SeaParading from the Prowleys around Capone, perched siGruntled & the Shack's owner, arrest of our squad prEventuaLeak hit damp earth, where we churNine like cereal chunks around the ladder, ponderous against forsaking Tree Stand. RuBehemoth flattened the Scepter across both Bright curly cousins, & ushered them on either side of herself as the Lead. Regardless, Fin refuseDeparture witHolstering a zebra-striped chemical TARter. I wasn't betting the Dryad were susceptible to fumes, so Falco having the freeze Ray comforted me the most, as maybe you couldn't slay Faebrush, but incapasse-delay if attitudes turned Testy. Trent hunkered in the shadow of Saul's springy leGait. Anika asked to carry the *'Phission* Egg I was cradling in one arm, & for the sake of Harmony I released it, left to march vapidly with lone Solar Painel c@Lamped hard in my fingertips as the severed SILPHs seemed much larger & formidable as we approached, half them shimmering & brimming with muscle - and as many eyes as the NSA.
Maybe it was just the AntleRack, but the FlaminGhost#Specter fanned disparagingly wide as Gwain & Rovo's shoulders would be merged together. The moths themselves spread big as unfolded Tortillas. The speckled canine was definitely looming about as tall as a one story gutter, like Kilimanjaro atop SerenGirafFees. The quills on the Centaur were lain thick as Twizzlers, & rippled from time to time. The smells wafted tart & musky, almost like... pineapple pizza?
Anika scooted up alongside the pair of cousins, to present the egg as lesser submission. Ram-Wig glode forward to meet them with coiling mango-tip-purple... tuliPlugs for arms? ~ almost the exact shade Amelia decided to thread between hair-roots.
We were every bit of 6 paces away, when the NegoyLEaSHavor raised an armQoil & seemed to magnetize the Staff into grip, lustily; the pair of relatives unnerved their grasp on the pole when it wiggled, as the Druids moaned. < "Ah, HOWWW the Funda'puri4 pLanTuniG8 have moosed these ZirCr0wN stuDrills the previous paiRove moonths." > The Shroom-groomer then calmed & instructed Amy: "HoWeaver, your year-battered Overseer is correct: this tinGrail scepter has already preserved your party today, and is APT to do so again. At next time we meet, we shall anticipate to recover its emissions." It issued the ScepTree back down to Becca. "For NOW, usher the Kite-clip down this Vac*Warmchute," It gestured with a Hollo'wrist socket among spiraling ridges.
Amy was repulsed enough that her hand wavered when she extended her fingers, and prematuREleased the bronze Cosmetic from a gap of inches, so that it ricocheted off the lip of the Tube. Half a dozen Moths collabo-reaction were tested to the rescue: & scarcely prevented the object from tumbling to the mud, captured at perilous angles between them.
"Glam*-it! Fortunate that's no delicate ornament," The Pleacock jiggled in exasperation while the Moths ascended to deposit properly into the DragScorn's chute. The coils then successively lit up amber, swinging back and forth like a scanner. "Such timid interaction after our polite displays elucidate a slew of CLUES... so let's begin by canvassing you, tumbling peach:"
Amy tried tilt her chin higher, while shuffling closer to Becca's batteRibs. RuBehemoth enveloped her reassuringly with one arm, never breaking eye contact with the Dryads.
"~Brayq*Feeyoomm,,," The Spydruid raised one tripod off the ground as it evaluated her. "Critically groundswollen by COMMON crowds of ozone pollution; that's an unbecoming trick against multi~crunches of Star*dom. You feel COMPELLED to trot amongst the riff-raff, appeasing them for their LACK of knack to entertain higher associations. But your response should blossom to charge as one equipped with graceful ENDURANCE: to patiently modify - streaming like a fabulous flag no matter HOWealth revolves in vicinity."
Satisfactorily, Fin smirked at his taller cousin. "Hardy bloodhounds Aimes! If you could handle thugs, you'd be unstoppable."
"I'm content to symbolically shine," Amy countered. "I'm no despot conqueror."
"Dis-$eam'illarly," belched the Swine. "Your teasing relative harbors the components of a lopsided CHART. He hurtles from canopy to canopy, thwarting FRICTION that cause witnesses to wonder whether they ought rustle between haBITATS, stashing variety of contents upon kite like a kang~Fisheroo with tacklebox. The downside of this self-Reliance = unwillingness to compromise."
Fin shrugged. "As long as people arrange coping habits in their own corner, that's what matters in the end. Who can afford to be babying a band of followers til they find groove: not me. Not when textures & hobbies offer so many sweeter satisfactions."
HOrsey'pine pawed the mud, wheezing crunches of excitement right over his ear. "Here's one who cares not for REVeRinse of opinion - yet conversely, fishes & pecks based on superficial convenience, passing beside optiMUM flavor."
