Word Count: 8588
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Da Vinci Museum
“This place feels more akin to an amusement park.” Said the original Elizabeth. The museums she was used to typically had an atmosphere of respectful silence and delicacy. A place where people are meant to educate themselves on lessons learned from their ancestors. After all, museums are meant to be historic sanctuaries. Purely dedicated to honouring the people of the past, ensuring their sacrifices as well as their mistakes are never forgotten by those proceeding to the future.
But here in the Da Vinci museum, you had people happily screaming and loudly chatting away with each other while they lined up at each painting. There were even some unsupervised rich kids running around as if they were at home. The staff did little to maintain the noise, in fact, most of them didn’t even try. However, by far, the most ridiculous thing about all this was that, since visitors often stayed for long hours, the owners had the bright idea of allowing popular food merchants to sell their signature delicacies inside the museum for the sake of convenience—and to earn higher praise from nobles who often complained about going hungry. This led to exactly what one would expect from an idea like that: visitors eating food with their bare hands and then touching the paintings with those same bare hands. Apparently, these magical paintings have the convenient ability of staying clean at all times but regardless, in Elizabeth’s own words: that has got to be the highest form of disrespect you could ever give to a long-passing painter.
“What exactly is an amusement park?” It became a common habit for General Noche to eavesdrop whenever the original hero made comments to herself. Elizabeth was used to it at this point.
“A festival-like city, filled with towering contraptions that let normal people enjoy the feeling of flight, accompanied by a wide variety of activities, suited for all ages and families. Millions of dollars. Countless resources. All dedicated to just making sure every visitor has fun.” Replied the original hero. She began to remember the memories of going to an amusement park with her elderly mother. It was actually one of the last memories she had with her mother.
From those words, Noche tried imagining what an “amusement park” must look like but his image was very different to what it actually looked like.
“Fun.” Elizabeth repeated to herself, “Now that I think about it, considering Da Vinci’s adventurous character, perhaps this is just the type of atmosphere he wanted to leave behind.”
“Perhaps.” Said the general before he eyed a few museum goers who were stuffing their mouths with that famous triangle shaped bread known as pizza, “although I’m not sure how he would’ve felt about that.”
Elizabeth softly hummed in agreement before asking, “How about you, Noche? Are you having fun?”
Noche paused and looked to see what the others were doing.
Step brother Keith was repeatedly entering the same Memory Painting over and over, determined that he could ‘dodge’ every single projectile that was featured in that memory, despite raging every time he failed. Professor Linden was exploring a Memory Painting that featured Da Vinci and his colleagues delving into a golden city that was hidden inside a mad man’s domain. Cecil on the other hand was surrounded by five obnoxious noble ladies who were all trying to flirt with him.
“I find the experience…. Fascinating. But I wouldn’t say fun.” Noche finally answered.
Elizabeth could understand why he felt that way. After all, not only have they been through their own crazy experiences, Noche never really viewed battles and mayhem as ‘fun’ unlike those chaotic adventurers. To him, an ‘adventure’ was always something you had to take seriously and not something to enjoy.
“Linden told me Da Vinci was apparently the richest non royal human in all of Elacia.” Said Noche.
“That is correct.” Elizabeth replied before explaining further, “Each time he returned with a Memory Painting, he would make the equivalent of two life-fortunes. And then after he passed away, the value of each of his paintings increased by tenfold. Some say you could buy an entire kingdom if you owned enough of them.”
“I get the appeal but I don’t quite understand how they can be worth so much.” After all, in terms of combat, an ability like this was quite useless.
“There are many reasons. But the main one is scarcity. The ability to not only record memories but allow others to enter and observe them firsthand was a skill possessed only by Da Vinci. Throughout all of history, even until today, there has never been anyone with a similar skill that could do that.”
This came as quite the surprise for the general. While every skill tree is unique, with so many people in this world, it’s not hard to find someone who has similar abilities to another person. Similar to how all healers can heal wounds but just in different ways, Noche had just assumed there must’ve been others who could do the same as Da Vinci. The fact that these Memory Paintings were each worth multiple fortunes was beginning to make a lot more sense to him now.
Elizabeth then added, “Just one of those exceptions I guess. Ever since his passing, thousands of people have chosen “painter” as their skill tree in hopes of achieving Da Vinci’s fortune. But so far, no one has succeeded.”
“But you can never be too certain. There might be someone out there with a similar ability.”
“If there was, we would’ve heard about them by now.”
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The Harmless Forest
187Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDff4hCYULD
The Florist left the house again. That simply became a part of the routine. She would be gone for several minutes and then come back with a brand new pot containing a brand new flower, each one different from the previous one. And each time the Florist left, the Puppet would sit on the outside verandah on her rocking chair and wait for her return.
