Say, pal, you don't look so good. You better find something to eat before night comes! (OTA)

[takethatnature]

Who: Wilson P. Higgsbury, Wilson's memory canonmates including a fifty-foot-tall ornery deer cyclops, and you
What: Memory share. Optional boss fight in the first one, mandatory boss fight in the second one.
When: March here, spring and winter respectively there
Where: The Promenade and memories of The Constant
Warnings: Animal death, people death, general peril and violence, a dash of body horror

1 - See the Beautiful Fauna of the Constant (Soundtrack: Spring Cleaning)

There's a hole in the wall next to the Tommy Bahama. Stepping through it - or touching it at all, or standing near it when someone else's hand brushes against it - transports you to somewhere temperate and humid and green. There's just a hint of salt on the air; you're on an island, not a ship. You're in a meadow that gives way to a wet patchwork of ponds, at the foot of a rocky hill. Real if somewhat weird-looking deciduous trees with white birch-like bark and shrubs bearing red berries dot the landscape. An antlered head is just visible looming over the top of the hill.

There's Wilson over there, talking to what appears to be a child with black fur and a giant spider for a head. An orange fuzzy creature with four legs and horns and a mouth that goes most of the way around its body is panting like a dog as it rests at the duo's feet. A light rain begins to fall.

2 - See the Beautiful Fauna of the Constant (Soundtrack: The EFS of Winter)

There's a hole in the wall next to Scoops. Stepping through it transports you to somewhere cold, much colder than the slight chill drifting from the ice cream counter. Well below freezing. It's nighttime, and there's a fire burning in a stone-lined pit, its warm flickering light illuminating a number of strange structures and machines (one appears to be hovering) dusted with snow.

That's about as much as you can take in before a young woman with improbable upwardly-curling dark pigtails grabs you by the arm and hustles you out into the darkness beyond, a lift-arm lighter clutched in her other hand. "Get out of the base, you lunkhead! I'm not rebuilding Wickerbottom's whole pottery studio because you wouldn't move your butt!"

There's a sound like something huge taking a breath. The ground shakes just a little. The pigtailed stranger attempts to stuff a warm rock into your pocket. "Here, take the stupid thermal stone! I've got like three of 'em, just go!"

You hear the breathing sound again. Not far away, there's an exclamation in a squawky tenor voice with an American accent: "That sounded big!"

It does sound big. The tremors are getting stronger.

3 - Wildcard (Soundtrack: Shipwrecked Title Theme)

Is there a particular corner of the Constant you'd like to visit? Wilson's probably been there. Ask me about it in the Discord or on Plurk at cameoappearance.

Comments

1

[actuallyawolf]

Oh, this. This is like some tiny piece of heaven, as far as she's concerned. After the sterility of the ship, here is something real, or at least real enough to be living, thriving, full of animals.

And yet it's definitely not home.

Ylva wanders over, hands clasped behind her back to avoid touching everything. She hasn't met Wilson -- though, doubtlessly, occasionally smelled his traces on the ship -- and this seems as good a time as any, memory or not.

"Hi."

[takethatnature]

Wilson looks at her with no recognition in his eyes whatsoever. "Greetings! I don't think we've met."

"Hi!" says the spider-child. "We're Webber!"

They've met most of the people stranded in the Constant at this point, but new faces aren't an unusual occurrence.

[actuallyawolf]

"I'm Ylva. Nice to meet you."

She rocks on her heels a little, looking with open curiosity at the fuzzy orange monster. It seems friendly enough, and she's really not one to judge by appearances, but she also isn't really blinking at "spider child."

"I, um, just got here, I think."

[takethatnature]

The thing poking out of Wilson's backpack blinks its eye and looks at Ylva, while Chester continues to chill on the ground.

"Oh, are you from the pig city? That's where Ms. Wheeler and Wormwood came from!" says Webber. "Ms. Wheeler told us she had this huge bird that carried her stuff instead of Chester. Mr. Higgsbury's been there too!"

He stretches out his arms, and the spider legs coming from his head, at huge bird. Wilson grimaces a little while Webber isn't looking. "I don't really want to think about Ro Bin. Chester's a major improvement. Uh, yes, I'm Wilson Higgsbury, nice to meet you."

2.

[astrogator]

Ari didn't mean to step through the hole. She feels the chill instantly, and even though she's wearing her heavy wool coat - how did she come to be wearing that? - she still shivers. It's only her disorientation that stops her from protesting immediately as the other woman pulls her further into the darkness.

