Young Writers Society

When Mage came to, it was with confusion, a pounding headache, @Malamaya's foot in her face and @JennyImStory's elbow prodding her ribs as she doodled something on a piece of paper. She seemed completely oblivious to the pain she was causing by such a simple gesture, and it was only when Mage wiggled out from underneath her and Malamaya that the first of two realized she had awoken.

After shaking her shoulders failed, Mage grabbed the water bottle from her bag and sprayed Malamaya's face with its contents. The other writer quickly sat up and looked around with a wild expression in her eyes. “I didn't do it!” she cried out. Upon questioning from both Jenny and Mage, she revealed no explanation as to what she didn't do.

The three were all hopelessly lost and confused; no one had any idea as to where they had ended up, what had happened, and where the others had mysteriously disappeared to.

Mage looked over at Jenny, who had gone back to drawing. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“I'm drawing this moment,” she quickly replied. “Someone has to document it, and that's what I did last tagbook.”

Mage shook her head, torn between laughing and sighing at the situation. “The amount of fourth wall breaking in this tagbook is tremendous. I think we've managed to beat both the average fanfiction and Deadpool combined-”

She was cut off by the sound of someone playing the harmonica. Grabbing her fellow interviewers by their wrists, she rushed to the source.

“Hey, @ChieRynn!”

The other writer didn't say anything – she only nodded to acknowledge their presence. Mage wasn't hurt by the action. After all, she was preoccupied with blowing into a harmonica. “So where exactly are we-”

Yet again, she was interrupted. This time, it was by the sound of a group of people loudly complaining about something. She turned to her left to see a small assembly of other users. Some were in the midst of complaining about the challenges of being a writer. Others, like @queenofscience, were in the middle of patting other users' backs while offering words of understanding.

And, in the far off distance, there was the sound of camera shutters clicking as light illuminated the area.

“I've got it!” Malamaya explained. “We must have ended up in the blog section of the site!”

Mage wasn't quite sure she agreed with the YWS' Unofficial Detective's deduction (she thought they were in The Lounge), but didn't argue because she had spotted a very familiar looking object peeking out of a pile of Easter eggs that all had peculiar labels (such as starwars, 3d and colorspin).

It was @JuliasSneezer's

VENT LOCATOR

She opened her mouth to announce her discovery.

Frustratingly enough, however, she was cut off for the third time in the past five minutes.

“What if we've all been sent to different parts of the site?!” Jenny exclaimed, a wild look to her eyes and a grin spreading from ear to tear. “We should try heading to the Home Page! Hopefully, everyone will be there!”

Mage glanced at the

VENT LOCATOR

“Sounds like a great idea to me!” she agreed, and the three embarked on their trek to the Home Page.

"Well, this isn't a good sign."
"Waddup?" @chibibo asked.
"We're only sixteen posts in, with a target of at least twenty-one," @Rydia explained glumly. "Seventeen posts in, now, if you count this one. As this rate I'm never getting my ship back."
"Wow. I only understood about half of that, but it sounds bad."

"Yep. And there was just a three- or four-day break between posts."
"Really? Felt like a few minutes to me."
"Naturally. Time passes more slowly in Storybooks than elsewhere."
"But we're on the Home page."
"You're not thinking meta enough."

Admittedly chibibo had trouble with thinking in meta terms. There was this one time he accidentally ran a red light, and when trying to have the ticket repealed he explained that traffic was merely an illusion of the human mind and that from a higher plane of existence the traffic lights would have been considered fictional. After paying the fine he had also been sentenced to a year of intense therapy sessions.

"Hey," he asked, "where's that UnsaltedButter guy?"
"Erm," said Rydia.
"You know the one! Yay high, yay wide, yay colour hair. Time flummoxer. Uh, 10/10 at swan-diving out of trees when struck with blunt objects."
"Do... do you mean @AstralHunter?" Rydia asked, a look of bewilderment on her face.
"... No," said chibibo, not wanting to look foolish. "But since you mention him, where is he?"
"He ducked out of canon for a second to provide commentary, or something. I don't know, now it's even too meta for me. Anyway, I'm a little out of ideas as to how to locate my ship."

chibibo glanced around. "Hey, what about that?"
"The search bar..." Rydia murmured, "why didn't I think of that? Will we be able to search for my ship there?"
"S'worth a shot."
They entered the door under the flashing neon "The Search Bar" sign, and had a lovely time dancing under a strobe light and drinking unspecified non-alcoholic drinks. Eventually they learned that the search bar they had been seeking was in fact next door, and they hastened to leave. Their search bar was simply an empty text box.
"At least we can do this while sipping on refreshing beverages," chibibo said with a mouthful of drink. He wrung out his shirt and began typing into the search bar.

"Okay, according to this," he said after a bit, "@Sheyren found your ship."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"Well, where is Sheyren now?"
"I don't know. In the woods, apparently."
"What woods?"
"I don't know."
Rydia dragged a hand down her face. "So this has been a total waste of time?"
"Not at all!" chibibo said brightly. "We now have a lead - we have to find Sheyren!"
"... Fantastic."

"You know," Lumi said to @Steggy, who was hands and knees on the ground, shouting into the grass for @Carl, "I have the strangest urge to visit The Search Bar."

"The one above us? Why don't you just...touch...it?" @Gravity was very unimpressed with Lumi's quest-dump.

"No, no. The one on the Home Page that sells pineapple soda and only plays Cotton-Eyed Joe remixes."

"Oh. I think I've been there once," said @JuliasSneezer. "Do you think your urge could be a clue?"

"Nah, clues aren't that easy in tagbooks. I mean it's a wonder we found @Mage's RAINBOW. I'm sure we're absolutely without a doubt the only ones who found an object of consequence. Otherwise, there would later be an incident to remove said objects from our ownership to prolong the plot."

"Why is your nose bleeding?"

Lumi touched his nose. "Oh. Well that doesn't bode well at all, now does it?"

Steggy had reached the cliff face and squealed in dismay as she spied Carl--



--about to spin a web down into a precariously-docked boat on the rocky shore. "Don't do it, Carl!"

"Carl, you genius! You found us a way off this island!"

"::::]" said Carl.

"I take back everything I ever said about that god-sent spider." Lumi peered around the cliffs. "Now...how do we get down there?"

"We defy Gravity," said Gravity.

"We...defy you?" asked Julias.

"No, not me. You defy the LAW of gravity."

"Wouldn't that make us felons?"

The others seemed to agree. "I'm not in any rush to get locked up," Lumi muttered.

Gravity facepalmed. "Just. Watch me. Pretend you're on a broadway stage. Pretend you're Idina Menzel!"

"Don't most kids only know her from Frozen these days--"

"YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH."

Gravity composed herself and cleared her throat. "If Wicked doesn't work for you, try Peter Pan. Faith, trust, and pixie dust. All that jazz."

While the gang began to fuss over who got faith, trust, or pixie dust, Lumi fished around in his INVENTORY and retrieved the RAINBOW. It seemed solid enough. It was magic enough. He put it on the ground.

"Huh. Must be password-protected."

He picked up the RAINBOW and put it back in his INVENTORY. It seemed a little Deus Ex Machina anyway. Returning to the others, he grinned. "So what am I stuck with?"

"Pixie dust," they all deadpanned.

"::::P" teased Carl.

And people wondered why the Sorcerer was a cat person.

When @TheSilverFox used his trickster magic to briefly freeze time and pose the rest of the Fellowship in his pattern of punching, the Sorcerer knew what was happening. After all, his senses had been sundered from his body some time ago, allowing him to perceive time a little differently than the rest of his Fellowship.
Of course, there was nothing he could do about his cunning friend's acts, but he knew then and there that he had made a mistake of allowing this Trickster to be the Pippin of the Fellowship.

It thus happened that when time started to go on at its merry pace of 24 hours per day, Sorcerer's ragtag Fellowship were left sitting (@Wolfical), kneeling (@Omnom) or bending over like an over-used straw (@XxXTheSwordsmanXxX) holding the places where each of them punched each other (the location varying with the alternating lengths of the person in question)

So they remained for several moments, each trying to piece together how they had gone from welcoming the Swordsman into their Fellowship to punching one another. This stunned silence was finally broken when a new voice drew the their attention to a rather odd-looking anthill.

"I would've said this scene looked quite... kaotic," the voice said, "but that joke is so two weeks ago."

"@Nikayla, how'd you get here?" the Sorcerer asked as he helped @Persitence up from where he had lain in a fetal position for no plot-related reason.

"Newbee! I told you you'd work well in the SB section!"

"I'm not a newbee! Now come out from behind that anthill before I come over there and drag you out."

Releasing a deep sigh, the voice seemed to prepare themselves to get out of their hiding spot. However, much to the Fellowship's surprise, the first thing to come out from behind the anthill was not the grinning face of Nikayla, but in fact

Swordsman's sword and sheath

; followed by Nikyla's grinning face.