It wasn’t only the flowers, apparently her skill provided pots that randomly varied in size, with different widths and lengths, making some easier to carry than others. Sometimes the Florist would struggle to bring one over, prompting the Puppet to try to go over to her and help, only to be reminded by the system that she’s not allowed to “leave the designated area.”
Most of these skills had a daily cooldown timer on them, meaning she could only bring one flower to the house per day.
“Tada!” The Florist would say every single time she brought in a new flower. Each time she would lift the pot above her head to put it on display and would sometimes clumsily almost drop them. Thankfully the Puppet was always there to catch them. So with every “Tada!”, a new flower would be added to decorate the house with more colours.
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One time the Florist brought in a bright red flower and while sitting on the couch, she brought it very close to her nose. After a long inhale, she let out a satisfied hum as she rubbed her stomach, “Mhnn… this is what apples are supposed to smell like apparently. Want to try?”
The Puppet leaned forward as the Florist brought the red flower closer to her, the petal of the flower gently poking at her face. The Puppet smelt nothing.
“Can you smell that?”
The Puppet shook her head.
The Florist looked at the Puppet’s face for a brief moment before asking, “Can you smell anything?”
The Puppet shook her head again.
“Oh…. I guess I should’ve figured… But you can hear and see things, right?”
The Puppet nodded.
“Oh… interesting.” Said the Florist, “Do you ever get hungry? I’ve never seen you eat so I guess not huh.”
The Puppet shook her head.
The Florist lifted her hand with five outstretched fingers, closing them one by one as she said, “You can see but you can’t smell. You can hear but you can’t taste... What about touch? Can you feel things?”
The Puppet couldn’t answer that with a simple yes or no. She could feel things but it was limited. Many things she touched felt exactly the same to her and not to mention, her sense of pain was completely gone.
After seeing the lack of response, the Florist quickly deduced, “somewhere in between?”
The Puppet nodded. Aside from the added bonus of being able to feel everything that was inside the house, practically half her senses had been removed from her body.
The Florist looked concerned for a moment as she couldn’t imagine what that must feel like. She quickly smiled as she brightly said, “Well thankfully you can see and hear. After all, if you couldn’t hear, I wouldn’t be able to talk to you like this and if you couldn’t see, you would never be able to see the beautiful meadow that I made.”
A big part of experiencing flowers is enjoying their fragrance.
But the Florist never told the Puppet that.
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The Puppet was playing with the building blocks while the Florist was busy smelling a red flower with green petals, “Mhnn… chopped lettuce with tomatoes… wow.”
It was then she noticed a particular object had appeared right next to her while she wasn’t looking. She gave the object a good look before calling the Puppet to come over.
“Do you think we should give it a name?”
Both Elizabeth fakes looked down at the mysterious, teleporting, wooden rocking chair. Just like every tree in the Harmless Forest, this rocking chair could only move when no one was looking at it.
From the very beginning of this house, this moving rocking chair had always been here. Following the Puppet on her daily walks, being there whenever she felt like sitting down for a few hours and moving around the place frequently to always let her know that it was there. In a way, she was never truly alone thanks to this odd moving chair.
“Any ideas?”
The Puppet shrugged.
“Hmm…” The Florist thought long and hard about it for the next few minutes.
The Puppet and the chair waited patiently in silence.
“Blinky.” She finally said, “What about Blinky? Because you know… it can move when you blink at it.”
The Puppet glanced at the chair as if looking for approval. Turns out it's a bit hard to discern whether a chair is agreeing with you or not. But the Puppet liked the name because it was the Florist who thought of it. So from that day on, the moving rocking chair was known as Blinky.
Later on, the Florist was alone upstairs and wanted to test it out. So she called out the chair’s new name before closing her eyes. When she opened them, Blinky was now right in front of her.
“Oh, so you do like the name.” She said as she gave the chair a pat on the head… or armrest, to be more precise.
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“What’s this?” The Florist asked.
She was randomly checking all the drawers and cupboards out of sheer curiosity. She didn’t expect to find anything but was pleasantly surprised to find an entire tea set of blank white cups with a blank white tea pot.
“Why didn’t you tell me you had this?”
The Puppet responded by lifting the lid of the teapot to reveal that it was completely empty.
“Ah that’s fine, we can just pretend. Here, I’ll show you.”
Coincidentally, there were two cups. There was only one cup when the Puppet first found this blank white tea set.
The two fakes brought the tea set to the table where the Florist set everything up neatly. She then put on what the Puppet could only describe as a ‘fancy accent’, as she started roleplaying as a high royalty noble. This was how they spent the rest of their afternoon. Even though they were pouring non-existent tea into their cups and drinking thin air, the two Elizabeth fakes had a lot of fun.
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Days went by. The Florist still couldn’t move her meadow and the Puppet still couldn’t move her house.
