Character Scramble Season 20 Round 0: Eden Prime

[u/TheAsianIsGamin]

To determine Roster Seeding, Round 0 writeups will be ranked from 1-5 by our esteemed panel of judges. Seeding scores will be determined by the judges’ averaged ranks of your stories, with higher ranks receiving higher seeds. All three judges will read all Round 0s.

Your Judges are: /u/TheAsianIsGamin, /u/Proletlariet, and /u/Talvasha

When judge voting goes up for this round, we'll have a WWW moderator lock the thread, preventing anyone from posting more. Make sure to get all of your writing done on time!

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The Character Scramble is a long-running writing prompt tournament in which participants submit characters from fiction to a specified tier and guideline. After the submission period ends, the submitted characters are "scrambled" and randomly distributed to each writer, forming their team for the season. Writers will then be entered into a single-elimination bracket, where they write a story that features their team fighting against their opponent's team. Victors are decided based on reader votes; in other words, if you want people to vote for you, write some good content. The winner by votes of each match-up moves on to the next round. The pattern continues until only one participant remains: the new Character Scramble champion, who gets to choose the theme, tier, and rules of the next Scramble!

The theme of Character Scramble 20 is Scramble Effect. Round prompts will be based on the many worlds, missions, and memorable moments found throughout the Mass Effect series.

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Join the email list!

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Round 0: Eden Prime

Lightyears away from where any of its ancestors once roamed, a rooster crows. The sun turns the purple of dawn into a bright, beautiful azure, and from within the arcologies that dot the land, efficient with both energy and space, the people rise just as slowly. There’s much work to be done, out there on the fields, but mornings like this are worth enjoying. The skies are clear, the land is fertile, and all is quiet. It’s hardly the most exciting corner of the galaxy—and that’s just the way it’s supposed to be.

Until an unexpected discovery turns this once-sleepy idyll into a flashpoint. At first, your team thinks this is a simple mission: Recover whatever it is they found, and slip out to get it where it needs to be before anyone can make a fuss.

But the moment your team makes it onto the planet, a firefight breaks out with an unforeseen enemy. Soon, it becomes clear: Something important has been unearthed, and someone wants it. Badly enough to kill for it.

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Round Rules:.

• Galaxy Map: Hundreds of billions of stars, each with its own system of planets. Your round doesn’t have to take place on an agrarian colony—or even on a sci-fi planet at all. But a season like this is about discovery as much as anything else. Start to show your audience where you’ve brought us.

• Find the Beacon: Whether by being ordered to investigate it, or by chance, your team stumbles upon an object revealing something rather sinister. This object can be an artifact showing you visions, a murder weapon, written logs, a witness, or anything your story needs. But it has to be threatening—something your team never would have expected.

• Don’t Worry. I’ve Got it Under Control: A contact or ally that your team expects to help instead betrays you. This contact must come from one of the Class Role Adoption Pools other than the one you adopt from.

• The Price of Revenge: The traitor acts swiftly to take or destroy the object—without care for any bystanders or collateral damage. They set bombs, or a computer virus, or something else that would have disastrous effects for everybody around you. You must choose one of the following prompts:

  • Paragon: There are lives at stake, right here, right now—and besides, you’ve already seen the evidence yourself. The powers that be will just have to believe you. Let the traitor escape, lose the object, and save lives.
  • Renegade: Your newfound mission is too important. Hunt the traitor down, defeat them, and take the object back.

• We Could Use Your Help: Your team comes with two characters, but you must select your third from the unscrambled characters of the Class you do not currently have, listed in tables below the roster here.

Please include in a comment, either before or after your writeup, which character you are adopting, with a link to their signup post.

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Normal Rules:

• Stand Fast, Stand Strong, Stand Together: Nobody can take on a mission like this alone. You’ve got a team of the brightest, toughest, and deadliest allies a Scrambler can find—use them. We’d love to see your characters make full use of their wide-ranging abilities, both on their own and as a team.

• We Will Hold The Line: You know what’s at stake. Failure is not an option. Even if your characters have only a small chance of victory, write that small chance happening!

• Special Tactics and Reconnaissance: Saving the galaxy will take more than the same old tricks. You are allowed and encouraged to mix and match powers, and to develop your characters in any way you wish, both on the battlefield and off. However, your opponents are not expected to keep track of these in-story changes, and vice-versa.

• Every Life Is a Special Story of Its Own: Feel free to give a brief summary to introduce your characters at the start of your post. If you do, you should mention things like powers, personality, history, and anything else that the average reader should know before reading.

• Legendary Edition: Sometimes, Spectres have to go a little outside the lines in service of their mission. You’ll have the same latitude—as long as you go with the broad strokes of the prompts and the rules, you'll be fine.

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Round 0 will run from Saturday, July 19th to Saturday, August 9th, 11:59pm US Eastern Time.

The character limit for this round is 4 full length Reddit comments, or 40k characters.

While it is fine to go a little bit over, anything that far surpasses this limit will be disqualified. This limit does not include intro posts, or analysis of the matchup.

[u/JackytheJack]

Accessing Student Database...