It's well below freezing. Ari Tayrey has already almost died of hypothermia once since ending up on this ridiculous ship, and she doesn't want to make that mistake again. 'I'm not going anywhere,' she says, in a low but firm voice. 'I'll die out there.' She's not moving any further, even if that stone, whatever it's made of, seems to be throwing off heat. How does that work?

She hasn't much time to ponder this, however, because there's a tremor, a sound like a terrible heaving breath. Kipterya? No, they couldn't grow that big, no matter what the planet.

Her eyes haven't yet adjusted to see out into the darkness, and so she has to ask: 'What is it?'

[actuallyawolf]

"I'm not from the... pig city," Ylva says, wondering what, if anything, would seem reasonable. She's pretty good at rolling with weird things. She is not good at lying. "I'm from the, um, forest."

Which is true, if vague.

"... A robin??"

[takethatnature]

"So's he!" says Webber. He doesn't mean Wilson.

"It looks like a robin, if a robin had the body mass of the three of us put together and made noises that caused serious concern for its respiratory health. But I found it in the nest of a giant flamingo-thing, so I'm not sure if it's the juvenile form or if the big bird just stole it from another big bird."

1

[busball]

This place is weird, but like...what else is new? He's just gonna accept this as his new reality. It's really only on like...a limited basis anyway. They walk a little closer, trying to figure out whether there's anything they need to watch out for in the mean time and taking off their shoes for good measure.

If they need to levitate fast, this is the best way.

"So uh...hi?" He looks at Wilson, the spider creature, and then the other little orange guy. "How's it going?"

[actuallyawolf]

"Or that other big bird laid an egg in the flamingo's nest and left," Ylva supplies, helpfully. "Some birds do that, you know."

Ylva, self-taught ecologist, but she is not wrong.

"Who knows, though. I haven't heard of a bird that looks like that. The breathing noises is probably a bad thing."

[takethatnature]

There's a lot of wet grass but nothing obviously dangerous to step on. All the sharp rocks are either already in somebody's pocket or supply chest, or buried underground by a moleworm. A frog is sitting on the rim of one of the ponds.

"Hi!" says the spider creature. Wilson waves. Chester doesn't react to them in any particular way.

Wilson squints at Klaus. "Have we met?"

[busball]

They have not met. But this feels like a weird trip. They haven't taken any drugs recently, though, so it can't be that. Unless this memory has like...drugs in the air?

"No. Uh. We haven't." A shrug. "It's a weird time to run into new faces, but I'm Klaus. So now, technically speaking, we're on the way to meeting."

[takethatnature]

"Ughhh, come onnnnnn! What if I make you a nice big fire?" The pigtailed woman attempts to shove Ari forward, which isn't working very well since while she's taller she's not heavier or stronger. "It's Deerclops! He's gonna smash up all our stuff!"

"Is someone still over there?!" Wilson yells, the green-white light of the lantern he's holding visible in the distance. There's the sound of another monstrous exhale, and the ground shakes again.

[takethatnature]

"I'm Wilson." Luckily the new guy is as comfortable with informal introductions as everyone else in the Constant. It's easier than worrying about the firmness of his handshake or whatever. "It's not that weird. New people show up every once in a while."

"We're Webber! This is Chester," the spider creature says, pointing at the orange guy.

[takethatnature]

"That's true, it could be a brood parasite," Wilson says thoughtfully, pulled against his will into thinking about Ro Bin again. "I didn't see any other birds bigger than a tallbird in the area, but it could be migratory. Maybe it had a bad reaction to the dust and particulates in my house, but it didn't seem to do any better outside..."

"There's a really big bird up there!" Webber says to Ylva, pointing up the hill.

"That's a moose goose."

"She keeps fighting our friends," Webber says, headlegs drooping sadly.

[busball]

Klaus puts that in their brain. "Nice to meet you all." But now what? "Oh. I didn't realize this was an occasional, new person show up spot."

They look around. "Are you guys doing anything in particular or is this like...a chill time without any set plans? I've never been before, so I'm admittedly a little lost."

[astrogator]

Ari has no idea who or what this Deerclops is, but she has to think quickly. 'He'll smash your stuff if he sees me? Look, I don't want to trespass. Believe me. I just haven't got a chance out in that cold on my own.'

It's ridiculous, she thinks. It's like one of those thought experiments about property rights, except it's actually happening to her.

She relents. 'If you'll help me with a fire, I'll stay clear,' she says, walking further out into the dark.

[takethatnature]

"It's not just you, he'll smash everything if he sees anyone!"

As soon as Ari agrees to the fire, the woman goes from aggravated to delighted, her face lighting up in a grin. It's probably not hard to tell that people don't often go along with it when she suggests starting a fire. "Yes! I knew you'd see things my way!"