"You don't need the whole stomping round, just a section?" Anika seemed trying to convince herselFin. "Could that satisfyee withouTravel?... Welp, I suppose worrying less about others does do wonders for keeping distance between crowds that," she covered her nose and honked, "Smell like cattle-trailer."
"We can't all shed so clean as the smoothly SCALED," protested Dogman.
"But she is that sleek & WHY her nostrils be unaccusTamed," hummed the Lobstrocity, stirring front-hooks together like cricket sounds. "ImpermeaBask'wit of Lunariety: measured sacred as Scars ~ cycling back {*deFici'mal#Carts.>), igniting wholes."
"Aha!" Anika chewed. "I knew I wasn't randomly invited."
I heard a smear of Gutt: ("Who picked her?") Sig replied, ("Ya god me, she begged to comb.")
"Ohhh i certainly woood anchor my Bet," swished the crawdad, "uPond her moxie in a contesttt."
"Hey you weren't the only one chosen," Trent affronted her. "Pocgendi would have taken any of us at the lab table."
Caution hit me like a Roadsign - "How's the Bio-teacher involved with this?"
Nika scrabbled, "She described participating in massive virtual reality research, but the program attracted aliens or something that intercepteddd," she trailed off. "Uh-oh... Trace was so onto something."
The crimson-tailed Ray drifted forward: "I guess it's time to own the tail I swung across this Affair," it blubbered. "I imitated as human essence - for SILPH needed an item stowed by the same rapscallions who holDimension of convincing ties to our existence. Nobody invites them for Holy'days, whicHelps not risk national attention leaking to brash City mouths: Direct retaliation would settle even less favorably - whereas your humanistiConventions are the perfect way to fetch semblance of Normality."
"Now it's adding up," Trent pouted. "Just a smokescreen. Back in class you were after a device to regather some memories. We ignored how shady it sounded. Jerome & Liam were too chicken to get dirt in their nose. Can't believe this; the one time I wasn't lazy!"
"It was far from a flawless costume," Nika grudged, as the Ray squeezed the egg from her with waving fins. "Day to day you only changed between 3 outfits!"
"The backstory didn't have to sparkle BEYONDoubt's shadow, & nevertheless, my account of events rings truthFile," confirmed zabRAYa. "Apart that operations were NOT all stationed within this AtMush#Field, nor since times before Christ were recorded. In fact, that jelly~bender was planted by the Pix'Sylphs in response to DOWNPLAY Pantheons, since our Alchemists had fit together the first flying models BASED around Reverse-kinetic chains of Rotation. It was the Towers of disperShip Babble (if you never pieced it together). SoMEmbers went hijacked vessels, tempted to go cruising about... objectifying and ranching certain civilizations, while spinning grandiose tales of solitary FEATS such as we observed your asparuGust bloke blustering on about earlier."
"Swine-charging boasts akin to those moochers swim my limbs rabid!" crabbed the Rhino. "No offense Sowder," it graced the Batty boar.
My neck jostled.* Well that could explain a good chunk of cultuRELaygendary obsession into the suoPeerNatural. "So what in ruGarnish is a Pix'Sylph?" I demanded.
"Beyond individual Whirrlds, maintain placeholders or Pixelators - RELENTLESS in energy & curiosity. They thread echoes into chordes = pressure chords into Shape, >_hand embed timing mechanisms bed'Ween each conglomerate, inhabiting forms from a DISTANCE, that they may entertain themselves watching crystal formats DIVIDE between personalities. (They are preoccupied having to fortify their strings to match the BURDEN of increasing Masses). You are cradled in them, like clothing, while they are stewing MiSTrings."
Becca confirmed, "That's why runes are so profitable across all atmospheres = Webtides situate all that overlaps any complex engine. But I bet the PIX do it for beauty of solidarity as much as anything."
"You know what else overlaps beautifully? Deliberation," Anika charged. "I plan on using the money you gave me up front to Gift my sis something that surpass what museumStock."
"A bonding worth Bundling!" applauded the Moths. "Thriving use of circumstance!"
"It's so wild how..." Trent blubbered. "Everyone around me can just pinpoint their life goals like this. What if circumstances near or dear change?"