Nonon Jakuzure

^{Signup post}

Human drum major of the high school marching band and straight A student, Nonon takes her position of authority very seriously. Since coming to high school she has attached herself to a few teachers that she admires, earning her a reputation among the other students. Has a former disciplinary record for egging fellow students on to the point of confrontation. Outside of band, struggles to get along with fellow classmates.

Vriska Serket

Signup post

One of few troll students at school. Leader and founder of the Dungeons and Dragons club which is constantly on the search for new members, often scared away by Vriska's personality. She has a long history of disciplinary action due to things such as manipulating her fellow students to sabotaging others' class projects and cheating on her assignments. Struggles to get along with fellow classmates.

Susie

Signup post

The most consistent problem child in the school. Often skips classes to loiter in the back of the building. Often receives disciplinary actions. Has no respect for teachers and has gained a reputation as a bully among the other students. Struggles to get along with fellow classmates.

[u/JackytheJack → u/JackytheJack]

The ride to the indoor botanical gardens was a shaky one, and with a lack of seatbelts, the students in the school bus were jostling around like matches in a box. They had already been on the bus for a painstaking half an hour, taking them to the next town over. Only now were they able to see the sign that welcomed them to the gardens for one of their many yearly field trips. As the bus slowly rolled into the parking lot, a woman stood at the front of the bus.

“Alright, class,” the woman began, looking down at her clipboard. “I have written all the groups down. Once we get off the bus, make sure you stick around and listen to who will be in your group. After that, you’ll be given a worksheet to fill out and turn in before we head back home. I expect you all brought pencils?”

“I did!” A girl near the front of the bus with pink hair held her pencil up proudly. “And might I say, Ms. Isley, you are looking so pretty today!”

The teacher rolled her eyes and nodded. “Thank you, miss Jakuzure. I can always count on you to be prepared. As for everyone else, if you don’t have a pencil, they have some pens available for purchase at the gift shop. If you don’t have money, then ask someone else with a pencil. If that doesn’t work, I can’t help you after that.”

The bus came to a complete stop, and their teacher, Pamela Isely, stepped out first. She adjusted her glasses and watched as the students began to pile out of the bus. They all moved in their little friend groups, with Nonon having a hoard of band kids following her and snickering about gossip. There were two students who decided against grouping up and opted to stand on the sidelines, away from the others.

“Alright, everyone listen up. I’m going to call out groups of three, and they will be your buddies for the whole trip. Remember, this is for your safety. We’ve already had one missing person, we don’t need another, especially on my watch.”

A hush fell over the students. Two weeks ago, a fellow student named Fern had gone missing without a trace. Though the police were trying to find her, there weren’t many leads. The case had always been spoken about in hushed whispers, and never as bluntly as Ms. Isley had just addressed it. Their quiet response, though, did make it easier to hear the names as they were called out. Some students were happy with their groups, others indifferent, but it seemed like the list had been made at random.

“Nonon Jakuzure,” the teacher began. Nonon stepped up and looked to the rest of the unclaimed students, trying to spot her soon-to-be group members in the crowd, “Vriska Serket-”

“What!?” A girl stepped out from the edges of the crowd, with horns, glasses, grey skin and long black hair. “You’re telling me I gotta spend all day with the band dork?”

“Vriska, you-“

“I’m the dork?” Nonon asked incredulously, crossing her arms. “Aren’t you the leader of that stupid Dice and Dragons club or whatever?”

“It’s Dungeons and Dragons, and it’s a lot better than whatever it is you do.”

“Make music? As if you could even compare.”

“Oh is that what you call it?”

Over the argument, laughter roared out. It didn’t come from the others around them, though. In fact, it only came from one student. The one that, along with Vriska, kept her distance from the other students. Leaning against the bus and laughing to herself was a big, purple, dinosaur-like girl with hair covering her eyes. Ms. Isley gave her a less than amused look.

“I wouldn’t be laughing if I were you, Susie,” the teacher spoke, looking down at her clipboard. “You’re the third member of this group.”

“WHAT!?” All three shouted in unison. As Susie approached the other two, Nonon stepped back and towards their teacher.

“Ms. Isley, surely you can tweak some things and-“

“I’m not hearing it, Nonon.” She took a worksheet from her clipboard and handed it to her. “Since you’re the one with a pencil, you can hold the worksheet.”

Nonon gritted her teeth as she grabbed the paper. It took all her willpower to not crumple the paper then and there. “Of course, Ms. Isley.”

Turning around, she reluctantly walked back to the other two, looking down at the worksheet and the frankly trivial questions it was asking. “I can’t believe this.”

“I know,” Vriska crossed her arms, “just my luck to get stuck with two dumbasses.”

“Excuse me?!”

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize that all that music made you deaf. I’m calling you a dumbass. Do you need me to say it louder?”

Nonon opened her mouth to retaliate but was cut off by Ms. Isley. “Alright, you all got your groups. It’s about time we head inside. Remember, don’t leave your group under any circumstances, and stick close to the others. Now let’s go.”

“Let’s just get this over with,” Nonon muttered as she looked down at the paper. Ten questions that she’d have to answer over the course of at least an hour, and then she could rid herself of these two idiots.

As the three followed the class into the indoor gardens, Susie was laughing behind her.

