Welcome to the sprinkle circus! Take your seats and have a good laugh! First Sprinkle Cookie will make sure your time is well spent!
“Did you enjoy today’s show?”
Important story:
First appearance (possessed)
First Egg’s first appearance (and temporary leave)
Rouge Golem (first egg)
Consequences (first egg)
Berry Brawl (First Berry vs. Dee and Villy)
Current arc summary:
After an unfortunate encounter in the circus, First Egg Cookie was able to magically link herself to First Sprinkle Cookie, possessing the unfortunate ringmaster at will. This has already caused the attack on her own daughter… currently free for the time being thanks to First Milk Cookie, the lovable ringmaster is looking for a way to remove the link.
Mod will answer in white bolded text.
Theme pack
More info under cut:
Other Blogs:
@moonfirecookies - main blog
@integrity-and-corruption - Oc Beast and Ancient Blog (and shadow milk)
@pineapples-island - Ananas Dragon Blog
@slothtowardsparadise - Redemption!Eternal Sugar Blog
@nameles-silence - Silent Salt Blog
@the-creme-republic - Crème Republic multi muse Blog
@sandwichshopofheros - Sandwich Cookie and Hero Cookie Blog
@clusterofworlds - Oc blog (will be multi muse later)
@golden-rulers - oc + Goldencacaoberry blog
Rules:
Please no extreme suggestive/nsfw asks. While I am ok with certain aspects, please do not go to far.
No Homophobia, Transphobia, Racism, all of that stuff, I don’t want any of that here. (Basic DNI criteria)
I’m ok with shipping! Im a multishipper, please be respectful towards ships even if you personally don’t like the ship. Incest or ships with inappropriate age gaps are not welcome.
A cookie of his word, he does send a telltale sign to shadow milk that he’s ready… well at least he hopes he actually gets it…. Naaah it will work. The said thing he sent was a crow, and now the crow was staring into Shadow Milk’s soul.. almost literally. It’s just standing there… menacingly…
*he stares back at the crow for a while before floating over to try and give it head scritches*
*staring into his soul is probably just a normal bird thing, right? ehhhh, maybe someone thinks this is a good method of sending messages to cookies..*
*…*
*ooohhhh, right, that Silent Salt Cookie. probably him. he’ll just have to figure out. where he’s supposed to be meeting him..*
“You did do it.. you baked me and…” he wasn’t continuing that. He couldn’t dare to see Eternal Sugar as his cousin, not when he already disowned her… if they don’t remember them both as much why should he remind them of her?
“… and Sweetly… well you made sweetly first, and then me later.” He eventually finishes, a more reasonable answer. He watched his mother and aunt start discussing quietly.. he would do anything to remind them of him..
Oh that got First Sugar’s attention. And she responds before First Salt says a word. “That would be wonderful sir!”
“Sister no, we shouldn’t trust that so quickly! What if it’s some kind of trick?” First Salt would argue… yeah she’s definitely her son’s mother. But first Sugar baps her on the forehead.
“It’s fine, what’s the worse that can happen! Besides they don’t seem like they would cause problems!”
First Salt was still skeptical, but the idea would mean if he does mess up her sister’s memories even more than what memories the two did have, then it’s just one of them out for a little while..
“Alright, you do it to my sister first, we’ll see if this actually works.”
*he grins and floats over in front of First Sugar, putting one hand against her forehead and quietly muttering a spell to enter her mind*
*he do this as quickly and carefully as he can. glancing through memories, tugging her memories of being a witch closer to the surface, trying to make sure they’re all as close to in the right order as he can get them without watching through all of every single one of her memories. it … doesn’t take as long as might be expected to accomplish all of that, at which point he leaves her mind*
It was, surprisingly hard to get the memories to be pulled out. He uh, broke whatever it was holding it back however, because it all comes back, and First Sugar just, stands in shock.
“Wait no no-“ and he already gets to her, and breaks the exact same thing to pull the memories back up. And it also puts her into shock for a few seconds.
“…. Oh god.. we are so going to Pride after this.”
A cookie of his word, he does send a telltale sign to shadow milk that he’s ready… well at least he hopes he actually gets it…. Naaah it will work. The said thing he sent was a crow, and now the crow was staring into Shadow Milk’s soul.. almost literally. It’s just standing there… menacingly…
*he stares back at the crow for a while before floating over to try and give it head scritches*
*staring into his soul is probably just a normal bird thing, right? ehhhh, maybe someone thinks this is a good method of sending messages to cookies..*
*…*
*ooohhhh, right, that Silent Salt Cookie. probably him. he’ll just have to figure out. where he’s supposed to be meeting him..*
“You did do it.. you baked me and…” he wasn’t continuing that. He couldn’t dare to see Eternal Sugar as his cousin, not when he already disowned her… if they don’t remember them both as much why should he remind them of her?
“… and Sweetly… well you made sweetly first, and then me later.” He eventually finishes, a more reasonable answer. He watched his mother and aunt start discussing quietly.. he would do anything to remind them of him..
Oh that got First Sugar’s attention. And she responds before First Salt says a word. “That would be wonderful sir!”
“Sister no, we shouldn’t trust that so quickly! What if it’s some kind of trick?” First Salt would argue… yeah she’s definitely her son’s mother. But first Sugar baps her on the forehead.
“It’s fine, what’s the worse that can happen! Besides they don’t seem like they would cause problems!”
First Salt was still skeptical, but the idea would mean if he does mess up her sister’s memories even more than what memories the two did have, then it’s just one of them out for a little while..
“Alright, you do it to my sister first, we’ll see if this actually works.”
*he grins and floats over in front of First Sugar, putting one hand against her forehead and quietly muttering a spell to enter her mind*
*he do this as quickly and carefully as he can. glancing through memories, tugging her memories of being a witch closer to the surface, trying to make sure they’re all as close to in the right order as he can get them without watching through all of every single one of her memories. it … doesn’t take as long as might be expected to accomplish all of that, at which point he leaves her mind*
It was, surprisingly hard to get the memories to be pulled out. He uh, broke whatever it was holding it back however, because it all comes back, and First Sugar just, stands in shock.
A cookie of his word, he does send a telltale sign to shadow milk that he’s ready… well at least he hopes he actually gets it…. Naaah it will work. The said thing he sent was a crow, and now the crow was staring into Shadow Milk’s soul.. almost literally. It’s just standing there… menacingly…
*he stares back at the crow for a while before floating over to try and give it head scritches*
*staring into his soul is probably just a normal bird thing, right? ehhhh, maybe someone thinks this is a good method of sending messages to cookies..*
*…*
*ooohhhh, right, that Silent Salt Cookie. probably him. he’ll just have to figure out. where he’s supposed to be meeting him..*
“You did do it.. you baked me and…” he wasn’t continuing that. He couldn’t dare to see Eternal Sugar as his cousin, not when he already disowned her… if they don’t remember them both as much why should he remind them of her?
“… and Sweetly… well you made sweetly first, and then me later.” He eventually finishes, a more reasonable answer. He watched his mother and aunt start discussing quietly.. he would do anything to remind them of him..
Oh that got First Sugar’s attention. And she responds before First Salt says a word. “That would be wonderful sir!”
“Sister no, we shouldn’t trust that so quickly! What if it’s some kind of trick?” First Salt would argue… yeah she’s definitely her son’s mother. But first Sugar baps her on the forehead.
“It’s fine, what’s the worse that can happen! Besides they don’t seem like they would cause problems!”
First Salt was still skeptical, but the idea would mean if he does mess up her sister’s memories even more than what memories the two did have, then it’s just one of them out for a little while..
“Alright, you do it to my sister first, we’ll see if this actually works.”
*he grins and floats over in front of First Sugar, putting one hand against her forehead and quietly muttering a spell to enter her mind*
*he do this as quickly and carefully as he can. glancing through memories, tugging her memories of being a witch closer to the surface, trying to make sure they’re all as close to in the right order as he can get them without watching through all of every single one of her memories. it … doesn’t take as long as might be expected to accomplish all of that, at which point he leaves her mind*
It was, surprisingly hard to get the memories to be pulled out. He uh, broke whatever it was holding it back however, because it all comes back, and First Sugar just, stands in shock.
A cookie of his word, he does send a telltale sign to shadow milk that he’s ready… well at least he hopes he actually gets it…. Naaah it will work. The said thing he sent was a crow, and now the crow was staring into Shadow Milk’s soul.. almost literally. It’s just standing there… menacingly…
*he stares back at the crow for a while before floating over to try and give it head scritches*
*staring into his soul is probably just a normal bird thing, right? ehhhh, maybe someone thinks this is a good method of sending messages to cookies..*
*…*
*ooohhhh, right, that Silent Salt Cookie. probably him. he’ll just have to figure out. where he’s supposed to be meeting him..*
“You did do it.. you baked me and…” he wasn’t continuing that. He couldn’t dare to see Eternal Sugar as his cousin, not when he already disowned her… if they don’t remember them both as much why should he remind them of her?
“… and Sweetly… well you made sweetly first, and then me later.” He eventually finishes, a more reasonable answer. He watched his mother and aunt start discussing quietly.. he would do anything to remind them of him..
Oh that got First Sugar’s attention. And she responds before First Salt says a word. “That would be wonderful sir!”
“Sister no, we shouldn’t trust that so quickly! What if it’s some kind of trick?” First Salt would argue… yeah she’s definitely her son’s mother. But first Sugar baps her on the forehead.
“It’s fine, what’s the worse that can happen! Besides they don’t seem like they would cause problems!”
First Salt was still skeptical, but the idea would mean if he does mess up her sister’s memories even more than what memories the two did have, then it’s just one of them out for a little while..
“Alright, you do it to my sister first, we’ll see if this actually works.”
A cookie of his word, he does send a telltale sign to shadow milk that he’s ready… well at least he hopes he actually gets it…. Naaah it will work. The said thing he sent was a crow, and now the crow was staring into Shadow Milk’s soul.. almost literally. It’s just standing there… menacingly…
*he stares back at the crow for a while before floating over to try and give it head scritches*
*staring into his soul is probably just a normal bird thing, right? ehhhh, maybe someone thinks this is a good method of sending messages to cookies..*
*…*
*ooohhhh, right, that Silent Salt Cookie. probably him. he’ll just have to figure out. where he’s supposed to be meeting him..*
“You did do it.. you baked me and…” he wasn’t continuing that. He couldn’t dare to see Eternal Sugar as his cousin, not when he already disowned her… if they don’t remember them both as much why should he remind them of her?
“… and Sweetly… well you made sweetly first, and then me later.” He eventually finishes, a more reasonable answer. He watched his mother and aunt start discussing quietly.. he would do anything to remind them of him..
Oh that got First Sugar’s attention. And she responds before First Salt says a word. “That would be wonderful sir!”
“Sister no, we shouldn’t trust that so quickly! What if it’s some kind of trick?” First Salt would argue… yeah she’s definitely her son’s mother. But first Sugar baps her on the forehead.
“It’s fine, what’s the worse that can happen! Besides they don’t seem like they would cause problems!”
A cookie of his word, he does send a telltale sign to shadow milk that he’s ready… well at least he hopes he actually gets it…. Naaah it will work. The said thing he sent was a crow, and now the crow was staring into Shadow Milk’s soul.. almost literally. It’s just standing there… menacingly…
*he stares back at the crow for a while before floating over to try and give it head scritches*
*staring into his soul is probably just a normal bird thing, right? ehhhh, maybe someone thinks this is a good method of sending messages to cookies..*
*…*
*ooohhhh, right, that Silent Salt Cookie. probably him. he’ll just have to figure out. where he’s supposed to be meeting him..*
Silent Salt was currently loafing on a tree branch, waiting for Shadow Milk to arrive… he uh, he wasn’t at his best but he was currently, ignoring the feelings right now.
*… he was planning on loafing on a tree branch! how dare Silent Salt steal his ideas!? clearly, this was purposeful and malicious. mhm*
*… then again, it doesn’t really mean he CAN’T do it anyway.. and it DOES look comfy… … yeah, he’ll just float up to a branch slightly higher than where Salt is and settle down to loaf there until the other seems ready to leave*
“No I uh…. I got kidnapped twice. Once by the Crème Republic the other time by some cookies who really wanted my power… I got out fine though.” Ok, that was way too casual why did you say it like that?!
The knight climbs down the tree carefully, sliding down the trunk of the tree, he’s not about to get stuck in a tree while Shadow Milk was right there!
“A castle you say? Last from what I understood some aren’t in a castle.. at least the one I saw… First Sprinkle was it..? Apparently married to the swan.”
“She was nice to me, because she also got kidnapped… actually a lot of cookies did.” He had no idea how to get to the castle so, he was heavily relying on shadow milk right now… to his dismay.
“Yes Timekeeper was one of them, and several others… and a dragon.” The bit about the dragon was very.. very bitter. Clearly he did not like said dragon.
“.. perhaps a portal will be necessary if it’s that far.”
“Dragons are horrid things, they will crumble all you hold dear staring down at you with those wretched cold eyes.” He looks at the portal and soon goes through it.. jeez he really did not like that dragon huh.
“I already dealt with all the dragons in the barren after that ivory dragon left…. I do not understand how you can like dragons.” He was starting to smell the new scents.. so many berries…
“It’s not that ominous, all I did was kill every single one of them and send them far under the land of the dead.” He saw a berry bush… he had an urge to eat the berries.
“You did say it was difficult to get to. But I assume it’s because you have to row across the sea to get to it.” He gets in the boat.. this might be very easy!
… there’s some sort of magical barrier fog stuff around to make it REALLY hard to find it. i was able to use magic to propel the boat most of the way there, but i did have to do some rowing…
*he sits in the front of the boat, away from where the oars are. seems he’s planning on NOT helping with the “rowing over there” part*
He made a grumbling noise, guess HE was rowing the boat. Great, wonderful! He looked to see if any of the ghost knights would help… wait why are they staying at the shore and refusing to get close?
“Wow you all, letting me row by myself.” He grumbled to the knights…. No one else can see the knights he looked like he was talking to thin air.
“I would usually have help… but SOMEONE doesn’t want to and the rest are scared of a little bit of fog!” He starts to row towards the island shrouded in fog,
hmmmmnaaaahhh. i’m not going to help with the rowing. this is YOUR journey to reunite with YOUR mother and i am merely here as the helpful guide leading you to where she might be found!
*he turns his head all the way around to grin at him*
there’s not enough room on this boat for your little hoard, anyway. let them stay behind and fear the fog
“This is the first time they’ve ever acted like that! They’re usually never this scared…” he looks back at the shore, the knights were expressing, a lot, as if trying to get him to not go into the fog… weird.
At first the boat ride seemed to be normal.. Silent Salt wasn’t sure why his knights were acting so weird but the boat was nice, and it was quiet! But then he started to hear screams… ok, yeah that’s normal actually, he constantly hears screams back home this is nothing.
*he curls up as good as he can in the front of the boat, planning to attempt to get a nap on the ride over. though that attempt does get interrupted by the screams. he looks around for a few seconds, but when he sees no source for them, he just starts ignoring them instead and goes back to his nap attempt*
After a while the screams were getting annoying so he was about to snap at whatever ghosts were there to shut up…. But there’s no ghosts… instead there’s a OCEAN OF BOILING JAM FILLED WITH COOKIES.
“What the fuck?!” He flinched, trying to keep himself from falling off the boat.
*he’d been ALMOST asleep when he hears Salt. at which point he flinches at the unexpected noise and sits up straight to look around. hmm. jam ocean.. he’d made a few oceans into jam during his … timeline shenanigans. that had been pretty fun… but … something seems off. he looks around more closely at everything. the ocean. the jam. the cookies. the shadowy..things..he almost always sees somewhere in his vision.. he looks back at the cookies.. he can’t focus on their faces. there’s no way they’d appear around them this quickly. so, hallucination. he’s good at ignoring those. this won’t be any problem at all!*
“The ocean wasn’t like this before?!” He clearly couldn’t tell that it was a hallucination. It looked way too real for him. He hisses at the blood ocean… yeah that definitely will work.
exactly! it wasn’t like this a few seconds ago, there was no sign of any part of it looking like this a few seconds ago, there was no sign of any other cookies out here a few seconds ago. soooooo, what does that tell you about what might be going on here?
He hisses again… yeah he really is hissing at the ocean! One of the fake cookies tries to reach out to grab at him and he immediately starts swatting at the water- oh this is water.
He kinda stares at the ocean for a bit as he tries to process that yes, that was water, that was not boiling jam despite what it smells and looks like.
*he starts laughing and applauding him in an obviously sarcastic way*
bravo~! congratulations on noticing the obvious! of COURSE the shit that wasn’t there two seconds ago and has no sensible method of appearing here is a hallucination!!
“You are strange…” he mumbles and keeps rowing, a little faster now. On the account of there suddenly being two more oars being moved… seems at least two of the ghost knights did eventually come over.
… WHY DO YOU NEED 800 OF THEM?? that is FAR too many. for you specifically. i do not trust you not to. try and storm my spire or something of that nature
“That was how many knights I had before they were all crumbled and remained as souls, not all 800 of them show up all the time but there’s always at least 20 around me”
“I believe I may have cursed the entire barren… it was while I was slaughtering an entire army after their deaths but I’m not sure if they somehow still got affected or just, refuse to move on.. I have tried to get them all to pass on but they keep coming back” he can finally see the shore up ahead, they definitely are getting closer at least.
oh. that explains a lot. i HAVE been wondering if that place was cursed.. sorta assumed it would have been on purpose, though..
*he looks between the shore and the rowing cookies. he’s getting rather impatient to get there, but he also still doesn’t want to help with the rowing, but then again it WOULD give him something to do until they got there..*
“It was meant to be against those cookies but, I think I accidentally cursed the whole land above ground. Everything underground is safe. The only reason I know my knights were somewhat got by is… because they can’t speak.”
… i accidentally cursed a rather large portion of the Yogurt River. probably a biiiiit before your cursing.
that does explain a lot, though. i’ve been curious why your knights were so quiet..
*he floats a bit further back in the boat to start rowing one of the oars. he is IMMEDIATELY regretting this decision, it takes a lot of energy and it doesn’t take long at all before he’s getting sore. buuut, he’s committed to this decision now. so he’s gonna act like everything’s fine and keep on rowing*
Finally they made it to the shore! The hallucinations were still in full affect though. Everything looks dead, but this wasn’t as bad as the screaming… for now.
*he floats off the boat, crossing his arms to try and hide how much they’re shaking from his short stint at rowing, and starts looking around. then he floats off in the direction he remembers the castle being in*
Silent Salt follows… creators this place was eerie… but he soon started to see something he uh… should not. … wait was that elder faerie over there? Off the path?
*he thinks he might hear something coming from behind them, and is a bit too distracted by trying to figure out where that’s coming from to really watch what Salt’s up to*
*it sounds like a group of his friends talking with each other about something.. he really wants to go join them..*
*he doesn’t really notice the other cookie wandering off.. he’s decided to try following the sounds he’s hearing. off the path and back towards the sea*
Who wasn’t affected by the hallucinations? The two ghost knights… and right now they’re both stuck between keeping their commander from doing something stupid or stopping the jester from ALSO doing something stupid… well there is two of them…. So they split up… to which the once cheery Kala Namak knight makes herself visible before promptly bonking the jester.
*he glares at her for a few seconds, but turns back to float back towards the path while grumbling to himself. something about there supposedly being “very interesting mushrooms” in the direction he’d been trying to go*
*he goes back to leading the way towards the castle. eventually, they’ll make it out of the woods and arrive in a field that. probably used to be full of flowers*
… i’ll pretend you’re talking about a literal butterfly because that makes it sound a LOOOOT funnier
“If my mother is actually here I do not want her to think I’m talking about an actual butterfly.” He looked at what felt like an endless dead field of flowers.. how could any of the creators stand living in a place like this? He wouldn’t be able to bare it, and he lives in practically a barren dead land.
They were getting closer, the hallucinations were starting to fade by then. And Silent Salt was starting to move a lot faster now. He recognized the castle. He had childhood memories in this castle. He was now bounding off like a kitten.
