Tala heard voices. And then a minor message popped up and she opened it.
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You have earned 8 Experience Points + 4 for New Pilot Modifier
Two New Skills Gained:
Psychodelic Resistance 1
Cooking 1
Status Effect Warning: [Tripping] [Balls]
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"Oh. There's cooking, haha." Shouldn't they put the status effect warning at the top?
Standing fully to look around, Tala was trying to find the voices when the whole world became...
Wobbly.
Sometimes she blinked and it's like she was holding her face centimeters away from a tree trunk. Other times she blinked and everything was a riot of color and sound. Like, she could feel the green moss with her eyes, and taste the blue in the sky when the forest ended.
And then she saw it.
The city!
The place with the food and the lights and maybethemedicalattention oh god, that shroom dosed me!
Tala thought she should throw up, but her body wasn't cooperating.
Nah. This felt too good. And-
"Hello," A female voice said from out of nowhere.
"Heyyy..." Tala responded.
"Oh. It talks! What a strange animal... Wait... Are you a human?"
"No... Yes..." Tala replied.
"Oh, fantastic! It's been so long since a human visited. We've done our best to grow, but after the nearby humans stopped harvesting us-"
"Hey... you got any food? Like... I could easily go for a chili dog right now..."
"Chili... dog?"
"Yeah... like... wieners in a bun with chili."
"Oh... Oh! You've been affected by the local psychoactive mycelium. How unusual since it isn't sporing season..."
"Whaat?! I didn't understand a word you said lady... But can you make it better?"
"Oh, humans, no. We lack the appendages to do so. Just as I regret to say we lack the ability to prepare food for you as well... May we... touch your mind?"
"Yer not gonna take my brains out, are you?"
"Oh! No. We would never harm a human. Humans created us."
"Us? There's just you, lady."
"US." An uncountable number of voices boomed in Tala's head. It was too much. Too fast. Too many voices. Minds, inside her own...
She barely felt the start of a hot nosebleed crawl down and across her lip before she collapsed...
Darkness and nothingness, and then a sudden, sharp sensation of light-
"Ow!" Sana jerked awake.
"We apologize. Your psionic capacity seems... considerably unevolved... and yet you are human."
"Ugh, my head... I wish I felt human, but at least I'm sober now..."
"We were not able to revive you, but we did shelter your consciousness while we investigated your memories... You have had a fascinating journey, Tala, and we believe we can provide some help for your friend. The one you call Vicky."
"You can?! Why didn't you open with that?"
There was a long pause, the many rocks glittering up and down in patterns that gave Tala the impression of... laughter?
"We did. We have already retrieved your ship, and will just need you to retrieve your friend."
"Wait... I thought you didn't have appendages or whatnot..."
"We are incapable of great speed and precision without compatible mechanisms... but this much we could do."
Tala felt the ground beneath her start to move, and she froze in place as a cluster of crystal pushed her just a few meters higher, letting her see that Vicky - the ship, not her oh-crazy-space-god-system-thing let her friend be alright - was laying just a little skewed a hundred or so meters away. The presence of rapidly draining and drying swamp dirt, scum, and trees indicated that it had not been a gentle journey for the craft.
"What do I need to do?"
"Our Returners say that you should open the central console, near the System Energy Matrix. There you will find her physical form, which is easy to miss during ship evolution."
Tala nodded and hopped off the finger of rock. "Okay... just need to... rip open the ship..." she stepped around the squelchy soil as much as possible as she made for the boarding ramp.
Once onboard, she very quickly ran into a problem as soon as she tried to remove the center console panel.
"What the hell? Is this thing bolted down with adamantium?"
"Would you like me to release the console?" Vicky - the finally helpful ship - asked.
"Yes!"
A decompressive hiss sounded as Tala wound up rolling backward, the much-lighter-than-it-looked console rolling with her and cradled by her lap as she finished. A new message popped into her menu but she ignored it.
Behind the console was a bunch of snakey-looking wires and cables. "Snakey" was the exact word because instead of normal wires, these looked more like green, blue, and yellow fiberoptics, but with lightning passing through the biggest ones. Guess even space magic needs an electrician...
Nestled just behind a large chord that was draped across the center was a black ball, and Arin reached in.
"Okay girl... I hope this is you and not the self-destruct ball or something..." Arin tugged, and the ball came free, opening up to reveal a small, semi-cube of stone that looked more like a cutout piece of the night sky, sparkling with stars. "Whoa..." Arin said, staring into that vast-seeming shard of night.
She wondered if she'd ever seen anything this beautiful before in her life-
But no, she needed to help her friend.
Slightly wobbly, both from her recent trip and tumbling with the console, she made her way back to the living stones.
"Hey, I brought her... You said you could help..."
"We did. Place her upon our physical form."
Tala did so, hoping there would be a more dramatic reaction than the complete lack of movement she saw.
But after a long moment, Us - for Tala had no other name to call them, said, "This Consensus is fragmented badly. The process may take some time, but we will dedicate all of ourselves to the task. Perhaps a few days, as you understand them."
"Great! So... what should I do for now?"
"Survive."
Later on, Tala would wish she'd asked just how long the days were on this planet.