“This is gonna be fun.”

[u/JackytheJack → u/JackytheJack]

The inside of the gardens was not only humid, but also very boring. While Ms. Isley was more interested in gushing about the plant life on display, the rest of the students were trying hard not to sweat themselves to death. Even Nonon, who was intent on getting the worksheet filled in as fast as possible, was finding it hard to focus when sweat poured down her face every few seconds.

“I feel disgusting,” she muttered to herself, scribbling in information about some random plant the teacher was talking about now. They had found an employee willing to serve as a tour guide, and now Ms. Isley was bouncing way too much plant knowledge between the two of them. Nonon wasn’t sure what was supposed to be on the worksheet or not.

“Hey, you’re getting closer to feeling like how others see you.” Vriska’s taunt followed by Susie’s laugh made her tense up. If she didn’t need the pencil she would have broken it from how tightly her fists were clenched.

“What is wrong with you? I hardly even know you.”

“Please, I know your type. You may not know me but you definitely think you’re better than me.”

“I do think I’m better than you, but that’s because I actually do something in my spare time that’s important.”

“Yeah, because waving your arms with a stick in your hand is so important.”

“I play music. It’s a lot better than rolling dice.”

“I dunno. I think Dungeons and Dragons is pretty cool, actually.” Susie grinned, hands behind her head.

“No one’s even talking to you?” Sounding more exasperated by the second, Nonon had to take a deep breath to calm herself. “Why are you even here? Don’t you have some kids to terrorize or something?”

“This is way too funny to pass up. Wanna see how long it takes until you tear each other apart.”

“At this rate it’s not going to take much longer.” Nonon groaned just as a tune ripped through the air. Some radio pop song was playing, coming directly from their teacher. Ms. Isley pulled her phone out and sighed.

“Excuse me, class. I’m going to have to take this. Our friend here will guide you through the gardens and I’ll catch up later.” She walked off before anyone could get a word in edgewise.

“Was that a Miley Cyrus song?” Vriska muttered, catching Nonon off guard. Her head snapped to the troll.

“How do you know that?”

She blinked. “I don’t. That’s why I’m asking. Duh. Let’s change topics.”

There wasn’t much to change the topic to; though the tour guide was clearly thrown off guard by suddenly being in charge of a whole high school class, they took it surprisingly well and began to guide the class through some of the more interesting exhibits. Well, interesting if your idea of excitement is watching immobile shrubbery.

The worst part was most of it wasn’t even on the worksheet. The tour guide didn’t even know there was a worksheet, so of course most of the stuff they were talking about wouldn’t be on it. This was the worst thing that could have happened! She’s so obviously going to fail this assignment if the teacher didn’t come back soon, and she’s going to have spent more than an hour with these idiots for nothing and this field trip was-

“Okay I’m bored.” Vriska began to walk away from the others. Susie watched her walk off, grinned, shrugged her shoulders, and followed after her.

“Yeah, it’s kind of lame here.”

“Where do you two think you’re going?!” Nonon took a look towards the tour guide, now completely caught up in something else. Having to make a split second decision, she followed after the others. “We’re supposed to stick with the class!”

“And sweat my horns off? No thank you. There’s gotta be a room with some air conditioning around here somewhere.”

“And with the teachers not here we can just, like, google the answers or something.”

Nonon groaned, twirling her pencil in her hands before slipping it in her pocket. “So your idea is that we cheat and sneak away from everyone?”

“Well, the cheating was Susie’s idea. I think we shouldn’t do the assignment at all.”

“But we have to do it.”

“We don’t haaaaaaaave to.” Vriska chuckled. “It’s just one stupid assignment. I didn’t even want to go on this field trip anyways. I don’t even know why they made it mandatory. We go here, like, every year.”

“That doesn’t mean we can ignore the assignment.”

“Sure it does. We’re doing it right now.” Vriska looked back at Nonon with a shit eating grin. “I know you’re a teacher’s pet, but I didn’t expect you to be such a stick in the mud.”

“A teacher’s pet? I’m just giving my teachers the respect they deserve. Maybe you should try it.”

“Yeah, see? That’s teacher’s pet talk.”

“You are acting kind of like a pet, dude.”

“No one’s even talking to you!” Nonon glared at Susie before breathing deeply, soon realizing that Vriska had already led the three of them far away from the rest of the class. She crossed her arms. “Maybe I should expect behavior like this from you, Serket.”

Vriska stopped, looking back at Nonon with a hand on her hip. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know, leading students away from the group while there’s already a missing girl out there…” She rubbed her chin in thought, a look on her face that was practically screaming ‘please punch me’. “In fact, wasn’t Fern in your stupid Dungeons and Dragons club?”

“What are you implying, bitch?”

“I’m just saying, a girl in a club run by you goes missing. It’s not a good look. Someone might think you have something to do with it.”

“You take that back!”

“Oh, am I pushing a nerve now?”

“Dude, lay off her. That’s really not cool.” Susie moved to step between the two.

“Stay out of this, Susie. This doesn’t involve you. You’re just a-“ Nonon froze as Susie stepped towards her, and she realized just how tall the girl was. As she towered over her, Susie’s expression darkened and she flashed a maw full of teeth.