"But where'd you get that?! And why's my sword with you a not me?" Swordsman asked, running over to get his sword, but before he could take it, Nikayla yanked it away from his hands.

"Stay back, or else."

"Or else what?"

"Or else I throw this sword into the endless void where the chatbar used to be!"

The Fellowship suddenly noticed the big emptiness that was under Nikki's outstretched hand.

"Now... Let's not do anything stupid," Wolfie said, slowly inching forward to make a dash at Nikki.

"Did I just hear my first name?" @StupisSoup said, who had been casually walking passed the unfolding scene.

"No! But if you know how we can get Nikki to give Swordsman his sword and sheath back, it would be most helpful." Persistence said to the newcomer.

The animate bowl of soup looked over at the Nikki before shrugging and saying, "Can't help you with that one."

"Then why're you here if not to help progress the plot!" Sorcerer exclaimed.

"Let me just check my script," StupidSoup took out a stack of papers and began sifting through them/ While he was doing this, the Sorcerer's attention was drawn back to the situation with the Sword. Swordsman, Nikki and Wolfie seemed to have decided to play a game of riddles to get the sword back.

"Oi, wrong Tolkien novel guys!" Sorcerer exclaimed as Nikki answered 'Pinata' to a riddle of Wolfie's.

"Give back my precious!" Swordsman said.

"No! The newbee has to get it," Nikki stubbornly said, "he's the one who brought you all together, he has to get it."

Sighing, Sorcerer walked over to Nikki and stretched out his right hand. "The Sword and sheath," he said, wondering still why he was writing about himself in the third-person.

"No."

"The sword and sheath, please."

"No."

Mumbling to himself, Sorcerer stood there deciding what to do. At that very moment though, StupidSoup seemed to have found the part in the script he was looking for.

"Here it is!" he exclaimed, "I had to come here to tell you of someone who might be able to help you find your name, as long as you help her find something in return."

"Who?" Persistence, Omnom and Sorcerer asked simultaneously.

"@Falconer, of course. You can't have a Lord of the Rings inspired team and not call on the aid of the White Tree of Jondor, oh sorry, Gondor."

The sounds of a scuffle behind him made Sorcerer turn around yet again. There he saw both Wolfie and Swordsman tackling Nikki, sending the three of them hurtling down into a forest (apparently the chatbar had been replaced by a forest)

Persistence and Omnom joined Sorcerer at the ledge, before Omnom said, "Well, they ought to to survive that fall, but I think we should start making our way to Falconer without them."

As they were walking away, Sorcerer mused that this was all that pesky Fox and space Wolf's fault, and swore to smack both of them over the head with a magical broom once he got his username and the Admiral @Rydia's Flagship back...

If The Search Bar was an ordinary tavern, Hunter would by no means be allowed to wait tables while wearing MP3 earphones and playing Pokémon Emerald. Fortunately, it was not, as the preceding sentence proved, so he was... well, permitted to wait tables while wearing MP3 earphones and playing Pokémon Emerald. (The former really were necessary to block out those tiresome remixes.)

Upon seeing an arm being waved in his peripheral vision, Hunter slowly inched closer, his eyes on the screen before him and not the floor. Once at the table, he removed one of the earphones and asked, "How may I serve you today?"

"Hunter, it's me, @QueenOfHearts."

Surprised, Hunter looked up and paused his music (though not in real life). "Oh? Since when did you come here?"

"Since it's the only tavern that serves pineapple soda. I'd have preferred a piña colada, but all the other taverns serve ale, beer, mead, and cheap wine. Seriously, where does a girl have to go to get a cocktail?"

He frowned. "I didn't peg you as the cocktail type."

"I'm not, but you need a convenient reason to chat to yourself, so here I am!" She sipped some of the yellow soda. "Anyway, since when do you work here?"

"Since I need to save money to buy replacements for the users who have lost stuff."

"The last time I checked-"

"Which was techhnically never."

"-several of the items of interest have already been found, so you don't have to replace anything. Besides, even if @Lumi guessed correctly that you might steal the objects again and scatter them somewhere else, they'd still find it eventually."

Hunter facepalmed. "That's because everybody seems to have missed the most important details of my first post."

"Which are?"

"Jofwfsibeuifjufntjouifgjstuqmbdf, tjodfuifzejtbqqfbsfejospbwpjeopcpezdbosfbdiboedbopomzcftvnnpofeczxsjujohuxfoyz-pfqptutcfgpsfuijtnpoui'tdbqubjo'tdibmmfohffyqjsft. Jtbjej'esfuvso @Szejb'tgmbhtijqup ifspoqbjopgqbzjohpgifshsfbuftuefcu, cvufwfszpoffmtfibeupxsjufuifjspxoqptut. Jofwfstbjeuifzdpvmecfgpvoeifsfpouiftjuf, boejdfsubjomzofwfstbjeuifubhcpplxpvmefoebgufsuxfouz-pofqptut. Ipxfmtfxpvmejsfbdinzhpbmjguijtxfmm-tqsjohejtbqqfbst?"

"Forget your goals, what if the others read that post? Evil queen that I am, I wouldn't care, but it would be a blow to their morale if they discover-"

Hunter broke of the final part of the sentence and chucked it into the white space somewhere between the paragraphs of this post. "Shh, don't announce it to the world!"

She gaped indignantly. "But you already have!"

Hunter shook his head, as if that would dislodge his forgotten thoughts. "Oh, right. I had meant to encode that. Just a moment." He scrolled up and edited the sentence. "There, I have used a simple code to obscure the message."

"No, you said you encoded it, but you've only written our dialogue." After Hunter scrolled up and encoded his lines for real, she said, "See, now it's done. And good gosh, that took forever. How can it be a simple code if you spent so much time encrypting the paragraph?"

"It is simple. All I did was remove the spaces between all the words and... another step I shan't mention. The point is that once you crack it, you'll see it's easy. I took so long because replacing letters individually takes much longer than typing words that come naturally to you. We also ate supper in the meantime."

"What was it?"

"You sound like @Ventomology."

"Isn't that the third time you've tagged her in here?"

"Why, yes. She's had words with me about it before, but I hardly ever heed her warnings. Anyway, we had eggs, steak and chips. Homemade, naturally."

Aurora looked hungrily at the bar. "Now I want that, but of course you don't serve food here."

"Yeah, sorry."

She scowled. "Besides making me hungry and waving around cryptic clues, was there a point to this post?"

"I mostly just needed to point out that people may or may not be entertaining incorrect notions regarding the whereabouts of their lost objects."

Aurora frowned. "That they found?"

Hunter, tired of standing, sat down opposite his friend (another thing he ordinarily would not be allowed to do). "The last bit of your sentence that I knocked away provides the context that would be needed if I were to respond. They've probably deduced what I'm trying to say anyway, but oh well."

"By the way, in your previous too-meta-even-for-tagbooks post, you neglected to address the matter - ugh, I sound like you - of other users seeking revenge."

"Oh, you mean @TheSenileSorcerer? Nah, a brownie is more dangerous. He can't oust me from first place by stealing my shield anyway, since it's in my Trophy Room. The Ruby Shield in the list is temporary until @Omnom finishes his next awesome banner."

"Did you just make a not-so-subtle request for someone to hurry up while masking it as a compliment?"

"Pumpernickel."

Aurora picked up her drink and splashed him. "Better?"

Hunter shook himself like a very annoyed, wet dog. "Why'd you do that?!"

"You randomly named a bread as response to my question, so I figured you were suffering from dehydration after working for so long."

"What? No! I abruptly changed the subject to the type of bread I was going to give @Poopsie for him to fly me to Canada."

She blinked. "Get me another two pineapple sodas - one as replacement for my lost drink and one for splashing you again."

"Did you just make a context-based joke?"

"Maybe. Poor phrasing, though."

"Bleargh." He headed back to the bar, made a couple of drinks, and returned with both balanced on his hand. "Your soda."

"And the hot chocolate?"

"That's mine. Hands off."

"So, what now?"

"Now I mention how I am completely innocent of the theft of Wanderer's future username. I caused his hat to disappear. That he confused the two after he ended my first post with an outraged outburst proves that he's senile."

"By the way, why does he live in a broom closet?"

"A witch hired him as a shed-sitter."

"Would that witch be @Rydia?"

Hunter scoffed, created a portal to the Archives and rummaged around. After failing in finding what he wanted, he produced a crystal ball and waved his hand over it.

"Is that a Palantír?" @Wolfical asked as she entered the bar, heading straight to the booth and plopping down next to Aurora.

Surprised by his fellow canine's entrance, Hunter answered with a frown on his face, "Close, but not quite. It's a Palantir® Orb, created by Palantir® Technologies Incorporated, a private software and services company which specialises in big data analysis." He tapped the orb.





-that they have been finding decoys while the real objects remain unreachable.
His companions O.o'ed at it. "I stumbled upon it while looking for the Middle Earth artefact. The similarity is unnerving. Anyway, since it's digital, the YWS Search Bar is the place where it can function most effectively."