However, gradually, the house began becoming more vibrant, with every window and table having at least one flower to accompany it. Wherever the sun could reach, a flower would be placed there. The house, once feeling expansive and isolated, gradually became more lively, literally blooming with more colours.
Once again returning from her meadow, the Florist was smelling an orange coloured flower as she walked back to the house, “Hmm, pumpkins huh… not bad.”
As always, the Puppet had waited on the verandah until she had returned. Heading inside, the Florist placed the new flower on the dining table which was already accompanied by a dozen of other colourful flowers.
She then picked up her watering can, only to realise it was empty. She gently slapped her head, “Oh goodness, I completely forgot to fill up the water. I’ll be right back.”
She rushed out the house with the watering can, prompting the Puppet to once again seat out in the verandah and watch as she leaves. She waited with Blinky, watching and waiting. Staring. Seating. Rocking. She wouldn’t look anywhere else except for the one spot where the Florist would pop out of every time she returned. The Puppet sat there, continuously watching and waiting.
And then…
The Florist came back. With a fresh batch of water, taken straight from her meadow.
She only had one watering can but the two Elizabeth takes would often take turns feeding each of the flowers.
It took them a comically long time to realise that they could use this water to help them roleplay with the Puppet’s tea set. So long that the Florist laughed and playfully slapped herself for not thinking of the idea sooner.
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During one random night, the Florist was in bed, ready to go to sleep with the Puppet watching her side. There was a moment of comfortable silence between the two before she suddenly asked:
“Hey Puppet, do you want to be sisters?”
The Puppet immediately looked away from the flower that was resting on the bedside table. There was not a single moment of hesitation as she nodded ‘yes’ very eagerly.
So just like that, they become sisters.
That gave the Florist a bright grin which she accompanied with a childish “yay!”. She then added, “You’re the third sister I’ve ever had, you know. What about you?”
The Puppet raised six fingers.
“I’m your sixth sister?”
The Puppet nodded.
This only seemed to make the Florist even more happy, “Wow, just like my number then!”
The Florist’s number was 6166. Not to mention the Puppet’s number: 0466. It was such a pleasant coincidence that the Florist couldn’t help but laugh about it.
“Must be our lucky number.”
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“Hey Puppet, do you know why I love flowers so much?"
The Puppet stopped playing with the building blocks, stood up, and went over to sit next to the Florist who was savouring the scent of strawberries from a red flower.
The Puppet listened attentively as the Florist slowly gave her answer.
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The Florist once again left the house. After roughly an hour, she returned with a flower that smelt like potatoes and carrots. She also had a huge grin on her face.
“I just unlocked a cool new skill. Mind if I give it a try?” The Florist lifted her hand to reveal that there was somehow a picture of a flower imprinted onto the back of her hand.
The pair went back inside with Blinky following behind them. They sat in the dining room with the tea set neatly placed in front of the Florist. She then wrapped her hand around the teapot. The Puppet leaned in closer to watch but nothing happened.
“The skill says I have to wait.” The Florist clarified.
They waited in silence, watching for any signs of movement or changes. For a few minutes, nothing happened. But then finally they both saw it. The picture of the flower that was ingrained onto the Florist’s hand: it started to move. It moved just as slow as a cloud but it was incredibly intriguing to watch. Like a moving drawing, the flower gradually moved from the Florist’s hand until it arrived onto the blank white tea pot. Once the singular flower found its place on the blank teapot, the drawing began growing roots which sprouted other pretty flowers. The flower was expanding itself as if the teapot had become its canvas.
The Elizabeth pair marveled at their creation. The teapot now looked a lot more fancy and vibrant. Their next roleplaying session was going to be a lot more exciting now.
“Wow.”
Klack! Klack! Klack! Said the Puppet.
The skill had a very long cooldown but they didn’t care. From that moment on, the pair would always get super excited every time the skill was ready to be used again. They would use it to decorate each of the tea cups, the Florist’s bed, and even-
"Hey Puppet, I just realised you always unlock the basement door with the key. Can’t you just move it with your mind like with everything else in this house?”
The Puppet shook her head. For some unknown reason, the basement always remained rooted in place. She can change the house’s layout and move the furniture as if the place was haunted without even being in the same room but the basement was the one place she could not manipulate.
The Florist was quick to shrug it off. In a world full of ambiguous skill trees with none-specified conditions, it quickly became the norm for the everyday person to just shrug off important questions. What interested the Florist more was the idea that came to her mind as she descended the stone steps with the Puppet following after her.
The Florist wrapped her fingers around the door handle of the basement and activated the skill once again. Each time she used this skill, the Elizabeth pair would always watch with fascinated eyes as the drawing of the flower would move from her hand and onto the desired spot. Once the skill was done, the handle of the basement door was now decorated with a nice flower pattern. The Florist dusted off her hands for dramatic effect as she proudly looked at her work, “Much better.”
