"EQ game Quest- Mind Delve into Griff"
By klimino (https://pastebin.com/u/klimino)

URL: https://pastebin.com/TbUJbA4Z
Created on: Friday 4th of August 2017 02:24:56 PM CDT
Retrieved on: Sunday 25 of October 2020 03:44:42 AM UTC


Ruby is relaxing in the library. She enjoys some coffee by herself for a while. There seems to be quite the commotion going on outside around today so she isn't terribly busy at the library. Hopefully people dont think they are closed or anything..
And Eve is there too! She took the Dungeon Dimensions to the embassy that morning.
Is aware that the book is safely locked away for now, wondering when she'll have to come get it ready again

Griff stumbled along, his body tired, weak. his new house gust had managed to help him sleep a bit more, but still his mind refused to accept what was going on, and sleep depervation was starting to dig its claws in. he felt his body twitch again, his eyes not closing in sync, but he marched forward none-the-less. His options were limited, but he thoguht he had the answer....he only hoped that the only unicorn that might be able to help wasnt gonna throw him out on sight. sighing, his things tucked under his arm, he stumbled forward, pushing into the library, trying his best to stay stable, though this was difficult. he looked like hell, because he had been going through it, his face showing clearly how little sleep he had gotten. looking forward, he took a deep breath and walked forward, basically stumbling onto the counter as he leaned on it for support. looking up, he blinked slowly, one eye lagging behind the other. "er....Ruby...right?"
Ruby is about to get revenge on Eve from what happened the night before, but is surprised by someone stumbing into the library instead. She leans back in her seat, subtly hoping its not an actual zombie shambling towards the front desk "I... uhhhh yea? Hello Griff are you alright? You don't look so hot"

Griff sighs, heavy and long, running a claw down his face. "No...no ahm not alright....ahn thats why ahm ere....yer...yer good wit magic, right? ah was told so, plus regardless, ahm not....not sure ah could trust nother unicorn....not fer what ahm gonna ask of ya...." he slowly turned, reachign into his pocket and, stumbling, dropped a coin as he tried to pull some out. Cursing, he quickly, sorta, stumbled to the ground to pick it up, before he clambered back up and to the counter, and dropped five platinum on the counter. he stared at her, a dazed, worried look in his eyes. "look, ah....heard tha library had issues ah night o two ago, plus fer what ahm gon ask, wouldnt feel right if ah made ya do it fer nothin so....ere....if tis not enough ah can git more later....."

Ruby looks a bit uncomfortable as the shiny bits fall on the counter, setting them to the side and leans forward towards the gryphon "hey hey whats wrong my dude? You look like an absolute mess right now. What do you need me to do?"

Eve steps out from behind one of the bookshelves. "Hi Griff~!" She trots over to him, smiling. She looks between him, the money, and Ruby. "What's going on?"
Griff took another deep breath, and took a rolled up, fresh scroll from under his arm. rolling it out on the counter, the unicorn would be able to tell it was a spell, and no simple one either. "Right....this gon take ah moment tah...tah explain...." he smiled, chuckling lightly, "ahn ahm not sure yer gonna believe meh....." he nodded to Eve as she aproached, then looked down at the scroll. "....ah few days after ah arrived ere ah.....started havin ah reccuring nightmare. every night, always tha same.....got so common,see, that ah....started...think tha words, lucid dreamin? ah could stop tha nightmare, but ah knew it was happenin, ahn could thus react as ah pleased...." he looked up, a deep frown on his face. "But bout ah week ago, things started tah...change, first jus...small things, then bigger.....ahm not sure how, or why, but...ah knew soemthin was wrong,ahn....." he shook his head. "look, jus.....ah know how this sounds....but somethin, some creatures in mah head now, messin wit mah dream, chaning it, swirlin thigs round....ah know, ah seen it lurkin in tha corners. not supposed tah ah think but...maybe that lucid nonsense made meh see it?" he shivered. "regardless....whatever its doin, mah...mind, it cant accept what its doin, nor tha dreams its givin meh....ah keep wakin up, unable tah git any actual sleep....fer nearly ah week now." he twitched a bit at that, and looked back at the scroll. "ah.....want you tah learn this spell, only one ahve found ah think will help. it....allows ya tah bring yerself ahn ah few others well...." he took a deep breath. "tah enter inta my dream ahn subconsious, ahn stop whatever things up in there messin wit me." he took a moment to let her take it in, to gauge how she was taking it.


Ruby leans down and unrolls the scroll, holding it open with small stones as she loosk at him. She almost tunes out of the converstaion as she eyes the words and glyphs on the scroll with a smile. "ehhh so you want me to cast this spell on you then? Dreamhopping huh? Hey! Like princess Luna.... yes I can do this for sure.... just a little practice maybe... hmm hmm"
She blinks, and looks up towards Griff "so you want to pay me to learn this spell and then hop into your mind to try and fix the nightmares?"
Griff nodded a bit. "not alone though. got ah few...few ah trust tah bring along, once ya learned it." he rubbed at his eyes a bit. "Not sure whats messin wit meh, but its stubborn, ahn is only startin tah push harder wit tha lack o sleep, like it thinks it can force mah mind tah accept whatever its tryin tah do....." He shuddered again. "ahm not sure how much longer ah can last like this. not more then ah nother day or two, tah give ya time tah learn that......" he sighed heavily. 

"Oof, I'm sorry Griff. You're come to the right place, there's no greater duo of magicians in town than Ruby and Eve!" She says, trying to lift the griffon's spirits. 

Ruby nods warmly along with Eve's statement before looking down to the spellpage "This is pretty interesting. I heard about a sort of activated gem that has an effect similar to this, but being able to perform it without the gem is special. With Eve here helping me on it, I'm sure we can have it down by... tomorrow night or so?" 


Griff was dazed for a moment, but blinked, shaking himself hard enough to knock old feathers from his wings, and looked back up.
“wha? er...y-yeah.....yeah...tommorow night er somethin....”

He felt his head spinning, and gave himself a hard slap to wake himself up a bit. “if....yer ok wit tha payment then ah....ah gotta go...make sure tha others be ready then.....”

Ruby casts a worried glance towards Eve, and then back to Griff "do you need like a sleepin' spell for tonight dude? You look really rough" 

Griff shook his head, waving a claw weakly. “ahm terrified o what would happen if ah tried one. Would it work? Would it let this thing do what it wants easier? Or would it git rejected ahn make things worse?” he clenched his shoulder, breathing a bit shallow.

“no...ah..ah can last nother night....ahm gonna have tah....”

Ruby sighs and deflates a little bit "alright we'll do our best to have the spell ready by then!" 

Eve shrugs at Ruby and looks back to Griff. She puts a reassuring hoof on his shoulder. "We'll help you out as best we can, I promise." 

“thanks....” Griff said, trying to give them the best smile he could. “ah gotta go, got some folks tah talk to, then ah gotta git home tah make sure mah house guest hasn't eaten everythin....” 

With one last nod he stumbles back out, none better balanced then when he came in, maybe even worse.



<><><><><>

It was a cloudy, drizzling afternoon, the sun already set awhile ago, the line between the end and start of a day coming closer, as Griff stumbled his way towards the library. he had gone around the best his tired mind could to rquest assistance from those he could for this, knowing it was far from an easy task to ask of others, but one he had started to realize his very life depended on, though he tried his best downplay it best he could, he visually looked like hell had slapped him around. Slowly pushing the library doors open, he would be the first to enter, being early, hoping to help Ruby, though besides setting space aside for a meditation circle, it really was all in the spell, with little one could do outside to help besdies things to help relax or concentration. with that he stumbled his way in, yawning widely, as to took the library in, and sat down to wait to see who would come and help. he hoped he had garnered enough freindship for someoen to... 


Ruby is waiting inside the library already, offering Griff a polite wave as he steps inside. She walks over to give him a bit of help moving around "heeey big guy, come on in come in... I've got a place set up for us all to work with, so come and relax for a bit" 



Stray Shot made his way from his quarters in the Embassy over towards the library. It was a short walk, but a lot was on the stallion's mind as he wondered what it was that his griffon friend had been afflicted with. At first Stray thought that he wanted his help going out of the town to face something, but as the situation was hastily described to him, he couldn't gather much from it. 

Pushing the door open and making his way into the library, he looked around with tired blue eyes, the pegasus dressed in only his saddlebags and their contents. He approaches the front desk, though as the birb catches his eye where he went to sit, Stray smiles. "Hey bud. Holdin' together?" He asks softly, before waving to Ruby when she approached. "Hey Rubes. What exactly's goin' on here?" 


Griff thanks Ruby with a mumble, not in a condition or mood to argue with help. “thanks....” he offers with a weak chuckle, as he took a seat closer to the cleared area. 

As Stray enters,he gives a polite nod, bur frowns and shakes his head. “ahm doin tha opposite o good.” he grumbled, taking a seat again.

Hearing Stray didnt have all the details, a feat he was not surprised, given has hastily he had described some aspects of this, he cleared his throat. 

“thanks fer comin Stray. As explained tah Ruby ah day o so ago.....well, see, ah havent gotten real sleep in nearly ah week now, as theres....some sorta....creature, in mah head, thats tryin tah change what ah dream bout ahn things, though what its end goal is, ah couldnt tell ya....”  he frowned a bit, scratching his head. “see.....ah usually dream tha same nightmare every night, tah tha points it taught meh tah lucid dream jus from learnin tah expect it perfectly.....now ahm dreamin.....bett'r things, but things ah know aint right, ahn it probably aint helpin that ah could see and notice this thing tryin tah stealthily make changes over time.”

He shrugged. “ahm all fer bett'r dreams, but this aint tha way ah want it, regardless my head wakes me up even if ah try tah resist, so its hardly an option, even if ah wanted tah wait ahn figure out what this things tryin tah do tah me....” griff blinked slowly, the dazed, tired look in his eyes perhaps doing more to explain why this was a bad situation then his words ever could.


Starry walks in the streets of Outer Hayven sleepy and bleeriy eyed as she hunts down a specific griffon because she had a bone to pick with him. Asking around with some of the locals that frequent around, mainly Daybreak and the newly named Sundown, Starry was soon able to track down the catbird to the library. Opening the door with a grumpy look on her face Starry walks in with small thuds of her hooves as she stomps inside before spotting Griff! "Griff! You no-good-silly-waka-na-take-on-sleep-depriving-fluff-headed-claw-poking-Jibooru!" Starry says in one breath before she takes a deep breath with blood shot eyes showing a very distinct lack of sleep. "Why you be like dis, eh? I just woke up and missed work cuz a you, why you be no good wid de sleep eh?" Starry asks as her eyes take on a silvery purple tint to them..." Vos autem stulti vigiliis Harpyia!" 




Stray frowned. He remembered talking about nightmares with the griffon long ago when Griff confronted Stray about the Zeeke incident. As he listened to his explanation, several possibilities popped up in Stray's mind, including Baku, among other forces that had messed with some of his friends' sleep. But this... sounded a bit different, perhaps. Stray furrows his brow, his ears folding back as he looks at Griff's tired face. "Well... How're we gonna do this? Chant or something?" He smirks a little, it appeared forced though, like he were just trying to add a little levity to the situation. As Starry bursts in, Stray's ears perk up and he jolts, looking to the door as the earth mare went right up to Griff and started that eye thing. "Uh... Hey Starry..." He smiles at his former flying fish instructor!


Ruby carefully sets out a few more candles, then looks towards Stray and gives him a warm smile "oh hey hey buddy long time no see, where have ya been?" but her smile was not to last... when she walks in. She looms towards Griff, then back to Starry, then back to Griff... 'its just a job... its just a job...' she repeats to herself slowly 


Griff jumped a bit as Starry busted in, but then smiled a bit, and waved a tired claw to her. “Ah, ahm sorry tah put ya through this Starry, er, all o ya. As said, this creature all up in mah heads makin changes my minds fightin back agaisnt, but fightin back means wakin up, and wakin up means no sleep....and ah not sure hoe much longer ah can go fer ah dont wake up again from this.....” he grimaces a bit at his own words, but he knew it was true....