"So, what are you tracking?" Aurora asked, glaring at the wolf who took a sip from the soda. She moved the glass over to her side.

"Besides observing the antics of the other storybookers, I use it to find other things too. In this case, I'm seeking a storybook called The Coven. Rydia - and I mean the character, not @Kitty15 - is one of the original witches, but it was another member, who's name I do not know, who hired Wanderer. However, the storybook itself is protected by a Fidelio Charm, so only those who participated in it can find it."

Wolfical moved Aurora's glass closer, took another sip, and grinned. "Let me guess - you're going to find one of them to take you to it so you can gain access?"

"Nope! The greatest witch herself will: through her statistics." He waved his hand over the orb again, causing a screen to appear. Once he had read it, he created a portal and peered inside. "I just need to find the correct date. Hmm... Ooh, what's this?" He pulled a random folder out and started paging through.

"It's people like him that cause others to make 'Squirrel!' jokes about us," Wolfical complained.

"Shh, I'm reading a storybook made by adolescent Rydia. I didn't know you had to use points to submit posts back then. I'm relieved that has changed." He raised an eyebrow. "But wow, this site had tons of vampires and werewolves back in the day." He returned the folder and resumed his search. Shortly thereafter, "I found it!"

The two girls bounced. "What's it say?"

Hunter tilted the open file so that they could not see and chuckled. "This is powerful, ancient magic. Don't piggy-back on my efforts to attain it." He waved his hand over the orb once again, but the mist inside swirled black. "Aww, her ritual weapon has been lost to the ages. A pity. Well, the names of the Thirteen will nevertheless be useful for some other scheme I'll come up with eventually. Probably a storybook on its own." He >:D'ed.

"Ugh, so who hired Wanderer?" Aurora asked, batting Wolfical's hand away from the soda.

"Oh, right. My best guess is @StellaThomas."

"Huh. Who would've thought?"

Hunter checked the time. "Well, it's past my bedtime, so my shift is now officially over." He walked over to the bar and clocked out.

"I thought you were heading to Canada?" Aurora called.

"That can wait until tomorrow. I'll just call @StupidSoup beforehand and ask him to locate and deliver his brother."

Wolfical's eyes grew wide, as if she seemed to remember something. "Oh, I just remembered something! @XxXTheSwordsmanXxX and @Nikayla got into an argument while on our way here, so I left them behind. They ought to arrive soon, so you might want to leave a bit faster, before Swordsman comes back. He's still a little-"

"You!"

All eyes in the bar turned to madmad standing in the entrace and pointing his sword at the off-duty waiter.

Hunter backed away slowly. "I think I'll use the backdoor."

Hanging over the edge, while scowling at the spider, was not the way Steggy wanted to go. In fact, she rather be lounging against a log and staring up at the blue sky. In her dreams, which were like computer bits, confusing to the point they created images. She sighed inwardly, looking over the cliff. I rather have a black screen.

"Are you sure this thing safe?" Steggy gestured to @Lumi, who was grinning like a madman.

"Why of course! You trust me, don't ya?"

"I rather not answer that at this time." Carl was busy twirling down, doing spider things. Spinning webs of sorts and winking with his eight eyes. A rope (who knows where it came from) hung over the edge, riding over the boat that lapped lazily in the water.

"This doesn't feel safe," Steggy muttered, clinging to dear life on the rope. In all the adventures she had been on, including the Dinosaur King inside the castle and nearly beaten in a fire contest, this one felt impressive. She didn't want to coward in fear, in hope that she'd let down the team again.

"Steggy, we trust you! You're the only one who knows Carl the best and besides, @Gravity can't defy herself."

"That's not what I meant-"

"Anyway! I'll push you when I get to one , ready?" Lumi stood behind Steggy.

"Fine," she said as Lumi counted backwards from eight.

"Eight."

you can do this.

"Seven."

don't let them down.

"Six."

loading...

"Five."

error has occurred...

"Four."

i believe i can fly is now playing.

"Three."

liaoningopterus was named by wang xiaolin and zhou zhimin in 2003.

"Two."

and this concludes our reading tonight. thank you.

"And lift off!"

steggy.exe has stopped working. please try again later.



How she ended up flying was something Steggy could never answer. The last thing she remembered was the casual tunes of cotton eye joe on repeat in her brain. Carl was busy knotting his strings together, making a flower knot.

":::)" he contently said.

"Carl, you-"

Steggy grabbed onto the cliff side, gasping for air. She looked up, seeing the tiny figures of everyone else. It boggled her mind or maybe it pure coincidence that strong gust of wind had "safely" placed her against the cliff side. Gulping, Steggy turned around so her back was against the cliff. Carl was mindlessly spinning before landing softly on her shoulder.

"None of this would've happened if you stayed still," Steggy muttered angrily. Now how to get down there? It wasn't a big drop down, in fact, if she fell correctly, Steggy could fall onto a nearby rock that looked smooth enough to soften her fall (how ironic).

Then an idea formed.

"Carl, buddy, you know I love your webbing and such? It's pretty amazing! You make such cool designs and stuff. But, could you help me with something?"

":::0"



"Awh, thanks- wait a minute? You want to huge my face?"

But it was too late. Carl had jumped off her shoulder again, floating against the wind, caring less and less about the impending danger that waited.

"-Gravity can't defy herself."

Gravity had been watching @Steggy struggle to climb back up the rope.

"I hope the spider bites you," Gravity muttered, turning away. The dinosaur who had once been Gravity's storybooking writer in crime was now her arch enemy. Although the team had technically made a very valid point, and Gravity had no context to the situation because she was too lazy to go back and read the other tagbook posts, she was still mad. Sorta.

"This means war," Gravity said, turning to her pals, @HazelGrace16 and @Wolfical.

The two other YWSers nodded solemnly and walked back down the mountain.

"Um, like, why exactly are we going to war right now?" said Hazel, twisting a lock of her bright blue hair, "I like, totally have your back but like... what?" Hazel popped a piece of gum in her mouth as she, Wolfie, and Gravity continued down the mountain.

"They said Gravity can't defy herself and she got sorta mad. Therefore war," Wolfical explained, shoving her rather large glasses up her nose. However, the glasses were the wrong prescription so she was always squinting anyway.

"Oh. I get it now. But like, why war?" Hazel asked, her already annoyingly nasal voice approaching obnoxious as it reached higher octaves never before heard by mankind.

"I just explained it." Wolfical said, exasperated.

"Forget the why," Gravity interrupted, throwing her hand up next to her face with her palm out dramatically, like a true movie villain. "All you need to know is this means war. And people must be tickled."

"N-n-n-no," Wolfie stuttered.

"Ohmigod, she went there." Hazel whispered.

Gravity proceeded to pull out a remote, muttering to herself as she punched in random buttons and a door rose out of the ground with a hiss.

"Welcome to my evil lair," cried Gravity as she threw her head back and laughed maniacally.

"I've always wanted one of those," Hazel said, "They're like, so totally awesome," she said, grinning and rolling her eyes even though there was nothing to be sarcastic about.

Gravity, Wolfie and Hazel opened the door and descended down dark precarious steps into the evil lair.

"Gravity, tell me, why are we descending dark, precarious steps into your evil lair?" Wolfical asked, shoving her glasses up the bridge of her nose once more, "Wouldn't a brightly lit elevator be more... efficient?"

"No. Because then this wouldn't be an evil lair," Gravity said irritably, "It would be a hospital."

"Theoretically, wouldn't a hospital be more efficient than an evil lair? After all you'd be healing people who are sick and-"

"Silence!" Gravity yelled, her voice echoing through the dark and precarious stairway, efficiently shutting Wolfie up.

"Ohmigod, these steps are like, so dark and precarious," Hazel said.

Gravity shot Hazel a withering stare which Hazel obviously couldn't see in the darkness surrounding the precarious stairs.

Gravity, Hazel, and Wolfical reached the bottom of the dark and precarious staircase, at which point Gravity turned on a light switch to illuminate the evil lair. It didn't actually look all that evil. There was nice hardwood floors and sofas and loveseats and crown molding and everything an HGTV addict could ever want.

"Welcome to my evil lair," Gravity said, rubbing her hands together and throwing her head back once more to laugh maniacally.

"My, how maniacally you laugh," said Wolfical.

"Thank you, you really think so?" Gravity asked, "You're so sweet."

Wolfical made a mental note that it may not be best to point out that Gravity's evil lair wasn't really all that evil.

Gravity began opening cupboards and closets to reveal... hundreds of hedgehogs.

Hazel smiled, "O.M.GEEEEEEEEE. THEY'RE SO TOTALLY CUTE."

"THEY'RE EVIL," Gravity bellowed, removing each cage one by one and setting them gently on the floor. "BUT THE MOST EVIL OF ALL," shouted Gravity, "IS ELLIE THE HEDGEHOG," Gravity screamed, setting down a slightly larger cage on the floor with a perfectly normal african pygmy hedgehog inside, which was of course, hyperventilating, and therefore, did not look all that evil.