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“I’ll be right back, okay?”
The Florist once again left the house and went back to her meadow. As always, the Puppet waited with Blinky on the wooden verandah.
Rocking back and forth, she watched the motionless trees in the distance, waiting in complete silence. Silence that was only broken by the creaking of the wooden floor boards. Just like every other day, she remained in this spot until the Florist’s inevitable return.
The Florist was usually back after 15 or so minutes….
But an entire hour had passed now and yet there was no sign of her anywhere. But the Puppet kept waiting.
Then another hour went by. A very long hour.
Then two hours.
Then three.
Then four.
Then the sun began making its way down the sky. Until eventually, the Puppet found herself watching the sun set. A view she had grown so used to seeing that she barely noticed it.
Blinky patiently remained with her as she waited… and waited. Rocking back… and forth.
Throughout all of this, the Puppet never took her eyes off the same spot where the Florist would always emerge from every day. She never looked away and she never even blinked.
She perked up when she heard the sound of distant movement.
It was the Florist, emerging from the trees with a new flower in her hand. The leftover light from the sun set revealed a huge excited grin on her face. The Puppet stood up, her mouth clacking up and down loudly as she watched the Florist hurry back to the house. Her hurried steps displayed a weird mixture of trying to be delicate with the flower in her hands while simultaneously trying to go as fast as she could.
“Sorry! I’m so sorry!” She apologised profusely when she reached the verandah.
The Puppet replied by softly pinching and rubbing the Florist’s face, causing her to giggle slightly.
“But look! TADA!” She lifted up the flower in her hand above her head as usual but she was a lot more careful with this one.
It was a yellow sunflower that had a faint glow that ran across the outlines of the plant. Aside from the glow, there didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary with it, especially when compared to all the other flowers she had brought home. But the sheer excitement in her eyes told a different story.
“I think I just unlocked one of the coolest skills ever! Come! Come! You’re going to love this!”
The Elizabeth pair hurried back inside and straight to the living room. The Florist carefully placed the new flower on the coffee table before ushering the Puppet to kneel in front of it.
“Alright, now touch it. Gently.”
The Puppet was hesitant. This was the first time she’d been asked to actually touch one of the flowers. These blooms are often quite delicate so touching them was usually always out of the question. She titled her head towards the Florist for more confirmation.
“Don’t worry, it’s fine. Just make sure you’re super gentle. It won’t activate if you’re not gentle.”
After receiving more encouragement to go ahead, the Puppet slowly directed her finger towards the glowing plant.
Outside, the moon had already shown itself in the night sky.
As soon as the Puppet’s finger grazed the tip of the petal, she was in a different place.
…
It suddenly became bright.
The Puppet was outside. Like actually outside. Instead of being taunted by the sea of grass that laid in front of her verandah, she was actually standing outside in the forest where her house was no longer visible.
The change from the dark night to the bright afternoon was instant and yet the Puppet didn’t even flinch. She was more focused on the beautiful view before her.
“Not far from here, I activated a skill that created
an ENTIRE meadow of flowers.”
She remembered those past words as she internally gasped at the sight.
It truly was an entire meadow that was purely coloured by the presence of hundreds of flowers. Green, red, yellow, blue. Basically every colour the Puppet has ever known on top of even more colours the Puppet had never seen before. The trees of the forest surrounded the large meadow as if admiring the sight before them. After looking at the same dull floorboards and walls for so long, seeing this was like a visual oasis.
“With so many different colours and shapes that it looks like a rainbow.
It's genuinely the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.”
When you looked closer, each flower had its own style and presence. Some of them had more petals while others were taller. Some of them were batched together in vivid clusters, emphasizing their single vibrant colour while others mingled with different kinds, mixing their hues together to create a diverse bouquet of natural palettes.
It was beautiful. A sight that the Puppet would never forget. Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack! Said the Puppet.
“Umm, testing? Testing… hello? Is it working?”
Upon hearing the Florist’s voice again, the Puppet immediately turned to face her. The Florist was standing near the center of the meadow, her eyes focused on the glowing sunflower in front of her. The same sunflower she had brought to the house today.
The Puppet immediately went over to the Florist in order to pinch her face, but instead, the Puppet’s hand phased right through the Florist’s body as if she were a ghost. In fact, it seemed like the Florist couldn’t even see the Puppet. Her eyes were glued to the sunflower that rested in its pot in front of her.
“Well if I read the skill descriptions correctly then, HI PUPPET! Hopefully you’re watching this!”
The Florist waved at the sunflower. The Puppet then in front of the sunflower and waved back at her.
The Florist stretched out her arms towards the meadow that surrounded her, “See? It’s beautiful right? One day, I’m sure you’ll be able to come here in person. Or I move it to your house, whichever happens first I guess, haha.”