Looking between Ruby, Stray, and Starry, he sighed. “Ah found ah spell, old, that should allow you folks tah...enter mah mind, ahn walk around it, in ahn attempt tah find this...thing, ahn drive it off. ah....the spell doesnt say much, sides ya folks hold hooves in ah circle round meh as Ruby will cast tha spell on me, after that it jus says ya will enter mah 'dreamscape' which will allow ya tah find 'entrances' tah my 'subconcious realms' tah look fer tha problem...”


Creaking slowly as if from the exorcist movie Starry glares over at Stray with squinted eyes as the bloodshot eyes need many blinks to help with how dry they are, for a long momnet Starry stares over at Stray as if not recognizing him before the purple tint fades to the normal silver luminosity before she better hears the explanation which slowly causes her to soften her expression before she reaches over and head pats the griff. "So we need to beat your brain into submission so you'll stop clawing everything in de hammock den? Sounds fun, I've got "Stress" to work out anyway." Starry says with a very predatory smile at Griff. 


"Mostly doin' deliveries 'n shit. What about you?" Stray returns his friend's warm smile, opening his mouth to say more until Ruby's gaze shot to Starry. Stray returns Starry's exorcist-like bloodshot stare, and smiles sheepishly back giving a little wave before she turns back to Griff. "Woahhh now, heh... I think his brain's already had plenty of damaging blows." 





Griff was far to tired to really catch anything Starry might be implying, but did chuckle at the 'beat his brain into submission' part. “Well, ah think more o like beat somethin outta mah brain....but honestly? At this point.....do what ya end up having tah do, tah end this.....” he sighed, looking down at the ground. “ah could try tah say some big thing on tha morals o some creature trying tah mess wit mah head, or how ah dont want mah privacy invaded like this but.....ah just want tah sleep. Nothing else at this point. Ah just want tah be able tah close mah eyes, ahn actually sleep” he shakes his head a bit, and looks up at Ruby. 

“eveythin ready?”


Ruby is pulled from her trepidation to look back at Griff. She gives him a slow nod and ushes him over towards the centermost cushion "mmhmm mmhmm, come on over here and lay down, rest your head and I can get started with the incantation"


Griff nods and obeys, laying down and looking up at the ceiling. He blinked, as slow as a turtle, one eyelid going faster then the other. Not a good sign for sure. “jus....start whenever...” 


Starry would move over and sit next to Griff before roughly pulling him down on a pillow to rest his head, "Just sleep, we'll figure it out." 


Stray moves and sits next to Starry, smiling down to Griff with a nod. "Yup, just relax. When you wake up, you'll be all better!" 

Ruby looks at Stray, then back to Griff, then up to Starry, then finally to the library door "Is.... anyone else going to come with? Are we all ready?" Lights her horn up, the red aura slowly fades to a milky white 


“Ah hope yer right...” he said, and gave them a warm smile.

As Ruby would cast the spell, everyone having take their positions and taken to holding hooves, her horn would light up in a soft, warm glow, a small, bright dot of light, before it would shoot out and drift onto Griffs forehead, before a line of white would shoot out and hit both Starry and Stray in the forehead.

A moment later, their heads would fill with a warm sensation ,then their vision would blur, before it felt like their brains were being twisted, and their vision went black.

And then, a few moments later, it would stop, and they would feel a lifting sensation. Next thing they know, their eyes would flutter open, and they would find themselves laying down in soft grass, softer then any blanket they had ever touched.

Getting up, they would find themselves in an odd place.

It...appeared to be the Town, but cleaner, brighter, like it had been set down in a meadow instead of a swamp. The air was cool despite the suns loving warmth above, calm, not another soul in sight. All the buildings were pristine, stone, fancy and perfect, the embassy replaced with a large stone building akin to the white house, and no walls surrounded the place, though looking far enough in any direction they would notice the world fades into a white abyss, mines some....doors, with bright neon signs about them, hanging idly on the edge of what must be the 'Dreamscape'.

But perhaps more importantly, they would find they were all three...not the same.

All three would find themselves to be human, in a sense for some, but not one based off their pony self, or their actual earth self. On what, they could only guess.

Ruby was A normal sized Germanic women dressed like a stereotypical librarian with long, red hair flowing freely, thick glasses upon a pretty face, with eyes like rubies behind the spectacles. a slender, long wand of white ash wood with a strap around her left wrist, spiraled like a unicorn horn.

Stray Shot was A decently built, but kinda malnourished anglo man, gruff, not fully shaven, dressed like a Vietnam era solider, including M16 and 1911, a fishnetted helmet holding bot a ace of spades and ace of hearts in it. His dark black hair ruff, short, sticking out of his helmet wildly, and eyes like coal.

Starry Step was A Tall, extremely well muscled amazonian of a women, dressed casually in red plaid like a lumberjack, save for a heart shaped indent into her chest that glows radioactive green, the light from it pulsating. Hair dark, curly, a contrast to her lighter brown skin, but her eyes however also glow green.

With that, they look around to see all three of them near eachother.


Ruby blinks slowly, rubbing the side of her head as they lay down in the soft grass. Pressing against the earth, she rolls to stand up, on her hands and knees... realizing quickly that she isn't an equine anymore! She quickly stands up to her feet with a soft blush, looking around slowly to take in the sunny scenery.

Rubbing at her eyes with a hand Starry pauses before she looks back at her hands once more, "Oh, dis must be a part of de dream, just like in dat castle..." Starry murmurs to herself before feeling around at the glowing indent on her chest, "Why am I a nightlight? Ah can I turn dis off? I feel like one of dose old X-men comics or someding..." Starry looks up to the others and blinks at the soldier in front of her and she tenses up eyeing those guns with some apprehension, "Friend or Foe?" Starry asks getting ready to either run for it or try to rush the soldier before he tries anything, the librarian hadn't even garnered her notice because of the guns. 


As the lifting sensation fades and Stray's eyes flutter open, feeling the soft grass under him. He blinks a few times and sits up, rubbing his eyes. Only to realize... He just balled up a pair of fists to do that. His eyes shoot wide open in surprise and he looks down at his body, seeing his legs. "H-human? Again...?" He staggers up to his feet and realizes that he was dressed in what looked like 1960s era army fatigues. Feeling the light weight of something long on his back, he peeks over his shoulder and sees the M16, then down at the 1911 on his hip in a drop leg holster... then up to the Amazonian woman that just approached. He straightens up and narrows his eyes as she speaks. "Starry? Is that you?... It's me, Stray!" 

Is looking away from the both of them, rubbing the top of her head with a frown. She pats her own body down and finds the strap on her wrist, pulling out the wand. She giggles softly "I think I'm in Eve's body..." she says with a smile. Hearing the commotion behind her, she turns to see Stray and Starry having a sort of stare-down "yo, calm it down now" 


The clenched fists slowly relax and Starry's tense expression softens as well as Stray identifies himself, "Stray? Oh, phew, you scared me!" Starry says as she puts her hands on her hips with a pout, "People wid guns usually meant bad times period, but if its you, it should be fine." Starry then takes notice of some buzzing behind her and looks back, "Oh Ruby? Is dat you as well? Or did you get Eve wrapped into dis?" 

Starry looks around with her glowyness and frowns some, "I dought we had to beat someding up here? Should we just start opening doors and looking around?" Starry asks as she starts to walk down the street in a random direction.


Ruby turns towards Starry and shrugs "well we are in Griff's dreamscape now. Kind of like hopping around dreams like Luna but... well not really the same. We're following the rules of his dreams..." she puts a finger to her lip and shakes her head, banishing a negative thought "We need to... play along for a while, until we find out whats causing him all this trouble" 


Stray couldn't help but snicker at Starry's comment about men with guns, considering that the country neighboring her home country had a Kalashnikov on it's flag. Turning to Ruby, he looks her up and down. "Huh... You look about how I'd expect." The charcoal-eyed man slowly turns 360 degrees, taking in the scene around them while his hands patted himself down. "I... think we should look for Griff. I guess?" He nods in agreement, narrowing his eyes and scanning the area around them as he approached the nearest building. He looked a bit tense, though, as if he were afraid of something jumping out and scaring them. 


"Sounds like a plan as any, hey I wonder if the Marejuice Galore place is still open here..." Starry asks as she heads for where she thinks the MJG would be at, Girff would show up there wouldnt he?

[d12+Perception folks!]
Stray, 9
Starry,6
Ruby,11


Starry doesn't find the MJG, but an outdoor bar simply labeled 'Alcohol and Sandwiches' where it should be. Inside, at the back, she notices a door with a bright, purple neon sign above it saying 'Depressions Realm'.

Stray would notice two doors himself, one at where the entrance to the large governmental building should be labeled 'Memory Banks' in white neon above it, and on floating at the edge of the Dreamscape labeled 'Duties Realm' in orange neon.


Ruby however, for just a moment, sees something dart off to the left, and sees a door labeled 'Stubborns Realm' in gray neon closing behind something, a soft 'click' echoing as it does.


"Oh, I bet dat if dere is someding keeping him awake, it be in here!" Starry says as she goes over to the door labeled Depressions, "I bet I can cheer him up!" Starry says as she opens up the door. 

Ruby blinks slowly and looks over towards the neon gray door "ehhh? Is something else in here with us? I could swear I just saw one of these doors move.... wah Starry don't go in there just yet!" 


As Starry opens the door though, she suddenly feels a bit of a sucking sensations, and gets pulled in, the door slamming shut behind her!

"What?" Starry asks at the door way still holding the door before she feels a suction on her and turns back to suddenly see colors and "FU-" SLAM 

Stray observes the two doors for a moment, reading the names. "Memory Banks and Duties Realm. Maybe we sh-..." As Starry goes off into the bar, Stray follows not wanting to split up that much just yet. "What the..." He stops mid-sprint, the heels of his boots digging into the ground as Starry got sucked in. "Starry?!" He frantically reaches his arm to open the door 


As Starry hits the hard, cold ground, she looks up, the room nearly pitch black, big...empty.

Around her she sees only a big, empty room, save for a few more doors labeled 'Stubborns Realm, Inner Fears, Paranoias Realm, and Grudges Realm.' on the walls, each with a sign saying so above them carved into the stone of the cold, damp walls.

Stray grunts as he hits the hard ground face down, groaning as he picked himself up and looked around for Starry. "Starry?! You alright?" He jumps over to her, offering a hand.

"waaaaaaAAAAAH!" THUD A pause..."Ouch." Starry slowly gets up and looks around before noting Inner Fears, "Well da-Oh Stray, hellow dere." Starry takes the offer for help and stands. "I dink we should go for de Inner Fears, I bet money dat it'll be in dere." 


Ruby reluctantly follows, not wanting to be left alone against whatever monster is stalking around in the dream realm. She pusehs the door open and follows them in to the dark room. She stumbles and looks about at the other doors "I think I saw something runnin' around back the other way in the stubborn-ness realm..."

As he helped Starry up, Stray turned his head and looked to see the signs, grimacing as he read 'Inner Fears'. "Hm... Alright. Let's go, but... be careful. There might be some nasty stuff in there..." Stray spproaches the Inner Fears entrance slowly, crouching a bit as he sloooowly opened the door.

"Huh? Stubborness?" Starry asks just as Stray opens the door...

follows them quickly towards the other doors "we can't be splitting up either so just... yall be careful alright?" she remarks, wondering a bit "wheres all the realms of good feelings...?"

looks back to Ruby and shrugs, wondering the same thing, just as he was pushing open the door... At least we're not split up... 


Upon pushing open the door to 'Inner Fears', they would again get sucked in and....

not be met with a pleasant image. It was the Town again, but this time as it actually was as a base but....burned down. The ground was covered in ash, the sky rained it, the buildings collapsed, burned down, and dead and burned bodies lay sprawled about, pony and griffon bodies, signs of battle clear, and signs of the town losing even clearer.....

off near the center of town where they were, they saw a cage and....a man inside of it. The man had brown hair pulled back into a pony tail, he was of average height, his age around thirty it seemed,his clothes old, ratty, just as he looked helpless, tired, leaning his head against the cage as he stared at the bodies around the cage....which somehow, disturbingly, they all could recognize a bit, as people they knew, and perhaps knew Griff knew.

They also spot a few more doors along the edge of the town where everything faded away like with the Dreamscape, but are not close enough to read them yet.


"Oh no..." Starry says as she looks around, "Quick we better get him down.." Starry says as she starts to make her way across the field of battle towards teh cage. 

