On Floor 94, the dire wolves grew restless. Memories of good food and dragon-like bipeds playing with them faded. The old hierarchy reasserted itself as their fur grew dull and shaggy. They patrolled their territory daily, ready to attack anything that trespassed.
*
On Floor 95, the kraken slept. Sharks circled calmly in the water above her. She had peace. And yet, with that peace, came something unexpected. The calm waters had nothing to disturb them, and she was… bored.
*
On Floor 96, the slimes rested. The air barely moved, and this was good. Not a single thing vibrated throughout the entire maze, which made them content. This was good. All was good.
*
On Floor 97, life continued on. The racers raced, the musicians played, Nat cooked with whoever needed grandmotherly advice, and Bonecrusher the Black made sure everyone got along fine. Y drew up blueprints for a catapult, and recruited people to help build it. No one said anything, but it was clear that something felt missing. They hoped it wouldn’t stay missing long.
*
On Floor 98, the ants swarmed over the desert, searching for food. They were hungry. They were always hungry. But now there was a… viciousness that hadn’t been there before. They missed their friend, a grief which turned into anger, causing them to lash out at anything that got in their way.
They found the trail of the gusanote, and lightning flashed in their eyes. Driven by pure emotion, against the warnings of their queen, they decided to attack. They were weak, but they were many. They would kill the worm, even if it took all cycle.
*
On Floor 99, the yetis decided, by anonymous vote, to move to the other side of the ravine. It seemed like a far more peaceful place to live.
*
And on Floor 100, surrounded by mountains of gold and gems, the platform with six buttons on it gathered dust. A dragon slept nearby, unaware of the passage of time.
*****
Dear Diary,
Again, it’s been like a week, sorry!
Kimi is better, mostly. She’s been using fireballs to melt the snow off our roofs, which looks like a lot of fun.
Lilly has been trying to figure out if any of her spells would allow her to go through either door, but hasn’t had any success yet. She’s not upset about failing, so that’s good.
Aya and Mika wrote out the rules to a couple games, and we’ve been playing those a lot. With Via, of course. If it’s a team game, I’m always teamed with Aya. Via and Mika can basically communicate by tapping their nails on the table to make music, so they always play together. It’s kind of cheating, but Aya and I don’t mind. If we win, their cheating just makes our victory sweeter. And at this point we’ve kind of learned what some of the music means. Like, in hearts, if Via taps a scale that goes up, that means she’s going to try to shoot the moon. Or if Mika whistles the first eight notes in Ode to Joy, she has a good hand.
It’s fun. Which, we need something fun.
Oh, Kimi just came in, I have to go.
Goodnight, dungeon!
awww see Mr Admin you're such a meanie all the folks on the other floors are unhappy cos they miss their friends! open the doors, let the catgirls play!
tho i guess the catgirls are already playing. thats nice that they're all friends with each other & stuff. we hope they're all doing ok.
The fluffy doggos forgot?! What!? NOOOO! all the fun times and headpats forgotten in the span of a week? Are the adventures not giving out meatballs anymore!?
The adventurers haven't reached the upper floors yet.
see, the admin knew all along. Him finding out was a given, being an admin and all. And being the person behind the whole shebang, it's not like he'd change anything, if anything, he was going to do exactly what he did and enforce the original rules of the place.
You know what would be interesting and has the potential for actual consequences? The *players* finding out. How are the players going to react when they find out that all the so-called "NPCs" and monsters they've been happily murdering wholesale are actually human people just like them, trapped, manipulated, and forced to serve the dungeon? Nothing is sacred, not their bodies, not their minds, the dungeon molds them to it's will as it needs and however it pleases. Frankly, it's incredibly evil.
It's one of the things the dungeon makes them do. Hiding those facts. It doesn't want word to get out. So. What happens when it DOES?
Yes, this is exactly as I see it.
F’ing admin.
Screwing everything up and destroying the peace and relationships everyone’s made