*… now that’s an invitation to race if he’s ever seen one! he flies past over the knight, wings folded close to himself and staring intently towards the castle*
Oh so that’s how it will be huh? Nox can’t run that long, and he’s definitely can’t catch up on foot, so he does the only other option and summons something again… oh my god he has two horses. And he immediately jumps from nox to the other one and continues the chase
*he turns his head around to look behind him. HOW DOES THAT KNIGHT KEEP SUMMONING HORSES??? he can go very quickly when he wants to, but this new horse is gaining on him. he’s never been one to play fair, especially when he looks in danger of losing. so he turns around completely, diving down towards the two chasing him with a loud screech, turning back to continue towards the castle at the last second*
The new horse rears up frightened, forcing the knight off the horse before returning to the stables in which he came… but he still was not ready for defeat and summons one more animal…
And that’s how shadow milk soon sees a LITERAL LEOPARD chasing after him.
*he looks back at the chaos he’d caused, laughing his head off before. wait, was that a leopard? why is that a leopard? where did the leopard come from? he makes a rather undiginified squeaking sound of surprise before zooming off back towards the castle, leaving behind nothing but a couple of blue and cyan wing feathers that slowly drift down to the ground*
The leopard did not have a great reaction to that, and it jumps forward, arms outstretched as if to grab, Silent Salt was currently holding on for dear life.
*he was going far too fast for any direction changes and ends up just. crashing headfirst into the leopard and flopping to the ground, looking slightly dazed*
They made it.. they were at the castle! The leopard plops shadow milk down and is sent back to where it was summoned from. Though the place was… more ominous than he remembered Silent Salt was still very ecstatic to be back in what was basically his childhood home. Even if his mother wasn’t here he at least got to relive his memories even just for a bit..
“Hopefully my mother is here still, I’m not sure how we will find her if she’s not” he was moving closer to the castle now, looking around for something..
He was quiet for a little while before he starts digging, he had found the hole, but it was a little to small… he wanted to die inside he hated the feeling of dirt but at the same time it feels nice.
He followed soon after once he dug through a little more. Definitely as big as he remembered it to be! Now it’s the question of where the first cookies would be…
The castle felt wrong… mostly because they were not alone with whatever first cookies were here… but because there’s an actual witch inside the building along with several familiars… at least she wasn’t in the hall right now… but there was the feeling of a first cookie nearby
*wow! the castle feels a LOT weirder than when he was last here. that’s probably fine, though! he’ll just keep floating along, following the feeling of a first cookie being nearby. because even if she’s not the one they’re looking for, she might know where to find her. also it means meeting a witch either way*
And it was definitely the WORST time for the invading witch to come out from the magic kitchen. Who immediately sees them! …. Uh oh.
“That’s.., not my mother..” the knight mumbled… The witch immediately went to grab the closest one of them, which was Silent Salt but thankfully, narrowly misses him.
*A WITCH!! he ALMOST immediately goes toward her, but.. then he remembers.. masked faces, a table loaded with cookies… the crunch of dough between his teeth*
*he makes an odd sound somewhere between a scream and a whimper before he flies into the nearest hiding place, shaking a little*
“Shadow Milk what the hell come ba-ACK?!” Aaaand he hit the side of the wall trying to avoid the huge witch again, and was immediately taken by then a cat had came over due to the noise, is ordered to look for the remaining beast, before silent salt is brought into the magic kitchen.
*he stays hidden. he doesn’t want to go follow that witch, he does NOT want to help Silent Salt*
*… however, he can’t think of any cookie he would say deserves to be eaten, not even that traitorous knight. so, he … probably should at least TRY to help him*
*he lets himself sink into the shadows of his hiding place, using them to sneak past the cat and after the witch*
The shadow witch had put silent salt in a jar, he didn’t have the same feeling as when those thirteen cookies showed up but he definitely felt powerful, the other cookie to. No need to eat him yet until she looked through things…
In that time, said first cookie that had been sensed a little bit ago was also sneaking closer..
First Cream was hidden in one of the shelves… she really needed to get them both out the kitchen… didn’t know where the jester went but she does see the knight… so she starts moving towards the counter… not very well hidden.
Luckily the witch did not notice…. Yet. Silent Salt did though! … and so did the first cookie, who immediately decided to distract the witch in the meantime.
*he looks around a lot to make sure the witch hasn’t spotted him yet as he works on getting the jar open. eventually, after pulling at it for a bit, the lid opens slightly*
The second that lid was slightly open Silent Salt is immediately trying to get out, he hated the jar, he wanted out right this second…. He bashes head first into the glass trying to get up, good job silent salt… good job.
*he bites his tongue to try and resist the urge to laugh at the knight. it’s only partially successful as he still makes a muffled, rather spluttery chuckling sound. then he removes the lid the rest of the way*
What makes this more funny than it should be is immediately after he gets onto the lid the jar falls over on the table and him along with it. Causing him to tumble out.. well at least he’s out. The knight is not amused.
*he barks out a very hastily stifled cackle at that. he is TRYING to NOT attract the witch’s attention. the knight acting hilarious is not helping with this endeavor*
*… he’s still very audibly giggling, though. he wasn’t able to get himself entirely silenced*
Silent salt.., wasn’t talking? He was clearly trying to shush the jester but he was not making any noise at all. He did arch up and hiss at the witch, a very quiet hiss, before starting to speed off. The first cookie was at least still distracting the witch
To the Witch of Light finally she got the witch to get out! That had taken a bit longer than she thought… First Cream immediately starts looking for those two newcomers. By then the knight had hidden behind a few jars of ingredients and… she can see him.
That just made them feel even more, strangely familiar. Some flickers of, something. More little cookies skittering on the countertops… definitely not the exact same but, one did hiss… more visions from the Witch of Light it seems… The knight in response to the pat hisses. Ok his voice is back now…?
“I apologize for not reaching you two sooner, I am glad neither of you were harmed.”
Strange they were… she did not mind, she has seen weirder things.
“My name is First Cream, and both of yours?” That definitely got the knight to pay attention. His head snapping towards the first cookie.. his eyes are so dilating under that helmet.
“Silent Salt.” She heard him respond. Why did that feel familiar…?
*he turns towards her and introduces himself with a bow. he looks so happy. they found one of the former witches! … okay to be more accurate, she found them, but STILL!*
“And you believe that she is here?” The poor knight glanced at the other cookie… annoyed, perhaps. she directs her gaze towards the knight. “Who is your mother by chance?”
Silent Salt stops glaring and once again gets excited. “Prescription… or erm… First Salt, if that’s what she’s called by now. Is she here?” He.. knows which names? Definitely not a normal duo then…
“No, she and her sister aren’t here, they were here a few months ago however..”
“You have been here before?” Now she at least knew how the two figured out where the castle was.. never mind that, she didn’t want to leave them empty handed on their search.
“They live in a city, right in Wholegrainia, their court is right around the edge of it in fact. I would advise a warning however.. the twins may be a bit more alert now.”
*he turns to start floating back towards the entrance to the castle, before pausing, having decided to not resist the temptation to get in one more comment specifically meant to annoy the knight*
and likely to end with one of us going to court. i vote for Salt, he’s not been put on trial yet. as far as i know
“I’ve already been to court.” Silent Salt then growled, “it was a horrible experience. Framed for murder, hunted down, and treated like an animal.”
The first cookie looked somewhat taken aback by that. “Their court is different, you both will be fine. Just don’t disturb them while a case is ongoing and you won’t be charged with watching the trial.”
“Crème republic system for you, don’t recommend it.” He replied… oh creators his mother has a court! She’s not here but she’s only continent away! That thought was starting to push away his general annoyance… he had an urge to hug the first cookie.
i would make a much better court if i was put in charge of one :)
*he would not*
*… he’s also very tempted to hug the First Cookie. and he is significantly worse at resisting temptation. so. she’ll likely find herself getting hugged by a little blue weirdo pretty soon*
“No you would not, you would make it a performance. If all versions of you are similar enough to do the exact same thing” And seems like he knew that it wouldn’t be better. He resisted the urge to go for a hug as he looks back at the first cookie.
“Of course, safe travels-“ First Cream was caught off guard by the sudden hug…. Watching as the jester sped off before she could react, and the knight following suite..
*he flies back towards the hole they got into the castle through and crawls through it to get outside. “accidentally” kicking some dirt at Silent Salt’s face in the process*
*he shakes the dirt off of himself once he’s out of the hole and continues floating towards where they’d left the boat, head turned all the way around to watch the knight with the evillest, most mischevious giggles ever. he is very happy with the misery he has caused him*
“I’ve had no time to clean it I’ve been kidnapped twice?! By two different groups?!” He hisses again, “and I don’t even know how someone has that many eggs! If just came through a time rift!!
*he stares at him with a very unimpressed expression*
you got pelted by eggs through a time rift, and you have no idea who it might be. hmmmmm. who do you know of who miiiiight just be capable of opening time rifts and are known for using them for … rather ridiculous reasons?
“My grandchild, who was not there at the time, and it’s not a shadow milk, the one who came about thirty minutes after was very angry, and we fought for a bit physically.”
“Oh I made him help clean the office up, there were some things that couldn’t be fixed… like holes in the walls, but it’s better than the mess it was before.”
though … for me … the time travel idea came up after i’d absorbef that little part of the Ultimate Cookie and what remained of my friends..
… and it’s possible i am more stubborn than the normal variant, so, yours may give up once it becomes clear the inevitable end for it is in a complete wasteland..
“I’m still going for that plan, I won’t let him get any of the ultimate cookie, it’s a bunch of souls in body after all.. once I’m done I can get them out and see if I can put them to rest”
“That thing is full of souls, souls that never got to live apparently. I have worked with many kinds of souls in the past. And I can just, force them into the afterlife! Besides, better me than my version of you”
… … ehhhhhhhhmmmmmm … the thing makes stuff that you’d usually know is a bad idea seem like a REALLY good idea. that is the last warning i’ll give you about this plan of yours
“… even if I do deserve anything that comes at me, I failed my virtue, maybe even long before we fell, maybe you and that other shadow milk were right.”
“The only reason I say that is, every version of myself I keep hearing about seems to actually be, you know, the worst somehow… even as a virtue! I did try to stay true but maybe i failed in another way”
not to say i LIKE you >:( you’re just … marginally less infuriating than my version of you >:( why are you smiling at this? >:( it’s not a compliment >:(
*… he baps him a few times. this is definitely a very vicious attack that will completely disprove the “he doesn’t want to attack the knight” allegations. mhm. yeah. totally*
*then he notices how close they’re getting to land and sits up straight, staring towards the shore with his wings twitching slightly in excitement*
The baps result in a light hiss, and the knight jumps off the boat and onto the shore as they got very close. Where he’s immediately warmed by a bunch of the ghost knights.
Silent salt was immediately back at the berries while thinking… they were back near the Hollyberry Kingdom… so perhaps they can find a map or something to see if they can teleport to wherever that city is…
“You don’t think we’ll be attacked on sight while looking for a map will we?”
*aaand without waiting for any agreement from the other cookie he turns into a rather large dog and starts sprinting towards the nearest market area where he may find a map, tail wagging wildly behind him*
Silent Salt was immediately running after him- witches he should have expected it but he didn’t.. the hollyberrians weren’t to concerned about the Very Normal Dog at least!
*he darts around for a bit, finds a blueberry cobbler he steals a few bites of, tries to run off with a bottle of berry juice and, eventually, he finally grabs a map before zooming off to go back to Silent Salt*
*after several minutes, the Completely Normal Dog finds him and shifts back into his normal form to float up into the tree and sit next to the Knight, panting slightly and holding the map out towards him*
*he stretches and yawns before snatching the map back from Silent Salt and looking it over. once he’s sure where they’re heading, he floats off the branch and opens a portal there*
*he comes through after him and closes the portal*
*his feathers fluff up and he tries to shrink a bit into his collar. he’s not sure he likes how loud it is here either. he’s much more use to living alone in the middle of nowhere..*
The knight sips off away from the crowd and close to the alleyways… he just had to follow these weird black paths with machinery on them and he can get to the courthouse! … so he starts following them very close to the road.
*he floats a little lower and closer to the ground as he trails after Salt, staring down at the ground right in front of himself, trying to ignore how loud it is.*
He almost got hit by a bus. Yeah… this is why you shouldn’t be this close to the road.. the knight did not like the bus however, and hisses at it before going through the alleyways the rest of the way there.
*he sticks right behind Salt, staring at the ground, completely stiffened up with all his claws out. the only reaction he has to the bus is to flinch in surprise and almost crash into the knight*
*he Does Not like it here, it’s way too loud, there’s way too many cookies, he just wants to fly off and hide in the woods again*
Both of them are hiding in the dark now! Where their away from the noise until it seemed like everyone had left! … there was one cookie here though, a robot?
*he’s huddled up against the Knight to be even more hidden from whoever else may be nearby, even purring a little now he’s out of the crowd and noise of the city*
*he tilts his head at the … robot cookie?? with a curious “mrrp?”*
The cookie had canons for arms.. probably some kind of guard for the place… they soon stop as they detected something…
“Warning! Anomalous energy detected! Initiating search protocols!” The robotic cookie was now immediately searching the room… ah, they knew they were here.
*his wings spread out the rest of the way, his hair thrashes around even more, and he starts bapping at the robotic cookie with loud, angry owl screech*
The knight next to him had his flaming hair all proofed up, and he starts hissing at the robot. He was also.. stomping from time to time? Ok you go.
“WARNING! Anomaly detected: egg shaped device on intruder one! Cross-referencing- WARNING! Hostile intruders detected! Initiating Defense protocol!” The robot was now shooting at them!
EGG SHAPED DEVICE?? HUH???? SALT DID YOU STEAL THIS THINGS EGGS???
*he screeches at the robot again. and the second it starts shooting at him, their surroundings are flooded in darkness and stars and blinking eyes, he lets his form melt into the darkness of it so the thing has no chance of hitting him*
“NO? ITS THE- AA!!” Silent Salt did not have the same luxury of going into the darkness like Shadow Milk did! And had to dodge out the way. He did not want to destroy his mother’s stuff so he just hisses at the robot and runs.
*a few blue puppet strings descend from the ceiling to tie around the robot’s canons so he can pull those around in an attempt to prevent the other cookie from getting shot*
“ITS THE THING THAT AMPLIFIES MY VOICE!” He eventually finds a new place to hide once the robot was not distracted. Hiding in a very dark place in the court.
*he’s so so so tempted to tear this robot apart with his Other Realm.. but that would … probably not be the nest entrance … sooo, instead, he flies down the hall to a different darkened hiding spot where he can curl up with his head resting on his wings*
The knight doesn’t respond… in fact it’s as if he’s just disappeared by how quiet he was being.. he had turned off the device. The robot meanwhile was still searching.. the ruckus had gotten the attention of some of the workers inside… and that probably means the two witches inside will also be alerted soon, or already were.
It did not take long for First Salt and First Sugar to be alerted of an intruder.. just after the court closes for the day? And one of them had a device of First Egg’s… that got them to come out and assess the situation.
Silent salt had somehow crept all the way to where shadow milk was and makes an incredibly faint mrrp sound.
*he stays in the corner he’s curled up in, though he does look over at Salt with an equally quiet mrrp before he goes back to looking around in case anyone else might be coming to them*
*he’s looking … paler than usual, but he’s back to breathing normally, so he’s probably fiine*
First Sugar watched Glass Canon go away and- oh! There were the intruders!
“I think we found them already sister!” She nudged her sibling who looked at the two cookies coming towards them.
“… not as hostile as the Overseer had said.” First Salt noted as the looked to the knight, who was rapidly approaching in excitement… he looked somewhat familiar.
*he slowly relaxes as he gets closer to them and starts getting excited about meeting other witch cookies! he mostly contains his excitement, though, so the only real sign of it is his wings starting to twitch slightly*
“Excuse me, who are you two?” First Sugar moves her sister out the way to greet the.. so called hostile intruders. First Salt still trying to figure out where she’s seen the knight before… who immediately seems to want her now as he practically jumps her and starts nuzzling.
he APPARENTLY is. and since he seems more interested in Being Weird than introducing himself, it comes to be to inform you that his name is Silent Salt Cookie
“… that name sounds familiar.” Something about that name was familiar.. neither sister knew why but it was… the knight was looking at First Salt and talking to her but… yeah he forgot to turn the device back on, no one can hear him.
*he flinches and starts zooming back to the corner he’d been hiding in before he stops himself and comes back to the other cookies, attempting to look like he had not just been fleeing from the robot*
“Don’t worry about the Overseer, they’re just doing their job!” First Sugar reassured as the robot scanned the jester, then moved on to salt again.
“Warning! Anomaly detected! Scanning… Egg shaped device located on intruder one! Cross referencing with devices in database…” that made both of the twins tense up..
*he stays still as the robot scans him. it. probably won’t find anything interesting? … well apart from maybe the throwing knives he keeps in his pockets*
okay, definitely seeming like he DID steal an egg from this thing
oooo wait does that mean i can mute that guy if i wanted to? that would be HILARIOUS! eheheheh! *he says with a wide grin*
… that’s besides the point, actually, but WILL be fun to test later. we’re not here to do anything threatening or suspicious, we’re just here so that the knight can meet his mom
*he hisses quietly upon getting bapped. and then starts laughing at Salt for forgetting to turn his device on. probably significantly more laughing than is necessary*
He quietly glares at the jester before going back to his mother. “You have to remember me! I’m your son! You baked me!”
First Salt kind of stares, processes, then responds “I do remember me and my sister wanted to bake a cookie.. someone who would bring happiness and protect the weak..”
A very pretty knight he was, just with a claw scar going across his face…. The scar wasn’t familiar but the face was to First Salt.. a part of her somewhere screamed to hold him.
“Mother, do you remember me..?” She heard the knight ask her. His pupils were large and round.. so familiar yet not fully..
“I feel like I do know you from somewhere, at least, I don’t remember a cookie other than sweetly.. sister was there another cookie other than her?”
“I think so? I remember we did plan to bake another cookie, don’t remember if we went through with it or not”
A cookie of his word, he does send a telltale sign to shadow milk that he’s ready… well at least he hopes he actually gets it…. Naaah it will work. The said thing he sent was a crow, and now the crow was staring into Shadow Milk’s soul.. almost literally. It’s just standing there… menacingly…
*he stares back at the crow for a while before floating over to try and give it head scritches*
*staring into his soul is probably just a normal bird thing, right? ehhhh, maybe someone thinks this is a good method of sending messages to cookies..*
*…*
*ooohhhh, right, that Silent Salt Cookie. probably him. he’ll just have to figure out. where he’s supposed to be meeting him..*
Silent Salt was currently loafing on a tree branch, waiting for Shadow Milk to arrive… he uh, he wasn’t at his best but he was currently, ignoring the feelings right now.
*… he was planning on loafing on a tree branch! how dare Silent Salt steal his ideas!? clearly, this was purposeful and malicious. mhm*
*… then again, it doesn’t really mean he CAN’T do it anyway.. and it DOES look comfy… … yeah, he’ll just float up to a branch slightly higher than where Salt is and settle down to loaf there until the other seems ready to leave*
“No I uh…. I got kidnapped twice. Once by the Crème Republic the other time by some cookies who really wanted my power… I got out fine though.” Ok, that was way too casual why did you say it like that?!
The knight climbs down the tree carefully, sliding down the trunk of the tree, he’s not about to get stuck in a tree while Shadow Milk was right there!
“A castle you say? Last from what I understood some aren’t in a castle.. at least the one I saw… First Sprinkle was it..? Apparently married to the swan.”
“She was nice to me, because she also got kidnapped… actually a lot of cookies did.” He had no idea how to get to the castle so, he was heavily relying on shadow milk right now… to his dismay.
“Yes Timekeeper was one of them, and several others… and a dragon.” The bit about the dragon was very.. very bitter. Clearly he did not like said dragon.
“.. perhaps a portal will be necessary if it’s that far.”
“Dragons are horrid things, they will crumble all you hold dear staring down at you with those wretched cold eyes.” He looks at the portal and soon goes through it.. jeez he really did not like that dragon huh.
“I already dealt with all the dragons in the barren after that ivory dragon left…. I do not understand how you can like dragons.” He was starting to smell the new scents.. so many berries…
“It’s not that ominous, all I did was kill every single one of them and send them far under the land of the dead.” He saw a berry bush… he had an urge to eat the berries.
“You did say it was difficult to get to. But I assume it’s because you have to row across the sea to get to it.” He gets in the boat.. this might be very easy!