"MINIONS, UNITE!" One hundred clones of @TheForgottenKing appeared suddenly at Gravity's call. They looked like humans covered in black scales, which made wookie noises at extremely inconvenient times and unfortunately did not know how to indent.

"ARE WE READY TO TAKE DOWN STEGGY?" Gravity yelled, throwing her head back yet again to laugh maniacally. The King clones did not respond verbally, instead, they each picked up a cage with a hedgehog inside. Gravity turned off the lights and the Kingclones, accompanied by Wolfical and Gravity, proceeded to climb up the dark and precarious stairs.

They reached Steggy's team on the mountain where they were comforting a very scared Steggy and a very confused spider. "WOOKIE DRAGONS, ATTACK!" screamed Gravity. Within 5 minutes, Steggy and her peeps were laying down, subdued, with little pens surrounding them. The pens were 12 inches tall, high enough a hedgehog could not escape.

"I am here to retaliate to your annoyingly valid claim. I will have you know I can defy myself if I wish. You will rue the day you spoke against me!"

"Gravity, that was today," Wolfical pointed out, pushing her obscenely large glasses up her nose.

"Whatever," Gravity said, throwing her head back in another bout of maniacal laughter. The Kings proceeded to take each hedgehog out of its cage, wincing as the small, adorable animals tickled and slightly pricked their hands. The Kings set 3 hedgehogs on the extremities of each person. Steggy recieved 10.

"Um, Gravity, you spelled 'received' wrong up there. I just thought you would want your evil plot to be spelled correctly," said Wolfical, fiddling with her hands. This time, Wolfical could see the withering glare Gravity cast at her.

"NOW, YOU WILL BE CONDEMNED TO A LIFETIME OF TICKLING AND SLIGHT PRICKING BY ETERNALLY ADORABLE HEDGEHOGS! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Gravity cried, once again laughing.


"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" screamed steggy.

"Wait, can't like, people only live like a month without food or water?" Hazel asked?

"3 days without water, one week without food," said Wolfical matter of factly, reaching up to push her glasses up the bridge of her nose.

Gravity reached out and took Wolfical's glasses, placing them on her own face.

"SILENCE, MINIONS. VICTORY IS MINE."

Laag

That his involvement in the time-stream and interfering with it had gone disastrously wrong was not only completely infuriating and painful, it had also gone exactly as he had thought it would. The worst outcome always tended to happen, it seemed, in any situation he was in. He had been unwise enough to assume that he would be perfectly fine when he had tried to step through that yellow blur, but that had been a second's irrationality, and he'd convinced himself that he had no other option if he wanted to stay away from the plotline. Or so he convinced himself as he tried to open his eyes and get up from wherever he was at. He had already lost his pride, but he wasn't about to lose his penchant for explaining any stupid mistake of his.

Silver stood up, holding a hand over his forehead and nose. Nothing was bleeding, but his nose was possibly broken, and he had the thought that the impression of a boot was imprinted in his head. At least @Lumi hadn't brought the cleats with him. Still, it stung, and first aid was something far beyond Silver's knowledge. Besides, there wasn't anything nearby to use.

Actually, there wasn't anything at all.

He assumed, at first, that it was his vision clearing up. The injury, and whatever had happened to bring him here, left black spots dancing in his eyes, and he swore he could almost see stars. However, after a minute or two, the perpetually foggy sky loomed out in all directions around him, taunting him with the secrets it was likely keeping (given that he never had a happy story in a Tagbook, it was doubtlessly hiding something substantially threatening). Only the sloshing of water around him suggested he was somewhere in the ocean. Or a lake, but the SB Crew despised those; they were too small for the ships, and it was boring crossing across one of them when the entire breadth of the lake was easily visible and could be sailed within a few minutes (if that).

Fortunately, he wasn't wet, so it wasn't as though the platform he was standing on was slowly sinking into the waves. Still, he was stuck on a rocky protrusion in the middle of nowhere, and Silver's back hurt from having rested on its sloping surface and sharper points. How long have I been out for? he thought, staring around and peering at the relatively tranquil sea. After a quick check, he realized he had a watch on him, but it had been apparently broken during his arrival, and only read 12:00. Silver considered using his time powers again, but he had likely used up a good portion of his available time. Besides, where he was going to go? It could take him forever to walk on the waves and escape, and he was more likely to sink into the sea. And he didn't have not-drowning superpowers.

Shivering and sitting down, Silver set down a suitcase on the ground. He'd kept it with him this entire time, but it had never been mentioned for reasons that definitely were not laziness or not having come thought of its existence before now. While he opened the suitcase and typed in a password into his repurposed calculator/access code device, in the back of his mind, there was the faint hope that he would be saved by a deus ex machina. An inflatable raft, or wings, or a lighthouse, or a portal, or something that would carry him away from this place, or perhaps find somebody who could do so. Hopefully not Hunter, as the space wolf might find this an opportunity to blackmail Silver into joining Hunter's group of conversationalists. Those dreams and/or nightmare were soon dashed. As he searched through the contents of the suitcase, finding absolutely nothing and growing more desperate, he found himself unhappy that he had not gotten himself a phone. Assuming there was any reception in the middle of the ocean, of course.

You have found:

Rydia's Flagship

The little earth he was sitting on began to shake, jolting him. Larger waves started to crash against the rock as he stood up and looked frantically around for the ship, he only narrowly being soaked as the water covered more and more of his trap. Whatever hope was in his mind turned into dismay as he saw the impression of a massive ship growing bigger in the distance, heading right for him. It was not slowing down. It was not turning. It was going to crush him, or force him into the waves.

You have found:

Rydia's Flagship

"Shut up!" Silver called to the message hovering above his head as he sat back down and doubled his efforts to search through his suitcase. He began to fling items and clothes out of it while the familiar figure of the ship he'd spent so much time cleaning the decks and exploring the lands of YWS with barreled towards him. Now it seemed to be going ever faster, as though it had been waiting for this moment for a long time (et tu, ship?). Silver regretted doubting the ship's sentience, especially in light of the fact a few magic wielders did, in fact, sail it, and attested to having made their ship aware of the moderators in its presence and their commands. Whether it had searched for him and was now trying to retrieve him, or one of the other moderates had decided to have some fun and search for him (they would never be concerned about him, and he had probably irked the Fellowship and @TheSunderedSorcerer by arranging them so they would punch each other), he was surely going to be crushed or drowned under the ship's massive weight.

Did I mention you have found:

Rydia's Flagship

Silver haphazardly re-stuffed his suitcase, ignoring how much he was cramming everything together (and how much time he had spent ironing those shirts). His frantic glances towards the ship gave snapshots of the mast and imposing iron-clad prow of the vessel hovering far over his head. It was far too close for comfort, and he couldn't spend any more time looking around in his suitcase. Besides, his present suit was already being soaked, so it wasn't as though he could complain about getting wet. Except, of course, he did.

He hated water. Though a proficient swimmer, he despised how cold the water felt, and the nasty odor that always accompanied him when he would finally get out of a pool (wet canid jokes aside). Unfortunately for him, plunging into the icy cold waters was his best choice. With luck, he would able to swim out of the way of the approaching ship, avoid being struck by all of the pieces of rock smashed by the iron prow, and then find some way to grab onto the ship and pull himself up. It was an unlikely, dangerous, and incredibly stupid plan, completely unlike his normal set of ideas, and incredibly amusing for anybody watching.

So, he steeled himself and jumped in the water.

“No one is here besides @Mea and @SirLight, @JennyImStory, and neither of them have made posts in this storybook so far,” Mage dismally commented as she looked around the Home Page. As an afterthought, she gave the two a wave.

She saw footprints leading away from the Home Page into the unknown, but she had no idea who they belonged to. She guessed that breaking the fourth wall and checking previous posts might shed some light on who had been there last. Realizing she had nothing else to lose, she checked the previous posts. “@AstralHunter encrypted something important in his last post,” she informed Jenny and @Malamaya. The two peered over her shoulder at the post on her phone.

“And you complained about us breaking the fourth wall,” Jenny jokingly said as she tried to figure out the code. When they turned to Malamaya for help, she simply shrugged.

“I'm a detective. I solve mysteries; I don't do codes.”

“I mean, @Love does,” @AllisontheWriter suddenly piped up as she walked into the Home Page. “I bet they could crack it. Although they do computer coding and not actually code codes.” She joined the group looking over Mage's shoulder and sighed. “If only McKay was here. I bet he could crack it.”

Mage sighed as well. “If only more people would understand that reference. I don't suppose you have some sort of decryption device with you?”

Allison shook her head.

Mea piped up with, “You could try contacting everyone in the storybook. Besides increasing the likelihood of someone having a decryptor, someone else might be able to figure it out.”

“Especially the people who know Hunter best,” SirLight added. “They might know what he usually does when making codes.”

“Worse case scenario,” Jenny slowly said, “we could resort to having the Story Interviews crew interrogate him like we originally planned.”

