he said, disturbed by how easily his body's movements had been manipulated. "I've known Nathan since before I woke up here."

"Oh," Taber said. He shrunk back, but didn't leave Tobias's side. "Is there anything you don't know about Nathan, since I showed up before you two met each other? Oh, and is there anything I can do to make you feel any worse?"

He thought over the questions.

"Nathan seems normal," he answered. "There was some time between when we arrived and when you came, so we talked a lot."

The second question made him falter. He had never intended to admit how he really felt, and he had no idea how to address his current feelings. "This...This place feels right," he said. He glanced at the forest and at Nathan. "You can help me. I don't need to sort out my thoughts."

Taber nodded. "That's not fair," he said. "This place does feel very right."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "But I, uh," he started, then trailed off. He should've said that he really need a hug, or some words of comfort, but it felt so wrong to have to ask a stranger for that. Especially when he wasn't going to get an honest answer.

"...Can I help?" he finally said, not sure if Rebat was looking for comfort or was just awkward in general - both were things he easily related to.

Taber tried to nod, but it came out as a shake instead. Which made it just a little bit harder for him to wipe a tear from his eyes, given that his paws had also started shaking.