… there’s some sort of magical barrier fog stuff around to make it REALLY hard to find it. i was able to use magic to propel the boat most of the way there, but i did have to do some rowing…
*he sits in the front of the boat, away from where the oars are. seems he’s planning on NOT helping with the “rowing over there” part*
He made a grumbling noise, guess HE was rowing the boat. Great, wonderful! He looked to see if any of the ghost knights would help… wait why are they staying at the shore and refusing to get close?
“Wow you all, letting me row by myself.” He grumbled to the knights…. No one else can see the knights he looked like he was talking to thin air.
“I would usually have help… but SOMEONE doesn’t want to and the rest are scared of a little bit of fog!” He starts to row towards the island shrouded in fog,
hmmmmnaaaahhh. i’m not going to help with the rowing. this is YOUR journey to reunite with YOUR mother and i am merely here as the helpful guide leading you to where she might be found!
*he turns his head all the way around to grin at him*
there’s not enough room on this boat for your little hoard, anyway. let them stay behind and fear the fog
“This is the first time they’ve ever acted like that! They’re usually never this scared…” he looks back at the shore, the knights were expressing, a lot, as if trying to get him to not go into the fog… weird.
At first the boat ride seemed to be normal.. Silent Salt wasn’t sure why his knights were acting so weird but the boat was nice, and it was quiet! But then he started to hear screams… ok, yeah that’s normal actually, he constantly hears screams back home this is nothing.
*he curls up as good as he can in the front of the boat, planning to attempt to get a nap on the ride over. though that attempt does get interrupted by the screams. he looks around for a few seconds, but when he sees no source for them, he just starts ignoring them instead and goes back to his nap attempt*
After a while the screams were getting annoying so he was about to snap at whatever ghosts were there to shut up…. But there’s no ghosts… instead there’s a OCEAN OF BOILING JAM FILLED WITH COOKIES.
“What the fuck?!” He flinched, trying to keep himself from falling off the boat.
*he’d been ALMOST asleep when he hears Salt. at which point he flinches at the unexpected noise and sits up straight to look around. hmm. jam ocean.. he’d made a few oceans into jam during his … timeline shenanigans. that had been pretty fun… but … something seems off. he looks around more closely at everything. the ocean. the jam. the cookies. the shadowy..things..he almost always sees somewhere in his vision.. he looks back at the cookies.. he can’t focus on their faces. there’s no way they’d appear around them this quickly. so, hallucination. he’s good at ignoring those. this won’t be any problem at all!*
“The ocean wasn’t like this before?!” He clearly couldn’t tell that it was a hallucination. It looked way too real for him. He hisses at the blood ocean… yeah that definitely will work.
exactly! it wasn’t like this a few seconds ago, there was no sign of any part of it looking like this a few seconds ago, there was no sign of any other cookies out here a few seconds ago. soooooo, what does that tell you about what might be going on here?
He hisses again… yeah he really is hissing at the ocean! One of the fake cookies tries to reach out to grab at him and he immediately starts swatting at the water- oh this is water.
He kinda stares at the ocean for a bit as he tries to process that yes, that was water, that was not boiling jam despite what it smells and looks like.
*he starts laughing and applauding him in an obviously sarcastic way*
bravo~! congratulations on noticing the obvious! of COURSE the shit that wasn’t there two seconds ago and has no sensible method of appearing here is a hallucination!!
“You are strange…” he mumbles and keeps rowing, a little faster now. On the account of there suddenly being two more oars being moved… seems at least two of the ghost knights did eventually come over.
… WHY DO YOU NEED 800 OF THEM?? that is FAR too many. for you specifically. i do not trust you not to. try and storm my spire or something of that nature
“That was how many knights I had before they were all crumbled and remained as souls, not all 800 of them show up all the time but there’s always at least 20 around me”
“I believe I may have cursed the entire barren… it was while I was slaughtering an entire army after their deaths but I’m not sure if they somehow still got affected or just, refuse to move on.. I have tried to get them all to pass on but they keep coming back” he can finally see the shore up ahead, they definitely are getting closer at least.
oh. that explains a lot. i HAVE been wondering if that place was cursed.. sorta assumed it would have been on purpose, though..
*he looks between the shore and the rowing cookies. he’s getting rather impatient to get there, but he also still doesn’t want to help with the rowing, but then again it WOULD give him something to do until they got there..*
“It was meant to be against those cookies but, I think I accidentally cursed the whole land above ground. Everything underground is safe. The only reason I know my knights were somewhat got by is… because they can’t speak.”
… i accidentally cursed a rather large portion of the Yogurt River. probably a biiiiit before your cursing.
that does explain a lot, though. i’ve been curious why your knights were so quiet..
*he floats a bit further back in the boat to start rowing one of the oars. he is IMMEDIATELY regretting this decision, it takes a lot of energy and it doesn’t take long at all before he’s getting sore. buuut, he’s committed to this decision now. so he’s gonna act like everything’s fine and keep on rowing*
Finally they made it to the shore! The hallucinations were still in full affect though. Everything looks dead, but this wasn’t as bad as the screaming… for now.
*he floats off the boat, crossing his arms to try and hide how much they’re shaking from his short stint at rowing, and starts looking around. then he floats off in the direction he remembers the castle being in*
Silent Salt follows… creators this place was eerie… but he soon started to see something he uh… should not. … wait was that elder faerie over there? Off the path?
*he thinks he might hear something coming from behind them, and is a bit too distracted by trying to figure out where that’s coming from to really watch what Salt’s up to*
*it sounds like a group of his friends talking with each other about something.. he really wants to go join them..*
*he doesn’t really notice the other cookie wandering off.. he’s decided to try following the sounds he’s hearing. off the path and back towards the sea*
Who wasn’t affected by the hallucinations? The two ghost knights… and right now they’re both stuck between keeping their commander from doing something stupid or stopping the jester from ALSO doing something stupid… well there is two of them…. So they split up… to which the once cheery Kala Namak knight makes herself visible before promptly bonking the jester.
*he glares at her for a few seconds, but turns back to float back towards the path while grumbling to himself. something about there supposedly being “very interesting mushrooms” in the direction he’d been trying to go*
*he goes back to leading the way towards the castle. eventually, they’ll make it out of the woods and arrive in a field that. probably used to be full of flowers*
… i’ll pretend you’re talking about a literal butterfly because that makes it sound a LOOOOT funnier
“If my mother is actually here I do not want her to think I’m talking about an actual butterfly.” He looked at what felt like an endless dead field of flowers.. how could any of the creators stand living in a place like this? He wouldn’t be able to bare it, and he lives in practically a barren dead land.
They were getting closer, the hallucinations were starting to fade by then. And Silent Salt was starting to move a lot faster now. He recognized the castle. He had childhood memories in this castle. He was now bounding off like a kitten.
*… now that’s an invitation to race if he’s ever seen one! he flies past over the knight, wings folded close to himself and staring intently towards the castle*
Oh so that’s how it will be huh? Nox can’t run that long, and he’s definitely can’t catch up on foot, so he does the only other option and summons something again… oh my god he has two horses. And he immediately jumps from nox to the other one and continues the chase
*he turns his head around to look behind him. HOW DOES THAT KNIGHT KEEP SUMMONING HORSES??? he can go very quickly when he wants to, but this new horse is gaining on him. he’s never been one to play fair, especially when he looks in danger of losing. so he turns around completely, diving down towards the two chasing him with a loud screech, turning back to continue towards the castle at the last second*
The new horse rears up frightened, forcing the knight off the horse before returning to the stables in which he came… but he still was not ready for defeat and summons one more animal…
And that’s how shadow milk soon sees a LITERAL LEOPARD chasing after him.
*he looks back at the chaos he’d caused, laughing his head off before. wait, was that a leopard? why is that a leopard? where did the leopard come from? he makes a rather undiginified squeaking sound of surprise before zooming off back towards the castle, leaving behind nothing but a couple of blue and cyan wing feathers that slowly drift down to the ground*
The leopard did not have a great reaction to that, and it jumps forward, arms outstretched as if to grab, Silent Salt was currently holding on for dear life.
*he was going far too fast for any direction changes and ends up just. crashing headfirst into the leopard and flopping to the ground, looking slightly dazed*
They made it.. they were at the castle! The leopard plops shadow milk down and is sent back to where it was summoned from. Though the place was… more ominous than he remembered Silent Salt was still very ecstatic to be back in what was basically his childhood home. Even if his mother wasn’t here he at least got to relive his memories even just for a bit..
“Hopefully my mother is here still, I’m not sure how we will find her if she’s not” he was moving closer to the castle now, looking around for something..
He was quiet for a little while before he starts digging, he had found the hole, but it was a little to small… he wanted to die inside he hated the feeling of dirt but at the same time it feels nice.
He followed soon after once he dug through a little more. Definitely as big as he remembered it to be! Now it’s the question of where the first cookies would be…
The castle felt wrong… mostly because they were not alone with whatever first cookies were here… but because there’s an actual witch inside the building along with several familiars… at least she wasn’t in the hall right now… but there was the feeling of a first cookie nearby
*wow! the castle feels a LOT weirder than when he was last here. that’s probably fine, though! he’ll just keep floating along, following the feeling of a first cookie being nearby. because even if she’s not the one they’re looking for, she might know where to find her. also it means meeting a witch either way*
And it was definitely the WORST time for the invading witch to come out from the magic kitchen. Who immediately sees them! …. Uh oh.
“That’s.., not my mother..” the knight mumbled… The witch immediately went to grab the closest one of them, which was Silent Salt but thankfully, narrowly misses him.
*A WITCH!! he ALMOST immediately goes toward her, but.. then he remembers.. masked faces, a table loaded with cookies… the crunch of dough between his teeth*
*he makes an odd sound somewhere between a scream and a whimper before he flies into the nearest hiding place, shaking a little*
“Shadow Milk what the hell come ba-ACK?!” Aaaand he hit the side of the wall trying to avoid the huge witch again, and was immediately taken by then a cat had came over due to the noise, is ordered to look for the remaining beast, before silent salt is brought into the magic kitchen.
*he stays hidden. he doesn’t want to go follow that witch, he does NOT want to help Silent Salt*
*… however, he can’t think of any cookie he would say deserves to be eaten, not even that traitorous knight. so, he … probably should at least TRY to help him*
*he lets himself sink into the shadows of his hiding place, using them to sneak past the cat and after the witch*
The shadow witch had put silent salt in a jar, he didn’t have the same feeling as when those thirteen cookies showed up but he definitely felt powerful, the other cookie to. No need to eat him yet until she looked through things…
In that time, said first cookie that had been sensed a little bit ago was also sneaking closer..
First Cream was hidden in one of the shelves… she really needed to get them both out the kitchen… didn’t know where the jester went but she does see the knight… so she starts moving towards the counter… not very well hidden.
Luckily the witch did not notice…. Yet. Silent Salt did though! … and so did the first cookie, who immediately decided to distract the witch in the meantime.
*he looks around a lot to make sure the witch hasn’t spotted him yet as he works on getting the jar open. eventually, after pulling at it for a bit, the lid opens slightly*
The second that lid was slightly open Silent Salt is immediately trying to get out, he hated the jar, he wanted out right this second…. He bashes head first into the glass trying to get up, good job silent salt… good job.
*he bites his tongue to try and resist the urge to laugh at the knight. it’s only partially successful as he still makes a muffled, rather spluttery chuckling sound. then he removes the lid the rest of the way*
What makes this more funny than it should be is immediately after he gets onto the lid the jar falls over on the table and him along with it. Causing him to tumble out.. well at least he’s out. The knight is not amused.
*he barks out a very hastily stifled cackle at that. he is TRYING to NOT attract the witch’s attention. the knight acting hilarious is not helping with this endeavor*
*… he’s still very audibly giggling, though. he wasn’t able to get himself entirely silenced*
Silent salt.., wasn’t talking? He was clearly trying to shush the jester but he was not making any noise at all. He did arch up and hiss at the witch, a very quiet hiss, before starting to speed off. The first cookie was at least still distracting the witch
To the Witch of Light finally she got the witch to get out! That had taken a bit longer than she thought… First Cream immediately starts looking for those two newcomers. By then the knight had hidden behind a few jars of ingredients and… she can see him.
That just made them feel even more, strangely familiar. Some flickers of, something. More little cookies skittering on the countertops… definitely not the exact same but, one did hiss… more visions from the Witch of Light it seems… The knight in response to the pat hisses. Ok his voice is back now…?
“I apologize for not reaching you two sooner, I am glad neither of you were harmed.”
Strange they were… she did not mind, she has seen weirder things.
“My name is First Cream, and both of yours?” That definitely got the knight to pay attention. His head snapping towards the first cookie.. his eyes are so dilating under that helmet.
“Silent Salt.” She heard him respond. Why did that feel familiar…?
*he turns towards her and introduces himself with a bow. he looks so happy. they found one of the former witches! … okay to be more accurate, she found them, but STILL!*
“And you believe that she is here?” The poor knight glanced at the other cookie… annoyed, perhaps. she directs her gaze towards the knight. “Who is your mother by chance?”
Silent Salt stops glaring and once again gets excited. “Prescription… or erm… First Salt, if that’s what she’s called by now. Is she here?” He.. knows which names? Definitely not a normal duo then…
“No, she and her sister aren’t here, they were here a few months ago however..”
“You have been here before?” Now she at least knew how the two figured out where the castle was.. never mind that, she didn’t want to leave them empty handed on their search.
“They live in a city, right in Wholegrainia, their court is right around the edge of it in fact. I would advise a warning however.. the twins may be a bit more alert now.”
*he turns to start floating back towards the entrance to the castle, before pausing, having decided to not resist the temptation to get in one more comment specifically meant to annoy the knight*
and likely to end with one of us going to court. i vote for Salt, he’s not been put on trial yet. as far as i know
“I’ve already been to court.” Silent Salt then growled, “it was a horrible experience. Framed for murder, hunted down, and treated like an animal.”
The first cookie looked somewhat taken aback by that. “Their court is different, you both will be fine. Just don’t disturb them while a case is ongoing and you won’t be charged with watching the trial.”
“Crème republic system for you, don’t recommend it.” He replied… oh creators his mother has a court! She’s not here but she’s only continent away! That thought was starting to push away his general annoyance… he had an urge to hug the first cookie.
i would make a much better court if i was put in charge of one :)
*he would not*
*… he’s also very tempted to hug the First Cookie. and he is significantly worse at resisting temptation. so. she’ll likely find herself getting hugged by a little blue weirdo pretty soon*
“No you would not, you would make it a performance. If all versions of you are similar enough to do the exact same thing” And seems like he knew that it wouldn’t be better. He resisted the urge to go for a hug as he looks back at the first cookie.
“Of course, safe travels-“ First Cream was caught off guard by the sudden hug…. Watching as the jester sped off before she could react, and the knight following suite..
*he flies back towards the hole they got into the castle through and crawls through it to get outside. “accidentally” kicking some dirt at Silent Salt’s face in the process*
*he shakes the dirt off of himself once he’s out of the hole and continues floating towards where they’d left the boat, head turned all the way around to watch the knight with the evillest, most mischevious giggles ever. he is very happy with the misery he has caused him*
“I’ve had no time to clean it I’ve been kidnapped twice?! By two different groups?!” He hisses again, “and I don’t even know how someone has that many eggs! If just came through a time rift!!
*he stares at him with a very unimpressed expression*
you got pelted by eggs through a time rift, and you have no idea who it might be. hmmmmm. who do you know of who miiiiight just be capable of opening time rifts and are known for using them for … rather ridiculous reasons?
“My grandchild, who was not there at the time, and it’s not a shadow milk, the one who came about thirty minutes after was very angry, and we fought for a bit physically.”
“Oh I made him help clean the office up, there were some things that couldn’t be fixed… like holes in the walls, but it’s better than the mess it was before.”
though … for me … the time travel idea came up after i’d absorbef that little part of the Ultimate Cookie and what remained of my friends..
… and it’s possible i am more stubborn than the normal variant, so, yours may give up once it becomes clear the inevitable end for it is in a complete wasteland..
“I’m still going for that plan, I won’t let him get any of the ultimate cookie, it’s a bunch of souls in body after all.. once I’m done I can get them out and see if I can put them to rest”
“That thing is full of souls, souls that never got to live apparently. I have worked with many kinds of souls in the past. And I can just, force them into the afterlife! Besides, better me than my version of you”
… … ehhhhhhhhmmmmmm … the thing makes stuff that you’d usually know is a bad idea seem like a REALLY good idea. that is the last warning i’ll give you about this plan of yours
“… even if I do deserve anything that comes at me, I failed my virtue, maybe even long before we fell, maybe you and that other shadow milk were right.”
“The only reason I say that is, every version of myself I keep hearing about seems to actually be, you know, the worst somehow… even as a virtue! I did try to stay true but maybe i failed in another way”
not to say i LIKE you >:( you’re just … marginally less infuriating than my version of you >:( why are you smiling at this? >:( it’s not a compliment >:(
*… he baps him a few times. this is definitely a very vicious attack that will completely disprove the “he doesn’t want to attack the knight” allegations. mhm. yeah. totally*
*then he notices how close they’re getting to land and sits up straight, staring towards the shore with his wings twitching slightly in excitement*
The baps result in a light hiss, and the knight jumps off the boat and onto the shore as they got very close. Where he’s immediately warmed by a bunch of the ghost knights.
Silent salt was immediately back at the berries while thinking… they were back near the Hollyberry Kingdom… so perhaps they can find a map or something to see if they can teleport to wherever that city is…
“You don’t think we’ll be attacked on sight while looking for a map will we?”
*aaand without waiting for any agreement from the other cookie he turns into a rather large dog and starts sprinting towards the nearest market area where he may find a map, tail wagging wildly behind him*
Silent Salt was immediately running after him- witches he should have expected it but he didn’t.. the hollyberrians weren’t to concerned about the Very Normal Dog at least!
*he darts around for a bit, finds a blueberry cobbler he steals a few bites of, tries to run off with a bottle of berry juice and, eventually, he finally grabs a map before zooming off to go back to Silent Salt*
*after several minutes, the Completely Normal Dog finds him and shifts back into his normal form to float up into the tree and sit next to the Knight, panting slightly and holding the map out towards him*
*he stretches and yawns before snatching the map back from Silent Salt and looking it over. once he’s sure where they’re heading, he floats off the branch and opens a portal there*
*he comes through after him and closes the portal*
*his feathers fluff up and he tries to shrink a bit into his collar. he’s not sure he likes how loud it is here either. he’s much more use to living alone in the middle of nowhere..*
The knight sips off away from the crowd and close to the alleyways… he just had to follow these weird black paths with machinery on them and he can get to the courthouse! … so he starts following them very close to the road.
*he floats a little lower and closer to the ground as he trails after Salt, staring down at the ground right in front of himself, trying to ignore how loud it is.*
He almost got hit by a bus. Yeah… this is why you shouldn’t be this close to the road.. the knight did not like the bus however, and hisses at it before going through the alleyways the rest of the way there.
*he sticks right behind Salt, staring at the ground, completely stiffened up with all his claws out. the only reaction he has to the bus is to flinch in surprise and almost crash into the knight*
*he Does Not like it here, it’s way too loud, there’s way too many cookies, he just wants to fly off and hide in the woods again*
Both of them are hiding in the dark now! Where their away from the noise until it seemed like everyone had left! … there was one cookie here though, a robot?
*he’s huddled up against the Knight to be even more hidden from whoever else may be nearby, even purring a little now he’s out of the crowd and noise of the city*
*he tilts his head at the … robot cookie?? with a curious “mrrp?”*
The cookie had canons for arms.. probably some kind of guard for the place… they soon stop as they detected something…
“Warning! Anomalous energy detected! Initiating search protocols!” The robotic cookie was now immediately searching the room… ah, they knew they were here.
*his wings spread out the rest of the way, his hair thrashes around even more, and he starts bapping at the robotic cookie with loud, angry owl screech*
The knight next to him had his flaming hair all proofed up, and he starts hissing at the robot. He was also.. stomping from time to time? Ok you go.
“WARNING! Anomaly detected: egg shaped device on intruder one! Cross-referencing- WARNING! Hostile intruders detected! Initiating Defense protocol!” The robot was now shooting at them!
EGG SHAPED DEVICE?? HUH???? SALT DID YOU STEAL THIS THINGS EGGS???
*he screeches at the robot again. and the second it starts shooting at him, their surroundings are flooded in darkness and stars and blinking eyes, he lets his form melt into the darkness of it so the thing has no chance of hitting him*
“NO? ITS THE- AA!!” Silent Salt did not have the same luxury of going into the darkness like Shadow Milk did! And had to dodge out the way. He did not want to destroy his mother’s stuff so he just hisses at the robot and runs.