“I’m a what?”

Nonon shuddered, looking away. “Nothing. You’re nothing. Look, can we go back to the class? I think we had our fun and I’m sweating like crazy.”

“Nah. I wanna check this out.” Vriska walked off, towards a section of the garden blocked off by drywall. She led the three to a door with a big sign reading ‘OFF LIMITS. EXHIBIT UNDER CONSTRUCTION’. “Under construction?”

Susie laughed. “What’re they constructing? A buncha plants?”

“Who cares? Can we go back and finish this dumb assignment?”

“The door’s open a little,” Vriska pointed out, ignoring Nonon entirely. Sure enough, it was opened just a tiny amount. “You think someone’s in there?”

“Yeah, constructing things? Some people have jobs, Serket.”

“I don’t hear any noises,” Susie pointed out. “Contruction’s usually pretty loud.”

“Again, who cares? We should go back. This area’s off limits anyways.”

“I have no limits,” Vriska shot back with a dumb grin. She reached her hands into her pockets and pulled out a small case of dice. “How about this, since you wanna argue constantly. We both roll a die. Whoever gets the higher number decides what we do. Deal?”

“Why do you have- no, I’m not doing that.”

“So you forfeit. Let’s go in.”

[u/JackytheJack → u/JackytheJack]

“What? I didn’t forfeit anything!” Vriska had already opened the door at this point, which opened up into a dark room. It was almost too dark. The light from the room they were in pierced through the darkness, but couldn’t light up the entirety of the room inside.

“It’s uh, really dark in there.” Susie took a step forward, leering into the darkness. “Don’t plants need light or something? I thought the ceilings were all made of glass.”

“That… is weird.” Nonon frowned, taking a step back. This was in contrast to Vriska, who stepped further into the dark room. “Maybe we should head back.”

“Hold on a second,” Vriska muttered, stepping even further in. Susie walked after her, and Nonon, though not wanting to, followed suit. She stayed a good few feet behind them, though. “I thought I heard something.”

As they stepped further into the darkness, they could hear a voice in the distance. It sounded much farther away than it should be. After all, the room couldn’t be that big. At first, it was too faint to make out the words, but as they stepped closer, it became more coherent.

“What do you mean they need to be out of class longer? This field trip only takes an hour at most. What am I supposed to do after that? …no that is not my job to figure out! That’s yours! …a movie? In this economy? You don’t pay me enough for that.”

To Vriska and Susie, the voice didn’t ring any bells. It was too faint, too distant to place a name to it, or to even realize it was familiar. For Nonon, though, she made the connection almost immediately. She gasped.

“Wait, that’s-“

“Shut up!” Vriska hissed out as Susie shot a hand to Nonon’s mouth. Nonon quickly swatted her hand away and just before an argument could break out, the voice returned, now closer than before.

“Wait, someone’s here. I’ll call you back. I’ll take care of this.”

There was the sound of a snap, and then a crash, like a window shattering. The three shared a look of panic before running to the door. Before they could make it, the door was closed by an unseen force, plunging them in darkness. It took time for their eyes to adjust, and even after the fact they could hardly see each other in the dark.

Then, something wrapped around Vriska’s ankle. It yanked, taking her to the ground before pulling her further into the dark abyss. The troll screamed, and Nonon did the same in response. Before she could move, another mass came from the void. In the darkness, Nonon could just barely make out what looked to be a vine before she too was dragged further into the room.

“H-Hey, you can’t just take people!” Susie took a step back just as another vine shot out. She clenched her fist and moved to strike, only to miss completely. The vine, somehow, had moved out of the way and wrapped itself around her arm. Her eyes widened and she tried to tug the vine away to no avail.

“Sh-Shit!” She opened her mouth, ready to bite down on the vine, but it pulled on her before she could. Losing her footing, she fell face first onto the floor and tumbled into the darkness. Just like that, the room fell silent.

[u/JackytheJack → u/JackytheJack]

It felt like they were getting dragged for forever. Eventually, the grips on their bodies pulled away and they were left to tumble to a stop. The momentum did mean that they all rolled up into a pile against a wall, though, with Nonon on the very bottom. She struggled and squirmed in an attempt to get out from underneath the two.

“Could you two get off of me!?”

“Alright, alright.” Susie stood up first, followed by Vriska, then Nonon. Susie moved the hair out of her eyes to look at the others. “Everyone alri- woah, Nonon, the hell are you wearing?”

“Huh?” She looked down at herself and gasped. Her casual attire had been swapped out for some strange mix between a band uniform and a dress, complete with frills on the skirt, little wings on the boots and a massive hat on her head that she grabbed in shock. “What the hell am I wearing!?”

Susie laughed, shaking her head. “Hey, doesn’t it look kind of like your band costumes or something?”

“In what world is this a marching band uniform? We wouldn’t be caught dead in something like this! And where the hell did you get that outfit?”

Susie looked down at herself. A sick looking jacket, cool arm bracelets, a heart belt buckle and some killer boots. She grinned. “Looks kind of cool, doesn’t it?”

