Suddenly, brightly illuminated letters form before you and even before you could finish processing the word, "Welcome!  " you feel an invisible force drag you through the door until you realize you're hurtling through space headfirst. Above you, the door has slammed shut and disappeared.

"Who... are you...?" A voice whispers softly into your ear, and you wonder how that's even possible considering how quickly you are falling towards the giant blue planet below you. All around you, the fragments of meteors are burning up in the atmosphere. It would only be a matter of time before you reach the atmosphere and get fried to a crisp as well, but to your surprise, you continue to fall unscathed through the fluffy white clouds until you see an iridescent world before you that you had never seen before. Little did you know what wild, and whimsical, and possibly even crazy adventures were about to unfold in this place.

It's like the Bible for me sometimes.

There's nothing at first. There's a white screen, a softly pulsing strip of black, waiting for me. It's patient. It has nothing to do today or tomorrow. It only waits for its master to start.

And I type. Keys clack in muted speed as letters, words, paragraphs, and stories grow. I sometimes think of nature programs showing accelerated growth of plants. They drive up from seeds into the world, force their way to the air, the sun, and blossom where there was nothing moments before.

Stories come forth the same way.

I tell my 3 year old and 1 year old daughters stories in the car when we go for long drives. Where there was nothing five minutes ago, now there's a princess battling giants and wolves in the woods behind our house. She's using her intelligence and her strength and cunning to overcome obstacles. My 3 year old daughter's eyes grow wide as the princess sprints to the gate and safety from the wolves. Will they catch her? They never do but the pursuit concerns my daughter. She wraps herself into the story the way she wraps herself under a blanket at night.

There is little whimsy in her worlds. There are trolls, giants, and only the strong and smart survive.

Hi, Ghostbear1111! =) I pretty much made this thread to write stories. lol When I looked back at my oldest threads for Vizzed, I noticed that I used to write a lot more creatively, and many of my stories used to be more light-hearted and fun. For these stories, I've decided not to limit myself, so that's why I said it was going to be whimsical and maybe even a bit crazy at times (although I'd still like to keep everything fun, if possible).

Alex strolled in the woods behind the house.  Sunlight barely made it through the heavy cover of leaves and trees towered over Alex.  She followed the footpath along the stream.  Insects buzzed, birds chirped, and she enjoyed the crunch of leaves under her feet.  She saw a new path branching off to the left between two massive evergreens.

Alex had never seen this path before and it took her by surprise.  She made a decision and turned.  Stepping lightly over a branch in the middle of the dirt trail, she walked a few minutes.  The sounds of the forest grew quieter and quieter.  Clouds must have passed overhead and the woods grew darker.  

Soon there was no sound.  Alex stopped to listen.  She could only hear a rhythmic pulsing, an in-out sighing sound.  She crept over a boulder to look.

The troll was looking back at her.  She had barely a moment to take it in, large, green-skinned, hairy, with huge hands and arms, before she let out a muffled scream.  She turned and fled.

Nothing sounded behind her for a few moments.  Then a crash and thunder of heavy steps.  The troll was in pursuit.  Alex didn't know how fast trolls could run but that one seemed as big as house and it would cover ground quickly.  She ran for her life, headed back to the massive pine trees.  She jumped over rocks, ducked under branches, her eyes flitting left and right, looking for somewhere to hide.  There was no good place, and the troll was gaining on her.

She shot through the two trees, kept going straight and leapt over the stream.  Now there was no path.  Alex bet she could navigate the crowd of plants better than the troll.  She glanced behind her.

The troll took the stream in one step and kept coming.

Alex's breath was coming ragged and she tasted iron-blood in the back of her throat.  Her lungs pounded, her heart thundered, and she dove under some bushes to hide.  She tried to pull her legs under as well and hope the troll would pass by.

It didn't.  It stopped in front of the bush, ten yards away.

"Excuse me," it rumbled in heavily accented English.

Alex didn't want to answer but that would be rude.

"Yes?" she called from under the bush.

"I'm sorry to have scared you," the troll said, 'But your hat came off your head when you ran from me.  I'll leave it here."

The troll dropped the pink hat on the ground.  Alex hadn't realized she lost it.  The troll walked away.  Alex, uncertain as to whether this was a trick or not, waited five minutes to catch her breath.  She heard nothing but the sounds of nature.

"Nice enough of him," she said aloud as she finally got up.  She pulled her hat on her head and headed back home.  That was enough time in the woods for one day.

"Miss! Quick! There's someone at the Board, someone-" the little Bunny Girl (Name Subject to Change) stopped to gasp for air after bursting into the room where a girl was fast asleep on a giant, glowing flower. Slowly floating all around the room were iridescent orbs of light, and one hovered close to the Bunny Girl's hand. The girl didn't stir, so the Bunny Girl grabbed the orb and tossed it towards the girl. Upon colliding with the girl's body, the orb of light exploded into brilliant sparkles that looked very much like miniature fireworks, and the sound of chimes and bells rang through the air.