*a few blue puppet strings descend from the ceiling to tie around the robot’s canons so he can pull those around in an attempt to prevent the other cookie from getting shot*
“ITS THE THING THAT AMPLIFIES MY VOICE!” He eventually finds a new place to hide once the robot was not distracted. Hiding in a very dark place in the court.
*he’s so so so tempted to tear this robot apart with his Other Realm.. but that would … probably not be the nest entrance … sooo, instead, he flies down the hall to a different darkened hiding spot where he can curl up with his head resting on his wings*
The knight doesn’t respond… in fact it’s as if he’s just disappeared by how quiet he was being.. he had turned off the device. The robot meanwhile was still searching.. the ruckus had gotten the attention of some of the workers inside… and that probably means the two witches inside will also be alerted soon, or already were.
It did not take long for First Salt and First Sugar to be alerted of an intruder.. just after the court closes for the day? And one of them had a device of First Egg’s… that got them to come out and assess the situation.
Silent salt had somehow crept all the way to where shadow milk was and makes an incredibly faint mrrp sound.
*he stays in the corner he’s curled up in, though he does look over at Salt with an equally quiet mrrp before he goes back to looking around in case anyone else might be coming to them*
*he’s looking … paler than usual, but he’s back to breathing normally, so he’s probably fiine*
First Sugar watched Glass Canon go away and- oh! There were the intruders!
“I think we found them already sister!” She nudged her sibling who looked at the two cookies coming towards them.
“… not as hostile as the Overseer had said.” First Salt noted as the looked to the knight, who was rapidly approaching in excitement… he looked somewhat familiar.
*he slowly relaxes as he gets closer to them and starts getting excited about meeting other witch cookies! he mostly contains his excitement, though, so the only real sign of it is his wings starting to twitch slightly*
“Excuse me, who are you two?” First Sugar moves her sister out the way to greet the.. so called hostile intruders. First Salt still trying to figure out where she’s seen the knight before… who immediately seems to want her now as he practically jumps her and starts nuzzling.
he APPARENTLY is. and since he seems more interested in Being Weird than introducing himself, it comes to be to inform you that his name is Silent Salt Cookie
“… that name sounds familiar.” Something about that name was familiar.. neither sister knew why but it was… the knight was looking at First Salt and talking to her but… yeah he forgot to turn the device back on, no one can hear him.
*he flinches and starts zooming back to the corner he’d been hiding in before he stops himself and comes back to the other cookies, attempting to look like he had not just been fleeing from the robot*
“Don’t worry about the Overseer, they’re just doing their job!” First Sugar reassured as the robot scanned the jester, then moved on to salt again.
“Warning! Anomaly detected! Scanning… Egg shaped device located on intruder one! Cross referencing with devices in database…” that made both of the twins tense up..
*he stays still as the robot scans him. it. probably won’t find anything interesting? … well apart from maybe the throwing knives he keeps in his pockets*
okay, definitely seeming like he DID steal an egg from this thing
A cookie of his word, he does send a telltale sign to shadow milk that he’s ready… well at least he hopes he actually gets it…. Naaah it will work. The said thing he sent was a crow, and now the crow was staring into Shadow Milk’s soul.. almost literally. It’s just standing there… menacingly…
*he stares back at the crow for a while before floating over to try and give it head scritches*
*staring into his soul is probably just a normal bird thing, right? ehhhh, maybe someone thinks this is a good method of sending messages to cookies..*
*…*
*ooohhhh, right, that Silent Salt Cookie. probably him. he’ll just have to figure out. where he’s supposed to be meeting him..*
Silent Salt was currently loafing on a tree branch, waiting for Shadow Milk to arrive… he uh, he wasn’t at his best but he was currently, ignoring the feelings right now.
*… he was planning on loafing on a tree branch! how dare Silent Salt steal his ideas!? clearly, this was purposeful and malicious. mhm*
*… then again, it doesn’t really mean he CAN’T do it anyway.. and it DOES look comfy… … yeah, he’ll just float up to a branch slightly higher than where Salt is and settle down to loaf there until the other seems ready to leave*
“No I uh…. I got kidnapped twice. Once by the Crème Republic the other time by some cookies who really wanted my power… I got out fine though.” Ok, that was way too casual why did you say it like that?!
The knight climbs down the tree carefully, sliding down the trunk of the tree, he’s not about to get stuck in a tree while Shadow Milk was right there!
“A castle you say? Last from what I understood some aren’t in a castle.. at least the one I saw… First Sprinkle was it..? Apparently married to the swan.”
“She was nice to me, because she also got kidnapped… actually a lot of cookies did.” He had no idea how to get to the castle so, he was heavily relying on shadow milk right now… to his dismay.
“Yes Timekeeper was one of them, and several others… and a dragon.” The bit about the dragon was very.. very bitter. Clearly he did not like said dragon.
“.. perhaps a portal will be necessary if it’s that far.”
“Dragons are horrid things, they will crumble all you hold dear staring down at you with those wretched cold eyes.” He looks at the portal and soon goes through it.. jeez he really did not like that dragon huh.
“I already dealt with all the dragons in the barren after that ivory dragon left…. I do not understand how you can like dragons.” He was starting to smell the new scents.. so many berries…
“It’s not that ominous, all I did was kill every single one of them and send them far under the land of the dead.” He saw a berry bush… he had an urge to eat the berries.
“You did say it was difficult to get to. But I assume it’s because you have to row across the sea to get to it.” He gets in the boat.. this might be very easy!
… there’s some sort of magical barrier fog stuff around to make it REALLY hard to find it. i was able to use magic to propel the boat most of the way there, but i did have to do some rowing…
*he sits in the front of the boat, away from where the oars are. seems he’s planning on NOT helping with the “rowing over there” part*
He made a grumbling noise, guess HE was rowing the boat. Great, wonderful! He looked to see if any of the ghost knights would help… wait why are they staying at the shore and refusing to get close?
“Wow you all, letting me row by myself.” He grumbled to the knights…. No one else can see the knights he looked like he was talking to thin air.
“I would usually have help… but SOMEONE doesn’t want to and the rest are scared of a little bit of fog!” He starts to row towards the island shrouded in fog,
hmmmmnaaaahhh. i’m not going to help with the rowing. this is YOUR journey to reunite with YOUR mother and i am merely here as the helpful guide leading you to where she might be found!
*he turns his head all the way around to grin at him*
there’s not enough room on this boat for your little hoard, anyway. let them stay behind and fear the fog
“This is the first time they’ve ever acted like that! They’re usually never this scared…” he looks back at the shore, the knights were expressing, a lot, as if trying to get him to not go into the fog… weird.
At first the boat ride seemed to be normal.. Silent Salt wasn’t sure why his knights were acting so weird but the boat was nice, and it was quiet! But then he started to hear screams… ok, yeah that’s normal actually, he constantly hears screams back home this is nothing.
*he curls up as good as he can in the front of the boat, planning to attempt to get a nap on the ride over. though that attempt does get interrupted by the screams. he looks around for a few seconds, but when he sees no source for them, he just starts ignoring them instead and goes back to his nap attempt*
After a while the screams were getting annoying so he was about to snap at whatever ghosts were there to shut up…. But there’s no ghosts… instead there’s a OCEAN OF BOILING JAM FILLED WITH COOKIES.
“What the fuck?!” He flinched, trying to keep himself from falling off the boat.
*he’d been ALMOST asleep when he hears Salt. at which point he flinches at the unexpected noise and sits up straight to look around. hmm. jam ocean.. he’d made a few oceans into jam during his … timeline shenanigans. that had been pretty fun… but … something seems off. he looks around more closely at everything. the ocean. the jam. the cookies. the shadowy..things..he almost always sees somewhere in his vision.. he looks back at the cookies.. he can’t focus on their faces. there’s no way they’d appear around them this quickly. so, hallucination. he’s good at ignoring those. this won’t be any problem at all!*
“The ocean wasn’t like this before?!” He clearly couldn’t tell that it was a hallucination. It looked way too real for him. He hisses at the blood ocean… yeah that definitely will work.
exactly! it wasn’t like this a few seconds ago, there was no sign of any part of it looking like this a few seconds ago, there was no sign of any other cookies out here a few seconds ago. soooooo, what does that tell you about what might be going on here?
He hisses again… yeah he really is hissing at the ocean! One of the fake cookies tries to reach out to grab at him and he immediately starts swatting at the water- oh this is water.
He kinda stares at the ocean for a bit as he tries to process that yes, that was water, that was not boiling jam despite what it smells and looks like.
*he starts laughing and applauding him in an obviously sarcastic way*
bravo~! congratulations on noticing the obvious! of COURSE the shit that wasn’t there two seconds ago and has no sensible method of appearing here is a hallucination!!
“You are strange…” he mumbles and keeps rowing, a little faster now. On the account of there suddenly being two more oars being moved… seems at least two of the ghost knights did eventually come over.
… WHY DO YOU NEED 800 OF THEM?? that is FAR too many. for you specifically. i do not trust you not to. try and storm my spire or something of that nature
“That was how many knights I had before they were all crumbled and remained as souls, not all 800 of them show up all the time but there’s always at least 20 around me”
“I believe I may have cursed the entire barren… it was while I was slaughtering an entire army after their deaths but I’m not sure if they somehow still got affected or just, refuse to move on.. I have tried to get them all to pass on but they keep coming back” he can finally see the shore up ahead, they definitely are getting closer at least.
oh. that explains a lot. i HAVE been wondering if that place was cursed.. sorta assumed it would have been on purpose, though..
*he looks between the shore and the rowing cookies. he’s getting rather impatient to get there, but he also still doesn’t want to help with the rowing, but then again it WOULD give him something to do until they got there..*
“It was meant to be against those cookies but, I think I accidentally cursed the whole land above ground. Everything underground is safe. The only reason I know my knights were somewhat got by is… because they can’t speak.”
… i accidentally cursed a rather large portion of the Yogurt River. probably a biiiiit before your cursing.
that does explain a lot, though. i’ve been curious why your knights were so quiet..
*he floats a bit further back in the boat to start rowing one of the oars. he is IMMEDIATELY regretting this decision, it takes a lot of energy and it doesn’t take long at all before he’s getting sore. buuut, he’s committed to this decision now. so he’s gonna act like everything’s fine and keep on rowing*
Finally they made it to the shore! The hallucinations were still in full affect though. Everything looks dead, but this wasn’t as bad as the screaming… for now.
*he floats off the boat, crossing his arms to try and hide how much they’re shaking from his short stint at rowing, and starts looking around. then he floats off in the direction he remembers the castle being in*
Silent Salt follows… creators this place was eerie… but he soon started to see something he uh… should not. … wait was that elder faerie over there? Off the path?
*he thinks he might hear something coming from behind them, and is a bit too distracted by trying to figure out where that’s coming from to really watch what Salt’s up to*
*it sounds like a group of his friends talking with each other about something.. he really wants to go join them..*
*he doesn’t really notice the other cookie wandering off.. he’s decided to try following the sounds he’s hearing. off the path and back towards the sea*
Who wasn’t affected by the hallucinations? The two ghost knights… and right now they’re both stuck between keeping their commander from doing something stupid or stopping the jester from ALSO doing something stupid… well there is two of them…. So they split up… to which the once cheery Kala Namak knight makes herself visible before promptly bonking the jester.
*he glares at her for a few seconds, but turns back to float back towards the path while grumbling to himself. something about there supposedly being “very interesting mushrooms” in the direction he’d been trying to go*
*he goes back to leading the way towards the castle. eventually, they’ll make it out of the woods and arrive in a field that. probably used to be full of flowers*
… i’ll pretend you’re talking about a literal butterfly because that makes it sound a LOOOOT funnier
“If my mother is actually here I do not want her to think I’m talking about an actual butterfly.” He looked at what felt like an endless dead field of flowers.. how could any of the creators stand living in a place like this? He wouldn’t be able to bare it, and he lives in practically a barren dead land.
They were getting closer, the hallucinations were starting to fade by then. And Silent Salt was starting to move a lot faster now. He recognized the castle. He had childhood memories in this castle. He was now bounding off like a kitten.
*… now that’s an invitation to race if he’s ever seen one! he flies past over the knight, wings folded close to himself and staring intently towards the castle*
Oh so that’s how it will be huh? Nox can’t run that long, and he’s definitely can’t catch up on foot, so he does the only other option and summons something again… oh my god he has two horses. And he immediately jumps from nox to the other one and continues the chase
*he turns his head around to look behind him. HOW DOES THAT KNIGHT KEEP SUMMONING HORSES??? he can go very quickly when he wants to, but this new horse is gaining on him. he’s never been one to play fair, especially when he looks in danger of losing. so he turns around completely, diving down towards the two chasing him with a loud screech, turning back to continue towards the castle at the last second*
The new horse rears up frightened, forcing the knight off the horse before returning to the stables in which he came… but he still was not ready for defeat and summons one more animal…
And that’s how shadow milk soon sees a LITERAL LEOPARD chasing after him.
*he looks back at the chaos he’d caused, laughing his head off before. wait, was that a leopard? why is that a leopard? where did the leopard come from? he makes a rather undiginified squeaking sound of surprise before zooming off back towards the castle, leaving behind nothing but a couple of blue and cyan wing feathers that slowly drift down to the ground*
The leopard did not have a great reaction to that, and it jumps forward, arms outstretched as if to grab, Silent Salt was currently holding on for dear life.
*he was going far too fast for any direction changes and ends up just. crashing headfirst into the leopard and flopping to the ground, looking slightly dazed*
They made it.. they were at the castle! The leopard plops shadow milk down and is sent back to where it was summoned from. Though the place was… more ominous than he remembered Silent Salt was still very ecstatic to be back in what was basically his childhood home. Even if his mother wasn’t here he at least got to relive his memories even just for a bit..
“Hopefully my mother is here still, I’m not sure how we will find her if she’s not” he was moving closer to the castle now, looking around for something..
He was quiet for a little while before he starts digging, he had found the hole, but it was a little to small… he wanted to die inside he hated the feeling of dirt but at the same time it feels nice.
He followed soon after once he dug through a little more. Definitely as big as he remembered it to be! Now it’s the question of where the first cookies would be…
The castle felt wrong… mostly because they were not alone with whatever first cookies were here… but because there’s an actual witch inside the building along with several familiars… at least she wasn’t in the hall right now… but there was the feeling of a first cookie nearby
*wow! the castle feels a LOT weirder than when he was last here. that’s probably fine, though! he’ll just keep floating along, following the feeling of a first cookie being nearby. because even if she’s not the one they’re looking for, she might know where to find her. also it means meeting a witch either way*
And it was definitely the WORST time for the invading witch to come out from the magic kitchen. Who immediately sees them! …. Uh oh.
“That’s.., not my mother..” the knight mumbled… The witch immediately went to grab the closest one of them, which was Silent Salt but thankfully, narrowly misses him.
*A WITCH!! he ALMOST immediately goes toward her, but.. then he remembers.. masked faces, a table loaded with cookies… the crunch of dough between his teeth*
*he makes an odd sound somewhere between a scream and a whimper before he flies into the nearest hiding place, shaking a little*
“Shadow Milk what the hell come ba-ACK?!” Aaaand he hit the side of the wall trying to avoid the huge witch again, and was immediately taken by then a cat had came over due to the noise, is ordered to look for the remaining beast, before silent salt is brought into the magic kitchen.
*he stays hidden. he doesn’t want to go follow that witch, he does NOT want to help Silent Salt*
*… however, he can’t think of any cookie he would say deserves to be eaten, not even that traitorous knight. so, he … probably should at least TRY to help him*
*he lets himself sink into the shadows of his hiding place, using them to sneak past the cat and after the witch*
The shadow witch had put silent salt in a jar, he didn’t have the same feeling as when those thirteen cookies showed up but he definitely felt powerful, the other cookie to. No need to eat him yet until she looked through things…
In that time, said first cookie that had been sensed a little bit ago was also sneaking closer..
First Cream was hidden in one of the shelves… she really needed to get them both out the kitchen… didn’t know where the jester went but she does see the knight… so she starts moving towards the counter… not very well hidden.
Luckily the witch did not notice…. Yet. Silent Salt did though! … and so did the first cookie, who immediately decided to distract the witch in the meantime.
*he looks around a lot to make sure the witch hasn’t spotted him yet as he works on getting the jar open. eventually, after pulling at it for a bit, the lid opens slightly*
The second that lid was slightly open Silent Salt is immediately trying to get out, he hated the jar, he wanted out right this second…. He bashes head first into the glass trying to get up, good job silent salt… good job.
*he bites his tongue to try and resist the urge to laugh at the knight. it’s only partially successful as he still makes a muffled, rather spluttery chuckling sound. then he removes the lid the rest of the way*
What makes this more funny than it should be is immediately after he gets onto the lid the jar falls over on the table and him along with it. Causing him to tumble out.. well at least he’s out. The knight is not amused.
*he barks out a very hastily stifled cackle at that. he is TRYING to NOT attract the witch’s attention. the knight acting hilarious is not helping with this endeavor*
*… he’s still very audibly giggling, though. he wasn’t able to get himself entirely silenced*
Silent salt.., wasn’t talking? He was clearly trying to shush the jester but he was not making any noise at all. He did arch up and hiss at the witch, a very quiet hiss, before starting to speed off. The first cookie was at least still distracting the witch
To the Witch of Light finally she got the witch to get out! That had taken a bit longer than she thought… First Cream immediately starts looking for those two newcomers. By then the knight had hidden behind a few jars of ingredients and… she can see him.
That just made them feel even more, strangely familiar. Some flickers of, something. More little cookies skittering on the countertops… definitely not the exact same but, one did hiss… more visions from the Witch of Light it seems… The knight in response to the pat hisses. Ok his voice is back now…?
“I apologize for not reaching you two sooner, I am glad neither of you were harmed.”
Strange they were… she did not mind, she has seen weirder things.
“My name is First Cream, and both of yours?” That definitely got the knight to pay attention. His head snapping towards the first cookie.. his eyes are so dilating under that helmet.
“Silent Salt.” She heard him respond. Why did that feel familiar…?
*he turns towards her and introduces himself with a bow. he looks so happy. they found one of the former witches! … okay to be more accurate, she found them, but STILL!*
“And you believe that she is here?” The poor knight glanced at the other cookie… annoyed, perhaps. she directs her gaze towards the knight. “Who is your mother by chance?”
Silent Salt stops glaring and once again gets excited. “Prescription… or erm… First Salt, if that’s what she’s called by now. Is she here?” He.. knows which names? Definitely not a normal duo then…
“No, she and her sister aren’t here, they were here a few months ago however..”
“You have been here before?” Now she at least knew how the two figured out where the castle was.. never mind that, she didn’t want to leave them empty handed on their search.
“They live in a city, right in Wholegrainia, their court is right around the edge of it in fact. I would advise a warning however.. the twins may be a bit more alert now.”
*he turns to start floating back towards the entrance to the castle, before pausing, having decided to not resist the temptation to get in one more comment specifically meant to annoy the knight*
and likely to end with one of us going to court. i vote for Salt, he’s not been put on trial yet. as far as i know
“I’ve already been to court.” Silent Salt then growled, “it was a horrible experience. Framed for murder, hunted down, and treated like an animal.”
The first cookie looked somewhat taken aback by that. “Their court is different, you both will be fine. Just don’t disturb them while a case is ongoing and you won’t be charged with watching the trial.”
“Crème republic system for you, don’t recommend it.” He replied… oh creators his mother has a court! She’s not here but she’s only continent away! That thought was starting to push away his general annoyance… he had an urge to hug the first cookie.
i would make a much better court if i was put in charge of one :)
*he would not*
*… he’s also very tempted to hug the First Cookie. and he is significantly worse at resisting temptation. so. she’ll likely find herself getting hugged by a little blue weirdo pretty soon*
“No you would not, you would make it a performance. If all versions of you are similar enough to do the exact same thing” And seems like he knew that it wouldn’t be better. He resisted the urge to go for a hug as he looks back at the first cookie.
“Of course, safe travels-“ First Cream was caught off guard by the sudden hug…. Watching as the jester sped off before she could react, and the knight following suite..