The Florist had the brightest grin on her face as she spun around in all of its glorious colours, “Honestly, just thinking that you’ll finally be able to see what this place looks like has got me feeling SUPER EXCIT-”
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After a single blink, the Puppet was now back inside her house. From her point of view, it went from a bright afternoon straight to a dark night and yet the Puppet didn’t flinch at the abrupt change of light. She also didn’t flinch when she noticed the Florist was seated right next to her.
On the contrary, it was the Florist who slightly flinched when they made eye contact. It seemed the Florist was closely watching the Puppet’s face this entire time.
“Did you see it!?” The Florist quickly asked with anticipation.
The Puppet nodded.
Her eyes lit up even further, “It’s beautiful, right? Oh wait, I guess I already asked you that, haha.”
The Puppet nodded again while also pinching the Florist’s face which only made her more happy.
“Isn’t this amazing!” Both Elizabeth fakes brought their attention back to the glowing sunflower, “It’s called a ‘Memory Flower’ and it can- well, you just saw what it can do. You can actually view it as many times as you want. The skill that creates these has a really long cooldown but with this, we can record so many memories together.”
And that was exactly what they did.
The first memory they recorded was them having a tea party. They did their usual tea roleplay, using water for their fake tea while the Florist made sure to put on her best fake accent. Once it was done, the Puppet viewed it back. It was the very first time the Puppet saw a clear image of what her own body and face looked like. She tried poking herself in the memory but like before, she couldn’t physically touch anything but she was free to walk around and watch the memory from different angles.
This gave the Florist an idea. For the next Memory Flower, the Florist recorded herself walking around the Harmless Forest, although she made sure not to actually leave the forest. This allowed the Puppet to “walk” with her as if she were actually outside. The Florist started commenting and talking during these recordings. Sometimes she would explain certain things like what each flower was named while most of the time, she would ramble on about random topics.
In their latest Memory Flower, they made random things with the toy building blocks. The Puppet also made sure to high-five the air. This allowed her future self to high-five her past self every time the memory was viewed back.
This also gave the Puppet something else to do while the Florist was sleeping at night. She would revisit each Memory Flower over and over until morning. It didn’t matter whether she had watched them ten, twenty or even over a hundred times. The moment she finished watching one Memory Flower, she would immediately walk over to the next one and repeat. It may have looked mundane to most people, but for her, it was like a mini adventure.
In one of these recorded memories that the Puppet was revisiting, the Florist was smelling a light yellow flower, “oooooo, bananas and pineapples, huh. Very nice. Did you know some humans cook fruit and vegetables over a fire like they do with meat. Apparently it tastes different when you do that. I also have no idea where I heard that from.”
The Puppet would always listen to these random ramblings, regardless of whether it was in person or in memory.
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“Alright see ya, I’ll be right back.”
Like every other day, the Florist left the house again to get another flower from her meadow. The Puppet waited on the verandah as she always did, just like every other day.
An hour passed.
Then two hours went by.
Then the Puppet decided to watch one of their memory flowers again to pass the time.
…
It was the memory they recorded of them building random things with the toy blocks. It was also the same memory where the past Puppet got the idea to high five the air so that the future Puppet could high five herself which was exactly what she did. Still inside the memory, the Puppet sat on the floor as she watched herself and the past Florist play with the blocks.
…
When the Puppet’s consciousness returned back to the present time, the Florist was standing right in front of her.
“Boo!” The Florist exclaimed, although she missed the jumpscare window by a whole entire second, “Did that get you?”
The Puppet shook her head.
“Aww.” The Florist chuckled at her failed attempt, but she was quick to move on as she had a more exciting matter to address, “Well anyways, sorry I took so long again. But look at this!”
She had another huge grin on her face. It was clear she had made another breakthrough in her skill tree. But strangely, the Puppet saw no new flower this time. In the Florist’s hand was just a regular looking pot filled only with soil.
“Tada!” The Florist exclaimed excitedly as she lifted the empty pot above her head like she always did.
The Puppet titled her head in confusion. The Florist simply giggled, “Trust me, this… this is special. Well- I mean every flower I’ve brought has been special but this is something I’ve been wanting ever since I unlocked Memory Flowers- anyways, you’ll see what I mean. Come, come.”
The pair made their way inside the house and up the stairs into the Florist’s room. After making some space, they rested the flowerless pot on the bedside table.
“So according to my skill tree, this isn’t a Memory flower. This is- or it will be, a Remembrance Flower. It won’t start growing yet, not until it links with someone.”
She went on to explain the differences between the two types. The Memory Flowers from before could only record present moments. But if the Florist wasn’t mistaken, then a Remembrance Flower can-
“Record your past.” Said the Florist as she marveled at the pot, “Everything you’ve been through until this point, all contained in a single flower. Isn’t that just… just…”
She wanted to say: beautiful, amazing, phenomenal. But none of these words could properly measure the weight of how she felt.