"Everything swim under CONSTANT fluX, but in each Category one must gauge the personal HUFFort per size of gratification:" GurjivOwl invited. "What threshold of flavor and dosage will COVER you content? Behold there's more beyond human history & fairy nooks that have been WITHHELD. It concerns how those Pix-vine Electricians spawned: they gravitate these planetary CAGES that lock civilizations from being civiLaZeal8TranscenDriven. Will your mettle settle for that LACKluster trudge? We discovered Their PHASE spawn from 4 FunDiments: Veloci~wiggly, Bulge, & #Overlap - among a Dreadful backdrop of Gap (G0bscure contraction) ~ All the CHURNING swells of multipliCity finally wrenched Numbness *_* to ignite a 5th into paradoxical orbit = Equi*Lightbringum PUNK-shredDragged Blindness thrice for each elemenTangled, leaving loops that wobbled exponenChewally 4 times over in magnitude of strength as they raced to Stab-ility. As the Quintessential*Fourtex steadied, 9 elemenTally offspring began to CLARIFY availaBell: BraiDefelct, BordeRoWedge, GaSHelLasTube, BunDensiTarp, statiCore sucXpin, PerpenDeFilter, symmetry, CrysTunneLens, & the ultimate byproduct of PLantituDEfinement or risk assessment - which harb-your intelleCreVaSTructure of bridGEtstream. Nothing had been fertile til the wicks of 'motion SPROUTugged these nine knives and glue cross-thread boundaries & fortified its Domain like a Lantern's casing."
"So you're sayinggg," bundled Amy. "Life is catered to Higher forces?"
"But progggres... could be ours," Falco engineered.
"Well-PINCH'D ears to both you; now witness some DOC*u-Ment=Elation," Ol jelly-skirt retracted the Skullcap without warning, & a lumpy bottlenose dollFaNarwhal sprouted gasping oranGrin batween funneLeathery foxish ferns; agape toothless mouth buzzed something like 2 hummingbird wings. "Perhaps there are ways to dismantle ALL-encomBossing positions from this hybriDreadful Stage of competition they platFORM around us - without simply unRAVE'ling back into their Spooling Factories for recycled function. Ourselves elevated beyond bordeRock & magnet flow~smalLiquiDots to drag in shapes of aroma, adopt shimmers of height, & upGRADEcode shiver of language. Technically, we're not permitted to make appeaRINSE - but we can never quite replicate permanent forMazin' = BEAUTY we woulDote to ingrain."
Buck stared like he preferred to take an iconic photo of the moment - not even Lenny back home would ever believe this encounter from his brother's lips. Who could even relay the container of worms being spilled? Trent crept around him: "Spooling Factories?"
"Precisely, even now every organism's PANACHE is tethered bed'Ween at leasht 4 Pillars. Thus all of us convened here are half-lit at BEST, possessing nearly no say in how our cells EXPAND or hook for energy. Isn't that appalling?" The DragHorn inquired.
Gutt hollered, "I think that might be a little accusaTower of the Electricians!"
Both arachnids began jumping around. "Interprets a High-born," they chided. "But ValkSails merely tell the weak to pray more, & confine the weakest to prey on IN*STINK as they scale fewer sensations of pleasure."
From above Rovo declared, "At least I can ingest what I want."
"Wishfool," scratched the Boar. "Yew DEEPEND on complex industry shipments to provide convenience. You MUST take what materials your region supplies. Not to MENTION being prone to weak skeletal design, among contaminants & deforming dis~eases."
DallaSHowered*: "And what do you suppose we do about that?"
"Well the crowsh*Leaft of Burrowers will advise you to accept what gLANDS you're given & Glens you grow'Nearby - that's to say there are other Fundry'mentals also scooting about, SPRINKLING influential substance here or there on numerous beasts before they CROSS puberty. But that's like many parents who think children ought mainly hold same interests SACRED like them," reasoned the Troll. "Offspring are divided between all Keeper's & Watchers stimulayting Hoots. We SILPH aspire to warp gravity & diSTILL like thermostats, to occupy a Gyro'land of at least five thousand CUBED acres - we prime to name such an abode, & erect a PALACE among each various climate for every Fundament except Numbness."
Fin sucked his thin moutHard, to where I could make out the divits against his molars: "I've heard of the Wyrpluq Realm, but it certainly didn't sound Customized for delight."
"Again, Burrowtoad belongings," zabRAYa poured. "Exactly why we haven't structured our HAVEN yet. Simple NATURALISTS in control = They pacify themselves with elixirs & primarily burn SLOW, arranging Decor & mandatory ceremony, rather than poising Sport or BALANCING Techno-efficiencies."
Amy flicked, "I don't see the problem."
"They are consumers awaiting CONSIGNED times of jubilee," snarled Dogman. "It's redundant; they monitor ecosystem traffic that can mostly releGATE itself; instead of improving they maintain: the two dominant styles of music shift once per CENTURY."
"What's holding back from renovating then?" Pheo requested.
"Same restrictions as your kind," They compared. "Licensed APPROVAL to self-employment = The Pixelfs CURSE (CURse,) {{CArVe)} us & we suffer gaps in our prior knowledges."