*he flies back towards the hole they got into the castle through and crawls through it to get outside. “accidentally” kicking some dirt at Silent Salt’s face in the process*
*he shakes the dirt off of himself once he’s out of the hole and continues floating towards where they’d left the boat, head turned all the way around to watch the knight with the evillest, most mischevious giggles ever. he is very happy with the misery he has caused him*
“I’ve had no time to clean it I’ve been kidnapped twice?! By two different groups?!” He hisses again, “and I don’t even know how someone has that many eggs! If just came through a time rift!!
*he stares at him with a very unimpressed expression*
you got pelted by eggs through a time rift, and you have no idea who it might be. hmmmmm. who do you know of who miiiiight just be capable of opening time rifts and are known for using them for … rather ridiculous reasons?
“My grandchild, who was not there at the time, and it’s not a shadow milk, the one who came about thirty minutes after was very angry, and we fought for a bit physically.”
“Oh I made him help clean the office up, there were some things that couldn’t be fixed… like holes in the walls, but it’s better than the mess it was before.”
though … for me … the time travel idea came up after i’d absorbef that little part of the Ultimate Cookie and what remained of my friends..
… and it’s possible i am more stubborn than the normal variant, so, yours may give up once it becomes clear the inevitable end for it is in a complete wasteland..
“I’m still going for that plan, I won’t let him get any of the ultimate cookie, it’s a bunch of souls in body after all.. once I’m done I can get them out and see if I can put them to rest”
“That thing is full of souls, souls that never got to live apparently. I have worked with many kinds of souls in the past. And I can just, force them into the afterlife! Besides, better me than my version of you”
… … ehhhhhhhhmmmmmm … the thing makes stuff that you’d usually know is a bad idea seem like a REALLY good idea. that is the last warning i’ll give you about this plan of yours
“… even if I do deserve anything that comes at me, I failed my virtue, maybe even long before we fell, maybe you and that other shadow milk were right.”
“The only reason I say that is, every version of myself I keep hearing about seems to actually be, you know, the worst somehow… even as a virtue! I did try to stay true but maybe i failed in another way”
not to say i LIKE you >:( you’re just … marginally less infuriating than my version of you >:( why are you smiling at this? >:( it’s not a compliment >:(
*… he baps him a few times. this is definitely a very vicious attack that will completely disprove the “he doesn’t want to attack the knight” allegations. mhm. yeah. totally*
*then he notices how close they’re getting to land and sits up straight, staring towards the shore with his wings twitching slightly in excitement*
The baps result in a light hiss, and the knight jumps off the boat and onto the shore as they got very close. Where he’s immediately warmed by a bunch of the ghost knights.
Silent salt was immediately back at the berries while thinking… they were back near the Hollyberry Kingdom… so perhaps they can find a map or something to see if they can teleport to wherever that city is…
“You don’t think we’ll be attacked on sight while looking for a map will we?”
*aaand without waiting for any agreement from the other cookie he turns into a rather large dog and starts sprinting towards the nearest market area where he may find a map, tail wagging wildly behind him*
Silent Salt was immediately running after him- witches he should have expected it but he didn’t.. the hollyberrians weren’t to concerned about the Very Normal Dog at least!
*he darts around for a bit, finds a blueberry cobbler he steals a few bites of, tries to run off with a bottle of berry juice and, eventually, he finally grabs a map before zooming off to go back to Silent Salt*
*after several minutes, the Completely Normal Dog finds him and shifts back into his normal form to float up into the tree and sit next to the Knight, panting slightly and holding the map out towards him*
*he stretches and yawns before snatching the map back from Silent Salt and looking it over. once he’s sure where they’re heading, he floats off the branch and opens a portal there*
*he comes through after him and closes the portal*
*his feathers fluff up and he tries to shrink a bit into his collar. he’s not sure he likes how loud it is here either. he’s much more use to living alone in the middle of nowhere..*
The knight sips off away from the crowd and close to the alleyways… he just had to follow these weird black paths with machinery on them and he can get to the courthouse! … so he starts following them very close to the road.
*he floats a little lower and closer to the ground as he trails after Salt, staring down at the ground right in front of himself, trying to ignore how loud it is.*
He almost got hit by a bus. Yeah… this is why you shouldn’t be this close to the road.. the knight did not like the bus however, and hisses at it before going through the alleyways the rest of the way there.
*he sticks right behind Salt, staring at the ground, completely stiffened up with all his claws out. the only reaction he has to the bus is to flinch in surprise and almost crash into the knight*
*he Does Not like it here, it’s way too loud, there’s way too many cookies, he just wants to fly off and hide in the woods again*
Both of them are hiding in the dark now! Where their away from the noise until it seemed like everyone had left! … there was one cookie here though, a robot?
*he’s huddled up against the Knight to be even more hidden from whoever else may be nearby, even purring a little now he’s out of the crowd and noise of the city*
*he tilts his head at the … robot cookie?? with a curious “mrrp?”*
The cookie had canons for arms.. probably some kind of guard for the place… they soon stop as they detected something…
“Warning! Anomalous energy detected! Initiating search protocols!” The robotic cookie was now immediately searching the room… ah, they knew they were here.
*his wings spread out the rest of the way, his hair thrashes around even more, and he starts bapping at the robotic cookie with loud, angry owl screech*
The knight next to him had his flaming hair all proofed up, and he starts hissing at the robot. He was also.. stomping from time to time? Ok you go.
“WARNING! Anomaly detected: egg shaped device on intruder one! Cross-referencing- WARNING! Hostile intruders detected! Initiating Defense protocol!” The robot was now shooting at them!
EGG SHAPED DEVICE?? HUH???? SALT DID YOU STEAL THIS THINGS EGGS???
*he screeches at the robot again. and the second it starts shooting at him, their surroundings are flooded in darkness and stars and blinking eyes, he lets his form melt into the darkness of it so the thing has no chance of hitting him*
“NO? ITS THE- AA!!” Silent Salt did not have the same luxury of going into the darkness like Shadow Milk did! And had to dodge out the way. He did not want to destroy his mother’s stuff so he just hisses at the robot and runs.
*a few blue puppet strings descend from the ceiling to tie around the robot’s canons so he can pull those around in an attempt to prevent the other cookie from getting shot*
“ITS THE THING THAT AMPLIFIES MY VOICE!” He eventually finds a new place to hide once the robot was not distracted. Hiding in a very dark place in the court.
*he’s so so so tempted to tear this robot apart with his Other Realm.. but that would … probably not be the nest entrance … sooo, instead, he flies down the hall to a different darkened hiding spot where he can curl up with his head resting on his wings*
The knight doesn’t respond… in fact it’s as if he’s just disappeared by how quiet he was being.. he had turned off the device. The robot meanwhile was still searching.. the ruckus had gotten the attention of some of the workers inside… and that probably means the two witches inside will also be alerted soon, or already were.
It did not take long for First Salt and First Sugar to be alerted of an intruder.. just after the court closes for the day? And one of them had a device of First Egg’s… that got them to come out and assess the situation.
Silent salt had somehow crept all the way to where shadow milk was and makes an incredibly faint mrrp sound.
*he stays in the corner he’s curled up in, though he does look over at Salt with an equally quiet mrrp before he goes back to looking around in case anyone else might be coming to them*
*he’s looking … paler than usual, but he’s back to breathing normally, so he’s probably fiine*
First Sugar watched Glass Canon go away and- oh! There were the intruders!
“I think we found them already sister!” She nudged her sibling who looked at the two cookies coming towards them.
“… not as hostile as the Overseer had said.” First Salt noted as the looked to the knight, who was rapidly approaching in excitement… he looked somewhat familiar.
*he slowly relaxes as he gets closer to them and starts getting excited about meeting other witch cookies! he mostly contains his excitement, though, so the only real sign of it is his wings starting to twitch slightly*
“Excuse me, who are you two?” First Sugar moves her sister out the way to greet the.. so called hostile intruders. First Salt still trying to figure out where she’s seen the knight before… who immediately seems to want her now as he practically jumps her and starts nuzzling.
he APPARENTLY is. and since he seems more interested in Being Weird than introducing himself, it comes to be to inform you that his name is Silent Salt Cookie
“… that name sounds familiar.” Something about that name was familiar.. neither sister knew why but it was… the knight was looking at First Salt and talking to her but… yeah he forgot to turn the device back on, no one can hear him.
*he flinches and starts zooming back to the corner he’d been hiding in before he stops himself and comes back to the other cookies, attempting to look like he had not just been fleeing from the robot*
“Don’t worry about the Overseer, they’re just doing their job!” First Sugar reassured as the robot scanned the jester, then moved on to salt again.
“Warning! Anomaly detected! Scanning… Egg shaped device located on intruder one! Cross referencing with devices in database…” that made both of the twins tense up..
A cookie of his word, he does send a telltale sign to shadow milk that he’s ready… well at least he hopes he actually gets it…. Naaah it will work. The said thing he sent was a crow, and now the crow was staring into Shadow Milk’s soul.. almost literally. It’s just standing there… menacingly…
*he stares back at the crow for a while before floating over to try and give it head scritches*
*staring into his soul is probably just a normal bird thing, right? ehhhh, maybe someone thinks this is a good method of sending messages to cookies..*
*…*
*ooohhhh, right, that Silent Salt Cookie. probably him. he’ll just have to figure out. where he’s supposed to be meeting him..*
Silent Salt was currently loafing on a tree branch, waiting for Shadow Milk to arrive… he uh, he wasn’t at his best but he was currently, ignoring the feelings right now.
*… he was planning on loafing on a tree branch! how dare Silent Salt steal his ideas!? clearly, this was purposeful and malicious. mhm*
*… then again, it doesn’t really mean he CAN’T do it anyway.. and it DOES look comfy… … yeah, he’ll just float up to a branch slightly higher than where Salt is and settle down to loaf there until the other seems ready to leave*
“No I uh…. I got kidnapped twice. Once by the Crème Republic the other time by some cookies who really wanted my power… I got out fine though.” Ok, that was way too casual why did you say it like that?!
The knight climbs down the tree carefully, sliding down the trunk of the tree, he’s not about to get stuck in a tree while Shadow Milk was right there!
“A castle you say? Last from what I understood some aren’t in a castle.. at least the one I saw… First Sprinkle was it..? Apparently married to the swan.”
“She was nice to me, because she also got kidnapped… actually a lot of cookies did.” He had no idea how to get to the castle so, he was heavily relying on shadow milk right now… to his dismay.
“Yes Timekeeper was one of them, and several others… and a dragon.” The bit about the dragon was very.. very bitter. Clearly he did not like said dragon.
“.. perhaps a portal will be necessary if it’s that far.”
“Dragons are horrid things, they will crumble all you hold dear staring down at you with those wretched cold eyes.” He looks at the portal and soon goes through it.. jeez he really did not like that dragon huh.
“I already dealt with all the dragons in the barren after that ivory dragon left…. I do not understand how you can like dragons.” He was starting to smell the new scents.. so many berries…
“It’s not that ominous, all I did was kill every single one of them and send them far under the land of the dead.” He saw a berry bush… he had an urge to eat the berries.
“You did say it was difficult to get to. But I assume it’s because you have to row across the sea to get to it.” He gets in the boat.. this might be very easy!
… there’s some sort of magical barrier fog stuff around to make it REALLY hard to find it. i was able to use magic to propel the boat most of the way there, but i did have to do some rowing…
*he sits in the front of the boat, away from where the oars are. seems he’s planning on NOT helping with the “rowing over there” part*
He made a grumbling noise, guess HE was rowing the boat. Great, wonderful! He looked to see if any of the ghost knights would help… wait why are they staying at the shore and refusing to get close?
“Wow you all, letting me row by myself.” He grumbled to the knights…. No one else can see the knights he looked like he was talking to thin air.
“I would usually have help… but SOMEONE doesn’t want to and the rest are scared of a little bit of fog!” He starts to row towards the island shrouded in fog,
hmmmmnaaaahhh. i’m not going to help with the rowing. this is YOUR journey to reunite with YOUR mother and i am merely here as the helpful guide leading you to where she might be found!
*he turns his head all the way around to grin at him*
there’s not enough room on this boat for your little hoard, anyway. let them stay behind and fear the fog
“This is the first time they’ve ever acted like that! They’re usually never this scared…” he looks back at the shore, the knights were expressing, a lot, as if trying to get him to not go into the fog… weird.
At first the boat ride seemed to be normal.. Silent Salt wasn’t sure why his knights were acting so weird but the boat was nice, and it was quiet! But then he started to hear screams… ok, yeah that’s normal actually, he constantly hears screams back home this is nothing.
*he curls up as good as he can in the front of the boat, planning to attempt to get a nap on the ride over. though that attempt does get interrupted by the screams. he looks around for a few seconds, but when he sees no source for them, he just starts ignoring them instead and goes back to his nap attempt*
After a while the screams were getting annoying so he was about to snap at whatever ghosts were there to shut up…. But there’s no ghosts… instead there’s a OCEAN OF BOILING JAM FILLED WITH COOKIES.
“What the fuck?!” He flinched, trying to keep himself from falling off the boat.
*he’d been ALMOST asleep when he hears Salt. at which point he flinches at the unexpected noise and sits up straight to look around. hmm. jam ocean.. he’d made a few oceans into jam during his … timeline shenanigans. that had been pretty fun… but … something seems off. he looks around more closely at everything. the ocean. the jam. the cookies. the shadowy..things..he almost always sees somewhere in his vision.. he looks back at the cookies.. he can’t focus on their faces. there’s no way they’d appear around them this quickly. so, hallucination. he’s good at ignoring those. this won’t be any problem at all!*
“The ocean wasn’t like this before?!” He clearly couldn’t tell that it was a hallucination. It looked way too real for him. He hisses at the blood ocean… yeah that definitely will work.
exactly! it wasn’t like this a few seconds ago, there was no sign of any part of it looking like this a few seconds ago, there was no sign of any other cookies out here a few seconds ago. soooooo, what does that tell you about what might be going on here?
He hisses again… yeah he really is hissing at the ocean! One of the fake cookies tries to reach out to grab at him and he immediately starts swatting at the water- oh this is water.
He kinda stares at the ocean for a bit as he tries to process that yes, that was water, that was not boiling jam despite what it smells and looks like.
*he starts laughing and applauding him in an obviously sarcastic way*
bravo~! congratulations on noticing the obvious! of COURSE the shit that wasn’t there two seconds ago and has no sensible method of appearing here is a hallucination!!
“You are strange…” he mumbles and keeps rowing, a little faster now. On the account of there suddenly being two more oars being moved… seems at least two of the ghost knights did eventually come over.
… WHY DO YOU NEED 800 OF THEM?? that is FAR too many. for you specifically. i do not trust you not to. try and storm my spire or something of that nature
“That was how many knights I had before they were all crumbled and remained as souls, not all 800 of them show up all the time but there’s always at least 20 around me”
“I believe I may have cursed the entire barren… it was while I was slaughtering an entire army after their deaths but I’m not sure if they somehow still got affected or just, refuse to move on.. I have tried to get them all to pass on but they keep coming back” he can finally see the shore up ahead, they definitely are getting closer at least.
oh. that explains a lot. i HAVE been wondering if that place was cursed.. sorta assumed it would have been on purpose, though..
*he looks between the shore and the rowing cookies. he’s getting rather impatient to get there, but he also still doesn’t want to help with the rowing, but then again it WOULD give him something to do until they got there..*
“It was meant to be against those cookies but, I think I accidentally cursed the whole land above ground. Everything underground is safe. The only reason I know my knights were somewhat got by is… because they can’t speak.”
… i accidentally cursed a rather large portion of the Yogurt River. probably a biiiiit before your cursing.
that does explain a lot, though. i’ve been curious why your knights were so quiet..
*he floats a bit further back in the boat to start rowing one of the oars. he is IMMEDIATELY regretting this decision, it takes a lot of energy and it doesn’t take long at all before he’s getting sore. buuut, he’s committed to this decision now. so he’s gonna act like everything’s fine and keep on rowing*
Finally they made it to the shore! The hallucinations were still in full affect though. Everything looks dead, but this wasn’t as bad as the screaming… for now.
*he floats off the boat, crossing his arms to try and hide how much they’re shaking from his short stint at rowing, and starts looking around. then he floats off in the direction he remembers the castle being in*
Silent Salt follows… creators this place was eerie… but he soon started to see something he uh… should not. … wait was that elder faerie over there? Off the path?
*he thinks he might hear something coming from behind them, and is a bit too distracted by trying to figure out where that’s coming from to really watch what Salt’s up to*
*it sounds like a group of his friends talking with each other about something.. he really wants to go join them..*
*he doesn’t really notice the other cookie wandering off.. he’s decided to try following the sounds he’s hearing. off the path and back towards the sea*
Who wasn’t affected by the hallucinations? The two ghost knights… and right now they’re both stuck between keeping their commander from doing something stupid or stopping the jester from ALSO doing something stupid… well there is two of them…. So they split up… to which the once cheery Kala Namak knight makes herself visible before promptly bonking the jester.
*he glares at her for a few seconds, but turns back to float back towards the path while grumbling to himself. something about there supposedly being “very interesting mushrooms” in the direction he’d been trying to go*
*he goes back to leading the way towards the castle. eventually, they’ll make it out of the woods and arrive in a field that. probably used to be full of flowers*
… i’ll pretend you’re talking about a literal butterfly because that makes it sound a LOOOOT funnier
“If my mother is actually here I do not want her to think I’m talking about an actual butterfly.” He looked at what felt like an endless dead field of flowers.. how could any of the creators stand living in a place like this? He wouldn’t be able to bare it, and he lives in practically a barren dead land.
They were getting closer, the hallucinations were starting to fade by then. And Silent Salt was starting to move a lot faster now. He recognized the castle. He had childhood memories in this castle. He was now bounding off like a kitten.
*… now that’s an invitation to race if he’s ever seen one! he flies past over the knight, wings folded close to himself and staring intently towards the castle*
Oh so that’s how it will be huh? Nox can’t run that long, and he’s definitely can’t catch up on foot, so he does the only other option and summons something again… oh my god he has two horses. And he immediately jumps from nox to the other one and continues the chase
*he turns his head around to look behind him. HOW DOES THAT KNIGHT KEEP SUMMONING HORSES??? he can go very quickly when he wants to, but this new horse is gaining on him. he’s never been one to play fair, especially when he looks in danger of losing. so he turns around completely, diving down towards the two chasing him with a loud screech, turning back to continue towards the castle at the last second*
The new horse rears up frightened, forcing the knight off the horse before returning to the stables in which he came… but he still was not ready for defeat and summons one more animal…
And that’s how shadow milk soon sees a LITERAL LEOPARD chasing after him.
*he looks back at the chaos he’d caused, laughing his head off before. wait, was that a leopard? why is that a leopard? where did the leopard come from? he makes a rather undiginified squeaking sound of surprise before zooming off back towards the castle, leaving behind nothing but a couple of blue and cyan wing feathers that slowly drift down to the ground*
The leopard did not have a great reaction to that, and it jumps forward, arms outstretched as if to grab, Silent Salt was currently holding on for dear life.
*he was going far too fast for any direction changes and ends up just. crashing headfirst into the leopard and flopping to the ground, looking slightly dazed*
They made it.. they were at the castle! The leopard plops shadow milk down and is sent back to where it was summoned from. Though the place was… more ominous than he remembered Silent Salt was still very ecstatic to be back in what was basically his childhood home. Even if his mother wasn’t here he at least got to relive his memories even just for a bit..
“Hopefully my mother is here still, I’m not sure how we will find her if she’s not” he was moving closer to the castle now, looking around for something..
He was quiet for a little while before he starts digging, he had found the hole, but it was a little to small… he wanted to die inside he hated the feeling of dirt but at the same time it feels nice.
He followed soon after once he dug through a little more. Definitely as big as he remembered it to be! Now it’s the question of where the first cookies would be…
The castle felt wrong… mostly because they were not alone with whatever first cookies were here… but because there’s an actual witch inside the building along with several familiars… at least she wasn’t in the hall right now… but there was the feeling of a first cookie nearby
*wow! the castle feels a LOT weirder than when he was last here. that’s probably fine, though! he’ll just keep floating along, following the feeling of a first cookie being nearby. because even if she’s not the one they’re looking for, she might know where to find her. also it means meeting a witch either way*
And it was definitely the WORST time for the invading witch to come out from the magic kitchen. Who immediately sees them! …. Uh oh.