She hurries after Ari and then past her, visible by the bobbing flame of her lighter. It may be too late. A furious bellow echoes just behind the two of them, and as the campfire roars to life, it illuminates a pair of antlers and a single enormous eye looming out of the trees.

1.

[theweakhavepurpose]

After leaping through tons of these, and discovering there apparently is not a world full of catgirls anywhere, he's pretty stoked when he hops in and there's a forest! Sure it's a weird.. sort of spooky forest with angled trees and odd bushes, but it's still a forest.

"Awesome!" He's never met Wilson so he's just going to ignore them up in the other direction and head that-a-way. He'll enjoy the scenery until he gets attacked by a springtime Beefalo and then come running back past them with an angry ungulate hot on his heels.

[actuallyawolf]

She looks up at the moose goose. For a moment she's puzzled -- not baffled, mind you, because she has seen such things as owlbears and winged snakes and dogs that are made of plant and not meat. But this is definitely something new.

"Is it dangerous?" Ylva asked, pensive. "Are you planning to fight it?"

[takethatnature]

The moose goose looms majestically out of the mist, behind the rise of the hill. It's hard to see the whole thing from down here.

"Mostly just if you're close to its nest, so it depends on whether it decided to lay eggs on your lawn," Wilson says, not that he's had an actual lawn since he left Swinesbury. "Webber, is there any chance you could move your friends away from her instead?"

"The den's too little to have any eggs in it and every time we go over to stick more silk on she honks at us!" Webber says, headlegs still drooping. "It's really scary!"

Wilson pinches the bridge of his nose. "Right. What if we all go with you? Uh, Ylva, you don't have any previous engagements, do you?"

[actuallyawolf]

"I can help, sure."

Should be a challenge. Oh, it's been months since she's had a good fight, and she grins a little in anticipation. Maybe the thing will move off on its own in the face of some opposition; maybe, on the other hand, she'll get to find out whether it tastes more like poultry or venison.

"Do you have a plan?"

[takethatnature]

Pratt's meandering takes him away from the frog ponds, down a cobbled road, through a bunch of beehives (there's a really big beehive a bit further away from the road, at least twice his own height), and, finally, into a patch of prairie with big shaggy yak-like creatures milling around looking irritable when they're not rearing up on their hind legs and bellowing. A red bird attempts to land in the grass near a beefalo's head and gets immediately flattened.

Their unfriendly attitude hasn't stopped the human standing in the middle of the herd, though! A red-haired, bearded man wearing a furry hat with two beefalo horns attached to it. He straightens up, looks around for something, and then heads in Pratt's direction and past him to inspect some dirt on the ground.

As he passes Pratt, he says in a thick Canadian accent, "Hey, bud! Haven't seen you around, eh? Sorry, can't stop to chat, I'm on the trail of a beastie."

[takethatnature]

Wilson starts walking toward the top of the hill. "We can probably just distract her until Webber's finished, but I wouldn't mind fighting her. We could use the feathers."

"She'll alternate between trying to knock your weapon out of your hand with a really loud honk, and trying to hit you with her antlers. Usually she'll favor her antlers over her wings. Moose-geese don't move very fast, so it's fairly easy to hit her and run out of range before she can hit you. Did you bring any extra armor? Just in case."

Webber doesn't contribute any additional fighting tips, but he does put on a metal Viking helmet when Wilson says that. It's too big for his head and covers most of his eyes.

[actuallyawolf]

"Oh, I don't need armour," Ylva says casually. She stakes a step back, to give herself some room, and shifts into into the shape of an allosaurus. She shakes herself, feathers fluffing, lifts a foot to scratch the underside of her chin, and tilts her head, ready and expectant.

Her tail wags.

[takethatnature]

Wilson stares. Is that a feathered theropod?? Like from the fossils???

"Whoa! You're as big as the moose goose!" Webber exclaims. It's a reasonable comparison.

Scaling the hill goes much faster at allosaurus size; there's one more frog pond, a cluster of bushes, and some evergreen trees about three-quarters of the way up, and right in the middle of this is a five-meter-tall egg crackling with electricity and an even bigger Canadian goose with the head of a moose, complete with antlers. Not far away is a big wad of spider silk with a somewhat less big wad of spider silk on top of it, the whole thing glued to the ground with more spider silk, which spreads out around the bottom of the den. The moose goose glares suspiciously at Ylva as Wilson and Webber scramble up after her.

"Be careful of the webbing, it'll slow you down if you step on it!" Wilson shouts.

"Please don't stomp on our friends!" Webber adds.