Mage looked around her. Seeing that they lacked a flare or the materials to start a fire, she doubted they could alert the other participants to their location using those two methods. She lacked the phone numbers of everyone with one or two exceptions, so calling them was out of the question.

But this wasn't a normal situation.

She was in Young Writers Society. Typical communication rules didn't apply, and when she came to that realization, she finally figured out what they should do. “We're part of YWS,” she began. “I know how we can contact everyone because of that!”

“I've got it!” Malamaya exclaimed. “We hope everyone shows up in chat, or we message all of them in the chat bar!”

Jenny coughed. “Um, Malamaya, those are gone now, remember?”

“Oh.”

When no one put forth their guess on the conclusion Mage had arrived at, she grinned at them. “If you want to contact a group of people and send them all the same information, you can send a mass PM addressed to everyone! All we have to do is address it to everyone who has posted or been mentioned in this storybook.”

After all of the names had been entered – which took a good half hour – she sent the mass PM. She made sure to include the meeting place (the Home Page).

“Now we just have to wait,” Mage said. “I'm not sure if this is going to be some major conclusion to this storybook, but it certainly feels like a climax and a confrontation in a mystery novel!”

And so, Hunter did use the backdoor. A chase scene would usually have ensued, but instead, he jumped onto the roof and waited for @XxXTheSwordsmanXxX to run down the street before jumping back down. He warped himself to his residence dimension, wondering why he didn't just do that in the first place, and then proceeded to eat and retire. Upon waking the next morning (which wasn't exactly the next morning but several mornings thereafter) he checked his mailbox and found it wasn't empty. Perplexed he took the two letters inside and read it.

Finished, Hunter walked over to an end table and pressed the red button on it, summoning an agitated @TheCrimsonLady.

"Hey, you don't get to call me whenever you write a tagbook post and feel like monologuing about your machinations." She raised her chin disdainfully and stroked out the folds in her dress. "I have a phone for that. And at least you finally got my username right."

Hunter grinned, embarrassed. "Yeah, you would think I'd check my tags to see whether they actually work. But hey, even though this is the third time you feature, it's the first time you've been tagged, so I'm four tags away from earning a credit."

She scowled. "What are you rambling about?"

"Right, you haven't been active lately. I refer to the storybook challenge I created last night. And speaking of which, the first part of it has already been completed."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning @TheSilverFox decrypted the message. He has therefore earned five credits and this magical get-out-of-jail-for-free card." Hunter produced said card from the ether and waved it for emphasis. "Now we just need to deliver it."

"We?"

"If the lady will accompany me, of course. Though deciphering my message has probably restored Fox's pride - which I indirectly predicted two posts ago - he probably won't stick around to join, what was the phrase?" After rereading several old posts, he gave up. "I can't seem to find the phrase, but basically my "group of conversationalists". I'm sure the exact term was used after my second post and before my third, but I've had no luck finding it. Anyway, let's go."

"You're still wearing your pajamas, love."

Hunter looked at his attire and blushed. "Just a moment." He disappeared into his bedroom. Ten minutes later, he returned. "Showered and dressed."

Aurora pointed at the letters in his hand. "Why haven't you put those down yet?"

"Good question."

"And why aren't they wet if you took a shower without putting them down?"

"Another good question."

"What do they say anyway?"

"A good question I can actually answer. The one is a PM from Fox with my decrypted message, the other is a mass PM sent by @Mage asking everyone I tagged last night to meet her at the homepage. Naturally, we shan't be attending."

"Why does she want to gather everyone?"

"To decrypt my message. I'm not certain if she will go through with it, considering my other letter, but she might, seeing as Fox wisely kept the meaning private. Any more questions?"

"Just one: where is Fox?"



Subject: The silver fox known as Silver, Fox, and Foxy.
Location: Unknown.
Last Known Whereabouts: The waters surrounding a shipwreck.

Hunter stowed his Palantir® Orb in his satchel and scratched his head. Scanning the choppy waves around them for any signs of argentine vulpines (which was totally a legitimate noun) and having no such luck, he said, "Last I checked, Fox was trying to board this ship without being keelhauled or drowning. Well, he's not on the ship, we've already checked for squished canines below the wreck, and he can't have drowned, so where is he?"

Aurora tightly wrapped her mackintosh around her, scowling at the spray. "I don't know. I don't care. However, I do know that we're getting drenched, and I do care about being dry. Can't we get a search and rescue team to find him?"

"The only sailors I know are pirates. Those we are recommended to approach for assistance are already occupied with their own character arcs, and those who aren't, such @Craz and @Auxiira, are retired. The participants of Sailing the 'Neath ought to be experienced in maritime rescues, but one wants to whack me with a broom, one wants me to find her ship which may or may not be a ship anymore, one is too random to ask for help, one is nowhere to be found, and the last two are unknown factors. I'm pretty sure I've never seen @LordZeus on a ship before, and I have no idea what @EvangelineFire has and has not done."

"So that's a no."

"Unless we can find a helicopter pilot. I only know how to fly Cesnas."

She made an exasperated eye roll and made a sweeping gesture at herself. "You already have a helicopter pilot. I've told you this before. You only need a helicopter."

Hunter clicked, summoning a helicopter in flight above them. "Ta da!"

Aurora pointed. "It's nose-diving."



A few minutes later, the only sound in the helicopter's cockpit was that of churning rotors. Hunter moped in the co-pilot seat, rubbing his cheek. "You didn't have to slap me that hard, you know."

"Yes, I did," Aurora countered hotly. "You don't just warp people into a crashing helicopter. Why couldn't you just have warped a stationary one onto the ship?"

"Because the sudden increase in weight would have caused the deck to give way, and then we'd be sitting with two wrecks, not just one."

She humphed and said nothing more until a fruitless hour had passed. "What if he really did drown?"

"Then I guess he'd be in Davy Jones' Locker?"

"So why haven't we looked there yet?"

"I'm sort of banned from entering, so my warping abilities can't take me or anyone else there."

Aurora sighed heavily. "Then just get some interdimensional pidgeon to deliver the get-out-of-jail-for-free card for you."

Hunter's eyes lit up. "That's an outstanding idea! Hold on, I'll include a message."

She watched him scribble chickenscratch onto a piece of paper. "Your writing is illegible even when you aren't in a moving helicopter. Do you really think he'll be able to read that?"

The Space Wolf looked up, uncertain. "Well, if he can't, he'll just have to read this post, since this letter is to tell him the card will take him wherever he wants to be as long as he would be able to find his destination under normal circumstances. Since he expressed an interest to join me in his first post, it's also an invitation to meet me at Storybook Tower, the headquarters of the Order of the Storybook. You can abandon the search and head there now, actually."

Aurora made an annoyed face and changed course. "So I assume you know where to find an interdimensional pidgeon?"

"Of course." Hunter pulled a pumpernickel from inside his trenchcoat, stepped out of the cockpit, opened one of the doors, and called, "@Poopsie!" waving the bread around. Sure enough, the well-versered pidgeon appeared. Hunter tied the message and card to its leg. "Take those to wherever TheSilverFox is. Start by searching for him inside Davy Jones' Locker. This is your payment." The pidgeon happily plucked the loaf from the wolf's paw and begun its search. Hunter closed the door and stepped back into the cockpit. "I was supposed to use that to get home, but in my haste to escape from Swordsman, I forgot I had it. Mother won't be pleased, but oh well." He produced his phone and began sending apologetic messages.

"If I may ask, why are we heading to the Storybook Tower? You haven't earned your Emerald Badge yet."

"Emphasis on yet; I have earned one credit by writing this post, but once I write one for Mana too, I shall earn three more, which would put me at a total of 101. But first, we have a dragon to slay. @Persistence is supposed to help me, so hopefully, he finds a way to escape the Fellowship. Whether he or Fox pitches up is ultimately irrelevant, though; @Rydia is even more impatient for me to slay the lizard than to find her ship, so I'll have to do it tomorrow after work."

"But we're heading there now," she responded, confused.

"Time paradoxes abound, remember? I can finish my shift at The Search Bar without leaving this helicopter and before we reach our destination."

The lady shook her head. "If you say so."

@Gravity was her friend. Her partner-in-crime, you could say. However, while hurdling towards a dozen or so pens and million carbon copies of @Rydia, she had realized the feeling was mutual. She still was numb from the stabs and jolts as @Wolfical and @HazelGrace16 followed behind, still bickering about something along the lines of million hedgehogs and how Hazel wanted all of them.
Steggy groaned, sitting up. The first thing she did: patted her shoulder for Carl. As usual, Carl was nowhere to be seen. He could be anywhere by the time Steggy got up. The rope she had used to get down to the land below, was tangled. If she could call up, maybe, someone would hear her.