“That’s.., not my mother..” the knight mumbled… The witch immediately went to grab the closest one of them, which was Silent Salt but thankfully, narrowly misses him.
*A WITCH!! he ALMOST immediately goes toward her, but.. then he remembers.. masked faces, a table loaded with cookies… the crunch of dough between his teeth*
*he makes an odd sound somewhere between a scream and a whimper before he flies into the nearest hiding place, shaking a little*
“Shadow Milk what the hell come ba-ACK?!” Aaaand he hit the side of the wall trying to avoid the huge witch again, and was immediately taken by then a cat had came over due to the noise, is ordered to look for the remaining beast, before silent salt is brought into the magic kitchen.
*he stays hidden. he doesn’t want to go follow that witch, he does NOT want to help Silent Salt*
*… however, he can’t think of any cookie he would say deserves to be eaten, not even that traitorous knight. so, he … probably should at least TRY to help him*
*he lets himself sink into the shadows of his hiding place, using them to sneak past the cat and after the witch*
The shadow witch had put silent salt in a jar, he didn’t have the same feeling as when those thirteen cookies showed up but he definitely felt powerful, the other cookie to. No need to eat him yet until she looked through things…
In that time, said first cookie that had been sensed a little bit ago was also sneaking closer..
First Cream was hidden in one of the shelves… she really needed to get them both out the kitchen… didn’t know where the jester went but she does see the knight… so she starts moving towards the counter… not very well hidden.
Luckily the witch did not notice…. Yet. Silent Salt did though! … and so did the first cookie, who immediately decided to distract the witch in the meantime.
*he looks around a lot to make sure the witch hasn’t spotted him yet as he works on getting the jar open. eventually, after pulling at it for a bit, the lid opens slightly*
The second that lid was slightly open Silent Salt is immediately trying to get out, he hated the jar, he wanted out right this second…. He bashes head first into the glass trying to get up, good job silent salt… good job.
*he bites his tongue to try and resist the urge to laugh at the knight. it’s only partially successful as he still makes a muffled, rather spluttery chuckling sound. then he removes the lid the rest of the way*
What makes this more funny than it should be is immediately after he gets onto the lid the jar falls over on the table and him along with it. Causing him to tumble out.. well at least he’s out. The knight is not amused.
*he barks out a very hastily stifled cackle at that. he is TRYING to NOT attract the witch’s attention. the knight acting hilarious is not helping with this endeavor*
*… he’s still very audibly giggling, though. he wasn’t able to get himself entirely silenced*
Silent salt.., wasn’t talking? He was clearly trying to shush the jester but he was not making any noise at all. He did arch up and hiss at the witch, a very quiet hiss, before starting to speed off. The first cookie was at least still distracting the witch
To the Witch of Light finally she got the witch to get out! That had taken a bit longer than she thought… First Cream immediately starts looking for those two newcomers. By then the knight had hidden behind a few jars of ingredients and… she can see him.
That just made them feel even more, strangely familiar. Some flickers of, something. More little cookies skittering on the countertops… definitely not the exact same but, one did hiss… more visions from the Witch of Light it seems… The knight in response to the pat hisses. Ok his voice is back now…?
“I apologize for not reaching you two sooner, I am glad neither of you were harmed.”
Strange they were… she did not mind, she has seen weirder things.
“My name is First Cream, and both of yours?” That definitely got the knight to pay attention. His head snapping towards the first cookie.. his eyes are so dilating under that helmet.
“Silent Salt.” She heard him respond. Why did that feel familiar…?
*he turns towards her and introduces himself with a bow. he looks so happy. they found one of the former witches! … okay to be more accurate, she found them, but STILL!*
“And you believe that she is here?” The poor knight glanced at the other cookie… annoyed, perhaps. she directs her gaze towards the knight. “Who is your mother by chance?”
Silent Salt stops glaring and once again gets excited. “Prescription… or erm… First Salt, if that’s what she’s called by now. Is she here?” He.. knows which names? Definitely not a normal duo then…
“No, she and her sister aren’t here, they were here a few months ago however..”
“You have been here before?” Now she at least knew how the two figured out where the castle was.. never mind that, she didn’t want to leave them empty handed on their search.
“They live in a city, right in Wholegrainia, their court is right around the edge of it in fact. I would advise a warning however.. the twins may be a bit more alert now.”
*he turns to start floating back towards the entrance to the castle, before pausing, having decided to not resist the temptation to get in one more comment specifically meant to annoy the knight*
and likely to end with one of us going to court. i vote for Salt, he’s not been put on trial yet. as far as i know
“I’ve already been to court.” Silent Salt then growled, “it was a horrible experience. Framed for murder, hunted down, and treated like an animal.”
The first cookie looked somewhat taken aback by that. “Their court is different, you both will be fine. Just don’t disturb them while a case is ongoing and you won’t be charged with watching the trial.”
“Crème republic system for you, don’t recommend it.” He replied… oh creators his mother has a court! She’s not here but she’s only continent away! That thought was starting to push away his general annoyance… he had an urge to hug the first cookie.
i would make a much better court if i was put in charge of one :)
*he would not*
*… he’s also very tempted to hug the First Cookie. and he is significantly worse at resisting temptation. so. she’ll likely find herself getting hugged by a little blue weirdo pretty soon*
“No you would not, you would make it a performance. If all versions of you are similar enough to do the exact same thing” And seems like he knew that it wouldn’t be better. He resisted the urge to go for a hug as he looks back at the first cookie.
“Of course, safe travels-“ First Cream was caught off guard by the sudden hug…. Watching as the jester sped off before she could react, and the knight following suite..
*he flies back towards the hole they got into the castle through and crawls through it to get outside. “accidentally” kicking some dirt at Silent Salt’s face in the process*
*he shakes the dirt off of himself once he’s out of the hole and continues floating towards where they’d left the boat, head turned all the way around to watch the knight with the evillest, most mischevious giggles ever. he is very happy with the misery he has caused him*
“I’ve had no time to clean it I’ve been kidnapped twice?! By two different groups?!” He hisses again, “and I don’t even know how someone has that many eggs! If just came through a time rift!!
*he stares at him with a very unimpressed expression*
you got pelted by eggs through a time rift, and you have no idea who it might be. hmmmmm. who do you know of who miiiiight just be capable of opening time rifts and are known for using them for … rather ridiculous reasons?
“My grandchild, who was not there at the time, and it’s not a shadow milk, the one who came about thirty minutes after was very angry, and we fought for a bit physically.”
“Oh I made him help clean the office up, there were some things that couldn’t be fixed… like holes in the walls, but it’s better than the mess it was before.”
though … for me … the time travel idea came up after i’d absorbef that little part of the Ultimate Cookie and what remained of my friends..
… and it’s possible i am more stubborn than the normal variant, so, yours may give up once it becomes clear the inevitable end for it is in a complete wasteland..
“I’m still going for that plan, I won’t let him get any of the ultimate cookie, it’s a bunch of souls in body after all.. once I’m done I can get them out and see if I can put them to rest”
“That thing is full of souls, souls that never got to live apparently. I have worked with many kinds of souls in the past. And I can just, force them into the afterlife! Besides, better me than my version of you”
… … ehhhhhhhhmmmmmm … the thing makes stuff that you’d usually know is a bad idea seem like a REALLY good idea. that is the last warning i’ll give you about this plan of yours
“… even if I do deserve anything that comes at me, I failed my virtue, maybe even long before we fell, maybe you and that other shadow milk were right.”
“The only reason I say that is, every version of myself I keep hearing about seems to actually be, you know, the worst somehow… even as a virtue! I did try to stay true but maybe i failed in another way”
not to say i LIKE you >:( you’re just … marginally less infuriating than my version of you >:( why are you smiling at this? >:( it’s not a compliment >:(
*… he baps him a few times. this is definitely a very vicious attack that will completely disprove the “he doesn’t want to attack the knight” allegations. mhm. yeah. totally*
*then he notices how close they’re getting to land and sits up straight, staring towards the shore with his wings twitching slightly in excitement*
The baps result in a light hiss, and the knight jumps off the boat and onto the shore as they got very close. Where he’s immediately warmed by a bunch of the ghost knights.
Silent salt was immediately back at the berries while thinking… they were back near the Hollyberry Kingdom… so perhaps they can find a map or something to see if they can teleport to wherever that city is…
“You don’t think we’ll be attacked on sight while looking for a map will we?”
*aaand without waiting for any agreement from the other cookie he turns into a rather large dog and starts sprinting towards the nearest market area where he may find a map, tail wagging wildly behind him*
Silent Salt was immediately running after him- witches he should have expected it but he didn’t.. the hollyberrians weren’t to concerned about the Very Normal Dog at least!
*he darts around for a bit, finds a blueberry cobbler he steals a few bites of, tries to run off with a bottle of berry juice and, eventually, he finally grabs a map before zooming off to go back to Silent Salt*
*after several minutes, the Completely Normal Dog finds him and shifts back into his normal form to float up into the tree and sit next to the Knight, panting slightly and holding the map out towards him*
*he stretches and yawns before snatching the map back from Silent Salt and looking it over. once he’s sure where they’re heading, he floats off the branch and opens a portal there*
*he comes through after him and closes the portal*
*his feathers fluff up and he tries to shrink a bit into his collar. he’s not sure he likes how loud it is here either. he’s much more use to living alone in the middle of nowhere..*
The knight sips off away from the crowd and close to the alleyways… he just had to follow these weird black paths with machinery on them and he can get to the courthouse! … so he starts following them very close to the road.
*he floats a little lower and closer to the ground as he trails after Salt, staring down at the ground right in front of himself, trying to ignore how loud it is.*
He almost got hit by a bus. Yeah… this is why you shouldn’t be this close to the road.. the knight did not like the bus however, and hisses at it before going through the alleyways the rest of the way there.
*he sticks right behind Salt, staring at the ground, completely stiffened up with all his claws out. the only reaction he has to the bus is to flinch in surprise and almost crash into the knight*
*he Does Not like it here, it’s way too loud, there’s way too many cookies, he just wants to fly off and hide in the woods again*
Both of them are hiding in the dark now! Where their away from the noise until it seemed like everyone had left! … there was one cookie here though, a robot?
*he’s huddled up against the Knight to be even more hidden from whoever else may be nearby, even purring a little now he’s out of the crowd and noise of the city*
*he tilts his head at the … robot cookie?? with a curious “mrrp?”*
The cookie had canons for arms.. probably some kind of guard for the place… they soon stop as they detected something…
“Warning! Anomalous energy detected! Initiating search protocols!” The robotic cookie was now immediately searching the room… ah, they knew they were here.
*his wings spread out the rest of the way, his hair thrashes around even more, and he starts bapping at the robotic cookie with loud, angry owl screech*
The knight next to him had his flaming hair all proofed up, and he starts hissing at the robot. He was also.. stomping from time to time? Ok you go.
“WARNING! Anomaly detected: egg shaped device on intruder one! Cross-referencing- WARNING! Hostile intruders detected! Initiating Defense protocol!” The robot was now shooting at them!
EGG SHAPED DEVICE?? HUH???? SALT DID YOU STEAL THIS THINGS EGGS???
*he screeches at the robot again. and the second it starts shooting at him, their surroundings are flooded in darkness and stars and blinking eyes, he lets his form melt into the darkness of it so the thing has no chance of hitting him*
“NO? ITS THE- AA!!” Silent Salt did not have the same luxury of going into the darkness like Shadow Milk did! And had to dodge out the way. He did not want to destroy his mother’s stuff so he just hisses at the robot and runs.
*a few blue puppet strings descend from the ceiling to tie around the robot’s canons so he can pull those around in an attempt to prevent the other cookie from getting shot*
“ITS THE THING THAT AMPLIFIES MY VOICE!” He eventually finds a new place to hide once the robot was not distracted. Hiding in a very dark place in the court.
*he’s so so so tempted to tear this robot apart with his Other Realm.. but that would … probably not be the nest entrance … sooo, instead, he flies down the hall to a different darkened hiding spot where he can curl up with his head resting on his wings*
The knight doesn’t respond… in fact it’s as if he’s just disappeared by how quiet he was being.. he had turned off the device. The robot meanwhile was still searching.. the ruckus had gotten the attention of some of the workers inside… and that probably means the two witches inside will also be alerted soon, or already were.
It did not take long for First Salt and First Sugar to be alerted of an intruder.. just after the court closes for the day? And one of them had a device of First Egg’s… that got them to come out and assess the situation.
Silent salt had somehow crept all the way to where shadow milk was and makes an incredibly faint mrrp sound.
*he stays in the corner he’s curled up in, though he does look over at Salt with an equally quiet mrrp before he goes back to looking around in case anyone else might be coming to them*
*he’s looking … paler than usual, but he’s back to breathing normally, so he’s probably fiine*
First Sugar watched Glass Canon go away and- oh! There were the intruders!
“I think we found them already sister!” She nudged her sibling who looked at the two cookies coming towards them.
“… not as hostile as the Overseer had said.” First Salt noted as the looked to the knight, who was rapidly approaching in excitement… he looked somewhat familiar.
*he slowly relaxes as he gets closer to them and starts getting excited about meeting other witch cookies! he mostly contains his excitement, though, so the only real sign of it is his wings starting to twitch slightly*
“Excuse me, who are you two?” First Sugar moves her sister out the way to greet the.. so called hostile intruders. First Salt still trying to figure out where she’s seen the knight before… who immediately seems to want her now as he practically jumps her and starts nuzzling.
he APPARENTLY is. and since he seems more interested in Being Weird than introducing himself, it comes to be to inform you that his name is Silent Salt Cookie
“… that name sounds familiar.” Something about that name was familiar.. neither sister knew why but it was… the knight was looking at First Salt and talking to her but… yeah he forgot to turn the device back on, no one can hear him.
A cookie of his word, he does send a telltale sign to shadow milk that he’s ready… well at least he hopes he actually gets it…. Naaah it will work. The said thing he sent was a crow, and now the crow was staring into Shadow Milk’s soul.. almost literally. It’s just standing there… menacingly…
*he stares back at the crow for a while before floating over to try and give it head scritches*
*staring into his soul is probably just a normal bird thing, right? ehhhh, maybe someone thinks this is a good method of sending messages to cookies..*
*…*
*ooohhhh, right, that Silent Salt Cookie. probably him. he’ll just have to figure out. where he’s supposed to be meeting him..*
Silent Salt was currently loafing on a tree branch, waiting for Shadow Milk to arrive… he uh, he wasn’t at his best but he was currently, ignoring the feelings right now.
*… he was planning on loafing on a tree branch! how dare Silent Salt steal his ideas!? clearly, this was purposeful and malicious. mhm*
*… then again, it doesn’t really mean he CAN’T do it anyway.. and it DOES look comfy… … yeah, he’ll just float up to a branch slightly higher than where Salt is and settle down to loaf there until the other seems ready to leave*
“No I uh…. I got kidnapped twice. Once by the Crème Republic the other time by some cookies who really wanted my power… I got out fine though.” Ok, that was way too casual why did you say it like that?!
The knight climbs down the tree carefully, sliding down the trunk of the tree, he’s not about to get stuck in a tree while Shadow Milk was right there!
“A castle you say? Last from what I understood some aren’t in a castle.. at least the one I saw… First Sprinkle was it..? Apparently married to the swan.”
“She was nice to me, because she also got kidnapped… actually a lot of cookies did.” He had no idea how to get to the castle so, he was heavily relying on shadow milk right now… to his dismay.
“Yes Timekeeper was one of them, and several others… and a dragon.” The bit about the dragon was very.. very bitter. Clearly he did not like said dragon.
“.. perhaps a portal will be necessary if it’s that far.”
“Dragons are horrid things, they will crumble all you hold dear staring down at you with those wretched cold eyes.” He looks at the portal and soon goes through it.. jeez he really did not like that dragon huh.
“I already dealt with all the dragons in the barren after that ivory dragon left…. I do not understand how you can like dragons.” He was starting to smell the new scents.. so many berries…
“It’s not that ominous, all I did was kill every single one of them and send them far under the land of the dead.” He saw a berry bush… he had an urge to eat the berries.
“You did say it was difficult to get to. But I assume it’s because you have to row across the sea to get to it.” He gets in the boat.. this might be very easy!
… there’s some sort of magical barrier fog stuff around to make it REALLY hard to find it. i was able to use magic to propel the boat most of the way there, but i did have to do some rowing…
*he sits in the front of the boat, away from where the oars are. seems he’s planning on NOT helping with the “rowing over there” part*
He made a grumbling noise, guess HE was rowing the boat. Great, wonderful! He looked to see if any of the ghost knights would help… wait why are they staying at the shore and refusing to get close?
“Wow you all, letting me row by myself.” He grumbled to the knights…. No one else can see the knights he looked like he was talking to thin air.
“I would usually have help… but SOMEONE doesn’t want to and the rest are scared of a little bit of fog!” He starts to row towards the island shrouded in fog,
hmmmmnaaaahhh. i’m not going to help with the rowing. this is YOUR journey to reunite with YOUR mother and i am merely here as the helpful guide leading you to where she might be found!
*he turns his head all the way around to grin at him*
there’s not enough room on this boat for your little hoard, anyway. let them stay behind and fear the fog
“This is the first time they’ve ever acted like that! They’re usually never this scared…” he looks back at the shore, the knights were expressing, a lot, as if trying to get him to not go into the fog… weird.
At first the boat ride seemed to be normal.. Silent Salt wasn’t sure why his knights were acting so weird but the boat was nice, and it was quiet! But then he started to hear screams… ok, yeah that’s normal actually, he constantly hears screams back home this is nothing.
*he curls up as good as he can in the front of the boat, planning to attempt to get a nap on the ride over. though that attempt does get interrupted by the screams. he looks around for a few seconds, but when he sees no source for them, he just starts ignoring them instead and goes back to his nap attempt*
After a while the screams were getting annoying so he was about to snap at whatever ghosts were there to shut up…. But there’s no ghosts… instead there’s a OCEAN OF BOILING JAM FILLED WITH COOKIES.
“What the fuck?!” He flinched, trying to keep himself from falling off the boat.
*he’d been ALMOST asleep when he hears Salt. at which point he flinches at the unexpected noise and sits up straight to look around. hmm. jam ocean.. he’d made a few oceans into jam during his … timeline shenanigans. that had been pretty fun… but … something seems off. he looks around more closely at everything. the ocean. the jam. the cookies. the shadowy..things..he almost always sees somewhere in his vision.. he looks back at the cookies.. he can’t focus on their faces. there’s no way they’d appear around them this quickly. so, hallucination. he’s good at ignoring those. this won’t be any problem at all!*
“The ocean wasn’t like this before?!” He clearly couldn’t tell that it was a hallucination. It looked way too real for him. He hisses at the blood ocean… yeah that definitely will work.
exactly! it wasn’t like this a few seconds ago, there was no sign of any part of it looking like this a few seconds ago, there was no sign of any other cookies out here a few seconds ago. soooooo, what does that tell you about what might be going on here?
He hisses again… yeah he really is hissing at the ocean! One of the fake cookies tries to reach out to grab at him and he immediately starts swatting at the water- oh this is water.
He kinda stares at the ocean for a bit as he tries to process that yes, that was water, that was not boiling jam despite what it smells and looks like.
*he starts laughing and applauding him in an obviously sarcastic way*
bravo~! congratulations on noticing the obvious! of COURSE the shit that wasn’t there two seconds ago and has no sensible method of appearing here is a hallucination!!
“You are strange…” he mumbles and keeps rowing, a little faster now. On the account of there suddenly being two more oars being moved… seems at least two of the ghost knights did eventually come over.
… WHY DO YOU NEED 800 OF THEM?? that is FAR too many. for you specifically. i do not trust you not to. try and storm my spire or something of that nature
“That was how many knights I had before they were all crumbled and remained as souls, not all 800 of them show up all the time but there’s always at least 20 around me”
“I believe I may have cursed the entire barren… it was while I was slaughtering an entire army after their deaths but I’m not sure if they somehow still got affected or just, refuse to move on.. I have tried to get them all to pass on but they keep coming back” he can finally see the shore up ahead, they definitely are getting closer at least.
oh. that explains a lot. i HAVE been wondering if that place was cursed.. sorta assumed it would have been on purpose, though..
*he looks between the shore and the rowing cookies. he’s getting rather impatient to get there, but he also still doesn’t want to help with the rowing, but then again it WOULD give him something to do until they got there..*
“It was meant to be against those cookies but, I think I accidentally cursed the whole land above ground. Everything underground is safe. The only reason I know my knights were somewhat got by is… because they can’t speak.”
