The Awakened Salad

From now on whenever I reread the book, I’m imagining the portrait as this

What do you think so far?

Probably forever . Unless the thread gets locked or the site shuts down.

They began chanting as they approached Truthless. “Ba-na-na. Ba-na-na.”

A hand. The girl looked down at it, then back to Emi. Her face seemed earnest. Keen, warm eyes with a reassuring smile. Could she trust her? She looked back to the hand. It almost seemed to glow in the light. What if Emi was lying? She had no way to prove it either way. Yet, what choice did she have? If she denied Emi’s help, she would simply be alone again, or end up dead. Properly dead, that is. Her own arms were still wrapped around her body. Emi stood before her in the light, standing atop the pile of rubble. She looked... friendly. The girl lifted one hand, fingers outstretched and trembling. It passed into the light as she reached towards the other girl. It hovered in the air for a second, quivering, before she placed it over Emi’s offered hand, clasping it gently. She looked up again, and smiled back. @Emi

The girl huddled in the corner next to a pile of rubble. Here was safe, where the light couldn’t reach. Footsteps grew louder, and soon the other girl entered the ruins. The girl blinked, the words coming in too quickly. They rushed past her like the wind, slipping through her fingers no matter how hard she tried to catch them. “Not dead,” she muttered, echoing the first thing the other girl — no, Emi — had said. “I... think I have memories. That means you’re right. When I woke up, I had this strange feeling that something had happened.” She stood up slowly, wrapping her arms around herself. Her feet were covered with little cuts from climbing over the rubble, and dirt clung to her legs. She fought to raise her gaze to meet Emi’s. “You’d really help me?” @Emi

“But I... I woke up here. I wasn’t anywhere else before here.” She shook her head. “I suppose I’m not like you after all.” That second admission hurt, but not nearly as much as the first. It had been nice, to be distracted for a time. To forget the current situation by playing pretend. But reality has a way of weaving its tendrils into all things, making cracks in the dreams we so carefully construct. “I just woke up here.” The girl’s eyes took on a frenzied motion. They shifted from side to side, unable to focus. “I must be a newborn. This is how people enter the world, yes? You’re here to take me to the others. Wait, no. That sounds like an afterlife.” She gripped the shoulders of the other girl. “Am I dead then? Is that why I’m here? Why I can think and feel and speak but I don’t know who I am? Why do I know how to speak to you, but I don’t know my own name? How do I—” She cut off abruptly, and her eyes refocused on the other girl’s face. As she did so, she thought she heard a far-off voice. Her fingers uncurled from their position and she took a few steps back. She stood there for a moment, like a skittish animal deciding whether or not to flee. Then she ran back toward the building.

“A spirit...” the girl frowned. “I don’t believe I have one.” She began searching around in the grass, pushing aside tall reeds and peering through the gaps. Finding nothing, she continued to search, wandering behind the other girl as if she could be hiding something behind her back. “Where is your spirit? May I see it?” @Emi

“You... want to help me?” The girl looked down at her hands. “I don’t know who I am...” She winced as another onset of nausea came, but it passed. “You said... you’re a Knights Radiant? Could I be like you, then?” @Emi

The girl did not move. “Knights... what?” A sudden bout of nausea gripped her, and she grabbed her head as the world started spinning, spinning. It was going too fast, and she was going too slow, and there were faces, all spinning around and watching, and they were real, they were real, they were real. She was sitting in the dirt, knees against her chin. Her hands were tangled in her hair, and her arms shook. Eventually, her breaths slowed, and she loosened her grip. She allowed her hands to fall to her sides. She stood up and looked past the other girl, toward the ruined building. “Why did you come?” @Emi

The Ghostbakers.

The ground had stopped shaking. The girl looked up to see another girl standing in front of her. “Wh...” her voice cut off. She coughed, then tried again. “Who... am I?” The words felt strange on her tongue. She looked at the other girl, eyes wide, her gaze inquisitive. “Who are you?”

Wind rushing through an empty building. This world is a cold place. Droplets of water, slow and steady. It’ll kill you and send you right back here. Tattered curtains dancing in the breeze. You don’t really want to go back there, do you? A hand reaches out. My sweet child... A crooked grin. WHY DON’T YOU STAY HERE WITH ME? *** A girl awoke, bolting upright in a bed. Her breathing came in rapid beats, sweat beading on her forehead. Her hands gripped the pale sheets with white knuckles. Plastic tubes ran from her arms to a black machine sitting beside her bed. Vines crawled over it, creeping over the buttons and display. A breeze touched her cheeks, and she turned. She was inside a building, if it could be called that. Dappled light from holes in the roof shone onto patches of tall grass dotted with wildflowers. One of the walls was missing, and the roof had caved in on that side. More vines snaked up the walls and around the wooden roof beams. Where... where was this? She couldn’t shake the sensation that something had happened. She tried to recall... something, anything, but all she knew was that she was sitting in a bed in the carcass of a decaying building. She ran her fingers along one of the plastic tubes taped to her arms. She tugged at it until it came free. Nothing happened. Emboldened, she pulled out another one. No effect. Whatever the purpose of these tubes was, they had long fulfilled it. After she had finished, with a row of scars on both arms, she surveyed the room again. Hers was the only bed. A sign on the far wall with faded letters read: Ho...ital. Grass brushed her bare feet as she lowered herself from the bed. White wildflowers had grown around its base, intertwining with the metal bars. The girl picked one and tucked it behind her ear. She picked a few more and placed them in a pocket on her white shift. The grass came up to her knees as she walked towards the caved-in roof. The sun hit her face as she exited the building. Surrounding it was a field of grass and wildflowers as far as she could see. The building stood alone, slowly being reclaimed by nature. Something about it was familiar, and evoked a strange melancholy within her. The ground started to shake. She held her head and sunk to the grass as it intensified. @anyone who want to start an interaction/teleport my character to a place where other characters are. I have no idea where she is, so feel free to make something up.

Done! I improvised a little and danced on a bed instead because I have a thing against sitting/standing on tables (and I also have horrid balance so I didn’t want to fall off), and flailed my arms and legs around in an approximation of dancing

Salad watched in horror as the hot fudge started to envelop Truthless.

I’d like a dare!

This^^^^^^^ There’s no in between for me when it comes to repertoire. I love the intensity of fast paced pieces and the fact that I generally get to be really aggressive and just bash the keys (without breaking the piano, I promise), but I also love the beauty of the slower, more elegant pieces where I get to be really expressive. I usually have periods where I’ll be really into one side or the other. Right now I’m in aggressiveland. Pieces themes around nature are also my go-to. I also love playing songs from various soundtracks. Zelda, Xenoblade and Studio Ghibli all sound great on piano.

Salad gazed around at the deserted thread. Although insignificant compared to TLT or TLPW, fun and randomness used to make its home here. Now only passing travellers would notice its presence.