"Anyone up there?" Steggy called out. Her voice echoed over the valley, crashing into the raging waters below. Nothing. Groaning again, Steggy looked around her. She was lucky enough to make it alive. Her team might have gone without her, hiding underground to escape Gravity's attacks.
Skipping over the matter, she looked around. Rocks of all colors and sizes were around her. The rock she fell on was like before: slated and grey with some green flowers growing around the edge. It overlooked the water, that sloshed around the rim before disappearing back into the sea. Sitting down, Steggy thought. Hard. For twenty minutes (or two naps and a trip to the quicky mart).

As she was thinking, a rock hit her back before rolling onto the ground next to her. It didn't bother Steggy. Until another rock hit her.

"Would you quit that out?" She asked aloud while turning around.

"I'm trying to get your attention," a voice cried out.

Steggy had enough trouble for today. "Could you just come out, please? I'm very annoyed right now."

@marmalade came out from behind, holding a bag of rocks. "Why are you thinking?"

"Because it helps me feel calm. Why are you throwing rocks?"

"Same thing you said. Helps me feel calm. Plus, I'm practicing."

"Your aim on me?"

marmalade laughed shortly. "Yes but no. It's from windows."

"Why would you do that to windows?'

"Attention."

Steggy thought about this. "Oh. What's your name?"

"marmalade. Yours is Steggy."

"How did-"

"There's some good @Basil plants where you're sitting at," marmalade stated quietly.

"I never noticed," Steggy chuckled. She leaned over the edge of the rock, picking up a basil leaf.

"The rare @JadeBunny lives here too. However, they decide to spend their time below ground. Their purple fur can be bleached by the sunlight, you know."

"It's hardly sunny outside."

marmalade shrugged. "Even when it's cloudy, there's some sun."

"Do you always think like this?" Steggy asked, looking up.

"It's just @MeAndMyThoughts, really. But, I pass the time by throwing rocks at people and windows to get attention and talk."

"Oh. Sounds like a busy life to me."

marmalade agreed, sitting down on the rock. "That's true." A silence, except for the waves washing off the shore, was deafening.

"There's also @ghosts on this island, didyaknow? Of unfortunate souls who didn't make it while jumping off the cliff. It's sad, really. I'm surprised you survived."

Steggy knotted her eyebrows together. "Are you a ghost?"

marmalade smiled. "It depends if you believe or not."

Before Steggy could reply, a loud voice rang above them.

"STEGGY!! THERE YOU ARE!! WE'VE BEEN LOOKING EVERYWHERE FOR YOU!!" @Lumi yelled, waving his arms about. Steggy grumbled.

"I have to go. Thank you for the company." Steggy said but when she looked next to her, her friend wasn't there. Raising an eyebrow, she didn't think too much about it instead staring heading her way towards the cliff.

As she left, if Steggy had stayed behind a little longer, she could have heard the faint laughter before it disappeared in the waves.

@Gravity was making a mess of character chit-chat, and the shoreline was quickly falling into oblivion. Lightning crashed. Thunder rolled. A mighty boulder fell from the mighty cliff and mightily crushed their not-so-mighty getaway dinghy.

"Well," deadpanned @Steggy, "there goes our not-so-mighty getaway dinghy."

"" said Lumi.

"I know! How are we supposed to get off this island now?!"

"We could track down @Kelpies...but she's probably already caught up in the Gravity War."



Kelpies: I actually take great offense to that. I was reviewing during the Gravity War.

Director: So the character chit-chat puppets you're playing with right now are...?

Kelpies: ...for science?



Lumi sighed and reached into his pocket, retrieving a small, purple earring with a rather permanent-looking clasp on it. "This is a fusion earring. @chibibo always wears his...not sure why...but if I put this on, it will transport us to him, but will also fuse me WITH him. It'll just be Weirdsauce McOlivebranch, okay?"

"Seems a little Deus Ex Machina to me," shouted @Nate from the sky command.

Steggy shrugged and grabbed Lumi's shoulder. Carl grabbed Steggy's shoulder. @Nutty--wait, Nutty??

"Nutty, where'd you come from?"

"To the left."

"Holy cheeses, woman. That MIGHTY BOULDER could've crushed you!"

She cackled. "Key items never do that much damage to player characters! They're situational at best."

"How can you tell it's a key item?"

"It's in all caps. Like MAGE'S RAINBOW."

"That's...an interesting lesson to learn this late in the game."

"Either way, I didn't want to miss you pulling a DBZ move in the middle of a tagbook." Chortle. "That's pretty lame, but I gotta see the art style."

"No one's brought up that I'm going to lose my identity! Or that I could lose myself entirely!"

"You really need to find a new hobby. Let's go!" She latched onto Lumi's back. Lumi shut his eyes and put on the earring and...and--!!



When he opened his eyes, @Rydia, Steggy, Nutty, and Carl all looked down at him almost fearfully. "We...we made it?"

Rydia looked confused. "Is...that you, chibibo? You don't quite look...yourself."

A voice began to draw closer from the cobblestone streets far away.

"I guess I'm... Lumibo? Chiblumi?"

Steggy questioned this. "Chilubo. Sounds exotic."

Nutty interjected: "Chumumi!"

"MY EARRINGS!" It was @Snoink! A RED. FURIOUS. SNOINK! @Firestarter jogged behind her, ears plugged into a walkman.

Rydia coughed into her fist. "I suggest we all back away."

"You two stole my earrings as a prank years ago and said you LOST them! But you've been using them as a...a...REFERENCE?! TO DRAGON BALL Z?!"

She began to tug and twist and wrench--until SNOINK'S EARRINGS popped off of Chiblumi and the two split back into themselves.

"I have the darn-diddliest humdinger of a headache," they said in unison. "Hey!" they said in unison. "Stop saying what I say in perfect unison like we're still fused or something, I mean on a certain level it's almost cool but on another level it's REALLY CREEPY, MAN." ...they said in unison.

There was complete and utter silence for the longest time. Then, something in Lumi's pocket cracked.

He reached in and pulled out MA GE's RA inb O w...

"Haha, psyche," Snoink said. "I only got my ears pierced a couple of years ago. Those earrings that you're talking about..."

@Rydia looked concerned. "You mean... that wasn't yours?"

"Nope!"

Suddenly @Demeter came over. And, if Snoink looked red, Demeter looked purple.

But, perhaps that was only because of MA GE's RA inb O w, which had spilled out of @Lumi's hand and was illuminated everyone in different colors.

"Ooooo," a strange voice said. "That's pretty."

"ETA?"

"You asked me that a minute ago."

"So seven minutes?"

@TheCrimsonLady sighed. "Yes, love. Seven minutes and twenty-five seconds. Twenty-three... twenty-two... twenty-one... You're not going to make me count down all the way, are you?"

"I'd prefer you keep your focus on flying this metallic dragonfly. In the meantime, I'll try not to annoy you by just warping myself into the tower already and getting my Ruby Shield."

"Wait, you can-?"

"Back." Hunter strapped the glittering trophy onto his left arm and lifted it to show he had fetched it.

"Oi, lower your bejewelled armour!" she exclaimed, pushing his arm down. "You're obstructing my movement and blinding me at the same time."

"Sorry."

She grumbled something inaudible. "How many users do you plan on roping into this battle?"

"At this point, just two. However, Storybook Tower is the headquarters of our distinguished order, so there will be no lack of storybookers to tag. I just hope none of them end up being toasted."

"Who's fault is it that a dragon decided to make its lair on your literal doorstep anyway?"

"@Rydia. Even though people always blame her, she really is the one responsible this time."

"Will she be helping with the fight?"

"She ought to! She ordered me to slay the beast, though, so technically, she doesn't have to."

"Marvelous. I might have to drop you off some distance away."

"Why?"

"Helicopters are loud, love. If the dragon is still sleeping, you want to keep it that way until you're ready to fight it."

"Huh, true." Hunter produced a radio and placed it on the dashboard. "I'll use that to communicate with you. This thing has an in-built megaphone, right?"

"I guess it does now."

"Excellent! Just circle around far away from the dragon until you hear back from me." He left his seat, exited the cockpit and opened the door.

"Don't you need a parachute?" Aurora called, looking at him from over her shoulder.

"I'm a Space Wolf, remember?" He winked and leapt out.

Though falling indeed couldn't kill him, tumbling through branches still hurt as much as one would expect. After shaking off any leaves clinging to him, Hunter jogged towards the tower. It was located in the centre of a citadel, which made the dragon's presence all the more disruptive. At least the tower had a substantial open space around it for war games and bizarres and the like, so the dragon wasn't too close to the surrounding structures.

By the time he had scaled the walls (passing through the gate would take too long, as he'd have to prove his identity and state his business first) and weaved through the outskirts, word of the impending engagement had already spread, prompting a crowd of battle-hungry warriors to form a safe distance from the great lizard.

@Persistence was the first to stop Hunter and waved. When asked when and how he had gotten there, he answered, "I got here thirty minutes ago with this portkey." The Wizard raised an old boot. "As you can see, I've also already snuck in and collected my Bronze Shield." He looked back at the dragon. "Do you think it will withstand dragonfire?"