“There’s still a lot I don’t know about you.” The Florist admitted, “But with this… if you link up with this then I’ll be able to learn so much more about you. Only if you’re comfortable with it, of course. The skill doesn’t specify how much of your past it will show but I’m assuming it’ll show a lot. So… would you be okay with that?”
The Puppet nodded, yes. She didn’t even give it a single moment of hesitation. She seemed to like the idea just as much as the Florist.
With a bright grin and a few excited claps, the Florist gave instructions on how to do it.
“So just gently- and make sure you’re very gentle. Gently touch the surface of the soil. It should give you a prompt asking for confirmation.”
With slow gradual movements, the Puppet carefully directed her finger towards the pot. She felt as if going any faster would result in an explosion so she went as slow as possible. But just when her finger was about to graze the soil, the Florist, for some reason, thought it would be a great time to mention:
“Oh yeah, by the way. I can only make a Remembrance floweronce every20 years.”
The Puppet instantly recoiled and swiftly backed away from the pot like a cat leaping away from its own reflection.
A… Twenty… Year… Cooldown… It was by far the longest skill cooldown the Puppet had ever heard.
“No, no, it’s okay! It’s okay!” The Florist assured her, “It’s okay, I want you to have it.”
But instead, the Puppet gestured her arm back towards the Florist, silently suggesting that it would be better if she took it instead. After all, it was her who created all these beautiful blooms. Not to mention, the Puppet would also love to find out more about her sister’s past.
The Florist shook her head as she insisted, “Look, I admit that part of me really wants to take it for myself. But trust me, I already thought about this for a while when I first unlocked the skill. And ultimately, out of the two of us… I think you need it more than I do.”
The Puppet tilted her head which was what she always did whenever she wanted to convey confusion.
The Florist paused for a bit as if trying to find the correct words to say. When she couldn’t find the right words, she exhaled a long breath before deciding to just say it directly.
“Look, I’ll be honest, when I first met you… I thought you looked very scary.”
The Puppet didn’t move. Due to her motionless face, it was impossible to tell how the Puppet felt about that.
The Florist quickly continued, "I don't think you look scary now, just to be clear. But I’m just afraid that other people who meet you for the first time might get the wrong idea about you. People who might not give you the same chance I did. Which is why I think THIS-”
She pointed towards the pot on the bedside table that had yet to grow its special flower.
“This is perfect for you. I mean, think about it. All you would have to do is show them this flower and poof! They’ll instantly know that you’re actually a very kind person. It’ll be so much easier for you to make friends with this.”
Friends.
For as long as the Puppet could remember, making friends was her only desire. That was what made her so different from all the other Elizabeth fakes who wanted nothing more than to be like the original. Although, she almost forgot about that desire after being trapped in this house for so long.
The Florist gave her a reassuring pat on the back, “Besides, I can just wait another 20 years. By then, my remembrance flower might become way better than yours, haha.”
After confirming another three times that the Florist was okay with this, the Puppet finally gave in and gently linked with the seed that would gradually grow into her Remembrance Flower.
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The process of growing a Remembrance Flower was slow but intriguing.
Once a day, the Puppet was required to sit in front of the growing flower with all her fingers directly touching the bloom for a specified amount of time. A timer in the form of a notification that only she could see would indicate how long she would have to do it. There were days where she only had to do it for a few minutes while other days, she had to hold it for hours. The longest she was given was 6 hours and 12 minutes.
Starting with the soil was easy. But when it began to sprout, placing all ten fingers on it was quite tricky. Since you have to be incredibly gentle, a task like this would be extremely difficult for a normal person since it sometimes requires you to maintain an awkward posture. Fortunately, the Puppet was basically a professional at standing completely motionless for long periods of time so for her, it wasn’t that hard. The awkward postures also didn’t seem to affect her body in the slightest. She truly looked like an inanimate object when standing still. It was as if this task was made for her. In the rare chance she did take her fingers off, it thankfully didn’t kill the growing plant which was the main concern that the Florist had. However, the timer she was given for that day would reset from the beginning so it was always preferably never to take off your fingers during this daily process.
This added a new job to the Puppet’s routine which for her, was always a benefit.
Apparently the Florist had skills that could speed up the process of growing flowers but none of them work on the Remembrance Flower. Or to be more specific, the system disallowed her from doing so. She theorised that maybe it's because every time the Puppet touches the plant, it links to her mind and slowly goes through everything in her past which was why the process couldn’t be rushed.