Buck cracked like a vinyl record jumping out of groove. "You're a reguLawr Jack-hewLantorn!"
"What you see in us," paved the Rhino. "Are molds of what this planet PERMITS, not self-expressionism. We feel as those shriveled TIGHT with age."
Trent was befuddled by the final claim. "You look Stouter than us..."
"Somewhat illusory," soothed the Troll. "Please fold your ROUGH impression of my flamboyant attire. Flagrantly as the green-bean just spouted HIS expression."
Dudley grinned while dusting hands together. "Thank ya kindly."
"Well let's see then, in that case," Trent inhaled, "I think the Mask is overkill for a Negotiator... the gown is a little skimpy when you got 8 oozing wasp stingers lodged in your belly like that. Don't get me wrong, I like the swag that it brings with the vertical Fluctuation, but the reveal is a system~Shocker." (I heard Pheo giggling from afar). "The berries of course, gotta be the best part though, like a jeweled cloak or something. A bloke definitely can't absorb it all in one quick look!"
"You spot mannerisms of symbol allowing me to remain incognito, whilst FRESH wounds suggest my Feral features may blend vulnerabuilty," Peacock illuminated. "I am not immune to FOLLY depriving my Lunge. Take your triad-Alliance cloth for example: its associated mental Creedos spur you to FERVOR over what you find lacking in your sphere, yet caution rioting against narrow Bridges. Mementos TATTER identity to ingenious renovations - it's optimal to forge one at every recurring mutual bond."
immediaTrently yanked out the special Hanky from his britches, & pretended his feelings required a Llama*worthy splatter! (after tucking it away) he explained: "You've touched me where I thought only the Stretch-4-Reference criBulletins could instill wisdom & hope. You cage three *birds* under one gown! Legendary. Can I have a personal token to remember you by?"
"X-CESSIVE, you contorting monkey," it vilified. "Just think of raspberries, or fasten an emblematic beast-Limb upon yourself."
"But I want a souveNeearr," he Shore pleaded.
"FoReel," I advocated. "None of those things would be anywhere near as potent as something that's been stored among your company - would it?"
"Peer*Amidsstt," Flamingo-neck snagging into an awKinkwad twist, withouTwisting a shoulder. "Tart as a minefield."
Crap, I almost felt like it was seeing down through my cerebral cortex with those oscillating amethyst skull-holes. WithouTensing too quickly, I unfurled my spine subtly taller, just in case my body language was failing to properly blanket loose intents. "Thanks for the compliment," I slimed. (curbing the itch to add, 'Bonehead'.)
"I suppose we should lend a keepsake as token of faith & excelLenDesign awaiting fashion," perMissShroom, impossibly bowing its neck. "Fetch me the Patha'wheep Platter, my brave Enclave." Beneath the hips of its peachy fabric, something like 4 deflated balloonSlid out the chassis. Flappy edges were partly screened from sight, twitching out a morse code.
The two arachnids scuttled over toward the rhino's feet pads, & then skulked up the legs to the blindside where there must have been some kind of satchel, they lowered cableSilk like museum bandits. Humans leaned forward, eager for bounty. What reeled up was an Irride$cent spade-disc. The rim dangled two pair of blue tassels with black stripes.
The narrow tapering edge appeared a twilighTurquoise hue, but the flatter wide half like rust - as they shifted toward the center of this so-called *Platter,* their domains trickled thin to the sides like opposing fangs, and wavered like wrinkled curtains in a center pit between them, braiding substance that I have struggled to adequately explain without deft pause: you would call it tawny glaze flowing like dolphins across it... there was a choppy consistency in the way the colors oozed & orbited, like lasagna layers between crinkled noodles & cottage cheese. I inferred that the darker hues may be generating down from 4 strawberry nodes situated like an upside down chair, proximal girths uniting an amber sigil ~ which depicted a flock of birds perched on a horizontal obelisk perched between almond-horseshoe moons. (I couldn't help but churn flashbacks! vacillating in Heshreika'Spinal Taps (%) Why were moons featuring so prominently everywhere*?)
Trent rocked on his heels. "LookSlimed by kraken to me."
"Forged with specks of ALLL-eXandrite & oyster," The Lob$tore hatched. "Allowing it to mimic the environment from bigger bullies."
"That'ss pretty freakin hypnotic," FalCOuld faintly be heard.
"Only to those with reFractaLens:" The Mare wheezed. "EithAroma-guided or Insectioned; = twitch you amount both."
FalCOrds inflated like a gliding hawk. "Some call me visionnnary."
"Others simply REFUSE to AssoScienc8 with anything except time-preScribed state of MANTRA," Bell'Spread the Mentality.