Ruby follows quickly since Starry types faster than she can post :'3 and looks around, trying to spot the doors instead "I think he could escape the cage himself if he wanted to, maybe its not such a good idea... we need to find out whats causing this, rather than fix just one dream..." 


Stray tenses up as soon as he gets sucked in, blinking as the vision came into view. At the sight of the town and carnage, his eyes widened and his heart started beating hard in his chest. He just stood crouched for a few moments as he observed the man in the cage, noting his hopeless expression. Stray frowned as Starry took off across the field to go towards the cage. "Careful!" He cautions abruptly as he draws his 1911 and makes his way to the cage as fast as he could while still hunched over. 

"Well we have to start somewhere don't we?" Starry argues back as she treads through the dead trying to ignore the stench of burnt flesh and bowels loosened. 


As Starry and the others approach, the man looks up, surprised. “who are....no, that doesn't matter, you must leave, if ***They find you talking to me, it will only cause trouble!” he says and starts scooting to the other side of the cage from then, though he doesn't look afraid, simply certain of what he says.


"It don't matter, hang on!" Starry calls out as she walks out towards the cage, "If dey want a fight we'll give it to 'em!" 

walks over and looks around at the corpses and burned town. She leans forward and squints out towards the distance, trying to read the door labels from where they are "It may be apt to do as the man says, until we know more about whats going on" 

Stray stops and crouches in front of the man in the cage, to look eye-level at him. "We're getting you out of here." He says in a nervous tone. He stares at the pony-tailed an for a few moments before narrowing his eyes and leaning over to Ruby, whispering somethign in the librarians ear. "This isn't real, right? This is just a dream and there's no actual physical danger to us?" After, he looks behind them all, scanning the field they had just crossed, before bringing his dark-eyed gaze back to the prisoner. "How can we get you out of here? Quickly." He says in a hushed tone. 


Ruby sees a few doors from here, labeled 'Grudges Realm, Paranoias Realm, Violences Realm, Stubborns Realm which she notes just finished closing, and Depressions Realm.'

blinks and gives Stray a sheepish smile "uhh... like.... maybe?" She says with a small smile "I wouldn't get cut up or mutilated or anything just to be safe~" she says, looking closer towards the doors 

Stray's face turns pale at Ruby's response, and he crouches closer to the ground, glancing around them frantically as he waited for the man's answer. 


The man sighs, and looks down. “you cant. Only Hope and Stubborn...and maybe that thing running around, have that power....” he chuckles. “Stubborn doesn't like change though, so he would never let me out, just like he Keeps Hope on a tight leash, or at least tries too....” he sighs.

“Look, im Daneils Self Respect, pleased to meet....whoever you are, but you need to leave. You must be...like that thing, something thats not supposed to be in here. That means you cant help, not directly.”


"Den how do we help you silly fool?" 


"What do you mean, 'not directly'? Are you saying we can't manipulate the environment around us?" Stray asks with a raised eyebrow. His self respect? What the hell was this... "Stubborn and Hope? Where are they?" As Stray glances back towards the battlefield again, he gulps and leans a bit closer to Self Respect. "Did they do all of... this?" 

looks around quickly and nods "oh, see, thought so..." she turns to give Stray a patient smile "Stray this is a dream, his subconscious if you will. We're in his inner fears at that... its probably been like this here for much longer than whatever is effecting him has" 


"Fine, den we'l need to find Stubborn and Hope and smack some sense into dem!"
Starry nods emphatically at that before she looks to those doors off in the distance, "Doors over dere lead to oder parts of yourself den? We'll get it sorted out soon enough!"




Respect blink at Stray. “huh..oh, no no no, they locked me up in here, sorta, but this is just Daneils fears manifested as a scene. he.....well, he fears being helpless to stop things like this from happening. It consumes him.” Respect shrugs. “you can manipulate it a bit, but changing the course of power around here would be difficult. Even that...pony shaped being causing Stubborn all that trouble has only been able to do so much...although...she might be able to free me....”

he looks over at Starry with worry. “Hopes a good kid, sickly, but tough. He would only want to help you.....but Stubborn? Hes nigh invincible, leagues above all the others...though, he might offer concession if you help him catch that creature. Help him keep the status quo....”

"yeah, the doors lead to realms of the powerful emotions, and a few main places that always exist. note though, some realms only lead to certain other ones, so be careful...." 


"Right!" Starry says before she pats the guy in the cage on his shoulder in a comforting way before she starts for the doors once more to find stubborn, if he wanted to be stubborn, then by god she'll give him stubborn. 


Stray nods in understanding as he listens to Respect, the black-haired man starting to get a better idea of what was going on. "Hope, then. We need to find hope. That's what's most important... It can keep you going." He mutters, eyes glancing all over the place. "How do we get in touch with him?" 

[d12+perception folks] 
Ruby, 3
Starry, 9
Stray,9


ruby isn't much one to deal with stubborn folk head to head. Felt like a waste of time to her to try and rework the way that some folk think, and the actual emotional embodiment of being stubborn she is sure they won't be able to just convince to change anything... but thats not what they're here to deal with. She nods "we need to take out whatever is messing with your subconscious. An intruder kind of like us. Is that what Stubborn is dealing with?" 

"Yeah... what 'intruder' were you talking about?" 

As Ruby was distracted talking to Respect, who nods and says “yeah, the pony thing, whispy odd thing, is the other intruder. Keeps trying ot changes things, everything really.....”
then, Stray and Starry see...something not all too pleasant.  A much larger, as in, nearly taller then the buildings larger, version of the man in the cage, but much tougher looking, wearing armor and having a bit mace on his belt, his face like emotionless stone, was leaning down, talking to someone they could not see a bit off to the side, but  was obvious he would see them eventually if they stayed in the open like this.

Respect sees him too. “stubborn....” he says, then turns back to Stray and Ruby,”look, if you wanna find hope, look around. He doesn't have his own realm yet, but he tends to hang around the happier places. Usually Loyaltys, Memories, or Determinations....”


Ruby leans a bit closer "do you know where the pony thing is? Maybe its a windingo or something... we can probably banish it out of your mind and get things back together on track" 

As Stray listened to Respect, his eyes drifted around the blasted townscape and caught the giant man with the mace and armor leaning down. "Oh... shit, hide!" Stray hisses just above a whisper as he gestured towards Stubborn, holstering the pistol. He crouches to be as low of a visible profile as he could and creeps over to the nearest concealment, away from the man in the cage. 


At seeing the tall human Starry would narrow her eyes and start to head right for the man calling out, "Hey! Hey Tall Rhino of a man! Over here! I've got words to speak with you!" Starry says as she walks brazenly up to him. 

winces when he hears Starry call out 


The big man blinks, and looks over at Starry, and smiles a bit. “Ah, Starry, and id presume Stray and Ruby are around then. Splendid, just the group I was looking for.” He stands up at his full height, now a fair bit taller then the smaller buildings, and he looks down at the approaching women.

“Id suggest all three of you come out. If I wanted you out of here,” he narrows his eyes, “id have you out. Were on the same side, after the same target. I simply need to....set some ground rules, before you continue.”


Ruby... hadn't even noticed the big guy behind some buildings, so drawn into her talk with Respect.  She shrugs honestly and looks up towards the big guy, since Starry was kind enough to keep them from having any semblance of stealth or tact "ground rules, huh? Well it is your subconscious I guess, so what is it?"

"Why you be having your boy locked up like day huh? Dat's yourself your treating like a prisoner and whats wid all dis fear of failure and junk huh? Do I neeed to smack you one or someding?" Starry asks to the giant.

Stray tenses up as the booming voice of the large man calls him out, though he took a deep breath, stood up, and walked back out into the open, looking up to Stubborn and returning the narrow-eyed gaze as he sized him up. "Alright."


Stubborn just rolled his eyes, and squatted down to better look at them. “I lock him up, so that I wont allow this..” he says, motioning to the scene around them, “....will not happen. Simple as that.” he says with a smirk, and then looks at the others with a more serious tone.

“For one, be weary of all the others but Loyalty and Hope, as this...pony creature, is changing things, and many of the others have resented my rule for years. Do not Follow Hope, do not listen to Hope, to not side with Hope. Ignore him, unless you see some of the more....volatile emotions trying to harm him again. If you end up in the Memory Banks, avoid snooping, as a courtesy.” he nodded, and stood back up. 

“is this understood?”


"So Griff's stubborness is what's keeping him from allowing him to respect himself..." He turns around from Stubborn and looks around the carnage again with a sigh, before looking back up to the giant. "He lacks the hope that things will work out okay if he lets hiself grow close to others. He thinks if he respects himself... somehow things like this would happen." Stray mutters, loud enough to hear, but it sounded more like he was explaining a realization to himself. 

Ruby shrugs and looks up towards him "well reworking any of this isn't what we're here for Stray. We just need to kick the intruder out and be on our way. Sure those terms are agreeable enough. Lets beat feet team we need to get to the bottom of this infestation" 

"Whoa, whoa whoa whoa, Slow down big guy, are you saying you've been beating de snot out of everyone here if dey don't agree wid you? Are you sure dat dis pony ding is de real problem here?" 


Stubborn shrugs. “Well, usually I just intimidate them, but I do what I must to keep *order and keep Daneil running as he should.” he nods, and looks off, frowning. “if you will excuse me, I have things to attend to.” he says, and starts walking back off towards his own door, but stops and looks over his shoulder. “oh, and im sorry, but I cannot help you find a place to start looking, the creature keeps moving, to avoid capture.” and like that, his door grew big enough for him to slip through, which he did just that, before it shrunk back down.


"Ggeegff...Dat stubborn dork!" Starry grumbles under her breath before she starts marching off to find a door to go through not really paying much attention to which one she grabs 

looks over at Starry walking away, then turns to Stray "maybe we should split up to cover more ground?" 

Stray gives a wordless nod goodbye to Stubborn, not really liking his answer. He turns and walks off in the other direction with Ruby and Starry, speaking quietly. "You think this intruder's a windigo? We should find Hope... I wonder why he's also weary of this pony-thing, like Stubborn... Cause otherwise, it seems like whatever the opposite of that Stubborn guy wants is probably a good idea. But if Hope is also resisting the change of this pony thing..." 

Ruby walks along with Stray "well it seems like the whispy smokey pony thing is most likely a windingo, feeding off of Griff's negative emotions maybe. We should definitely do something about it, but trying to change Griff's mind about stuff.." she shakes her head "thats not what we need to do, let Griff stray griff, lets just make him a mentally healthy Griff" 

nods. "Fair enough. I just... didn't know this about him..." He glances back in the direction of where Stubborn was, before continuing on. "I'd still rather not try to help that guy get more control than he has already... But where're we gonna find this Windigo?" 

Ruby nods slowly as they approach the doors "well... its not the healthiest way of going about things. Buuut we aren't here to start an emotional revolution in Griff... thats more something for close friends to do in therapy or... something"
"I just don't want to make anything worse by mistake. We're no trained professionals!"



Starry ends up opening the door labeled 'Grudges Realm' and gets sucked in. as she lands, she looks around at the place. The place is bleak, rotting in look and smell, dark, and seems like an old swamp. 

She sees some wooden doors to other areas hidden in the shadows and....a frail, older version of the man in the cage sitting in an old rocking chair, staring off into the swamp as he grips a cane across his lap tightly, a deep frown on his face.

the others can look around, finding doors leading to 'Grudges Realm, Stubborns Realm, Depressions Realm, Violences Realm, Paranoias Realm, The Dreamcape, and the Memory Banks'. 


Stray smiles to Ruby and nods, smirking a little at the term 'emotional revolution'. He then follows Starry into the Grudges Realm! He'd rather not bump into this windogo thing alone. 

Ruby sighs and begrudgingly follows along into the grudges realm "well this is probably the wrong way, lets go to a different one... look for some positive realms..." 


"Hey Old Man! You seen a weird pony shapped ding running around here?" Starry asks as she had braced herself with the impact of landing before approaching the cobbled shack.

The old man Daneil doesn't even look at them, just spitting into the swamp water around him “whats it to you, bitch?” he grumbles out in a ruff, aging, scratchy voice.

Looking around, the other might find old, rotting doors with wooden signs above them leading to Depressions, Stubborns, Paranoias, Violences Realms', and one leading to the 'Memory Banks'.