Hunter pulled out his phone and checked Wikipedia's article on steel. "Dragons can melt steel shields with ease. To put that in perspective, steel has a higher melting point than cast iron, which in turn has a melting point almost 300°C higher than bronze." He looked up. "That means no, it definitely won't."

@ReisePiecey, one of the gathered warriors, adjusted her viking horned helmet. "Come on, I wanna slay this dragon!"

"Yeah!" @tigeraye, @Caerulean, @captainearth, and @Messenger cheered.

"I wanna make a fortune off selling its bones and scales!"

"Yeah!" @tigeraye, @Caerulean, @captainearth, and @Messenger cheered.

"I wanna absorb its soul!"

"Yeah!" @tigeraye, @Caerulean, @captainearth, and @Messenger cheered.

"Don't dragons only have one soul?" Persistence asked.

"Yeah!" @tigeraye, @Caerulean, @captainearth, and @Messenger cheered.

Reise facepalmed. "If death by fire is mandatory for at least a couple of individuals in this tagbook, can we all agree to let them make the first charge?"

"Yeah!" @tigeraye, @Caerulean, @captainearth, and @Messenger cheered.

"Just not yet," Hunter insisted. "We're waiting for more people to arrive."

Reise pointed at the tower. "There are plenty disposable trained recruits in there. If we can lure the dragon away, they can attack it from behind."

Hunter shrugged. "Oh well. I guess you can have the first whack at it."

"Yeah!" @tigeraye, @Caerulean, @captainearth, and @Messenger cheered.

Her loyal soldiers right behind, Reice ran towards the dragon. Once they were close enough, she raised a fist as an order to halt. Determination and courage clearly visible on her face (even though Hunte couldn't see it from his perspective), she yelled, "Fus Ro Da!" at the sleeping dragon. Unfortunately, they only succeeded in getting two angry yellow eyes to emerge from beneath scaly eyelids.

"I don't think Dovahzul works in YWS!" Hunter called. "Try using this instead!" He pulled a megaphone from hammerspace and lobbed it at the hapless troop.

Reise snatched it out of the air and pointed it at the rising dragon. "Fus... RO DA!"

The force of the sound created by the megaphone made the dragon stagger backwards against the tower walls. Reise grinned and motioned for her comrades to follow her lead and retreat to safety. The dragon roared in fury and set chase.

At that point, Hunter realised he had yet to describe the vehement lizard, so he did the most logical thing and squinted at it. Many varieties of fire-breathing dragon existed in literature, but this one more accurately resembled the fierce firedrake the legendary hero Beowolf had fought and vanquished. Its scales glittered like the magical Ruby from which Hunter's shield had been made, making him conclude its hoard was destined for consumption, not esthetics - a problem, considering it regarded the tower as its treasure. More remarkable than its dazzling gleam, however, was the stench of sulphur it brought forth whenever spewing fire at the fleeing cosplayers. It had horns and spikes and other typical draconic features too, but he decided to leave that to the imagination of the other writers, as the approaching creature forced him to cut his observations short.

"Think we can choke it to death by shooting your shield into its mouth?" Hunter asked, turning to Persistence.

"Didn't Bellerophon use a lead arrow for that?"

"Oh, right. I'll go check the armoury for any spare Recruit Badges."

"I thought you were going to help us fight this thing?"

"And I shall, but I fight by maipulating gravity. That would be too OP, so I'm allowing other users to get in a fight scene before I kill it."

"Nobody will be manipulating me!" @Gravity called, holding a hedgehog and another old boot in her hands.

Hunter pointed at the dragon. "Please destroy that, not me."

She gawked at the dragon, making Hunter chuckle at how a reporter for Squills was completely unaware of talk down the grapevine. "Okay. WOOKIE DRAGONS, ATTACK!" Black @TheForgottenKing clones appeared out of the ether and charged the beast, causing the five Nords to scatter and the dragon to roar even louder than before.

"Persistence," Hunter said, "provide support using your magic and whatever else you feel like using. If @Lumi, @TheSilverFox, @Mage, or anybody else shows up, just point at the dragon. Logic ought to dictate the rest of their actions."

"What if they don't know to come here?"

The Space Wolf pondered the question. In response, he radioed Aurora. "You know that megaphone I mentioned earlier? Now would be the time to use it."

"You got it, love." She cleared her throat and turned on the microphone. "Attention all storybookers, a dragon is laying waste to Storybook Tower. All able-bodied users are required to assist in slaying the creature without actually slaying the creature, as @AstralHunter called dibs on it." She radioed him back. "Satisfied?"

Hunter stopped just inside the entrance to the tower and looked back, taking in the odd scene in the distance before giving the helicopter a thumbs-up. Fighting the dragon would be fun, but he looked forward to reading the others' fights even more.

Silver had not thought this through.

He was lucky enough to swim away before the ship decimated the small rock he was on, sending pieces flying into the air and landing into the water about him. One piece grazed his shoulder, and it ached as he pushed himself further into the seemingly infinite-stretching ocean. Fortunately, he wasn't using it to swim; unfortunately, it was the hand that was holding his waterproof suitcase (he had been fortunate enough to shut it down seconds before he entered the water to escape his doom). As such, while he tried to keep his head above the surface, madly and aimlessly swimming, his buffeted shoulder finally gave way, and the arm it was attached to detached the suitcase.

Realizing what had happened, Silver wheeled around and looked down. However, in the murky and dark waters, now swirling and shaking in the ship's wake, the suitcase had already slipped out of view. Sighing, he took a deep breath, plugged his nose, and dived in after it. He stretched his arm out and haphazardly grabbed the water around him, eyes squinting and nearly shut as they struggled to look through his surroundings. A brief moment of hope was ruined when he grasped what he though was a suitcase, but clutched the tip of a sharp rock and was stabbed in the palm for his efforts. Lungs burning, desperation growing, Silver panicked and continued to swim deeper into the ocean. What else could he do at this point in time? He wasn't about to join the long list of people who had lost something, though he had already lost his pride and dignity.

To his amazement, the water became lighter and brighter, and the pressure against him waned. He wasn't quite sure what happened next, but a strange feeling washed over him. His reality was warped, as he was now swimming upwards towards some massive, dark structure in the distance. It was a humongous cube with a smattering of holes dotting its bottom. Silver, quickly running out of oxygen, pushed with his arms and legs towards the nearest hole in his sight. The part of his brain not entirely devoted to his survival of the next few seconds smiled faintly as he grasped the edges of the space with his hands, and pulled himself through the water.

Spitting out an excess of water and clutching his chest, Silver pushed himself onto the cold and unstable wooden floor of the space. He reeked, and his outfit was soaked thoroughly, though it was not as though he was going to find another one quickly. Still, what a waste of money. He'd probably have to opt for something cheaper and/or more waterproof next time.

Taking a few deep breaths, the fox spotted his briefcase out of the corner of his eye, and snatched it quickly. At least he'd managed to recover something. Coming to his feet, Silver looked around him. It was a locker room, with a massive amount of metal lockers lining the room. The air felt understandably damp and suffocating, and a wide variety of treasure chests were scattered around. They glowed a faint green, adding to an eeriness whose tone was established by the faint whispering and shouting they emitted. Silver sighed in frustration. As much as he wanted to make a joke about this being the place of @Rydia's many victims, it was still not the place he could stand standing in for any amount of time. He opened up his suitcase again, took out a shirt, tore a couple of pieces off of it with his hands, and attached the pieces to his shoulder and still-bleeding palm.

The old and withered sign over his head, suspended by rusty metal chains, was the last thing he caught a glimpse of as he set back the shirt into the suitcase, closed the said suitcase, walked back to the hole, and jumped in. The impression of the stereotypical captain on the sign was winking, and the words "Davy Jones' Locker" appeared in a dialogue box beside him.

Fortunately, now that he knew what to expect, Silver's second dive was far easier than the first. He swam somewhat gracefully and calmly, his shoulder being less irritating and more effective at carrying the suitcase. The second time, he appeared in a landscape around sunset, treading water as his head poked above the water's surface. In the distance, on a beach next to a cliff, was a giant Statue of Liberty partially embedded in the sand, looking quite old and ruined. Deciding that this was not his kind of locale, Silver immediately dived back into the water, but not before taking a couple more breathes to deal with his tired lungs.

Thankfully, he had more luck with the next locale. There, the fox was swimming by a grassy shore that loomed only a foot or two above the water. He reached for the land, grasped the small ledge with his free hand, and pulled himself up onto an expansive plain. It stretched peacefully into the distance, pockmarked by flowers and tall sprigs of grass. There didn't appear to be anything living in the area, yet the grass was short and looked as though it had been freshly mowed a short time ago. Or, perhaps a long time ago - hovering in the sky, far above, were the words "The Wonderful, Wonderful World of Time Dilation."