“That doesn’t answer my question.” She let out an annoyed huff before looking around. She didn’t recognize this place. Though it felt impossibly dark, she could somehow see through the darkness just fine. Where they were didn’t feel like the gardens anymore. It felt like some sort of expansive cave or underground lair. “Where the hell did we end up? Serket, do you-”

She paused as she turned to the troll. Her eyes wide, she had to bring a hand to her mouth to stifle a laugh. “Wow, nice outfit, Serket.”

“What?” Vriska, who had been taking everything in up until now, looked down at herself. From head to toe she was bathed in gross shades of yellow and orange, from the hood she was wearing, which was made to fit her horns comfortably, down to her boots. On the center of her shirt, like some off brand superhero, was a stylized symbol of the sun. She looked like a complete dork. “Oh come on! What the hell is this!?”

At this point Nonon failed at holding in her laughter, and clapped her hands together happily. “Oh, it makes sense that you would get the lamest outfit, doesn’t it? It’s only fitting for a dork like-”

Wham!

An axe swung and hit the ground in front of her. She screamed and jumped back, looking at Susie, who was giving her a death glare. “How about we stop making fun of each other and figure out where the hell we are, huh?”

“Where did you get…” Nonon shook her head and took a deep breath to calm herself. “Right. I guess you have a point. Serket, do you have any idea where we are?”

“I got dragged in here just like you two. Hell if I know what’s happening.” She crossed her arms and glanced at Susie. “Why do you get the cool weapon?”

“Because I’m awesome.”

“That can’t be it,” she muttered before focusing on the environment again. “This place is like some kind of dungeon. Maybe there’d be a way out somewhere.”

“Or a boss to beat, like some video game.” Susie nodded sagely, as if she had a grasp on the situation.

“Or like Dungeons and Dragons.”

“You two are suddenly acting like you’re some kind of experts.”

“Let’s try to find where we came from. Susie, you’re the one with the weapon. You can be the meat shield.”

“You think we gotta fight something?”

“Well, hopefully not, but if we do we might as well put you to use somehow.”

“...okay, sure.”

With a newfound and shaky alliance, the three set off into the darkness. They could see the vague outlines of structures, of paths they were meant to take. Outside of these outlines was void, and small white dots that could only be stars. It was like the very ground they walked on was incomplete. Under construction. They were walking somewhere that shouldn’t have people in it in the first place.

None of it sat right with Nonon, and though her companions marched on with little care, she was getting more unnerved by the second. “Didn’t we hear a voice? Before we were dragged here?”

“Oh, yeah, we did, didn’t we?” Susie put her hands behind her head. “Heck if I know who’s voice that was, though.”

“It sounded familiar,” Vriska commented, “they were talking on the phone. Then they heard us walk in.”

“You guys… didn’t realize that was the teacher’s voice?”

“Ms. Isley’s? Ain’t this place off limits? What would she be doing here?”

“Mabe she was trying to get some excitement, too. This place is booooooooring.”

“My point is, guys, maybe if we find her she’ll be able to help us out. She might know what’s going on. She’s the adult, after all.”

“I didn’t expect much else from a teacher’s pet, but do you really think she’s going to have a clue what the hell is going on?” Vriska scoffed. “For all we know, she got dragged in here with the rest of us. I think we’re on our own.”

“I mean, we could keep an eye out for her. Heck, if she’s stuck here, she might need our help, too.”

“I’m just trying to get us out of here, but if you want to look for some lady who might not even be here, be my guest.” Vriska rolled her eyes. As they continued walking, the hallway they were in opened up to a massive dome shaped room. Up ahead and to the right there was a large plant, bigger than a city bus, that looked like a weird sack attached to some leaves and vines.

“What the hell is that?”

“It’s giving me a gross vibe,” Nonon muttered as she walked in front of the others, moving closer to the giant plant. She noticed a small plaque next to it and leaned in closer to read it. “Apparently it’s a pitcher plant. It eats bugs or something.”

“There are plants that eat bugs? That’s sick.”

Vriska frowned. “You never heard of a venus flytrap?”

“And they can trap flies!? I gotta see that in action!”

Nonon rolled her eyes as the two idiots began to make small talk about plants. Just as she was about to walk away, she noticed the pitcher plant moving. She paused, watching as the giant plant repositioned itself. Within seconds, she was staring down the ‘mouth’ of the plant, and staring at a bubbling pool of steaming acid.

Nonon screamed and jumped out of the way just before an explosion of acid shot from the pitcher plant. It splashed the floor behind her, hissing and sizzling as it ate a small hole in the floor. Covering her face with her hands she ran back to the other two, now put on high alert.

“The plant’s trying to kill me, one of you do something about it!” Nonon scrambled to get behind Susie and pushed her in front of the group.

“Hey, why do I gotta deal with the acid plant!?”

“I’m way too cute to get my face burnt up, and you’re the one with the weapon!”

“Dammit.” The plant readjusted its aim, acting more like a cannon than a plant, and another glob of acid was shot in their direction. Susie swung her axe and hit the ball of acid in midair. While the ball exploded, all that did was rain acid on top of them, the droplets falling on them and burning away at their skin.

“Don’t hit the attacks, you idiot, block them!”