Stray rears his head back slightly and blinks in surprise at the old man's response to Starry. "We're trying to find it and talk to it." He answers as he follows Starry to the shack. 

"Well fi you don't want to die for one." Starry says as she finally reaches the porch where the old man sits, "BEcause if your host dies, you die as well, you might be crotchety old fuck, but dat don't cahnge de fact dat if your body don't sleep, it gonna wind up dead. Now why don'tcha just tell me if you've seen it, and I'll get out your head." 

Stray smiles and nods at Starry's words 


Ruby doesn't wait around, quickly going towards the wooden doors to see where they could head to next. She lets dealing with the old man to Starry as she ponders their next course of action 


As Ruby goes around the doors, Starry and Stray notice him suddenly lean forward, his head and eyes following her closely, cane tapping on the side of his chair.
“Dont care, Daneil Deserves it, the bastard. They all do. I should be dead ya know? Damn idiots like you starting to make him forget to hold Grudges, forget to even the score, see? But Stubborn, he dont let no one die, dont let nothing change. So best if it all goes away.” he takes a moment to look at them. 
“Shame you wont get trapped in here, always bugging him, and *you Stray, trying to shoot him like you did? Bah.” he says, and goes back to watching Ruby.


"Well someones a grump, if you want to be bitter, fine, enjoy your solitude." Starry says not willing to convince a crotchety old cute as she goes off to the dreamscape, that might be the best place to look now. 

hums softly and looks at their options in this room "self loathing? Holding a grudge... against yourself? Seems a bit counter intuitive doesn't it?" 

As Starry goes for the door however, the old man suddenly springs up, and uses his cane to hold it shut, simply staring at Starry. “now who damn well said ya had permission to leave?” he spits out.


Stray frowns at the old man, his eyebrows raising in surprise as he brought up almost shooting Griff, his fair-skinned face flushing red as he grimaces at Grudges, turns around, and heads off with Starry without a word. When the door slams shut, however, he turns around with pursed lips, staring at the old man. "Ooookay. That's enough of that. Let us outta here."

"I did, now move. Or I will make you move." Starry said glaring down the old man 

Ruby raises her eyebrow and smirks at the old Daniel "yeh, what do you want to move on then?" 


Grudes looks to Stray. “why should I let you leave? So you can all just cause more problems? Hold you hear, maybe damn bastard'll actually kick the bucket.” he says with a nod, and prods Starry with his cane.

“this is my world missy, and ah may be all but dead, but here? Here I still have some strength.”

He looks over his shoulder at Ruby. “Want? Revenge. To fulfill the grudges Daneil has chosen to push to the back of his mind.”


Ruby walks over and puts a hand on his shoulder "what an old, outdated concept. Revenge is so far out of Daniel's mind that you're a grumpy old coot. Why don't you step out of our way and we can put in a good word for you with the big boss instead?" 

"Fine!" Starry has had enough of this as she smacks the cane away and socks the old man in the face! "If you want to settle old grudges, then lets settle them old man!" Starry cracks her neck as she starts to slowly advance on the representation of grudge

"Cause problems? Me? Now what would make you say something like that, Old Man?" Stray walks towards Grudges. "We're only here to stop that pony. And even if you stop us, you and I both know that Stubborn won't let this kill Daniell. He never does."
"There's no use in holding us." 

[Starry, d20+Will] 
Starry, 7


Grudge actually started to lower his cane, a sad, defeated look in his face as he listens to Stray and Ruby......then Starry smacks him across the face, sending him to the ground.

He spits a bit, and looks up at her. “oh.....oh......YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU” the entire place starts to rumble, the water bubbles, the trees start to crack and sway, and he pushes himself up with his cane, gripping it so hard its splintering, as his eyes glow red a bit.

“Come. Lets Settle them. All of you.” he says, grinding his teeth as his voices echoes around the place...

...but suddenly, they would see the door to 'Violences Realm' swing open ,and a child's voice say “Come in, quickly!” as a small hand waves at them from the other side.


Ruby doesn't even look around to see what door is opened up, skirting into a different room "Starry you hold him off, we'll keep looking!" she says with a smile.

Stray's pupils shrink to pinpricks as the old man pushes himself onto his feet and turns demonic. The fatigue-wearing man takes several steps backward, and when he reads the sign on the Violence Door and hears the beckoning. "H-hell no!" Stray staggers back and jumps to kick the door they entered through open. 

Ruby skirts into the room that the child opened up for them I should clarify 

"Got it!" Starry says as she cracks her knuckles with a manic grin on her face as she starts to walk towards the old man, "I didn't figure you were all dat normal." Starry leaps fowards, "Let it be finished!" 


Stray cant find the door to 'Inner Fears', it seems some doors are only one way to certain Realms!


As Ruby enters into 'Violences Realm', she finds herself in a big, fancy estate, weapons and suits of armor all over the walls and place.

A young, like ten years old, kid version of Daneil stands over her, smiling happily in his pajamas, sheep on the fluffy blue things as he waves at her.
“Hello! Im Hope, and you are?”

[Starry, d20+Will]
Starry,5

As Starry tried to hit the old man, she is pushed back by some invisible force, then, with a flick of his cane, she goes toppling back into the mud, a smile on the Grudges face as she splats down.

Stray Shot, realizing there was no exit from the old psycho other than the Violence door, dashes in after Ruby, looking down at the child with a bewildered expression.

Ruby quickly hops up to her feet and bends down to be more at eye level with Hope "hey hey! My name is Ruby! Ruby Swirl. I'm a friend of Daniel's"

Stray blinks down at the child, a weary expression on his face, before he looks around the room. "And I'm... Stray Shot. I'm also Daniel's friend. Boy am I glad we found you..." 

Flopping into the mud Starry pulls her face out with a glare and spits out the muck around her mouth before she grabs a handful of the sludge before tossing it at the old man's eyes! 


Hope smiles widely. “oooh? I think ive seen you in the memory banks! Glad your here though....” he taps his chin, “wasnt there supposed to be a third?” he shrugs, giggling. “im sure she'll be fine, im sure of it!” 

he then sneezes, and looks likes hes about to collapse, but pushes against the wall, correcting himself, giving them a smile. “well, can I help you with anything? Sorry, but Violence is currently out talking with Loyalty at the moment, but he should be back soon!”

[Starry, d20+Ranged and Will]
Starry, 13

With a splat, the mud hits Grudge in the face, and he frowns. “you....little....bitch....”

"Come on den!" Starry shouts as she charges forth again for a flying high kick! 


Ruby rubs the back of her neck and looks down towards Hope again with a wide smile "hey hey thats okay, I think we should get out of here before violence gets back and sees us snooping around. Have you seen a big angry black wispy pony around here anywhere?" 

Stray frowns in concern as the child looks woozy for a moment and has to lean against the wall, reaching forward to put a hand on his shoulder to help correct himself. "What's wrong, kid? Is something makin' you not feel well?" He asks with concern in his tone, before glancing around at the mention of Violence. "Uh... you think it'd be best for us to get out of here before Violence gets back? Is he anything like his name suggests?" He asks with tension in his voice, before nodding at Ruby's question 


Hope just shrugs. “Stubborn and the others say im pretty new here, and that im weak, but im getting stronger, I know it!” he says, nodding happily. 

He then chuckles. “Violence can be...hot headed, but he isnt so bad, once you get to know him. He's....more of the honorable type of violence, Ive heard Duty and Loyalty say.”

he then seems to get excited. “Oh? You mean the nice pony lady? Yeah! She just went to talk to Determination I think, I can show you the way! Boy, shes really pretty too, and said that one day, with her help, I might be big and strong like the others!” he says, and starts skipping down the hallway. “c'mon c'mon ill show you to the door!”

[Starry, D20+Will]
{Stray and Ruby, d12+Perception[

Starry,4
Stray,5
Ruby, 7


With a flick of his Cane, Grudge sends Starry back and into a Tree. “Are you even trying? Tell you what? Ive had my fun. Leave. Now. Or ill make you suffer.”


Ruby notices something a bit odd as they are lead past one hallway. A Door barred shut with several locks and boards labeled 'Inner Desires' in fancy lettering above it.

But at Hopes beckoning, they are lead further, to a door labeled 'Determinations Realm' above it. “Here we are!” Hope says, and does a lil bow as he gestures to it.


With a loud THUD into one of the trees Starry slides down bruised in nothing else but her ego, but now her competitive spirit is raised up! "Ah come on, you old buzzard, I dought we were getting along just fine!" Starry says as she goes for a tackle this time! 

"If you could show us the way to Determination or where the pony lady went, we'd really appreciate it, Hope." Stray's smile goes a bit soft. "You will grow big and strong one day. I'll make sure of it." 

Ruby can't help but crack a grin at the inner desires door. She wonders why its next to violence's room.... if it weren't locked, her curiosity might have gotten the better of her, but she continues along the hallway anyways. She crouches down and gives Hope a little pat on the head "You're going to be the biggest and strongest of all of these guys you know! Thats what your role is." 


As Starry goes for a tackle, suddenly a large hand stops her path, and looking up the arm, its Stubborn. “Thats enough of that.” he says, looking Starry in the eyes.


Hope blushes a bit, rubbing the back of his head. “aww, thanks! You'll like determination hes no where near as strong as Stubborn, but probably the closest to so!” he nods, and opens the door.

The next moment, the three are in the oddest world yet, their vison only showing everything in light browns and black, like an old school movie.

It...seemed to be office buildings of some sort, only a waiting room and an office building, besides the doors leading to other realms, to which these were 'Stubborns, Duties, Paranoias, the Memory Banks, and Inner Desires, again locked up tight.'

they see the door to Duties click shut, and suddenly A version of Daneil, Dressed simply in 1920s style clothing, with a bit of stupple on his face comes out of the office, hands in his pockets as he looked them over. He seemed a bit younger then others, but still at least his twenties. “Ah, Hope, ah see ya brought guests. Guests ah recognize.”

Starry wiggles in place trying to fear herself from the giants grasp, "Hey you let go of me right now you nut, I've got business to be talking wid dat old gizzard down dere I tel you now!"
Stray smirks a bit at the old-timey realm they suddenly found themselves in, amused as the 1920s looking man approached them. "Nice to meet you. Are you Duty? Or...?"

Looks around the new area with a bit of wonder, but her eyes slide over to the duties door. She blinks slowly and turns to face Determination "oh! I think she just went that way" she remarks, pointing towards the other doorway "We need to catch that intruder"


“No, you were trying to fight him.” Stubborn says, picking her up, opening the door to 'Depressions Realm', and tosses Starry through. “now go do your job.” she hears him call after her.

Inside is the same as before, a big, empty room, save for the doors but...off in a corner now, Starry sees someone hunched over, sniffling to themselves.


“nope. Determination.” he says as a mug of coffee appears in everyone but Hopes hands, before he takes a sip. He then nods.

“Aye, She went that way. Happy hunting, you'll need it.” he shrugs.


Ruby looks towards Duty's door and then back to Determination "hey you can watch this little guy right?" she says, patting Hope on the head again "also.... why do yall let them through to do as they please?" "Them being the intruder" 

"Yeah... And where can we find the intruder?" 

Breathing heavily from the exertions and also the thrill of being bodily tossed through the air Starry freezes in place as she looks around the empty room before seeing someone crying in the corner, "Hello?" Starry asks trying to wipe off the muck and grime that had gotten over her body. "Hey, are you okay?" 


Determination shrugs. “im determined for Daneil to live, stopping her wont help that, but neither will be stopping my friends from doing what they feel is best.” he says, giving them a warm smile.

He rolls his eyes, pointing again to Duties door. “She just went there.”

Hope frowns ,and tugs on Rubies skirt. “nooo, I wanna come! She wont hurt me, nor will Duty!”

The shape tenses up as Starry talks, but then rubs its eyes, and turns to look at her. It was a version of Daneil, but skinny, a bit taller, pale and wearing all black. He shakes his head. “no....no one can help.....there no point to any of this...”