“I wonder which of your past memories it’ll show.” The Florist began rambling about this one day while the Puppet was linked with the growing flower, “Maybe it’ll only show the significant moments of your life. Or maybe it really will show every single moment from beginning to now. Wait, if that’s the case, does that mean touching this flower will have you stuck watching it for months? How would a person eat or drink like that? Or maybe time doesn’t move the same while you’re watching that. Like did you know when you’re selecting a new skill tree and you’re floating in that dark space-”
Unbeknownst to the Florist, the Puppet never went through the usual process of changing skill trees. She didn’t even get to choose, she was randomly given “Puppet” by the system after she agreed to change. But oblivious to that knowledge, the Florist continued:
“Time actually completely freezes when you’re in there. Like even if you take hours deciding, for people outside, it’ll only seem like a brief moment. Which always had me wondering. This is a bit morbid to think about but like, what if a person decides to just… stay in that dark space forever. Like do you think there have been people who’ve spent years in there? What does it look like from the outside? If a person goes to change their skill tree with the actual intention of just floating in that dark space for all of eternity, what happens to their body on the outside? Do they disappear? Or do they eventually choose to get out?”
She kept cartwheeling around this topic before eventually moving on to something else like watering all her flowers. The Puppet was quick to join her after she was done.
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On a random day, the Florist was smelling a green flower with orange petals as she murmured to herself, "Ooooo, avocados with sliced carrots. I really like this one.”
The Puppet was linking with her Remembrance Flower again. This time it gave her three hours which she was about halfway through.
“Oh by the way, you know that one Memory Flower we made where you high fived the air so that you could high five yourself every time you rewatched that memory?”
The Puppet gave a singular slow nod since her fingers were still touching the delicate growing flower.
“Well that got me thinking. What if, for our next Memory Flower, we create a game. Something we can play or interact with every time you rewatch the memory.” As she spoke, the Florist went to start her routine of watering every single flower in the house, only to realise, “Oh goodness, I forgot to refill the watering can again.” She gently slapped her forehead since she had just returned from her meadow.
“Well anyways as I was saying, one idea I had was we grab the building blocks and we blindly throw them at the wall. That way, whenever we rewatch the memory, we can stand at the wall and try to dodge all the blocks.” She moved side to side to demonstrate the “dodging” part of it.
The Puppet really liked that idea so she approved with another slow nod.
“Hmm, what else could we do though?” The Florist pondered for a few moments, “I was going to say hide and seek but I’m not sure how that would work. I guess we could make multiple hide and seek flowers and then just switch them around so we don’t know which is which. Or maybe we should just hide in multiple places in the same memory so our future selves don’t remember.”
She went on a small tangent about how they could play hide and seek with their past selves which was tricky since they would obviously know all the possible hiding places. She quickly moved onto another idea.
“We could do paper, scissors, rock. That could genuinely work. Red light green could kinda sort of work as well. What if we did a dance! We could do random dance moves and then we can try to match our own movements when we rewatch it back.”
That also sounded like a cool idea. The Puppet actually had a little bit of experience with dancing. Back when she was with her first group of Elizabeth friends, one activity they always did was learning how to dance like the royalties because it was apparently something the original was very good at.
The Florist suddenly gasped excitedly as another idea came to her mind, “Ooooo! You know how you can move anything in the house? We could totally make an obstacle course! Firstly we set a designated path around the house that our future selves have to run through and then we can time certain obstacles like falling cupboards or moving walls. That could be really fun! If you’re okay with that, of course. This is your house, after all.”
The Puppet really liked that idea as well. The setup would take a bit of time. They would have to move the furniture and all the flowers around to make that possible but they would only have to do it once so it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. It would be worth all the effort considering how fun a Memory Flower like that would be.
“Anyways, I’ll be right back- OH!” The Florist stopped right at the door, “Hide and seek could work if we only have one person do all of the hiding. So one person hides and then starts counting down which acts as the timer for the future seeker. Then whenever you want to switch hiding spots, you can just tell our future selves to close their eyes. And since only one person is doing the hiding, the other person can be the seeker when they watch the memory…. Hmm, would that even work? Yeah… Yeah that could definitely work! Oh my gosh, we have so many ideas. I’m not even sure which one to do first. Oh well, we’ll think about it later.”
With that, the Florist went out to quickly refill her watering can while the Puppet continued to keep her fingers on the growing Remembrance Flower.
She had about 1 hour and 15 minutes left before the Puppet could finally take her fingers off the plant. In that time, she contemplated more ideas for the obstacle course as well as places where she could hide. She can move the walls and she can also move the floor. She could make the floor move upwards like a block of wood emerging from the ground which she was planning to show the Florist once she comes back.
The furniture as well. Even if the furniture breaks while they make the obstacle course, the Puppet has skills to fix or replace them. Everything in this house could be gradually fixed or replaced by her skills. Everything. Everything except for all the flowers. They would need to be careful with those. Depending on how they set up the path for the obstacle course, they’ll have to either temporarily move them all outside or to one of the bedrooms.