“With an axe? Are you stupid!”

Vriska let out an annoyed groan and reached into her pocket for anything she could use. Her hand closed on a few small items and she pulled them out. They were her dice, but a bit different. They glowed intensely and were a vibrant blue color. She felt power radiating off of them, and though she always thought she had terrible luck, maybe things would turn around here.

“Screw it,” she muttered, tossing the dice down. As the plant readied another acid assault, the dice bounced wildly before landing on a few numbers. She had no table to reference, so the numbers might as well have been gibberish, but she got a feeling she rolled exactly what she needed.

32 - Barrier!

A transparent wall similar in color to her dice appeared in front of the three, just as the pitcher plant was preparing another volley. This glob of acid hit the wall harmlessly and, though the acid bubbles and steamed, it slid off the barrier and pooled on the ground before evaporating.

“What did you do?” Nonon muttered, peeking out from behind Vriska.

“I don’t know, but…” She grinned, bringing her hands up. The eight dice appeared in between her fingers, as if recalled mentally, and she stuffed them back in her pockets. “I think I got a weapon of my own now.”

“At least two of us do…”

“I knew you three would cause trouble when I put you in a group.” The voice rang out from seemingly all over, but it was a voice they recognized. It was the voice they heard before being dragged into this strange world.

“Ms. Isley?” Nonon stepped out from behind Vriska, towards the barrier that still stood tall against the aggressive plant. “Where are you?”

[u/JackytheJack → u/JackytheJack]

From the other side of the room, a small plant began to grow from the ground. This plant would become a bud, and grow until it was the size of a human. The bud eventually opened, and out came Pamela Isley. Their teacher looked different, though. Her red hair was now unkempt, her skin had a faint green tone to it, and her outfit was replaced with a leotard made up of leaves and other plant fibers. She looked like a part of nature.

“I just never thought you’d be this much trouble for me,” she continued, stepping away from the bud that was now blooming into a beautiful flower.

“Uh, teach? Why are you wearing a buncha leaves?”

“You’re in my dark world. Here, objects have power. People have power. I have power.”

“Dark world?" Nonon stepped forward. "Ms. Isley, what are you talking about?”

“Sounds to me like she’s going crazy.” Vriska readied her dice, unsure of what the next best move would be. This was the kind of monologue the big bad evil guy would give. She had to be prepared…

“You can ask questions, but you aren’t going to get any answers. Now that you’ve seen this place, I can’t let you go tell anyone else. I think you know what’ll happen next.”

The ground beneath their feet rumbled, and breaking through the floor just below Isley grew a massive plant monster, resembling a Venus flytrap. It was easily the size of a building, with large vines growing out of its stem and wriggling around like the tentacles of a squid. Their teacher smiled, looking down at the three of them.

“By the way, don’t call me Ms. Isley. Call me… Poison Ivy.”

The plant monster roared and one of its vines shot towards the three students. Vriska was positive that her barrier would hold, and stood still to watch the impact. A mistake on her part, as the massive vine easily shattered the transparent barrier and kept its momentum, moving to slam into Vriska and send her flying.

There was a blur of movement and a swing of an axe. The vine was severed from the body in one clean strike, and lost its momentum almost immediately. Susie stood at the point of severance, axe now embedded into the ground. As the plant monster roared, the monster girl was breathing heavily. She looked at the other two, her hair covering her eyes.

“The hell are you two still standing around for? Get moving!”

“Dammit, I thought that would work.” Vriska clicked her tongue before jumping away from the other two. She tossed down her dice and they clattered against the ground. It was impossible to read what numbers they landed on in all the chaos, but she didn’t have to; the number appeared above them as a cerulean blue hologram.

23 - Sword Strike!

A giant projection of a sword materialized beside Vriska. She pointed at the plant monster and the sword shot forward, blade glowing with power. Ivy moved her hand up and vines erupted from the ground, grabbing at the hilt of the sword. Not only did this halt its momentum, but reversed it, swinging it back towards Vriska. She dove out of the way at the last second, a large gash carving itself into the ground.

“Are you people insane!?” Nonon cried out with a shrill voice. “We can’t fight our teacher!”

“Yeah, why don’t you tell her that?!” Susie dodged another salvo of acid from the pitcher plant, closing in on the plant monster with movement too fast to track. She leaped into the air, raising her axe up, only to get swatted out of the air by a thrashing vine. She hit the ground so hard she bounced, skittering away with her axe still in hand.

“Like you’re doing any fighting in the first place, Nonon.”

“I don’t have a weapon, Serket!”

“I’m using dice! What’s your excuse!?” Vriska’s dice appeared in her hand and she threw them again. The number glowed and a freezing cold wind rushed through the arena, causing the plant to writhe in pain. “You have a pencil, use that!”

“Like a pencil is going to be-” she reached into her pocket to grab her pencil, but paused as she felt her hand grab something else. From her pocket she pulled a conductor’s baton, pink with a white tassel on the end. She stared wide-eyed at the baton, examining it. “I mean, this still doesn’t help but maybe you got a point…”

“Then use it!” Vriska turned to Susie, just now getting up, and threw her dice towards her. They clattered against the ground and only came to a stop once they hit her boots. Susie looked down at them for a moment.