"Well... stopping her will help Daniell be able to sleep at night. It's not healthy not to sleep..." Stray says with a worried expression. "Alright... We just wanna go talk to her, see if we can reason this out. We don't wanna hurt her or anything." The soldier says as he turns towards the Duties door 

Ruby pit pats Hope and brushes his hand away from her skirt, before turning back to Determination "Are you sure? whatever is in here is really hurting Daniel, and we're here to stop it so we can save him" she says with a nod, looking towards the duty door "Determination is useful but only when its directed positively. You seem like a good person, but if you don't help us then the only thing Daniel will be determined to do is.. well nothing but sleep"
gives them both a wave and heads towards the Duty door, opening it to see whats inside 


"Why not? Hey have you seen some strangers come by recently? I'd like to help, also you met Grudge? Man is he crotchety huh?" 


Determination chuckles. “oh, theres better ways to help Daneil then stopping her....” he sips his mug as they leave, patting the pouting Hope on the head. “but they can learn that for themselves...”

As Ruby and Stray go into Duties Realm, they find themselves in a large, but simple fort, along a river in a heavy forest. 


The Daneil just waves Starry off. “go away, you'll only make things worse....but thats all that ever happens....things just get worse and worse....”

[Stray, Ruby, d12+Perception]
Stray, 14
Ruby, 13

Sighing Starry nods, "If dat's what you want den..." Starry hums looking around before trying another door


Quickly looking around, they see a younger version of Daneil heading out the lowered fort gate, some sorta sea green, whispy pony shape floating next to him as they talk.


As Starry tries another random door, she ends up flopping into 'Paranoias Realm'. The place was cramped, smoggy, many little nooks and crannies to hide in, or seemingly get turned around in. 
there were only two doors she could see, 'Depressions Realm, and Determinations Realm'.

She then hears a voice “wh-whos there! I-im armed!”


Stray Shot spots the whispy-looking pony and the young Daneil, and follows after, looking around at the fortress they had arrived to.Stray Shot is following quietly if he can, hopefully to listen in on the conversation 

looks over the fortress, and then to the little whispy form and the younger daniel. She points it out to Stray, but it looks like he already found them. She heads forward, offering them a welcoming wave as they near the two of them

"A friend?" Starry calls out trying to sound friendly, "I am trying to find someone dat doesn't belong, someone dat might be causing you more harm den good." 


The younger Daneil swerves around. He seemed to only be a teenager, but suddenly he was aiming a bow at Stray and Ruby. “Go, ill hold them off!” he yells to the whispy spirit, and shoots off an arrow at Stray!


A moment later, a middle aged looking Daneil, skinny, skittish looking, eyes a bit big, crawls out, and looks over the edge of a box that just spawned at Starry. 
“th-they freaky ghost pony? A-aye....but how do I know your not allied to her, or-or are just here to do Stubborns dirty work, hmmmmmmm?” he says, pointing accusingly at Starry.

[Stray, d20+Dex]
Stray, 4

ruby reflexively pulls her wand out, hoping to raise up a barrier to deflect the arrow 

Stray suddenly stops as the younger Daneil turns around, his eyes widening as the bow comes out. "I just wanted to ta-..." He cuts off and attempts to duck as the arrow comes for him

"Well you're right about Stubborn, I'm mostly here to find dat ghost pony, which is what Stubborn wants, but I was also wanting to know why is stubborn so big compared to de rest of you?"


[Ruby, d12+Will or Barrier]
12

The arrow snaps and splinters, as a  bubble appears around Stray and Ruby for a moment, the young daneil looking very surprised. “Whaaa?! Thats unfair!” he yells back.

Paranoia narrows his eyes at Starry...but stands, and frowns. “Our Size ahn age, to a degree, is based off how much we influence Daneils personality. Though how long we have been a major influence also helps. Daneils always been stubborn, but after losing his wife *so Unexpectedly, he let no one else thrive, heh, not til he got here anyways, but by then Stubborn was so influential he decided most things.” he shrugs again.


Ruby gives Stray a soft jab and then points towards the two of them, heading towards him "We're here to help daniel, stand down soldier" 

Stray sighs in relief as the bubble deflects the arrow, thankful that Ruby had her wand. "Just calm down! We just wanna talk!" 


"Wife? Stubborn had a wife? Or are you talking abotu Daneil?" 




Paranoia just squints. “Daneil....back on earth.” He goes to talk again, but then one of the doors opens, and he ducks and rolls away screaming “THE STUBBORNATTI WONT GET MEEEE!”

A moment later, Hope, in his little blue pajamas walks in, looking around, then smiles up at Starry. “oooh wow, your tall! Hello, im Hope!” he says, happily offer up a hand.


The young Daneil narrows his eyes, but looking back, it seems the whispy pony was gone, so he lowers his bow and looks back at them. “Im Duty, and I know what your after. I cant let it happen. This might be our only chance to break Stubborns stranglehold on us.”


Ruby walks over and looks past him, huffing in disappointment. She looks over to the younger Daniel and raises her eyebrow "what do you mean break the stranglehold? What is that thing?" 

"Listen, I don't like Stubborn being in charge here either. I just met him and he's kind of a bully, it seems like. That's something we're gonna resolve. But we can't do it with that pony giving Daneil nightmares and makin' him have to stay up. Can't we... work together?" "Or at least talk to the pony? We don't want to hurt her or anything... Maybe there's some way to reason this out." 


Starry calls out after the fleeing man, "Wait come back!" Starry watches as he flees away before Hope apparently arrives making starry turn to regard the kid with wide eyes, "Oh, hello dere, and your in Pj's shouldn't you be in bed?" Starry asks taking the hand in her own with a good firm shake.


Hope Giggles, but then nearly collapses, but pulls himself back to his feet. “haha, we dont need sleep...and I dont have my own Realm....but im sure I will one day!” he nods happily. “so...your Starry right? Glad to meet you!” he nods happily, then looks around. “...mind if we go someplace else? I dont Like Paranoias room, its....creepy.”


Duty frowns. “wha? Nightmares.....no, shes *ending the nightmares!” he looks between the two of them, clearly nervous. “i-im not supposed to tell you, she asked me not to sai-”

“oh come on now Duty, lets help our friends, hmm?” and turning around, they would see a fit, spiffy, middle aged Daneil, wearing armor and a rifle over his back, as he walks up to them with a confident stride and a smirk

“Hello, im Loyalty. Sorry about Duty, he has trouble deciding WHAT he has a duty to first sometimes.” he nods, and offers the two a hand.


Stray looks to the older Daneil, eyeing the rifle on his back but giving him a polite smile. "It's an honor to meet you, Loyalty. Thanks for doing what you do." He returns the handshake with a nod. "How can we help Daneil, here?" 



looks between Duty and the newcomer, now thoroughly confused. She rubs the back of her neck and keeps her wand holstered "uhhhhh... okay! Ending the nightmares? Then... whats causing the nightmares?" 

"Oh, well, oh hey don't faint on me now!" Starry says as she leans down and picks the smaller child up to carry in her arms. "Ok, where to den?" 


Loyalty shrugs at Ruby. “Daneil himself is. The nightmare is natural, his own fears and stress gettign to him. As he said, its the fact he stopped having the same nightmare anymore that told him something was messing with his mind.” he nods.

“If you can keep up your search, I will assist you. I Fear Stubborn has played you, for this creature is an Arabian Dreamwhisp, and while I do not agree with its method, its was created to help troubled minds but...ah....not in the right way, some would say.” Loyalty bows a bit “come, I think she went through stubborns Realm, his leads to every where else, so it is always a good place to flee too.”

Duty frowns deeply “Damnit Loyalty, she said not to tell them anything!” but Loyalty only rolls his eyes. “And where would that put us? Shes Hurting Daneil, regardless of her intentions, he cannot survive unless she leaves, or an understanding is met.”


Hope smiles and points towards Determinations door. “There please!”

when Starry would arrive, she would come to the brown-black old style looking office building described before, though it seemed Determination himself was not there.

She would see the doors leading to 'Stubborns, Duties, and Paranoias Realm', and one leading to Memory Banks, and the heavily locked up door labeled 'Inner Desires'.


"So...now what little one?" Starry asks as she adjusts Hope on her hip as they walk, "I don't think duties will help, Inner is locked up so I guess dat leaves just Stubborn to check?" Starry asks Hope. 

“Oh! I Can unlock Inner Desires easily, but uhm, Stubborn will get angry if I do....” Hope says, rubbing the back of his head.


"Well maybe we can help the Dreamwisp accomplish her good intentions and move on... And maybe make it to where Stubborn doesn't have so much control over y'all." Stray says with a hopeful smirk to Duty and Loyalty. "Alright, guess we're going to Stubborn's realm then?"

is much happier when given an explanation from Loyalty and gives him a polite nod "okay, we need to work together to figure it all out. Look I'm in here because I want to help Daniel get better too ya know. Whatever it takes to help him out"
raises a thumbs up and heads back to Stubborn's world

"Do you dink dat de ding in here will be dere?" Starry asks HOpe, "If it is we might as well check." Starry says as she starts to walk toward inner desires.


Loyalty leads them through Stubborns Door, leaving a frowning Duty, who quickly runs off to another.

As they land in Stubborns Realm, they find it is simply a bleak, large set of hallways, simply and clearly made so as to allow him to get whenever he wants quickly. Theres a door to everywhere here, but just to let you know them:

Dreamscape, Grudges, Paranoias, Violences, Depressions, Loyalties, Determinations, Memory Banks, Inner Fears, and Inner Desires, which is locked up heavily.'

Loyalty rubs his chin. “Hm....maybe she went to Memory Banks? “


Hope taps his chin. “Well, I know she *wants to get in, but only I and Stubborn can get through the locks....hey, maybe we can bait her in?” he asks, smiling up at Starry.


"Alright, well let's go into Memory Bank, then," Stray says, scratching the back of his head under his helmet and heading towards that door as he looked around the bleak hallway. 


"Sounds like a plan to me!" Starry says as she sets him down in front of the door. "You unlock we open it up and I'l catch her.”

Ruby walks downt the hall, looking carefully at all the doors... "wheres... where is hope's room? Or dreams... aspirations..." she muses almost sadly "I guess we can check memory banks? Sure lets go in there... maybe theres a hint in here at whats causing all this trouble too! 

[Ruby, Stray, d12+Perception] 
Stray, 13
Ruby,6

As Starry sets down Hope, she sees him happily skip over to the locks, and start tearing them off like tissue paper...and then she sees the room stretch behind her, and suddenly Stubborn has entered. “Stop. That.” he says sternly, causing Hope to jump and hide behind Starry.


“Oh, well, Hope has no room, too weak. Inner Desires covers most of that, too....few I suppose, to split them up.” Loyalty says sadly, and leads them to Memory Banks.

Inside, they find a large room full of Filing cabinets, labeled in order by Day, Month, and Year, and doors aswell leading to every other part.

Stray sees some green, poofy tufts of something float up near a section, and several filing cabinets open, something idly looking through the memories then just tossing them haphazardly around. 

“no....no...this ones useless too....this one doesn't help me at all either!” a female voice says to itself.


"What the..." Stray makes his way over to where he saw the green tufts doing something with the fililng cabinets, trying to see what it was. "Hey, who're you?" 

looks around the filing cabinets herself, checking to see how far back the dates go. When Stray makes mention of a new stranger, she looks over towards him, and then follows his gaze to the green thing "hey. hey!"

Turning to regard the giant as she had also been startled Starry holds Hope behind her as she looks up at the big brute, "Alright, so we have a plan to fix dis, we bait whatever it is to here and den we catch it before it is able to get in. Also why you don't let Hope here have a room? Kid looks like he needs to be in bed or he might just die. I know you're representative of Daneil's head, but you do now dat stubborness only gets you so far right?" 


The latest Ruby can perhaps find is his first remembered birthday, August 10th, 1996 at tens years of age.

As Stray and Ruby yell at the green tufts, the noise stops, and suddenly the green whispy ghost like arabian mare pokes her head above a cabinet. “aww fiddles, I still need more time! You people take after Stubborn too much!” he says with a pout, he bouncy, clud like mane giving off more lil tufts as she shakes her head.

“Ah, Milly, glad we caught you!” Loyalty says happily.


Stubborn just stares down at Starry stubbornly. “Because hes weak and unimportant. None of them are, it is a courtesy I let them be as strong as they are.” he says.

“Th-thats not true! You cant stop them, l-like Determination, he got that strong on his own!” Hope says looking from behind Starrys leg.