Silver grumbled and stretched, setting down the suitcase on the ground. He opted to open the suitcase and change outfits, switching his present suit for a crinkled shirt, jeans, and a pair of sandals. As much as he wanted to give his old clothes a Viking-style funeral, he laid them out on the grass, so that they might dry in the bright sun shining overhead. It was after this, of course, that he realized that, in his carelessness, he had completely forgotten about the small laptop in his own suitcase. After kicking the earth for a few seconds in frustration, Silver facepalmed and picked up that laptop. Deciding that he wanted to join in the meta game as well, he turned on his computer and went straight for YWS. True to the character of the world he was trapped in, the timer on that computer shot forward rapidly, consuming about 10 minutes of time for every minute he spent in that world. Or, so it felt - he may have been exaggerating it. It didn't seem that different from what he normally experienced everywhere else, and how quickly his activities ate away at his time in those places. It didn't help that he was checking the time infrequently.

Unsure of what else to do, Silver decided to peruse @AstralHunter's New Year's Resolutions Storybook, until he spotted that coded message Hunter had provided. While initially stumped, a brief conversation with a friend of his (that friend seemed to be quite distressed about the collapse of the CCC because of hedgehogs and some other reasons that were incredibly strange) helped him realize it was a simple switch of letters, with each letter in the alphabet being swapped for the one behind it, and all the resulting words compressed together. Glaring at the title of the world, which seemed to laugh at him through its obnoxious Comic Sans font, Silver pulled out an old piece of paper from his suitcase. Thanks to his remembering that stupid alphabet song in his head, he found it relatively easy to convert the code to its original message.

Still, the code proved incredibly frustrating, thanks to the fact that Silver made several errors and had to remind himself of how to expand the words properly over and over again. Sometimes he could come up with words and phrases that sounded ridiculous, and had to determine how to rearrange them into their correct forms. At other times, he used his guessing abilities to determine some words and phrases without having to convert them letter-by-letter, and this proved convenient enough to make up for some of his time spent struggling with other parts of the code. Nevertheless, the sun shot across the sky as he made his way through the code, it and the moon taking turns soaring above him. They were apparently attached to the real world, instead of this one. Silver glowered at them, as well as the small patch of flowers nearby, all of which somebody had decided to paint smiles on.

Eventually, however, the herculean effort was completed. Silver read through his decoding of the coded message one last time, made a few small corrections, and sent it to Hunter by PM. Gleeful, he recognized that would give him the 5 credits he needed to bring him one step closer to his next badge, the rest of which he could gain through the January CC (as would writing a post for this tagbook's challenge, but Silver was not meta enough to know what would be writing while experiencing it). Which was an incredibly odd concern, given his present situation, but life was absurd, and he relished in it. Admittedly, he found it hard to process that, after some indeterminate time of thinking (and hoping that Hunter would give him his credits, while imagining strangling the space wolf if he were to reject the message on grounds of a few slight errors), he quickly received a PM from Hunter accepting the decoded message, and an interdimensional pigeon appeared in the air in front of Silver.

@Poopsie cooed and stuck his tongue out, gesturing to the card and message attached to his leg. Silver easily untied the poor knot and freed the pigeon, who flew off with one last ":P", dissipating into some other dimension in but a few seconds. The fox looked at the card and message he'd snagged from the pigeon, staring at them with a confused expression. The card was a Monopoly get-out-of-jail-free card, and the message it was attached to by a piece of string clearly had handwriting. Unfortunately, the handwriting was, at best, not nearly as well-composed as Silver's; at worst, it was completely illegible. Silver had to look through the Storybook's posts in order to find out what Hunter was trying to say.

He sighed, shoulders sagging. It was irritating enough that Hunter had accounted for the possibility of his own message being illegible - although completely unsurprising, given Hunter's methodical nature and apparent bad handwriting. What was worse was the fact that Hunter was recommending, in particular, that Silver head to the Storybook Tower. The fox honestly had no other place he could think of going, but the absolute last thing he wanted to do was get caught up in some ridiculous plotline or fight or something like that. Still, he was tired from the effort of decoding the message, as well as the apparent insomnia from having stayed up for what may have been a couple of days. Apparently, the rules of this world were so convoluted that everything but the world itself was attached to the rules of reality. His brain an unclear jumble of thoughts, his sensations unsteady, and combined with the fact that he was bound to run into somebody involved in the storyline or be pulled back into it, all contributed to his decision. He turned off the computer, placed in the suitcase, locked the latter, held the suitcase in his undamaged hand, stretched out the hand with the message and card, and willed himself to head straight for the Storybook Tower.

A few seconds later, Silver wished he'd thought this through.

He was now in the middle of the expansive central room, and it was currently in the midst of chaos. Storybook victims recruits were panicking as they flipped over tables to use as barricades, grabbed chairs and barrels and shields, and tried to prop that and whatever else was available against the massive oak doors. The doors shook and quivered, flames and smoke spewing from open holes, as some kind of battle took place outside. Most everyone was panicked, and there was some screaming as users tried to figure out how they were going to survive. @Deskro was currently crawling his way through a small window, and was pushed out by @StupidSoup, who joined him in a quick departure, their shields in tow. @Nike, who was sitting on a barrel and typing something, looked up at Silver briefly and waved at him with a blank expression. Thankfully, in the chaos, she was the only one who noticed him. The last thing he wanted to be was the center of attention.

He whipped out his suitcase and laptop, and went through the rest of Hunter's post. Silver grumbled - he'd apparently forgotten about Rydia's discussing the threat of dragon camping down by the SB forums last week. Since now was a great time to remember that discussion and what it entailed, he quickly returned his laptop into the suitcase, and ran towards the sloping stone staircase that extended upwards, the shields of various SBers lining its walls. Silver would have to climb to what was almost the roof of the place, as these shields were arranged by credit count. As long as he didn't attract any notice, of course, he could snatch his shield, jump out of the building, and make his escape. There was no way he was going to be persuaded to fight a dragon--

"Hey!" somebody called while Silver made his way up the first few steps. "It's one of the moderators! We're saved!"

There was a general cheer and sigh of relief from the crowd assembled below. The fox had to stop while @reikann snatched their own shield and leaped from the stairs, riding the shield on a taunt line of rope randomly suspended between the railing and a post on the ground. Now that he couldn't make up the excuse that he was too distracted by an urgency to run up the stairs towards his shield, he smiled sheepishly at the crowd. "Sure!" he called out, proceeding up the staircase two steps at a time, "Just follow my lead, guys, and we'll be perfectly fine!"

Fortunately, he was drowned out by @Sacredlege standing proudly in the middle of the crowd and promising to have some kind of plan in working order. The fox wasn't quite sure what they were saying, as he was somewhat distant and the sound of his rapid breathing and heartrate drowned out everything else. However, whatever had been said, it worked. The crowd surrounded the person, happy to have found someone (and, in the midst of all these people running about it, it was hard for anyone to notice who had originally spoken, and who they were pointing to, so Sacredlege had answered that for them). Sacred winked at Silver as the latter continued frantically up the staircase, dodging fire breath attacks and peeking out to the see impression of a massive dragon chasing after a small army of soldiers circling the tower. Quaint.

A few people were in the way of Silver and his destination. Fortunately, @Robusto, wrapped in complex plot armor, stepped out of the way. @Carina was already escaping through a window and rope tied to the railing, and Silver ducked under that rope before proceeding. @Falconer was grabbing her shield when he ran by, but wasn't able to look in time before having to duck against the wall as flames shot through the window she was standing next to.

In a short amount of time, the fox reached his destination, and yanked his Graduate Shield from off of the wall, tearing out the nail in the process. It flew outwards and was caught by the interdimensional pigeon @Poopsie while he was jumping between dimensions. Too surprised by this brief and incredibly weird moment, Silver found himself lugging an incredibly heavy shield, his adrenaline stifled as the reality and ridiculous of his situation began to sink in. Sweating and exhausted from all that running (okay, not too much, but he tended to get weary and out of breath easily), and momentarily forgetting to strap his shield onto his shoulder, Silver tripped over the aforementioned object as he attempted to lug it downstairs.

Before he knew what was happening, he was tumbling out a window. The wind howled ferociously around him as he saw that he was diving straight towards the dragon's head. "I hate you all!" he shouted as clarity returned to him. His voice was cut up by the wind, but it was possible somebody in the area could've heard it, as he shouted it as loudly as he could. Besides, it was relieving to say. Grabbing the shield from where it was falling beside him, he stepped onto it and crouched, gritting his teeth together. The unaware monster had only a second to look up, after attempting to torch the small squad in front of him, and then Silver struck it on the head with his shield. Jolted by the hard impact, the fox was dazed as he rode down the glistening back of the dragon, blinded by the way the dragon's scales gleamed in the sun. Equally dazed, the creature swished its tail, causing Silver to strike the ground ungracefully, partly taking the blow on his bruised shoulder. It was definitely broken now. Regardless, he and his shield took a tumble, and collapsed a short distance from a water fountain along the edge of the circular area surrounding the tower.

Silver, black spots dancing in front of his eyes, and overwhelmed with pain, passed out.

Pride regained?