60 - Invulnerability!

Susie’s body was engulfed in a Cerulean glow and she felt a power coursing through her body. She smiled widely and hefted her axe over her shoulder. “Hell yeah.”

Vines shot out to grab her once again, and she sidestepped out of the way, swinging her axe down and cleaving through two in one swipe. She rushed towards the pitcher plant, closing the distance quickly. The plant shot another glob of acid her direction, but much like the barrier before, the liquid merely dripped off of Susie and left her unscathed.

The distance shrunk, and she swung her axe. The blade embedded itself into the side of the pitcher plant and it squirmed in pain. The blade was too small and too weak to cut all the way through, though, and Susie knew this. Gripping the handle tightly with both hands, she pushed on, crying out as the blade began to glow a bright pink to match Susie’s skin tone. From the blade shot a large, crescent shaped projectile, ripping through the pitcher plant and cutting it in half. The plant fell to the ground, acid spilling out of its gaping wounds. Susie landed on the ground and struck a pose, hefting her axe over her shoulder.

“That’s how it’s done.”

Her celebration was cut short as a vine wrapped around her before tossing her into the air As she flailed midair, the vine wrapped around her leg and slammed her down into the ground with enough force to crater it. Atop the rampaging flytrap, Poison Ivy’s expression darkened. Other vines shot towards Vriska, and though she tried to maneuver out of the way, they wrapped around her all the same. She threw her dice down in a last ditch effort to free herself.

57 - Weasel!

A crude representation of a weasel appeared and proceeded to freak the fuck out, yipping and scampering around without a clue of what to do. Vriska would have facepalmed if her arm wasn’t forced against her torso. “Nonon, do something!”

“Like what?!” She waved her baton in a non-threatening fashion towards the plant and it did nothing. It was only a baton, it wasn’t like it had any power behind it. She didn’t have an axe or magic dice, she just had herself.

“Nonon, sweetie,” Ivy began, Susie and Vriska now held dangerously close to the flytrap’s mouth. “I always liked you. You’re a good girl. Let me take care of these two troublemakers and I’ll make sure you get out of here unharmed, alright?”

[u/JackytheJack → u/JackytheJack]

“Take care of them?” A shudder ran down her spine. She meant she was going to make them disappear, like Fern. What were two more children who had gone missing on a field trip, one more child fertilizing the soil? Nonon felt her hands shaking, but with a deep breath, she steeled herself. Her grip on the baton tightened.

“No.”

“...no?”

“I’m not letting you hurt them. I don’t know what’s going on, and I don’t know what happened to the teacher I respected, but if you think I’m going to sit back and let them get hurt, then you’re wrong!”

“And what are you going to do?”

“The one thing I know how to do!” She brought her hands up, and her baton glowed with magic energy. She could feel a presence behind her. A massive speaker had formed, rivaling the flytrap in size. She brought her hands down, and at her command the speaker unleashed a blaring, ground shaking note. Weaponized sound waves shot from the device and slammed into the flytrap with enough force to not only send it reeling back, but to let go of the other two girls as well.

“Alright, Nonon!” Vriska’s dice appeared in her hand and she tossed it towards the flytrap just as it let out a vicious roar. The dice fell into the mouth of the monster, and though she couldn’t see what she rolled, she knew what she got all the same. It was exactly what she needed.

52 - Blizzard!

A rush of cold wind blew from inside the beast and out its mouth. It was so frigid that the outside of the plant began to freeze, becoming a massive ice sculpture with their teacher on top of it. Vines shot out and stabilized her atop the now dead plant.

“Your turn, Susie!”

“I’m on it!” The dinosaur girl lunged forward, axe at the ready. Though vines shot from the ground to try and stop her, they were too slow to intercept. Leaping into the air, she slammed her axe down on the frozen plant’s head. With one powerful strike, the monster shattered, turning into thousands of ice shards. The blow was so powerful that Poison Ivy was sent flying off into the darkness.

Susie landed in front of the other two, grinning as she looked back at her handiwork. “Yeah, I think we’re good now.”

“That was… insane.” Nonon watched as the ice shards fell down from the sky like snow.

“Yeah, once you actually decided to help, we took care of that real quick.” Vriska nudged Nonon, smirking. “That’s why you listen to me. I know what I’m talking about.”

“Don’t push it.”

“Uh, where did the teacher go?” Susie looked in the direction she was launched, narrowing her eyes. “We still kind of need to know how to get out of here.”

“Well, if we follow where she blasted off we should be able to find her.” Nonon shrugged and began to move in that direction. “Let’s go. Hopefully she’s not too mad at us.”

“I mean, shouldn't we get the police or something? She did try to kill us.”

As Susie and Nonon moved on ahead, Vriska saw something out of the corner of her eye. It was near where the flytrap was; glowing in the limited light there was in this room. Stepping closer she found a glossy, pitch black ball. It was like someone had taken the darkness and given it a physical shape. Picking it up, she stared into it. She felt like it was important, but she didn’t know why. She quickly pocketed the orb before hurrying to catch up with the other two.

...