“Quite you.” Stubborn spits out, and clenches his fists. “No one enters Inner Desires. Ever. Ive decided Daneil has given up on those, and what I  say, goes.”


ruby looks up at the wisp "I need to know what you're doing up there? Why is stubborn causing trouble? Hes big but... is it unhealthy? I mean... Daniel can't be that stubborn if he came to us for help, right?" 

Stray nods, looking up to the wisp. "Yeah, what's going on here? We just wanna talk."

"...Whose in control of Daneil? You or Daneil himself?" Starry asks as she takes a step forward in a challenging manner 
"When would you get de right to determine if Daneil gets to enjoy dings or not eh? Who said you could, you? If so den your being noding more dan a bully." 






Milly narrows her eyes, but then sighs, looking down. “Alright alright, I cant work if you keep chasing me around anyways.” she hip hops over the counter, gently and slowly landing infront of them.

“Right so, I am an Arabian Dreamwhisp.” He says, holding her head up proudly as she rests a hoof on her chest. “We were created waaay back when during some.....troubling times. Our job is to hop from head to head, and fix those grumpy and sad ponies thoughts. Ya know, make em dream happy so they let their guard in, then go in and mix things around so the happier emotions are in charge!” she nod nods, and then frowns.

“buuut, there arent many o us left...for some reason, the Arabians started resenting us, and used that stupid spell to come in here and start hunting us down.” he pouts, stamping a hoof. “what did they mean what we were doing was wrong, they *Made us to do this!” she looks off to the side.

“this fella here is a baaaad case, worse ive seen. And due to his stupid lucid dreaming, hes aware of me and keeps waking up, rejecting any changes I make, no matter how small!” she shakes her head. “stubborns natural, but unhealthy. Thats my job, to get rid of the unhealthy, even if they dont want me too!”


Stubborn narrows his eyes down at Starry. “Yes. I did. I was the one here from the beginning, who stuck around when he lost everything else, why should I let things change, let the others have any real say?” he grinds his teeth. 

“no...this is my place, and ill keep it how I want it, always.”


Ruby taps her chin with a finger "so something happened and stubborn took over his mind then? Well how can we... get stubborn back in his place? You can't delete something like that completely. Its good! But not in big doses like this..." 

Stray frowns a bit as the dreamwisp tells them that this was one of the worst cases she had seen. "Ahh... I see. Y'know, Stubborn seems to be right at the middle of all this. I'd say he's the problem, not you, ma'am."
"Unless... you're lying." Stray shakes his head and waves that thought off, smiling politely.

"Stubborness is a valauble trait when it comes time to stand your ground even when dings are worse, yet despite dat you still have one ding dat is stronger dan yourself." Starry steps aside to show Hope, "If Hope wasn't as powerful as you said he was, den he would have faded away, Hope is your guide despite your best attempts. Hope is fragile yes, but if you let him grow to be your equal, I would imagine dat you would be able to sleep much better. After all why else would Hope be able to unlock your desires?" Starry asks as she palces hands on the shoulders of Hope. "So I ask you dis, will you be willing to change for de betterment of Daneil or will you be de ding dat will kill him?" 







Milly pouts at Stray. “Well...im not sure I cant prove to you im telling the truth!” she shrugged, but  Loyalty steps forward. 

“She is, at least, from what me and the others have been able to gather. Note though, she tries to force things severely, not just to heal, but to change. It is why the Whisps were considered a threat, because they made people too far in the opposite direction, unable to properly have the negative emotions.”

Milly frowns. “dont listen to him, he doesn't know whats best for anyone, otherwise he would've done something about Stubborn by now!”

Loyalty shakes his head. “Stubborns gone too far, but he is right in one regard: he kept Griff going when others of us were nearly non existent. He deserves respect for that at least.”


Stubborn frowns, and then starts pulling his fist back. “I, and I alone am Daneil.” he then purches it forward!
[d20+Dex or Will Starry!]
Starry, 6

Ruby closes her eyes and nods slowly, accepting both Milly and Loyalty's stories "You're helpful but... like me you aren't a perfect solution to the problem. Therapy, a psychiatrist probably could have solved all this much better but... but well we're the answer already here! So why don't we work together? Milly and us could find a healthy level, a good balance" 

"Ooooh, I see." Stray nods as Loyalty explains. "I knew there had to be some reason you were regarded the way you were. Look... Griff can't deal with change that quickly. He's gonna have to heal slowly from what he's been through. Gradually." 


Starry is able to push Hope aside, but gets slammed into the wall, hitting it hard. However, she see Stubborn reaching for his mace, looking at hope who seems scared witless!

"No you don't!" Starry says as she pushes her shoulder into Stubborn's belly and lifts up! 
[Starry, d20+Will and Strength] 
Starry,19


Milly frowns, and stomps her hoof. “but with just a little help, I could help him nooowwww, quickly! No waiting, no messy effects, you could have Griff, but ***better, right now!”

To Stubborns surprise, Starry manages to get him in the gut good, then start lifting him.
Hope quickly rushes for the closest door, Inner Desires, and starts peeling away the locks, before throwing in open! Starry swears she hears bells....

“Starry, in here! You cant defeat Stubborn, not like this, not permanently!” 


looks at Milly and taps her foot "I don't want a better version of Griff, I want a healed version of Griff. Look we need to defeat Stubborn, but not remove him, understand?" 


"That's not how humans work, Milly," Stray shakes his head and chuckles wistfully with a soft smile, shrugging. "I wish it were, but he's been through things that... Well, most ponies have never had to dream of. Part of being healed is going through the process of healing itself." 


Starry lets out a roar as she bends back and throws Stubborn to the ground to stun him if only a second. Starry looks over to Hope and runs over to the door.


Milly looks at each of them, clearly nervous. “But...but I dont even know if I know how to do it that slow....its...all I want is to do what I was made to do....” she looks down at the ground, kicking at a file that seemed to be about Daneil arm wrestling someone.

She looks back up, a spark of determination in her eyes. “i....could help with Stubborn, but not alone. You need to get Determination and Duty on board as well, at least. Maybe violence will help too.”


As Starry enters into Inner Desires she doesn't feel the same uncomfortable sucking feeling or slamming into the ground, but simply finds herself.....in a church? Bells are ringing ,and everything seems to be decorated with white and flowers, right down the middle of the aisle were flower petals, and up on the stage was a stand with a pillow, two golden rings shining on it.

 Looking back, Hope has slammed the door shut, and put up his own locks. “Were....safe in here, for awhile. he....doesn't like coming in here, but he might change his mind after that.” Hope says, giving Starry a smile. He seemed...healthier, all of a sudden.


Stray smirks softly and takes a step forward towards Milly. "It's alright. I guarantee you there's some ponies around here that could use your help that it won't mess up goin' so fast. Maybe you can help me out with mine. But..." Stray looks over towards the other Daniells and sighs. "This one, Griff, he needs to heal slowly. Naturally. Not just from stuff in the pony world, but from humanity as well." At her offer, Stray nods. "Alright. We needed to talk to Violence anyway I guess." Stray glances over to Duty. "You on board to free yourselves from these shackles on Stubborness?"

looks uncomfortably towards Stray and then towards Milly again "we need to gather the personalities and subdue Stubborn for sure" she says, looking towards Milly "And you, will do whatever you do, slowly. You won't rewrite anyone's personality completely, just ease down his worries and the stubborn block"

"Ah...jeez dat was a bit much to deal wid, Hope...is dis, dis is when Daneil was married den?" Starry asks as she comes closer towards the pillows before looking over at Hope.






Loyalty, the one here, not Duty, nods to Stray. “I am, I will go and talk to my brothers....and find out where Stubborn is.” he nods, and runs off.

Milly seemed deep in thought, scrunching up her snout, tongue sticking out the side. But then she sighs, loudly. “ lets deal with Stubborn. Regardless of anything else, natural or my own methods, he wont allow himself to change and heal so long as that beast lurks within himself.”


Hope, finishing up the locks, shakes his head. “His was simpler, this is just....a manifestation, a symbol he thinks best represents what he truly wants. Love. True love.” Hope chuckles. “Of course, even when he was married he would admit so openly that that is what he wanted....and once he did lose it....” Hope shrugs, and walks over to Starry, looking out the window. 

Outside was a vast, simple meadow, a house sat out upon it, nothing fancy, but well built. “He almost had what he wanted, then he lost it. But this is a new world, a new chance!” Hope nodded. “im sure he could have a chance at it, if he only stopped being so, well, stubborn.”Hope said with a laugh...until the door to this place creaked, as if something was smashing against it. 

“....we may want to find one of the other doors, before Stubborn breaks in....or remembers he has other ways to get in here....”


"What oder places are dere here?" Starry asks as she looks out into the meadow and sees the small house and the rather vibrant place. "Oh wow...' Starry looks over to Hope once more noting his stronger complexion and the vigor that seems to return to his eyes. "Well why shouldn't we try to fight him? Change his mind? Or at least beat his stubborn head in until he listens? Stubborn listens to stubborn don't it?" 

Ruby gives Loyalty a nod "should we.... meet up somewhere?" she remarks softly "we need to find Hope too so he can't do anything to him"

"Alright, good deal. We'll all catch up with each other someplace safe and then confront Stubborn together." 


Hope smiles. “this place connects to the few good realms, aswell as the Memory Banks and Dreamscape. Though, the doors are all in the house over there. Which gives Stubborn time to reach us himself.”

Hope chuckles. “Alone? Im a representation of Hope, not naivety. We need to get others involved...hopefully your friends have made, well friends.” Hope then blinks.

“....hes stopped trying to break down the door....its quite.....”


Milly nods. “Meet in his Inner Fears. Only place I can think of where causing a bit of mayham might be a good thing!” she giggles, and hip hops away.




Stray nods to Milly and looks to Ruby. "Guess we should go find Starry, huh?" 

"Is dat a bad ding?" Starry asks Hope as she starts to walk towards the exit of the church to head for the house. Lets try going dough de dreamscape door, dat might be best..." 

blink blinks and shrugs "I guess that works, we can meet up there..." she remarks to Milly. She turns to Stray and sighs "un-fortunately yea I guess we should find her too"

Stray smirks to Ruby before he starts moving towards the door to head back towards Inner Fears. "What? You two got some bad blood?" 

Ruby waves her hand and heads over towards the inner fears door herself "ehhhh well I guess you could say that. I'm just concerned about what she might do... basically all the time" 

"Aw she's not so bad. She's got spunk! But can be a handful sometimes heh..." He chuckles as they head towards the door. Gosh darn that Stubborn! 

runs a hand through her hair "seems like stubborn natures are a real problem around here huh! Maybe we can go into her head next" 


Hope shrugs. “I have no idea....” and follows after Starry. After crossing the field to the house, they find inside is very homely. The decorations and furniture, as well as layout imply it to be a family home....though empty. Looking around she would find instead of bed room doors, doors leading to 'Determinations, Loyalties, and Duties Realms' aswell as in the attic a door leading to the 'Dreamscape', and the Basement door lead to the 'Memory Banks'.

Hope nods, and opens up the Dreamscape door. “Well, here we go...”and like that, Starry and Hope were back in the Dreamscape, as it was before.


As Stray and Ruby went through the door to 'Inner Fears', they find it at the moment empty, save for the one in the cage and....one they had not seen before. This Daneil was skinny, taller, Slender, pale and wearing black. He looked terribly sad, and he looked at them.
“....Hello.” he said weakly.


blink blinks and heads back over towards the cage slowly. She waves back at the one tall and slender one "oh uhhh hello!"

Stray blinks, frowning when he sees the new Daneil's face. "H-hey... Who're you? Sadness?"

"Mm, Let's see, do you have any idea where de oders might be at?' Starry asks looking over to Hope, "Hey are going to be okay?" 


Hope nods. “ill be fine....and I dont know! Lets go ask Loyalty, Duty, or Determination, m sure they might know!” he nods happily, waving at Starry to follow.


The Figure sighs. “Depression. And its time for you two to stop.” and with a wave of his hand, Stray and Ruby suddenly feel like the whole worlds bearing down on them, and see and feel the color draining from themselves!

[Stray and Ruby, d20+Will]
Stray,17
Ruby,20

Nodding her head Starry decides to follow with Hope, hopefully they will be able to find their friends!


