Town Square
Despite the fact that Gloucester—and this world in general—frequently proves relaxing is a bad idea, Eda could really, truly use a distraction. Which means she finds herself at the little festival, doing her best to enjoy the atmosphere. Nothing seems off yet, after all.

A part of her still misses Bumble Gum, even if she wouldn’t risk their food again. But it’s probably just as well that none of the offerings from the food carts here appear to be striking the humans as strange; it’s partly because of that she can be found trying the various seafood options.

Or perhaps you’ll find her haggling over a piece of jewelry she likes—or, more likely, thinks someone she knows would like.

Small Fears
It isn’t a sound that makes Eda’s ears prick up suddenly so much as a lack of sound. It takes her a moment to realise the background hum of the city and the festival that she’d almost begun to tune out is missing.

And just like that, she realises she shouldn’t have let herself relax to begin with. She looks around the newly empty street, instantly on high alert. A growl rises in the back of her throat, half wary and half frustrated. Couldn’t she have one nice day out?

i. - tinies only
Eventually, Eda’s spent the better part of an hour searching for people, and while she’s had a depressing lack of luck, she’s also noticed some other strange things.

The sky is the obvious one, though she’s not quite sure what to make of it. But the rest is somehow what’s actually weirder. The lack of proper details on the buildings, for one. The food, for another.

She picks up an apple, or what looks roughly like one, from an unattended cart, tossing it up and down a couple of times idly. Just to be sure, she tries biting into it. Yep, that’s definitely plastic. And not even plastic with a good texture. She’s not sure what else she expected.

ii. - tinies only
At some point, Eda spots someone she hasn’t run into yet. There’s a sense of relief, regardless of who it is—not that she’d wish being here on anyone else. Still, maybe together they’ll be able to figure something out.

But the relief doesn’t last long, and she doesn’t even get a chance to say hello to them.

A huge, shadowy hand reaches down from the sky, not towards Eda but towards whoever she’d just spotted. Without stopping to think she darts out of cover to grab them, pulling them out of the way.

iii.
As wary as Eda is of the looming shadow creatures, staying inside doesn’t appear to be getting anyone anywhere. They need to figure out what’s going on here, before they spend any longer without food.

It’s this desire to figure things out that finds Eda having climbed onto the roof of the clocktower, peering up into the shifting fog. The building is holding her weight, but she can’t help noticing it really doesn’t feel as sturdy as it ought to.

She’s seriously considering just… trying to see how far she can fly. What could go wrong?

Small Nightmares - tinies only
cw: rot/fungus, potential animal attacks, potential possession/body horror

Eda isn’t prepared for what happens when she steps through a doorway into what’s meant to be the library. Everything in this place has been… oddly mundane, in a plasticky sort of way. The walls falling away is new, the bland scenery suddenly replaced with something far more organic.

Despite the sudden shift, there’s something almost preferable about the forest she finds herself in. Nature is infinitely more comfortable than the oddly sterile version of Gloucester. And the trees look familiar, nostalgic—the red leaves of the Boiling Isles as opposed to the green of the Human Realm.

She takes a deep breath of the rich forest air, a stark change from the faint smell of craft paint and glue. It's tinged with a note of decay that isn't unpleasant… at first.

It quickly becomes hard to ignore, followed by wet crumbling sounds. She hears trees shift, branches creak and fall, before she finally sees the creeping rot. Sickly green fungus, or something similar but wrong. A tide of decay consuming everything it touches, inch by inch.

It may or may not actually look precisely like the corruption spread by Emperor Belos, but it certainly looks like what her own mind had conjured when she’d been told about it.

Which is enough to send her scrambling back, and pulling any companion she has with her. She’s not sure how real this is, but she doesn’t want to find out by touching it.

Retreating sends her further into the trees, even as they seem to press closer together. It’s surprisingly easy to put some distance between herself and the corruption, at least at first. Unfortunately, there’s no time to rest before it’s clear there are other problems. The ground trembles with heavy footsteps as something begins to stalk closer, and Eda tenses, listening.

The scrape of talons. The rustle of feathers.

It's not hard for her to make a guess at what's waiting for her in the trees, and if nothing else she's prepared.

Because… is that all they've got?

The owlbeast is a cheap trick. One this place has used before. Not to mention one that's starting to lose its sting.

The problem with recurring nightmares is that anything can start to feel routine, given enough time.

And besides. She knows where the owlbeast actually is, the version that matters. She can feel it in the back of her mind, on her side, bristling warily in much the same way she is.

Or maybe it's bristling because it's noticed something Eda hasn't.

Wildcard
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