"Mmm...?" The girl raised her head as if dazed, her glistening, iridescent hair partially covering her face, but she still didn't move until the Bunny Girl began to exclaim again.

"Intruder Alert! IN-TRU-DER!" Seconds after the Bunny Girl began to jump up and down, a swarm of bunnies flooded the room and all of them began to chant "Intruder! Intruder!" with their robotic voices.

"AHHH! What?! Where?!" The girl on the flower jumped off her bed as if struck by lightning and landed unceremoniously on the floor, where the bunnies had deftly stepped aside to let her faceplant onto the soft, fuzzy rug.

"Ouch..."

"Intruder! Eliminate! Annihilate! Exterminate! Detonate-"

"No, wait, stop... stop," the girl face-palmed herself at the sight of all of the gleefully grinning bunnies that were now jumping up and down, armed with numerous Cherry Bombs, Bob-ombs, rocket launchers, cannons, muskets, frying pans, DK barrels, and pretty much any weapon imaginable.

She shook her head to clear her mind and thought about the last time she had seen these bunnies so excited. Oh yeah… It had been that time when there was an accidental Blood Moon in the Garden, and all of them had ended up terrorizing the carrots when they all turned into Bunniculas. It had taken about a week for all of them to finally settle down again, but on occasion, the girl would see some of the bunnies look longingly at the moon as they made their medicinal powder, possibly wishing for the moon to turn red again.

"Miss! This is what we found on the Board!" the Bunny Girl presented a piece of paper to the girl, and the girl began to read the words aloud.

"Alex strolled in the woods..." The girl blinked. "Oh, what a lovely story." She smiled and scanned the paper while all of the bunnies began to chant softly, asking, "Challenge? Challenge?"

"No, it's not a Duel or a Challenge," the girl replied and petted a bunny before turning back to look at the Monitor.

Slowly, one by one, the bunnies stopped jumping up and down, ears drooping, and tossed their weapons back into Hammerspace. In a few minutes, all of them were holding large carrots instead and eating them noisily while they watched the girl look at the people on her Monitor.

"That looks like... a bear," the girl murmured to herself. "Well, maybe not a bear... It looks kind of transparent too... Could it be a ghost?”

The bunnies all stopped chewing simultaneously and turned to face the Monitor.

“Ghost... bear..." The gleeful grins were back on their faces but they didn't try to draw their weapons this time. Could it be that they were interested in mysterious things like ghostly bears?

She thought she had sealed off the Door to her island when she moved her floating island out of one of the darkest corners of Vizzed a few weeks ago, but now it seemed like people were literally falling out of the sky and onto her island somehow, bearing stories no less.

“Well, at least they aren't here to make war,” she mused to herself. Even though chaos reigned supreme on her island, she still did her best to advocate love and peace, to keep her Peaceful Island safe from Darkness and the powers of-

“Anyone home?” the Bunny Girl waved a Rainbow Carrot in front of the girl's face.

The girl blinked and turned to see the army of bunnies filing out the door in their camouflage suits and their recon gear.

“Wait, where are they going-?” the girl started with some alarm.

“To carry out your orders of course,” the Bunny Girl cheerfully responded as she pulled on her Deerstalker Hat and looked at the other girl with some surprise. “Did you forget what you said already?”

“I…” the girl said nothing for a long moment and bit her lip. It had been occurring with more frequency now, this troubling memory loss…

The Bunny Girl smiled and patted the girl gently on the arm. “It’s going to be okay,” she reassured the girl as she pulled out an Oversized Magnifying Glass. “We'll figure it out, because 真実はいつもひとつ (shinjitsu wa itsumo hitotsu)!”

“Uh…” the other girl blinked as she watched the Bunny Girl flounce out of the room to join her army of bunnies.

The girl sighed inwardly, unsure if she should be worried or not that the Bunny Girl had decided to join this mission. Speaking of missions, she still had no idea what she could have told the bunnies to do.

She decided that she had to follow them, in case they decided to bring back a real, live ghost bear.

As she left her castle, she wondered to herself if anyone else also felt like they were only a character in a story that some being or entity above had prepared specifically for them. Suddenly feeling a little bit chilly, she shivered and wrapped her Invisibility Cloak more closely around her.

Off in the distance, she heard the bells tolling.

Now the real test begins.

You wake up on the island, somewhat disoriented and a little bit confused. At last check, you were falling through space and a bunch of fluffy clouds, so how did you end up on an island with a carpet of lush, green grass and wildflowers, surrounded by hundreds or even thousands of bunnies that were nonchalantly nomming on some Rainbow Carrots?

Speaking of odd things, what was that making a beeline towards you at a such an astoundingly high velocity and leaving a trail of what appeared to be pixie dust in its wake?

You look at yourself and you realize that somehow, you are holding an oddly-shaped sword. The design seemed vaguely familiar, but your mind is kind of fuzzy right now so you're having a hard time recalling where you might have seen this sword before.

As the being closes in on you, you hear the pleasant sound of wind chimes and then...

“Greetings, traveler! My name is YUI!”