...however, Both Stray and Ruby resist, able to shake off whatever was happening to them, the discoloration and feeling breaking off like a glass Shell and disappearing. 

Depression only looks sadder. “well....that wasn't supposed to happen.” he sighs. “Guess its the hard way.” he then pulled out a revolver and aimed it at Stray. “any last words?”


As Hope leads Starry through Loyalties door, they arrive inside a large homestead farm, where Starry would notices pictures up on the wall of People important to Griff, both from earth and the town. 

They hear clashing about, and coming around the corner, arrive just in time to see Stubborn toss Loyalty into the biggest picture in the house, nearly covering an entire wall, a picture of an earth women, casually dressed and simply smiling at the photographer from the couch she sat on...

Duty and Determination also were in the room, both backing away from Stubborn, fear clear in their face. 

“Now....i make myself clear? You help the whisp and the outsiders, ill make you regret it.” he says, looking at the other two, as Loyalty stands back up, shakily.

“Dont...listen to him. Get to Inner Fears you two, quickly, meet up with the others!”

Stubborn goes in for another hit at Loyalty, fist drawing back to slam hard into him.



"No you don't!" Starry says as she goes for another tackle ! 

Ruby looks at depression and his pulled out gun.  She reaches for her magic tool, whipping it out to point it at depression.  Off her lips is a quick incantation, and she lets loose her stun spell "Not so fast"


Stray's eyes widen in shock as the revolver comes out and he ducks, dashing to the side and drawing his 1911.
"Stop!"

[Ruby, d12+Stun or Will]
[Stray, d20+Dex or Will]
[Starry, D20+ Strength or Will]
Ruby,3
Stray,22
Starry, 21


While Rubies spell frizzles out, Stray is quick. It becomes all too clear his has one choice. He fires. 

Depression blinks, looks down at the non bleeding hole in his chest, and then crumples over.

...however Stray can see from the exit wound, hes healing. Seems you cant just kill these guys in the traditional way perhaps.



Meanwhile, Stubborn is again surprised as all hell as Strays rams into his stomach, and picks him up.

Loyalty nods to the others. “Get Violence and get to Inner Fears, without Milly nothing we do here will matter!”

They comply, and Loyalty picks up Hope and tosses him to one of them, before looking back at Starry, hoping to find a way to help...


looks at depression who crumples over, then taps her little wand with a frown "shit.... sorry are you okay Stray?" she says turning over to make sure he is okay "I didn't think another personality would turn on us but.. I guess that makes sense..."
Ruby turns to depression and then towards Milly "can you weaken or destroy this one?"

Stray brings the pistol down to chest level and watches as Depression's chest heals up. "Welp." He holsters the 1911 and makes his way over to Depression and picks up the revolver, swings the cylinder out, and ejects the cartridges, before tucking the gun in his waistband and offering Depression a hand to help him up. "That's why double actions suck, they take too long for a whole trigger pull. Now... are you gonna do somethin' to help yourself and help us take down Stubborn? Or do you just want to wallow here?" "That was a pretty quick draw you did, though." 

"SIt. Your. Ass. DOWN!" Starry yells out as she bends backwards and preforms a german supplex on Stubborn! 


Depression just sorta lays there, before he starts looking up at Stray. Milly had only just arrived, but Hearing Rubys request, lights up like a Christmas tree, both metaphorically and a bit literally. 

“Oooh? Well, glad your starting to see things my way!” and with a giggle and a hope she lands next to Depression, and putting a hoof on the confused emotions forehead, Depression starts screaming, bits of him starting to come off and crumble away into smoke!


Meanwhile Loyalty just watches as somehow Starry manages to surplex Stubborn, smashing His Table in the process as Stubborn plays sprawled out, blinking in confusion.

He then looks very very mad. “....Starry....i think we should use this moment to go meet with the others...” he suggests.


sighs and rubs the side of her cheek "I hope Griff doesn't mind, but this emotion doesn't really belong" she says turning towards Stray, then back to Milly "And now you don't go do that to anyone else, you got it?" 

Stray sighs and turns away as Milly starts to work on Depression. "Let's look around here for Starry and Hope." He mutters tiredly, rubbing his eyes and looking around. 

nods and perks up, looking around for the other emotions. She goes over to Milly and points at her "thats enough alright... thats the only one you can get rid of... everyone else stays" 

"Maybe dink about how to treat oders you big lug!" Starry shouts at Stubborn before nodding to the stranger and heads after him! 


It takes abit, but eventually Milly Finishes off Depression, panting heavily. “whooo......taking care of them in one burst like that sure takes a lot out of ya!” she giggles. “Yeah Yeah Librarian, ill retain myself....”


It was then that Violence, Duty, Hope, and Determination arrived, followed soon by Starry and the worse for wear Loyalty.

“Stubborn should be here soon...” Loyalty says, panting. It was Then Milly tapped her chin. “hmm.....odd....none of them look any bigger, ah well, guess a different emotion gained Depressions essence!” she shrugs. “maybe next time I should decide where to send it, heh.”


Ruby looks over towards the arriving emotions, and Starry "oh good! You're all here! Now.... we just need stubborn yea? Are we ready to deal with him?" 

Stray raises an eyebrow at Milly. "Uh, yeah... It probably went to Stubborn just now." He sighs and looks to the others as they arrive. "He's almost here? Well..." Stray looks to Milly. "We're gonna try to talk him down, but be ready to do your thing again just in case." 

"I just slammed him into a table, stunned him for a bit, but hey glad you guys are hear, are we ready to finish dis n-what da heck is dat?" Starry asks pointing at Milly.

"She is Milly. She's the dream mare." Stray reaches behind him and unslings the rifle, watching the door carefully that Stubborn would be entering through. "Hope, if things get ugly, take cover, okay?" 
"And for fuck's sake kid, please hope as hard as you can that this works out."

"What's a dream mare? Wait is dis de ding causing all dis trouble?" 

Looks towards the intruder and then back towards Starry "She is the dream wisp, the intruder thats been causing him to have bad sleep... but she is gonna help us get everything in a better spot!" she turns towards the other personalities and then to the small one. She walks over to Hope and pit pats him on the head again "I want you to be careful, okay? You may be small but you're the most important emotion here, okay?" 

"Wait, wait wait wait, what does she do, why is she here?" 

"Her job is to go into ponies' dreams and help clear out the bad stuff so they won't have nightmares. But... Stubborn is the real problem here." 

Ruby nods "yea Stubborn is making things worse" 

"Because he won't let her? But doesn't he need to work his way drough his problems at his own pace, Dreamwisp, out of all your patients have dey had relapses or issues?" Starry asks sounding concerned hoping that stubborn doesnt charge down the door. 

ooks towards Starry and sighs through her nose "ANd we can make sure he works through the rest of his troubles slowly, but for now we need to fix this before everything gets messed up" 


Hope seems a bit confused. “Im...not sure I am?” he then smiles. “But ok, ill be careful, you guys do too, all of you!” he nods, and runs over to the caged Daneil, whos just watching all of this with a smirk. 

“you guys are fools....” he mutters, shaking his head.

Milly shrugs. “i mean, yeah, sometimes they can take poorly to the sudden changes, but I mean, everyone can, even outside the mind!” she nods, thinking that a good enough defense of her purpose.


And it was then they Saw Stubborns door stretch, and the behemoth entered. Thankfully, he didn't look any different or bigger, only VERY pissed off, as he strolled over to the group, mace behind him leaving a path in the ground. 
“Last Chance....all of you. I saw Depression is gone, shame. He was useful. Dont make yourselves expendable too. Worse, you think just erasing an emotion and letting the gaps be filled by chance is healthy, even if depression itself isnt either.”

He shakes his head. “I keep order here. You all have created chaos. A chaotic mind is worse then any harm I have done.”


Ruby stares down the stubborn one, taking her wand and bringing it to the ready. She looks at the behemoth and shakes her head "you're slowly destroying Daniel, no matter what you think. You've become too big and need to be trimmed down" 

"If dey take poorly what do you mean-" Starry winces as the door suddenly stretches upwards and outwards as Stubborn comes around, "Oi, order? What is order if it causes unhappiness for de one you are supposed to care for you big dip! Stop being a control freak and let Griff be his own man!" Starry shouts before she charges forth once more with a tackle! 

"Chaos and being free from you is better than order and servitude under a manipulative bully." The human had his rifle aimed towards the giant, taking several steps backwards to keep distance between them. "Truth be told, I'm not sure we should've done that to Depression. And I'm not sure destroying you is the right thing to do, either. But it's at least a chance for something better than life under you. We don't want to have to fight you, so just put the mace away and talk to us. Just talk. Calm down." 

furrows her brow at Stray and Starry both "we aren't destroying him, we just need to balance him back with the other emotions!" 


Stubborn seems like hes ready to talk more, but as Starry rushes forward, he brings his mace up to smack her away!

In just that moment all hell breaks loose. Duty pushes Starry out of the way, getting punted so hard he gets impaled on a plank.

Loyalty and Determination start to go around either side, but Stubborn brings his mace up, ready to defend fro whatever comes.

“your gonna have to weaken him a bit, before I can do anything to him!” Milly says, seemingly a bit antsy about the whole situation. “Daneils gonna need a few days to recover from this....” she mumbles. 


facepalms when Starry forces the aggressive point of action. She shakes her head and readies her wand for combat. Ruby flicks her wand, unleashing a stun spell at Stubborn 


Stray's winces as he sees the mace going right towards Starry, but his jaw drop in horror when he sees Duty get impaled. As Loyalty and Determination start to flank Stubborn, Stray flicks the selector to giggle switch and holds the trigger down, aiming at Stubborn's chest and leaning forward in anticipation.

"Oof!" Starry has the wind knocked out of her from the sudden shove and started to speak up only to see Duty be knocked away! Watching him get impaled shocked the mare to her core, yet it also enrages the woman as she glares darkly at Stubborn, "You ass!" Starry yells as she feels a burning in her chest and limbs as she roars out in challenge racing to meet the giant in frontal combat! 

[Ruby, d20+Stun or Will]
[Stray, d20+Ranged or Will]
[Starry, d20+Strength or Will]
Ruby,16
Stray,18
Starry,7


Stray ends up distracting Stubborn pretty well, making him step back, but he still swings, knocking loyalty against a building hard, and getting a kick at Starry, forcing her to roll away.

Ruby manages to hit his other arm with her spell, watching it flop limply to the side, but he still swings with his other with the mace, forcing Stray and ruby to dodge to the side.

Determination ends up getting a good shot from the side, taking out one of Stubborns eyes, though like with Depression, the wounds are starting to heal...


Sliding back Starry growls under her breath and it sounds almost...feral. Rushing forwards Starry attempts to land a blow on the giant aiming for the back of his knee! 

Ruby does duck and roll to the side "good job boys, keep it up we have to weaken him to get stronger" 

Ruby does duck and roll to the side "good job boys, keep it up we have to weaken him to get stronger"
She draws her wand again, circling around towards the other side "maybe I can turn the heat up on him a little bit...." she says, aiming at him and unleashing a ball of fire marking the first time that Ruby has attempted to hurt an enemy since OH started 



Stray finishes emptying a whole magazine into Stubborn's chest. He knew it wouldn't actually stop him, but it was distracting him at least. "You can't keep bullying your brothers like this, Stubborn. You gotta work together with 'em. You keep coercing them like they're some outside force, but they're you, Stubborn. You need to have balance with yourself." He calls out as he ran to cover, and finished reloading, before poking up again and firing a controlled few pairs of shots towards the base of his mace weapon, attempting to shoot it out of his hand.


[Starry, d20+Melee or Will]
[Stray, d20+Ranged, Will, or Charisma]
[Ruby, d20+ Pyro or Will]
Ruby, 3
Starry,14
Stray, 8


Rubys attempt at a spell is only a bit more impressive then a small fireworks, thankfully Stubborn is too distracted to take advantage, and Violence joins the fray, chucking a stick of dynamite into his face, which combined with Starrys nuclear jab into the back of his knee, knocks him over!

Stray really couldn't get a clear shot, so he still holds his mace, but Determination gets a good shot into his hand himself, helping to keep him from using it.

He moans in pain where he lays, but time is short.....and then Milly jumps forward, doing large floaty hops towards him. “Hold him down now boys, this wont take long....”