… i accidentally cursed a rather large portion of the Yogurt River. probably a biiiiit before your cursing.
that does explain a lot, though. i’ve been curious why your knights were so quiet..
*he floats a bit further back in the boat to start rowing one of the oars. he is IMMEDIATELY regretting this decision, it takes a lot of energy and it doesn’t take long at all before he’s getting sore. buuut, he’s committed to this decision now. so he’s gonna act like everything’s fine and keep on rowing*
Finally they made it to the shore! The hallucinations were still in full affect though. Everything looks dead, but this wasn’t as bad as the screaming… for now.
*he floats off the boat, crossing his arms to try and hide how much they’re shaking from his short stint at rowing, and starts looking around. then he floats off in the direction he remembers the castle being in*
Silent Salt follows… creators this place was eerie… but he soon started to see something he uh… should not. … wait was that elder faerie over there? Off the path?
*he thinks he might hear something coming from behind them, and is a bit too distracted by trying to figure out where that’s coming from to really watch what Salt’s up to*
*it sounds like a group of his friends talking with each other about something.. he really wants to go join them..*
*he doesn’t really notice the other cookie wandering off.. he’s decided to try following the sounds he’s hearing. off the path and back towards the sea*
Who wasn’t affected by the hallucinations? The two ghost knights… and right now they’re both stuck between keeping their commander from doing something stupid or stopping the jester from ALSO doing something stupid… well there is two of them…. So they split up… to which the once cheery Kala Namak knight makes herself visible before promptly bonking the jester.
*he glares at her for a few seconds, but turns back to float back towards the path while grumbling to himself. something about there supposedly being “very interesting mushrooms” in the direction he’d been trying to go*
*he goes back to leading the way towards the castle. eventually, they’ll make it out of the woods and arrive in a field that. probably used to be full of flowers*
… i’ll pretend you’re talking about a literal butterfly because that makes it sound a LOOOOT funnier
“If my mother is actually here I do not want her to think I’m talking about an actual butterfly.” He looked at what felt like an endless dead field of flowers.. how could any of the creators stand living in a place like this? He wouldn’t be able to bare it, and he lives in practically a barren dead land.
They were getting closer, the hallucinations were starting to fade by then. And Silent Salt was starting to move a lot faster now. He recognized the castle. He had childhood memories in this castle. He was now bounding off like a kitten.
*… now that’s an invitation to race if he’s ever seen one! he flies past over the knight, wings folded close to himself and staring intently towards the castle*
Oh so that’s how it will be huh? Nox can’t run that long, and he’s definitely can’t catch up on foot, so he does the only other option and summons something again… oh my god he has two horses. And he immediately jumps from nox to the other one and continues the chase
*he turns his head around to look behind him. HOW DOES THAT KNIGHT KEEP SUMMONING HORSES??? he can go very quickly when he wants to, but this new horse is gaining on him. he’s never been one to play fair, especially when he looks in danger of losing. so he turns around completely, diving down towards the two chasing him with a loud screech, turning back to continue towards the castle at the last second*
The new horse rears up frightened, forcing the knight off the horse before returning to the stables in which he came… but he still was not ready for defeat and summons one more animal…
And that’s how shadow milk soon sees a LITERAL LEOPARD chasing after him.
*he looks back at the chaos he’d caused, laughing his head off before. wait, was that a leopard? why is that a leopard? where did the leopard come from? he makes a rather undiginified squeaking sound of surprise before zooming off back towards the castle, leaving behind nothing but a couple of blue and cyan wing feathers that slowly drift down to the ground*
The leopard did not have a great reaction to that, and it jumps forward, arms outstretched as if to grab, Silent Salt was currently holding on for dear life.
*he was going far too fast for any direction changes and ends up just. crashing headfirst into the leopard and flopping to the ground, looking slightly dazed*
They made it.. they were at the castle! The leopard plops shadow milk down and is sent back to where it was summoned from. Though the place was… more ominous than he remembered Silent Salt was still very ecstatic to be back in what was basically his childhood home. Even if his mother wasn’t here he at least got to relive his memories even just for a bit..
“Hopefully my mother is here still, I’m not sure how we will find her if she’s not” he was moving closer to the castle now, looking around for something..
He was quiet for a little while before he starts digging, he had found the hole, but it was a little to small… he wanted to die inside he hated the feeling of dirt but at the same time it feels nice.
He followed soon after once he dug through a little more. Definitely as big as he remembered it to be! Now it’s the question of where the first cookies would be…
The castle felt wrong… mostly because they were not alone with whatever first cookies were here… but because there’s an actual witch inside the building along with several familiars… at least she wasn’t in the hall right now… but there was the feeling of a first cookie nearby
*wow! the castle feels a LOT weirder than when he was last here. that’s probably fine, though! he’ll just keep floating along, following the feeling of a first cookie being nearby. because even if she’s not the one they’re looking for, she might know where to find her. also it means meeting a witch either way*
And it was definitely the WORST time for the invading witch to come out from the magic kitchen. Who immediately sees them! …. Uh oh.
“That’s.., not my mother..” the knight mumbled… The witch immediately went to grab the closest one of them, which was Silent Salt but thankfully, narrowly misses him.
*A WITCH!! he ALMOST immediately goes toward her, but.. then he remembers.. masked faces, a table loaded with cookies… the crunch of dough between his teeth*
*he makes an odd sound somewhere between a scream and a whimper before he flies into the nearest hiding place, shaking a little*
“Shadow Milk what the hell come ba-ACK?!” Aaaand he hit the side of the wall trying to avoid the huge witch again, and was immediately taken by then a cat had came over due to the noise, is ordered to look for the remaining beast, before silent salt is brought into the magic kitchen.
*he stays hidden. he doesn’t want to go follow that witch, he does NOT want to help Silent Salt*
*… however, he can’t think of any cookie he would say deserves to be eaten, not even that traitorous knight. so, he … probably should at least TRY to help him*
*he lets himself sink into the shadows of his hiding place, using them to sneak past the cat and after the witch*
The shadow witch had put silent salt in a jar, he didn’t have the same feeling as when those thirteen cookies showed up but he definitely felt powerful, the other cookie to. No need to eat him yet until she looked through things…
In that time, said first cookie that had been sensed a little bit ago was also sneaking closer..
First Cream was hidden in one of the shelves… she really needed to get them both out the kitchen… didn’t know where the jester went but she does see the knight… so she starts moving towards the counter… not very well hidden.
Luckily the witch did not notice…. Yet. Silent Salt did though! … and so did the first cookie, who immediately decided to distract the witch in the meantime.
*he looks around a lot to make sure the witch hasn’t spotted him yet as he works on getting the jar open. eventually, after pulling at it for a bit, the lid opens slightly*
The second that lid was slightly open Silent Salt is immediately trying to get out, he hated the jar, he wanted out right this second…. He bashes head first into the glass trying to get up, good job silent salt… good job.
*he bites his tongue to try and resist the urge to laugh at the knight. it’s only partially successful as he still makes a muffled, rather spluttery chuckling sound. then he removes the lid the rest of the way*
What makes this more funny than it should be is immediately after he gets onto the lid the jar falls over on the table and him along with it. Causing him to tumble out.. well at least he’s out. The knight is not amused.
*he barks out a very hastily stifled cackle at that. he is TRYING to NOT attract the witch’s attention. the knight acting hilarious is not helping with this endeavor*
*… he’s still very audibly giggling, though. he wasn’t able to get himself entirely silenced*
Silent salt.., wasn’t talking? He was clearly trying to shush the jester but he was not making any noise at all. He did arch up and hiss at the witch, a very quiet hiss, before starting to speed off. The first cookie was at least still distracting the witch
To the Witch of Light finally she got the witch to get out! That had taken a bit longer than she thought… First Cream immediately starts looking for those two newcomers. By then the knight had hidden behind a few jars of ingredients and… she can see him.
That just made them feel even more, strangely familiar. Some flickers of, something. More little cookies skittering on the countertops… definitely not the exact same but, one did hiss… more visions from the Witch of Light it seems… The knight in response to the pat hisses. Ok his voice is back now…?
“I apologize for not reaching you two sooner, I am glad neither of you were harmed.”
Strange they were… she did not mind, she has seen weirder things.
“My name is First Cream, and both of yours?” That definitely got the knight to pay attention. His head snapping towards the first cookie.. his eyes are so dilating under that helmet.
“Silent Salt.” She heard him respond. Why did that feel familiar…?
*he turns towards her and introduces himself with a bow. he looks so happy. they found one of the former witches! … okay to be more accurate, she found them, but STILL!*
“And you believe that she is here?” The poor knight glanced at the other cookie… annoyed, perhaps. she directs her gaze towards the knight. “Who is your mother by chance?”
Silent Salt stops glaring and once again gets excited. “Prescription… or erm… First Salt, if that’s what she’s called by now. Is she here?” He.. knows which names? Definitely not a normal duo then…
“No, she and her sister aren’t here, they were here a few months ago however..”
“You have been here before?” Now she at least knew how the two figured out where the castle was.. never mind that, she didn’t want to leave them empty handed on their search.
“They live in a city, right in Wholegrainia, their court is right around the edge of it in fact. I would advise a warning however.. the twins may be a bit more alert now.”
*he turns to start floating back towards the entrance to the castle, before pausing, having decided to not resist the temptation to get in one more comment specifically meant to annoy the knight*
and likely to end with one of us going to court. i vote for Salt, he’s not been put on trial yet. as far as i know
“I’ve already been to court.” Silent Salt then growled, “it was a horrible experience. Framed for murder, hunted down, and treated like an animal.”
The first cookie looked somewhat taken aback by that. “Their court is different, you both will be fine. Just don’t disturb them while a case is ongoing and you won’t be charged with watching the trial.”
“Crème republic system for you, don’t recommend it.” He replied… oh creators his mother has a court! She’s not here but she’s only continent away! That thought was starting to push away his general annoyance… he had an urge to hug the first cookie.
i would make a much better court if i was put in charge of one :)
*he would not*
*… he’s also very tempted to hug the First Cookie. and he is significantly worse at resisting temptation. so. she’ll likely find herself getting hugged by a little blue weirdo pretty soon*
“No you would not, you would make it a performance. If all versions of you are similar enough to do the exact same thing” And seems like he knew that it wouldn’t be better. He resisted the urge to go for a hug as he looks back at the first cookie.
“Of course, safe travels-“ First Cream was caught off guard by the sudden hug…. Watching as the jester sped off before she could react, and the knight following suite..
*he flies back towards the hole they got into the castle through and crawls through it to get outside. “accidentally” kicking some dirt at Silent Salt’s face in the process*
*he shakes the dirt off of himself once he’s out of the hole and continues floating towards where they’d left the boat, head turned all the way around to watch the knight with the evillest, most mischevious giggles ever. he is very happy with the misery he has caused him*
“I’ve had no time to clean it I’ve been kidnapped twice?! By two different groups?!” He hisses again, “and I don’t even know how someone has that many eggs! If just came through a time rift!!
*he stares at him with a very unimpressed expression*
you got pelted by eggs through a time rift, and you have no idea who it might be. hmmmmm. who do you know of who miiiiight just be capable of opening time rifts and are known for using them for … rather ridiculous reasons?
“My grandchild, who was not there at the time, and it’s not a shadow milk, the one who came about thirty minutes after was very angry, and we fought for a bit physically.”
“Oh I made him help clean the office up, there were some things that couldn’t be fixed… like holes in the walls, but it’s better than the mess it was before.”
though … for me … the time travel idea came up after i’d absorbef that little part of the Ultimate Cookie and what remained of my friends..
… and it’s possible i am more stubborn than the normal variant, so, yours may give up once it becomes clear the inevitable end for it is in a complete wasteland..
“I’m still going for that plan, I won’t let him get any of the ultimate cookie, it’s a bunch of souls in body after all.. once I’m done I can get them out and see if I can put them to rest”
“That thing is full of souls, souls that never got to live apparently. I have worked with many kinds of souls in the past. And I can just, force them into the afterlife! Besides, better me than my version of you”
… … ehhhhhhhhmmmmmm … the thing makes stuff that you’d usually know is a bad idea seem like a REALLY good idea. that is the last warning i’ll give you about this plan of yours
“… even if I do deserve anything that comes at me, I failed my virtue, maybe even long before we fell, maybe you and that other shadow milk were right.”
“The only reason I say that is, every version of myself I keep hearing about seems to actually be, you know, the worst somehow… even as a virtue! I did try to stay true but maybe i failed in another way”
not to say i LIKE you >:( you’re just … marginally less infuriating than my version of you >:( why are you smiling at this? >:( it’s not a compliment >:(
*… he baps him a few times. this is definitely a very vicious attack that will completely disprove the “he doesn’t want to attack the knight” allegations. mhm. yeah. totally*
*then he notices how close they’re getting to land and sits up straight, staring towards the shore with his wings twitching slightly in excitement*
The baps result in a light hiss, and the knight jumps off the boat and onto the shore as they got very close. Where he’s immediately warmed by a bunch of the ghost knights.
Silent salt was immediately back at the berries while thinking… they were back near the Hollyberry Kingdom… so perhaps they can find a map or something to see if they can teleport to wherever that city is…
“You don’t think we’ll be attacked on sight while looking for a map will we?”
*aaand without waiting for any agreement from the other cookie he turns into a rather large dog and starts sprinting towards the nearest market area where he may find a map, tail wagging wildly behind him*
Silent Salt was immediately running after him- witches he should have expected it but he didn’t.. the hollyberrians weren’t to concerned about the Very Normal Dog at least!
*he darts around for a bit, finds a blueberry cobbler he steals a few bites of, tries to run off with a bottle of berry juice and, eventually, he finally grabs a map before zooming off to go back to Silent Salt*
*after several minutes, the Completely Normal Dog finds him and shifts back into his normal form to float up into the tree and sit next to the Knight, panting slightly and holding the map out towards him*
*he stretches and yawns before snatching the map back from Silent Salt and looking it over. once he’s sure where they’re heading, he floats off the branch and opens a portal there*
*he comes through after him and closes the portal*
*his feathers fluff up and he tries to shrink a bit into his collar. he’s not sure he likes how loud it is here either. he’s much more use to living alone in the middle of nowhere..*
The knight sips off away from the crowd and close to the alleyways… he just had to follow these weird black paths with machinery on them and he can get to the courthouse! … so he starts following them very close to the road.
*he floats a little lower and closer to the ground as he trails after Salt, staring down at the ground right in front of himself, trying to ignore how loud it is.*
He almost got hit by a bus. Yeah… this is why you shouldn’t be this close to the road.. the knight did not like the bus however, and hisses at it before going through the alleyways the rest of the way there.
*he sticks right behind Salt, staring at the ground, completely stiffened up with all his claws out. the only reaction he has to the bus is to flinch in surprise and almost crash into the knight*
*he Does Not like it here, it’s way too loud, there’s way too many cookies, he just wants to fly off and hide in the woods again*
Both of them are hiding in the dark now! Where their away from the noise until it seemed like everyone had left! … there was one cookie here though, a robot?
*he’s huddled up against the Knight to be even more hidden from whoever else may be nearby, even purring a little now he’s out of the crowd and noise of the city*
*he tilts his head at the … robot cookie?? with a curious “mrrp?”*
The cookie had canons for arms.. probably some kind of guard for the place… they soon stop as they detected something…
“Warning! Anomalous energy detected! Initiating search protocols!” The robotic cookie was now immediately searching the room… ah, they knew they were here.
*his wings spread out the rest of the way, his hair thrashes around even more, and he starts bapping at the robotic cookie with loud, angry owl screech*
The knight next to him had his flaming hair all proofed up, and he starts hissing at the robot. He was also.. stomping from time to time? Ok you go.
“WARNING! Anomaly detected: egg shaped device on intruder one! Cross-referencing- WARNING! Hostile intruders detected! Initiating Defense protocol!” The robot was now shooting at them!
EGG SHAPED DEVICE?? HUH???? SALT DID YOU STEAL THIS THINGS EGGS???
*he screeches at the robot again. and the second it starts shooting at him, their surroundings are flooded in darkness and stars and blinking eyes, he lets his form melt into the darkness of it so the thing has no chance of hitting him*
“NO? ITS THE- AA!!” Silent Salt did not have the same luxury of going into the darkness like Shadow Milk did! And had to dodge out the way. He did not want to destroy his mother’s stuff so he just hisses at the robot and runs.
*a few blue puppet strings descend from the ceiling to tie around the robot’s canons so he can pull those around in an attempt to prevent the other cookie from getting shot*
“ITS THE THING THAT AMPLIFIES MY VOICE!” He eventually finds a new place to hide once the robot was not distracted. Hiding in a very dark place in the court.
*he’s so so so tempted to tear this robot apart with his Other Realm.. but that would … probably not be the nest entrance … sooo, instead, he flies down the hall to a different darkened hiding spot where he can curl up with his head resting on his wings*
The knight doesn’t respond… in fact it’s as if he’s just disappeared by how quiet he was being.. he had turned off the device. The robot meanwhile was still searching.. the ruckus had gotten the attention of some of the workers inside… and that probably means the two witches inside will also be alerted soon, or already were.
It did not take long for First Salt and First Sugar to be alerted of an intruder.. just after the court closes for the day? And one of them had a device of First Egg’s… that got them to come out and assess the situation.
Silent salt had somehow crept all the way to where shadow milk was and makes an incredibly faint mrrp sound.
*he stays in the corner he’s curled up in, though he does look over at Salt with an equally quiet mrrp before he goes back to looking around in case anyone else might be coming to them*
*he’s looking … paler than usual, but he’s back to breathing normally, so he’s probably fiine*
First Sugar watched Glass Canon go away and- oh! There were the intruders!
“I think we found them already sister!” She nudged her sibling who looked at the two cookies coming towards them.
“… not as hostile as the Overseer had said.” First Salt noted as the looked to the knight, who was rapidly approaching in excitement… he looked somewhat familiar.
*he slowly relaxes as he gets closer to them and starts getting excited about meeting other witch cookies! he mostly contains his excitement, though, so the only real sign of it is his wings starting to twitch slightly*
“Excuse me, who are you two?” First Sugar moves her sister out the way to greet the.. so called hostile intruders. First Salt still trying to figure out where she’s seen the knight before… who immediately seems to want her now as he practically jumps her and starts nuzzling.
he APPARENTLY is. and since he seems more interested in Being Weird than introducing himself, it comes to be to inform you that his name is Silent Salt Cookie
“… that name sounds familiar.” Something about that name was familiar.. neither sister knew why but it was… the knight was looking at First Salt and talking to her but… yeah he forgot to turn the device back on, no one can hear him.
A cookie of his word, he does send a telltale sign to shadow milk that he’s ready… well at least he hopes he actually gets it…. Naaah it will work. The said thing he sent was a crow, and now the crow was staring into Shadow Milk’s soul.. almost literally. It’s just standing there… menacingly…
*he stares back at the crow for a while before floating over to try and give it head scritches*
*staring into his soul is probably just a normal bird thing, right? ehhhh, maybe someone thinks this is a good method of sending messages to cookies..*
*…*
*ooohhhh, right, that Silent Salt Cookie. probably him. he’ll just have to figure out. where he’s supposed to be meeting him..*
Silent Salt was currently loafing on a tree branch, waiting for Shadow Milk to arrive… he uh, he wasn’t at his best but he was currently, ignoring the feelings right now.
*… he was planning on loafing on a tree branch! how dare Silent Salt steal his ideas!? clearly, this was purposeful and malicious. mhm*
*… then again, it doesn’t really mean he CAN’T do it anyway.. and it DOES look comfy… … yeah, he’ll just float up to a branch slightly higher than where Salt is and settle down to loaf there until the other seems ready to leave*
“No I uh…. I got kidnapped twice. Once by the Crème Republic the other time by some cookies who really wanted my power… I got out fine though.” Ok, that was way too casual why did you say it like that?!
The knight climbs down the tree carefully, sliding down the trunk of the tree, he’s not about to get stuck in a tree while Shadow Milk was right there!
“A castle you say? Last from what I understood some aren’t in a castle.. at least the one I saw… First Sprinkle was it..? Apparently married to the swan.”
“She was nice to me, because she also got kidnapped… actually a lot of cookies did.” He had no idea how to get to the castle so, he was heavily relying on shadow milk right now… to his dismay.