As for hide and seek, the Puppet could change the layout of the house entirely so that there were more hiding places. Although, the Puppet would technically have the advantage if she were the seeker. But then again, it wasn’t like this was a major competition. Not to mention, while she does have the ability to ‘feel’ anything that makes contact with her house, that ability ceases to be useful when she’s inside a memory. In other words, a Memory Flower where they play Hide and Seek should still serve as a good source of fun.
An hour passed by swiftly. Puppet was finally able to take her fingers off the growing Remembrance Flower and she was once again free to roam the house. The Florist still hadn’t returned so the Puppet went over to the verandah to wait alongside Blinky the chair.
One hour passed.
Then two hours went by.
Then the Puppet decided to revisit one of their Memory Flowers again.
…
This time it was the memory that the Florist recorded of her walking around the Harmless Forest.
Inside this memory, the Puppet was free to walk around the forest alongside the past Florist who rambled on about random topics. Naturally, the Puppet had already heard these same ramblings. So much so that she practically memorized them word for word. But she never seemed to get tired of it.
Even though the Florist never ventured outside the forest in this memory, being able to actually walk around on the grass was more than enough for the Puppet, even if she wasn’t physically there.
Once she tried venturing out just to test how far she could go while inside the memory. Upon doing so, she discovered another invisible barrier. The barrier formed a large perimeter that perfectly surrounded the Memory Flower that was recording the moment and this barrier would move whenever the flower was moved.
The Puppet continued walking alongside the past Florist through the Harmless Forest.
“I wanted to record the trees teleporting but none of them are making a move.” The Puppet had heard these exact words already and she knew exactly what her sister was going to say next. After saying that, it takes the Florist about two whole seconds before she gasps and realises, “Oh wait! If they can’t move when someone is watching them then I guess being ‘recorded’ counts as being watched, huh. Fascinating.”
After listening to so many of these tangents, the Puppet began trying to wonder about random topics in her own head, the same way the Florist does. ‘Thinking’ was not something she used to do a lot before she met her flowery companion but she was beginning to see the value in doing it. On this particular occasion, she asked herself the question: what happens when you visit a Memory Flower whilst being recorded by a Memory Flower? The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to test it out but she wasn’t sure how exactly she was going to ask the Florist that question later.
…
Once the memory had reached its end, the Puppet’s consciousness returned back to the present time.
The Florist still hadn’t returned so the Puppet continued waiting on her verandah with Blinky the rocking chair.
Another hour went by.
Then another.
Then two more.
She then watched another Memory Flower to pass the time again. This time it was the one where they had a tea party.
More hours went by.
Now the sun was beginning to set.
The Puppet would wait, revisit a Memory Flower, wait some more, and then repeat.
Each time her consciousness returned from watching a Memory Flower, she expected the Florist to be there, waiting to jumpscare her again. But each time, she found no one in sight.
…
The sun had now dipped below the horizon.
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The night was young as darkness cloaked the whole forest.
…
The house grew quiet.
…
The flowers stood still.
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The Puppet kept waiting.
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But the Florist never returned.
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To be continued.
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187Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPelYv34FhN
A/N Well that took forever. Feels like I’m apologising in every author’s note at this point. Honestly I have a belt of excuses as to why this took almost half a whole year to finish but really, it ultimately boils down to my lack of discipline.
When I initially planned out the Puppet’s whole arch, it was meant to be only about 4 or 5 chapters. It’s gone for 8 chapters now which is almost 1 third of this entire story which is just bad planning on my part.
The next chapter is the final chapter of this long flashback which means in total, this flashback is five chapters long, which coincidentally is the same as the Samurai’s. Except for the Samurai, it only took two chapters to meet her (Ch 11-12) before her flashback started whereas with the Puppet, I just realised chapters 23-27 was just meeting the Puppet which is five chapters in total before the Puppet’s flashback actually started. Some have rightfully pointed out that this has gone on for way too long and the time it takes for me to write these chapters certainly doesn’t help that. While I do agree with that sentiment, I do strongly believe that a lot of what I wrote was necessary for this to work but I have to admit that a huge part of me is relieved that I’m finally reaching the end of this whole arch.
Anyways, I’m rambling too much XD.
For those still reading this, I thank you for reading this far and thanks to all those who leave comments. I’ve missed a lot of comments since the last time I posted and I’ll do my best to reply to all of them but forgive if I miss some. But I truly do appreciate all of you guys. If you want to keep track of future chapter progress or get a quicker reply from me, feel free to join the discord server, link should be on my profile.
So yeah, see ya in the next one.
This chapter was finished on the 4/09/2025
187Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW7BSarkJhV
187Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtLwr72aj3v
and then Add to home screen.