Ruby isn't much help with her strength at all, instead she tries to assist with her magic with another stun spell "get him... and Milly don't you dare destroy him" 

"Just balance him out, don't dissolve him for Waka's Sake." Starry says as she reaches over and holds down one leg using her knee to hold the limb down. 

Stray rolls his eyes and stands up from behind his cover, going over towards the middle of the field near where the caged daneil was. "EveryBODY! STOOOOP!" "We can't go around messin' with his head like this and gettin' rid of emotions!" 

[Starry, d20+ Will and Strength]
[Ruby, d20+Will and Stun]
Ruby, 18
Starry, 17

Ruby looks towards Stray "this is a problem, we're just fixing an issue... this is a real medial issue can't you see it?" 

"De Dreamwisp is going to just power him down, so he's not so huge, bring him into balance at least, den you're gonna go on your way yeah?" Starry asks the Dreamwisp 

"Yes! But if we get rid of Stubborn completely, don't you think that'll mess Griff up? If he has no stubborness at all, what's he gonna do when the pressure's on?" Stray reslings his M16. "We have to balance this out, and I don't see that happenin' just sluggin it out like this."

She sighs "we aren't getting rid of stubbornnes, nobody wants to do that. There are all sorts of emotions that can use this instead. Hope, loyalty, duty, determination... sure Stubbornness is needed too, but its sucking away all the others"



With Rubies stun spell, Starrys strength, and help from the others, Stubborn cant get up.

With a giggle, Milly floats above him. “Well, time for someone to get put in their place~” she winks at Stubborn.

“You all go to hell. Your not helping, your simply making the Griff you want, not the Daneil he wants to be.” he spits off to the side. “Tell me, will he even be the same person? Will he even be the friend you all came to help?” 

Milly rolls her eyes. “he'll be a ***Better Griff, obviously.” and landing on him, Stubborn starts to go through the same thing as Depression was, shrinking just as fast, though his size means he has time.


"Wait! Milly! Isn't that gonna disable Stubborn entirely?!"
"That's what it did to Depression, right?" 

"Milly will get off when she balance out Stubborn and not be so huge," Starry spares a glance at Milly with a warning tone, "Right? Dreamwisp?"

leans forward towards Milly, keeping her wand ready just in case as well "No she isn't disappearing stubborn. Stubborn has been growing at the expense of the rest of him and its been hurting him"

"She disabled Depression... Didn't you, Milly?" He blinks. 


Stubborns only just a bit bigger then everyone else now, Milly using some sorta ability to store his emotional essence in a little cloud this time, though at this point it is quite a big cloud.

She giggles at Stray. “this is the better way, easy and simple. Depression is gone, aand just need to know how much to leave stubborn with~”

Looks up towards Milly "Leave him equal to the others. Just like Duty" 

"No, this is fine, Griff is stil stubborn, so get off him now."

Stray just slaps his hands against his sides and shakes his head. "Whatever."

"Besides Dreamwisp can move de essesnce to de others to be more equal or at least make it so dey are able do what dey need." 

[ d12+ perception folks] 
Starry,12
Stray,3
Ruby, 3

As Ruby and Stray get caught up in watching Milly and arguing, Starry watches closely, as she hopes off Stubborn, leaving him about the same size as the others, more or less.

“Now, where should I put all this essence?” She asks. And then Starry sees it.

Duty was gone, she only caught the last whisps of him vanishing, and then saw a slightly familiar face, but younger, suddenly on top of Milly, knocking her back with a cane and reaching for the bubble of emotional energy!

"Fuuuuuuuck!" Starry shouts as she dives for the bubble! 

Ruby wonders whats going on, then looks to see Starry attacking one of the emotions. She balks when she realizes that one of them is gone "what? How did he do that when none of you could?"

Stray dashes to try to get the bubble in case Starry misses 

[ Starry, d12+Dex or Will] 
Starry, 6

Stray was simply too far away to reach, the other emotions to busy checking over what was left of Stubborn.

Starry was the only one, and she manages to bump the bubble, but Grudge still gets it, and jumps backwards, holding it close.

“If Daneil aint dying, he sure as hell isnt leaving it up to *you people to decide who he is!”

And then Grudge smashes the thing on the ground.


There was a burst of light, as the energy is released.

Hope grimaces, glowing as he grows to be about a young teen, though still by far the youngest there. The cage around Self-Respect shatters, and he looks a bit healthier, though only by a bit.

Grudge himself seems to grow a bit bigger, and stronger looking, his cane refurbishing into something much more fancy and solid.

Stubborn himself glows, regain a bit of mass, but still not enough to overpower the others.

Loyalty and Determination also both grow a bit, but not too much. Violence grows a good amount, but still not over sized.

By the time it all stops, its is by no doubt Grudge is the top dog, even if he is no where near as much as Stubborn was before.

Leaning on his Cane, the now fresh looking, healthy Grudges looks at the crowd. “well? Anyone got a bone to pick over this?”


"Yeah I do!" Starry says as she swings a punch at Grudge! 

"Ahhhh shit..." 


Grudge deflects it, ducking down and skipping away. “Now now, havent you folks done enough meddling in Daneils head? Dont you think its time to let good enough be good enough?” he spits out.

"Wait a minute, Grudge... Can't you do a favor to yourself and give some of your power to Hope, here?" 

gets back up and looks over at the others, huffing through her nose "This... I think Daniel should get to decide how he is. I think hes right, we've done plenty enough already..."

"Now you want to stop messin' around with the emotions...""Fine... Let's just get out of here, then." 

Grudge laughs. “Fuck you all. The energy went where it deserved to go.”

"Oh hell no, we're not done yet, you're not going to be the core personality here." Starry says before looking at Ruby and Stray, "What you just want to let this old buzzard be given free reign? It'll turn dings into shitshow, you know dat!" 

Milly leans over to Ruby. “one word, and hes gone.” she smiled.


Ruby huffs and looks towards Loyalty, and Determination, then remembers something, she smiles at Milly and turns to Grudge "Bring back Duty"
she says, to Grudge
"He'll get Griff killed before long because he can't let a grudge be, are you nuts?"


Buut, suddenly, Loyalty, Determination, and Violence all are around Grudge. Together they clearly have the power to overcome him.

Loyalty smiles, looking over at Starry. “its ok, we can handle this. No one here to too powerful anymore.”

"I don't like it, he could try to sneak up on one of you and just drain you down like dat. Why give him de chance?" Starry asks confused. 


Grudge smiles. “Alright ill behave...but I couldn't bring back Duty if I wanted.” 

Milly herself rubs the back of her head. “yeeahh....forging new emotions is....something even I take time to do.” she cleared her throat. “and him being gone means, he would be a new emotion if made again.”

Loyalty looks to Milly, then Grudge. “Because if Milly leaves, then he wont be able to redirect her power like he did, thus he cant do that again.”

Grudge laughed. “thought no one had noticed that.”

Ruby points an accusatory finger at Grudge "You... you shouldn't be just deleting an emotion like that...." 

"What... Milly is the one here deleting emotions!" 

"No, see you already done messed up," Starry says as she gets ready to fight, "You showed your willing to abosrb de oders how you expect us to trust you huh?" 

Ruby is pretty uppity about it and stamps her foot on the ground "look now with the balance not out of whack, Daniel can just work out his emotions on his own, right?" 

Stray rolls his eyes and shakes his head in frustration. "We really have no idea what the fuck we're doing."
"Milly, it's time to leave."

"When you've go-" Starry grinds her teeth as Ruby and Stray both seem like they want to quite Starry finally says, "Fine, if you want to leave den leave, take de dreamwisp wid you too so I can finish fixing dis." 

Grudge shrugs. “you've done enough, Ruby is right. If you want me dwindled, perhaps you should do it the right way, eh?” he grinned widely.

a lot of the other emotions seem to mumble agreements. 

“IF you care for Daneil. Help him, out there, not in here.” Determination says with a nod.

"I'm not leaving you here, Starry. And somehow I don't think fighting him is gonna make Grudge give up any of his power. We're not quitting, Starry." Stray's annoyed expression turns to a soft smile for a moment, "Like Determination said."

Seeing as how the crowd is aginst her now Starry hufs before she finally nods, "Fine....just...get us out of here."

ruby waves her wand softly and looks over towards the others "you all behave now... nobody go trying to drive Daniel to ruin again, okay? I don't... I don't want to ever have to meet any of yall ever again haha" she says with a small laugh "We'll help yall in the real world" 


Milly frowns. “wait, I cant exist outside of a mind. I need someplace to go if Im not staying here!”

As Ruby casts the spell to let them out though, Milly rushes towards the group!

But just like that, everyone wakes up back in the library....but they swear they saw Milly escape with the spell, hrm....

Griff suddenly wakes with a start. “hu!?! wha!?” he says, breathing heavily. “wha.....what happened? Did....did it work?”


Stray picks himself up, back in his pony body again. He looks over to Griff, then the others, and his ears fold back and he frowns. "Yeah... It worked." He says somberly.

looks up, hugging Eve for some reason. She doesn't mind she supposes and smiles over towards Griff "are... are you feeling okay buddy? Things got kind of wild, I'm sorry"

Starry would have blinked and opened her mouth to say wait as she reaches out to the Dreamwisp before whoosp things just got weird
Rubbing her head as she awakens Starry looks around to the others and slowly starts to pat Griff, "Well, good news. You're free of de weird ding, bad news, uh, we had to beat and drash your personality a bit to make it work."

scrunchies her snout and looks over at the others with a soft smile "that... went a little different from what I planned... I wonder if we could use that to help Daybreak..."

"Who knows...Hey Ruby, you've got someding on your face..." Starry says as she points towards her forehead. "It looks like a letter."

Ruby blink blinks and rubs her forehead "ehh?"

"I don't think we should be messing with anyones head like that again," Stray replies to Ruby with a guilty-looking frown as he looked down to the floor. "We shouldn't have let Milly do anything..." Stray then goes on to explain to Griff exactly what Milly did and how his traits changed.



As I forgot to mention in my haste to not be late for work, everyone wakes up with a splitting headache like never before.

Griff rubs his head idly, nodding along as hes told the problem is solved, but he frowns deeply at what Starry said, and then as Stray starts to explain what happened he just....deadpans.

Griff sits there, blank faced, mouth opening and closing slowly, before he just suddenly looks between all three of them. “Ah.....ah.....what? You...yall...let that......” tears well up in his eyes, and he runs a shaky claw down his face, hard enough to draw blood as he does so, before he stands, backing up away from them, breathing hard, heavy, eyes darting between them frantically.

He stumbles, knocking over a book case and ending up sprawled out over it, but he quickly pushes himself back up, and darts out the door, slamming it open hard enough for something to crack, as his still tired self starts frantically trying to run away.


Ruby didn't want to tell Griff about it, but They opened right on up and let the metaphorical cat out of the bag. She leans forward, hoping to persue Griff, but the headache prevents her from doing so "wait, we need to explain.. ahh gah.... please come back, and let us help you..." she leaves as a departing statement for the gryphon before he leaves.


tray Shot watches with a guilty expression, his ears pinned back after he finished explaining what happened. "I'm sorry Griff Mc Beakface ... But... If we were in switched positions right now, I would have wanted you to tell me the truth about what happened immediately." When the tears well up in Griff's eyes, Stray's heart drops to his stomach as regret grips him. "N-no! Please, Griff, wait!" He tries to chase after him, but if Griff seemed really determined to get away, Stray wasn't going to stop him. "I'm sorry!" Stray calls out and stops at the door as Griff left with a sigh, a dejected, defeated look on the orange pegasus' face.

is pretty curious as to what became of the dream wisp actually

Starry would try to shut Stray's mouth but it looks like he went ahead and did it, "Fucking..." Starry would start to follow after Griff and try to explain, but fuck man this headache...maybe she could try to catch him at his hidey hole...maybe she could explain there?


Griff would not return home. He didn't even know where he was, only that he had to get away. The mix of exhaustion, headache, and the revelation of what they had let happen, perhaps on purpose, was much more then he could handle at the moment.

Finding himself alone in some tree in a place even he didn't know, Griff simply curled up, ignoring the fact he kept scratching at the wounds he had made, three long, red streaks down his face as finally, he slept, after a week, though it was far from sound....

If the others would wish to ever try and make this right, they would have to hope they could catch him, sometime...