By now, the pixie-like being is so close to you that you can smell the flowery fragrance that is emanating from its body. Also, the bright light that had surrounded its body had faded somewhat and you can finally see the being's delicate features as it smiled and beamed at you, hovering directly in front of your face.

You observe that YUI is now holding out a piece of parchment with the word, “Name?” written on it, and offering you a quill pen.

Ultimate Decision!

What do you do?

Write your name on the parchment.
Attack YUI with your sword.
Run away.
Do nothing.
Press Esc to exit the game.

Arkam never set foot in a crafting store before. Seeing the women milling around, he wondered why. But he was here on a mission. Objective: Supplies. This will take no more than seven minutes. Arkam refused to indulge in 'shopping,' as it were. He had four items to purchase. Then he was gone. Begin!

Twenty minutes later, Arkam browsed. Gold or colored sparkles? Toothpicks or popsicle sticks? A daughter's smile made him take pause at even the simplest decisions. He stood in an aisle.

"Need help?"

He glanced left. One of the several employees had been circling him, waiting for a chance to talk. He knew it. He was tall and a man in a store populated by women. He stuck out like a lighthouse.

"Yes, please. I'm making a fairy door for my daughter from scratch and I can guess at what she likes. She's only three so whatever I do should be good. But what else do I need?"

The woman, a grandmother type, beamed at him. She had some experience, too, and walked him through her process. Twenty minutes later, bags in hand, he climbed into his truck and went home.

Twenty minutes after that, a small door, beautifully designed, was drying in his hands. Alex would wake up from her nap any time now. Arkam went outside to the stump in the corner of the yard, nailed the door into place. A squirrel chittered at him from a branch overhead. The woman from the store (Jill, was it?) had shown a clever trick for making hinges so the door would pop open slightly. Arkham checked the door, undid the tiny latch and pulled it open.

A flash of glitter, a puff of smoke, and the squirrel stopped chittering. It's mind wondered briefly where the big loud thing below went before it left to find acorns.


.........



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Arkam went.

He popped into thin air. He crashed into a pile of leaves moments later. He looked around, not thinking too hard about what just happened. He saw a forest. It wasn't his woods, behind his house. It was much older. Ancient. Trees, thick, gnarled, and covered with moss and ivy, towered overhead. Arkam's skin bristled and he looked around in concern. There were no sounds, no birds, no insects buzzing. That was never good.

He stared. The bear stared back. It growled and its hackles went up. Arkham rolled behind a tree, desperately looking for a rock, a stick, something...

What's this, set in the trunk of a tree?

The bear started moving towards Arkam only to be confused when he was pulled through the second fairy door.

Thin air.

BLAM!

Sand. Gritty, coarse sand. Something came flying at him as he gathered his bearings. A ghost?

No, not a ghost here. No bears either. It was too beautiful for that. The sense was overwhelmingly peaceful. This was a place that had not experienced war in a time. Wildflowers swayed in the gentle breeze.

Something was coming. It headed straight for him. Arkam was ready to defend himself again but it didn't seem aggressive. No, it was something else. Was it summoned for him? He had fayth that everything would be okay and he waited.

"Greetings, Traveler," the pixie-like being, a fairy, perhaps, said to him. She held a piece of paper and a pen in her hand. Arkam didn't worry about the physics of holding up the obviously expensive pen, even if it was three times the size of the being. The smile on her face spoke of peace-making, not the alternative, despite the fact she somehow weaponized him with a sword. He let the blade fall to the sand.

He took the paper, laid it down on a flat rock and wrote his name, "Arkam Baer."

"If you speak this language," he said in English, "You can call me Ark."

The pixie beamed and responded.

Two questions actually...

1. What is this thread for? You to post your stories, or everyone to post stories?

2. Are we really allowed to choose what the character does next? :3 If so I REALLY wanna say hit her with the sword if it won't actually hurt her... But I feel compelled to play nice and like I would if it were really me (and flashes of adorable SAO Yui have nothing to do with that decision... ). So press esc Write my name.

Eirinn :  Greetings, traveler! Welcome to this floating island! =)

This thread is where I'll be posting stories so that people can respond to the questions and choices at the end. Anyone can respond to the choices, and the story can be continuous or not, depending on what happens and how many people decide to make a choice. =) A while back, I heard that some people were interested in the "self insert" type of stories, so I thought I'd try it out to see if a format like that works. XD When you respond, you don't actually have to do what Ghostbear1111 does with the long replies. lol He sort of missed the point a bit ^^0;; , but I was going to try to adjust things a bit and continue the story anyways.

As for the questions, you can select whichever answer you would like... I can't really give any hints as to what may or may not happen, or else that would sort of ruin the game. =P Do you also choose to write your name on the parchment then? =)

Eirinn : Ark walked towards the newcomer.

"Forget the questions," Ark said, "You should just launch yourself into the story. Of course, if you don't do it exactly right, they'll tell you and probably make corrections. It seems no one can just roll with it without... you know... saying something. But have fun here. It looks like a nice island."

With that, Ark walked past Eirinn, into the woods, and out of the story.