They were walking for a long while, but the path was obvious. Their teacher had left a trail of leaves and flower petals wherever she walked, like her very steps were encouraging plant growth. Following her trail, the darkness would eventually subside and break out into the light. One second they were in the dark, and the next they were outside the construction section of the garden, in their normal clothes. It was like someone had flipped a switch.

“So… what the hell happened?” Susie asked, looking at the others only to get a shrug from both.

“Whatever it was, I don’t think we should tell anyone.” Vriska shook her head, reaching into her pocket. Thankfully, her dice were still there. So was that orb, but she’d have to examine that later.

“What? Why not?” As Vriska began to walk back to the front of the garden, Nonon trailed behind her. “Our teacher just tried to kill us. Isn’t that important?”

“Like anyone’s gonna believe us.” Vriska shot a look back at her. “Look, we don’t even know what happened. Until we do, I don’t think we can tell anyone.”

“I think she’s got a point,” Susie piped up. “We should know what happened first before saying anything. Not like Ms. Isley’s going to try anything now.”

“You might be right, but I don’t like it.”

“Look at you, suddenly not trusting your teacher. Is the pet off her leash?”

“Serket, you’re insufferable.”

“Same to you!”

They reached the front of the gardens and, to their surprise, the rest of the class was there as well, including Ms. Isley. She walked to the others, looking stern. “There you three are. I was worried we’d have to call the police. Do you even know what time it is?”

“What? But it’s…” Nonon took her phone out and gasped at the time. “It’s been an hour already! How did…?”

“I’m very disappointed in you three. Especially you, Nonon. The principal will be hearing about this when we get back.”

“Is that the only thing that the principal will be hearing about?” Isley’s eyes shot to Vriska, and the moment eye contact was made, it seemed like they were challenging each other. The uncomfortable face off lasted for a few seconds before Isley relented.

“Alright, everyone. Let’s get back on the bus. Sit in the same seats you came in on. We’re leaving.”

As the other students began to pile on the bus, Vriska turned to the others. “She’s definitely still mad.”

“Yeah. Look, I don’t know what happened, but it clearly wasn’t nothing. Maybe it has something to do with Fern going missing? I don’t know how, but…” Nonon shook her head. “We need to meet up again. Tomorrow’s the weekend. We can meet up at the park?”

“I’m down to hang out.” Susie grinned.

“Hanging out with the Dungeons and Dragons dork, huh. Nonon?”

“Serket…”

“Alright, yeah, we’ll meet back up. See if we can get to the bottom of this. Until then… let’s just act like none of this happened for a bit.”

“Agreed.”

“Sounds good.”

The three were the last students to pile onto the bus, Ms. Isley gave them dirty looks as they walked past. Once they were all seated, the bus took off down the street, leaving the Botanical Gardens, and all the questions it posed, behind.

[u/JackytheJack → u/JackytheJack]

Vriska stepped into her home and slid her backpack off her shoulders. It hit the ground with a thud as she walked towards her room. Her mind wandered, thinking about what had happened today. She had no real answers for what happened; all she knew was that, if only for a second, she had power.

“Dear?” A voice called out. It spoke in a sweet tone that she knew was fake. An attempt at sounding motherly that lost its charm long ago. “Are you back?”

“Yeah, mom.”

She closed the door to her room and sat down at her desk. She stared at her reflection in the dead screen of her PC. God, she hated to look at herself. She never looked like what she wanted to look like, who she wanted to look like. She spun her chair to face the wall instead, reaching her hand into her pocket.

There was a knock at her door, and she winced. In her pocket, her hand clasped around the ball she found at the gardens. She pulled it out and placed it in her lap.

“My dear… er, what name is it again?”

“Vriska.”

“Of course. Sorry, it’s hard to change habits, especially with how recently you changed things.”

It’s been three years…

“Are you still holding your club meeting here next week?”

Due to Fern’s disappearance they had to cancel last week’s meeting. Vriska thought back to what Nonon had said, about how her club might have had something to do with it. Vriska would never want her to go missing; Fern was a good player. She was imaginative with how she used her spells, and she made a good backstory for her character. Vriska didn’t know what happened to her, but she hoped Fern was okay. More importantly, Vriska hoped whatever happened wasn’t her fault..

She looked down at the ball in her hands. Glossy and solid black, reminding her of an 8 ball, just without the number on it. She could vaguely see her reflection in the shiny material. Was this what gave her the power to be someone else? Someone with a fancy set of powers and magic dice and a stupid outfit? Maybe that’s what she was looking for this entire time; an escape.

“Yeah.”

“Good. Just checking.” Vriska heard the handle to her door turn and click, and her head became a little fuzzy. She had already locked the door. What followed next were footsteps as her mother walked away, leaving her alone with the strange artifact, thinking about the strange other world.

She hoped she’d get a chance to go back.

[u/JackytheJack → u/JackytheJack]

Warriors of the Dark!

Featuring special guest...

Poison Ivy!

The local high school biology teacher, Ivy is the school chaperone for the yearly field trips to the botanical gardens the next town over. Everything was going fine until those three slipped away, falling into her dark world. Being defeated at the hands of three inexperienced teenagers, she has a lot of explaining to do.

But explaining to who...? Who is she working for?