“Yes Timekeeper was one of them, and several others… and a dragon.” The bit about the dragon was very.. very bitter. Clearly he did not like said dragon.
“.. perhaps a portal will be necessary if it’s that far.”
“Dragons are horrid things, they will crumble all you hold dear staring down at you with those wretched cold eyes.” He looks at the portal and soon goes through it.. jeez he really did not like that dragon huh.
“I already dealt with all the dragons in the barren after that ivory dragon left…. I do not understand how you can like dragons.” He was starting to smell the new scents.. so many berries…
“It’s not that ominous, all I did was kill every single one of them and send them far under the land of the dead.” He saw a berry bush… he had an urge to eat the berries.
“You did say it was difficult to get to. But I assume it’s because you have to row across the sea to get to it.” He gets in the boat.. this might be very easy!
… there’s some sort of magical barrier fog stuff around to make it REALLY hard to find it. i was able to use magic to propel the boat most of the way there, but i did have to do some rowing…
*he sits in the front of the boat, away from where the oars are. seems he’s planning on NOT helping with the “rowing over there” part*
He made a grumbling noise, guess HE was rowing the boat. Great, wonderful! He looked to see if any of the ghost knights would help… wait why are they staying at the shore and refusing to get close?
“Wow you all, letting me row by myself.” He grumbled to the knights…. No one else can see the knights he looked like he was talking to thin air.
“I would usually have help… but SOMEONE doesn’t want to and the rest are scared of a little bit of fog!” He starts to row towards the island shrouded in fog,
hmmmmnaaaahhh. i’m not going to help with the rowing. this is YOUR journey to reunite with YOUR mother and i am merely here as the helpful guide leading you to where she might be found!
*he turns his head all the way around to grin at him*
there’s not enough room on this boat for your little hoard, anyway. let them stay behind and fear the fog
“This is the first time they’ve ever acted like that! They’re usually never this scared…” he looks back at the shore, the knights were expressing, a lot, as if trying to get him to not go into the fog… weird.
At first the boat ride seemed to be normal.. Silent Salt wasn’t sure why his knights were acting so weird but the boat was nice, and it was quiet! But then he started to hear screams… ok, yeah that’s normal actually, he constantly hears screams back home this is nothing.
*he curls up as good as he can in the front of the boat, planning to attempt to get a nap on the ride over. though that attempt does get interrupted by the screams. he looks around for a few seconds, but when he sees no source for them, he just starts ignoring them instead and goes back to his nap attempt*
After a while the screams were getting annoying so he was about to snap at whatever ghosts were there to shut up…. But there’s no ghosts… instead there’s a OCEAN OF BOILING JAM FILLED WITH COOKIES.
“What the fuck?!” He flinched, trying to keep himself from falling off the boat.
*he’d been ALMOST asleep when he hears Salt. at which point he flinches at the unexpected noise and sits up straight to look around. hmm. jam ocean.. he’d made a few oceans into jam during his … timeline shenanigans. that had been pretty fun… but … something seems off. he looks around more closely at everything. the ocean. the jam. the cookies. the shadowy..things..he almost always sees somewhere in his vision.. he looks back at the cookies.. he can’t focus on their faces. there’s no way they’d appear around them this quickly. so, hallucination. he’s good at ignoring those. this won’t be any problem at all!*
“The ocean wasn’t like this before?!” He clearly couldn’t tell that it was a hallucination. It looked way too real for him. He hisses at the blood ocean… yeah that definitely will work.
exactly! it wasn’t like this a few seconds ago, there was no sign of any part of it looking like this a few seconds ago, there was no sign of any other cookies out here a few seconds ago. soooooo, what does that tell you about what might be going on here?
He hisses again… yeah he really is hissing at the ocean! One of the fake cookies tries to reach out to grab at him and he immediately starts swatting at the water- oh this is water.
He kinda stares at the ocean for a bit as he tries to process that yes, that was water, that was not boiling jam despite what it smells and looks like.
*he starts laughing and applauding him in an obviously sarcastic way*
bravo~! congratulations on noticing the obvious! of COURSE the shit that wasn’t there two seconds ago and has no sensible method of appearing here is a hallucination!!
“You are strange…” he mumbles and keeps rowing, a little faster now. On the account of there suddenly being two more oars being moved… seems at least two of the ghost knights did eventually come over.
… WHY DO YOU NEED 800 OF THEM?? that is FAR too many. for you specifically. i do not trust you not to. try and storm my spire or something of that nature
“That was how many knights I had before they were all crumbled and remained as souls, not all 800 of them show up all the time but there’s always at least 20 around me”
“I believe I may have cursed the entire barren… it was while I was slaughtering an entire army after their deaths but I’m not sure if they somehow still got affected or just, refuse to move on.. I have tried to get them all to pass on but they keep coming back” he can finally see the shore up ahead, they definitely are getting closer at least.
oh. that explains a lot. i HAVE been wondering if that place was cursed.. sorta assumed it would have been on purpose, though..
*he looks between the shore and the rowing cookies. he’s getting rather impatient to get there, but he also still doesn’t want to help with the rowing, but then again it WOULD give him something to do until they got there..*
“It was meant to be against those cookies but, I think I accidentally cursed the whole land above ground. Everything underground is safe. The only reason I know my knights were somewhat got by is… because they can’t speak.”
… i accidentally cursed a rather large portion of the Yogurt River. probably a biiiiit before your cursing.
that does explain a lot, though. i’ve been curious why your knights were so quiet..
*he floats a bit further back in the boat to start rowing one of the oars. he is IMMEDIATELY regretting this decision, it takes a lot of energy and it doesn’t take long at all before he’s getting sore. buuut, he’s committed to this decision now. so he’s gonna act like everything’s fine and keep on rowing*
Finally they made it to the shore! The hallucinations were still in full affect though. Everything looks dead, but this wasn’t as bad as the screaming… for now.
*he floats off the boat, crossing his arms to try and hide how much they’re shaking from his short stint at rowing, and starts looking around. then he floats off in the direction he remembers the castle being in*
Silent Salt follows… creators this place was eerie… but he soon started to see something he uh… should not. … wait was that elder faerie over there? Off the path?
*he thinks he might hear something coming from behind them, and is a bit too distracted by trying to figure out where that’s coming from to really watch what Salt’s up to*
*it sounds like a group of his friends talking with each other about something.. he really wants to go join them..*
*he doesn’t really notice the other cookie wandering off.. he’s decided to try following the sounds he’s hearing. off the path and back towards the sea*
Who wasn’t affected by the hallucinations? The two ghost knights… and right now they’re both stuck between keeping their commander from doing something stupid or stopping the jester from ALSO doing something stupid… well there is two of them…. So they split up… to which the once cheery Kala Namak knight makes herself visible before promptly bonking the jester.
*he glares at her for a few seconds, but turns back to float back towards the path while grumbling to himself. something about there supposedly being “very interesting mushrooms” in the direction he’d been trying to go*
*he goes back to leading the way towards the castle. eventually, they’ll make it out of the woods and arrive in a field that. probably used to be full of flowers*
… i’ll pretend you’re talking about a literal butterfly because that makes it sound a LOOOOT funnier
“If my mother is actually here I do not want her to think I’m talking about an actual butterfly.” He looked at what felt like an endless dead field of flowers.. how could any of the creators stand living in a place like this? He wouldn’t be able to bare it, and he lives in practically a barren dead land.
They were getting closer, the hallucinations were starting to fade by then. And Silent Salt was starting to move a lot faster now. He recognized the castle. He had childhood memories in this castle. He was now bounding off like a kitten.
*… now that’s an invitation to race if he’s ever seen one! he flies past over the knight, wings folded close to himself and staring intently towards the castle*
Oh so that’s how it will be huh? Nox can’t run that long, and he’s definitely can’t catch up on foot, so he does the only other option and summons something again… oh my god he has two horses. And he immediately jumps from nox to the other one and continues the chase
*he turns his head around to look behind him. HOW DOES THAT KNIGHT KEEP SUMMONING HORSES??? he can go very quickly when he wants to, but this new horse is gaining on him. he’s never been one to play fair, especially when he looks in danger of losing. so he turns around completely, diving down towards the two chasing him with a loud screech, turning back to continue towards the castle at the last second*
The new horse rears up frightened, forcing the knight off the horse before returning to the stables in which he came… but he still was not ready for defeat and summons one more animal…
And that’s how shadow milk soon sees a LITERAL LEOPARD chasing after him.
*he looks back at the chaos he’d caused, laughing his head off before. wait, was that a leopard? why is that a leopard? where did the leopard come from? he makes a rather undiginified squeaking sound of surprise before zooming off back towards the castle, leaving behind nothing but a couple of blue and cyan wing feathers that slowly drift down to the ground*
The leopard did not have a great reaction to that, and it jumps forward, arms outstretched as if to grab, Silent Salt was currently holding on for dear life.
*he was going far too fast for any direction changes and ends up just. crashing headfirst into the leopard and flopping to the ground, looking slightly dazed*
They made it.. they were at the castle! The leopard plops shadow milk down and is sent back to where it was summoned from. Though the place was… more ominous than he remembered Silent Salt was still very ecstatic to be back in what was basically his childhood home. Even if his mother wasn’t here he at least got to relive his memories even just for a bit..
“Hopefully my mother is here still, I’m not sure how we will find her if she’s not” he was moving closer to the castle now, looking around for something..
He was quiet for a little while before he starts digging, he had found the hole, but it was a little to small… he wanted to die inside he hated the feeling of dirt but at the same time it feels nice.
He followed soon after once he dug through a little more. Definitely as big as he remembered it to be! Now it’s the question of where the first cookies would be…
The castle felt wrong… mostly because they were not alone with whatever first cookies were here… but because there’s an actual witch inside the building along with several familiars… at least she wasn’t in the hall right now… but there was the feeling of a first cookie nearby
*wow! the castle feels a LOT weirder than when he was last here. that’s probably fine, though! he’ll just keep floating along, following the feeling of a first cookie being nearby. because even if she’s not the one they’re looking for, she might know where to find her. also it means meeting a witch either way*
And it was definitely the WORST time for the invading witch to come out from the magic kitchen. Who immediately sees them! …. Uh oh.
“That’s.., not my mother..” the knight mumbled… The witch immediately went to grab the closest one of them, which was Silent Salt but thankfully, narrowly misses him.
*A WITCH!! he ALMOST immediately goes toward her, but.. then he remembers.. masked faces, a table loaded with cookies… the crunch of dough between his teeth*
*he makes an odd sound somewhere between a scream and a whimper before he flies into the nearest hiding place, shaking a little*
“Shadow Milk what the hell come ba-ACK?!” Aaaand he hit the side of the wall trying to avoid the huge witch again, and was immediately taken by then a cat had came over due to the noise, is ordered to look for the remaining beast, before silent salt is brought into the magic kitchen.
*he stays hidden. he doesn’t want to go follow that witch, he does NOT want to help Silent Salt*
*… however, he can’t think of any cookie he would say deserves to be eaten, not even that traitorous knight. so, he … probably should at least TRY to help him*
*he lets himself sink into the shadows of his hiding place, using them to sneak past the cat and after the witch*
The shadow witch had put silent salt in a jar, he didn’t have the same feeling as when those thirteen cookies showed up but he definitely felt powerful, the other cookie to. No need to eat him yet until she looked through things…
In that time, said first cookie that had been sensed a little bit ago was also sneaking closer..
First Cream was hidden in one of the shelves… she really needed to get them both out the kitchen… didn’t know where the jester went but she does see the knight… so she starts moving towards the counter… not very well hidden.
Luckily the witch did not notice…. Yet. Silent Salt did though! … and so did the first cookie, who immediately decided to distract the witch in the meantime.
*he looks around a lot to make sure the witch hasn’t spotted him yet as he works on getting the jar open. eventually, after pulling at it for a bit, the lid opens slightly*
The second that lid was slightly open Silent Salt is immediately trying to get out, he hated the jar, he wanted out right this second…. He bashes head first into the glass trying to get up, good job silent salt… good job.
*he bites his tongue to try and resist the urge to laugh at the knight. it’s only partially successful as he still makes a muffled, rather spluttery chuckling sound. then he removes the lid the rest of the way*
What makes this more funny than it should be is immediately after he gets onto the lid the jar falls over on the table and him along with it. Causing him to tumble out.. well at least he’s out. The knight is not amused.
*he barks out a very hastily stifled cackle at that. he is TRYING to NOT attract the witch’s attention. the knight acting hilarious is not helping with this endeavor*
*… he’s still very audibly giggling, though. he wasn’t able to get himself entirely silenced*
Silent salt.., wasn’t talking? He was clearly trying to shush the jester but he was not making any noise at all. He did arch up and hiss at the witch, a very quiet hiss, before starting to speed off. The first cookie was at least still distracting the witch
To the Witch of Light finally she got the witch to get out! That had taken a bit longer than she thought… First Cream immediately starts looking for those two newcomers. By then the knight had hidden behind a few jars of ingredients and… she can see him.
That just made them feel even more, strangely familiar. Some flickers of, something. More little cookies skittering on the countertops… definitely not the exact same but, one did hiss… more visions from the Witch of Light it seems… The knight in response to the pat hisses. Ok his voice is back now…?
“I apologize for not reaching you two sooner, I am glad neither of you were harmed.”
Strange they were… she did not mind, she has seen weirder things.
“My name is First Cream, and both of yours?” That definitely got the knight to pay attention. His head snapping towards the first cookie.. his eyes are so dilating under that helmet.
“Silent Salt.” She heard him respond. Why did that feel familiar…?
*he turns towards her and introduces himself with a bow. he looks so happy. they found one of the former witches! … okay to be more accurate, she found them, but STILL!*
“And you believe that she is here?” The poor knight glanced at the other cookie… annoyed, perhaps. she directs her gaze towards the knight. “Who is your mother by chance?”
Silent Salt stops glaring and once again gets excited. “Prescription… or erm… First Salt, if that’s what she’s called by now. Is she here?” He.. knows which names? Definitely not a normal duo then…
“No, she and her sister aren’t here, they were here a few months ago however..”
“You have been here before?” Now she at least knew how the two figured out where the castle was.. never mind that, she didn’t want to leave them empty handed on their search.
“They live in a city, right in Wholegrainia, their court is right around the edge of it in fact. I would advise a warning however.. the twins may be a bit more alert now.”
*he turns to start floating back towards the entrance to the castle, before pausing, having decided to not resist the temptation to get in one more comment specifically meant to annoy the knight*
and likely to end with one of us going to court. i vote for Salt, he’s not been put on trial yet. as far as i know
“I’ve already been to court.” Silent Salt then growled, “it was a horrible experience. Framed for murder, hunted down, and treated like an animal.”
The first cookie looked somewhat taken aback by that. “Their court is different, you both will be fine. Just don’t disturb them while a case is ongoing and you won’t be charged with watching the trial.”
“Crème republic system for you, don’t recommend it.” He replied… oh creators his mother has a court! She’s not here but she’s only continent away! That thought was starting to push away his general annoyance… he had an urge to hug the first cookie.
i would make a much better court if i was put in charge of one :)
*he would not*
*… he’s also very tempted to hug the First Cookie. and he is significantly worse at resisting temptation. so. she’ll likely find herself getting hugged by a little blue weirdo pretty soon*
“No you would not, you would make it a performance. If all versions of you are similar enough to do the exact same thing” And seems like he knew that it wouldn’t be better. He resisted the urge to go for a hug as he looks back at the first cookie.
“Of course, safe travels-“ First Cream was caught off guard by the sudden hug…. Watching as the jester sped off before she could react, and the knight following suite..
*he flies back towards the hole they got into the castle through and crawls through it to get outside. “accidentally” kicking some dirt at Silent Salt’s face in the process*
*he shakes the dirt off of himself once he’s out of the hole and continues floating towards where they’d left the boat, head turned all the way around to watch the knight with the evillest, most mischevious giggles ever. he is very happy with the misery he has caused him*
“I’ve had no time to clean it I’ve been kidnapped twice?! By two different groups?!” He hisses again, “and I don’t even know how someone has that many eggs! If just came through a time rift!!
*he stares at him with a very unimpressed expression*
you got pelted by eggs through a time rift, and you have no idea who it might be. hmmmmm. who do you know of who miiiiight just be capable of opening time rifts and are known for using them for … rather ridiculous reasons?
“My grandchild, who was not there at the time, and it’s not a shadow milk, the one who came about thirty minutes after was very angry, and we fought for a bit physically.”
“Oh I made him help clean the office up, there were some things that couldn’t be fixed… like holes in the walls, but it’s better than the mess it was before.”
though … for me … the time travel idea came up after i’d absorbef that little part of the Ultimate Cookie and what remained of my friends..
… and it’s possible i am more stubborn than the normal variant, so, yours may give up once it becomes clear the inevitable end for it is in a complete wasteland..
“I’m still going for that plan, I won’t let him get any of the ultimate cookie, it’s a bunch of souls in body after all.. once I’m done I can get them out and see if I can put them to rest”
“That thing is full of souls, souls that never got to live apparently. I have worked with many kinds of souls in the past. And I can just, force them into the afterlife! Besides, better me than my version of you”
… … ehhhhhhhhmmmmmm … the thing makes stuff that you’d usually know is a bad idea seem like a REALLY good idea. that is the last warning i’ll give you about this plan of yours
“… even if I do deserve anything that comes at me, I failed my virtue, maybe even long before we fell, maybe you and that other shadow milk were right.”
“The only reason I say that is, every version of myself I keep hearing about seems to actually be, you know, the worst somehow… even as a virtue! I did try to stay true but maybe i failed in another way”
not to say i LIKE you >:( you’re just … marginally less infuriating than my version of you >:( why are you smiling at this? >:( it’s not a compliment >:(
*… he baps him a few times. this is definitely a very vicious attack that will completely disprove the “he doesn’t want to attack the knight” allegations. mhm. yeah. totally*
*then he notices how close they’re getting to land and sits up straight, staring towards the shore with his wings twitching slightly in excitement*
The baps result in a light hiss, and the knight jumps off the boat and onto the shore as they got very close. Where he’s immediately warmed by a bunch of the ghost knights.
Silent salt was immediately back at the berries while thinking… they were back near the Hollyberry Kingdom… so perhaps they can find a map or something to see if they can teleport to wherever that city is…
“You don’t think we’ll be attacked on sight while looking for a map will we?”
*aaand without waiting for any agreement from the other cookie he turns into a rather large dog and starts sprinting towards the nearest market area where he may find a map, tail wagging wildly behind him*
Silent Salt was immediately running after him- witches he should have expected it but he didn’t.. the hollyberrians weren’t to concerned about the Very Normal Dog at least!
*he darts around for a bit, finds a blueberry cobbler he steals a few bites of, tries to run off with a bottle of berry juice and, eventually, he finally grabs a map before zooming off to go back to Silent Salt*
*after several minutes, the Completely Normal Dog finds him and shifts back into his normal form to float up into the tree and sit next to the Knight, panting slightly and holding the map out towards him*
*he stretches and yawns before snatching the map back from Silent Salt and looking it over. once he’s sure where they’re heading, he floats off the branch and opens a portal there*
*he comes through after him and closes the portal*
*his feathers fluff up and he tries to shrink a bit into his collar. he’s not sure he likes how loud it is here either. he’s much more use to living alone in the middle of nowhere..*
The knight sips off away from the crowd and close to the alleyways… he just had to follow these weird black paths with machinery on them and he can get to the courthouse! … so he starts following them very close to the road.
*he floats a little lower and closer to the ground as he trails after Salt, staring down at the ground right in front of himself, trying to ignore how loud it is.*
He almost got hit by a bus. Yeah… this is why you shouldn’t be this close to the road.. the knight did not like the bus however, and hisses at it before going through the alleyways the rest of the way there.
*he sticks right behind Salt, staring at the ground, completely stiffened up with all his claws out. the only reaction he has to the bus is to flinch in surprise and almost crash into the knight*
*he Does Not like it here, it’s way too loud, there’s way too many cookies, he just wants to fly off and hide in the woods again*
Both of them are hiding in the dark now! Where their away from the noise until it seemed like everyone had left! … there was one cookie here though, a robot?
*he’s huddled up against the Knight to be even more hidden from whoever else may be nearby, even purring a little now he’s out of the crowd and noise of the city*
*he tilts his head at the … robot cookie?? with a curious “mrrp?”*
The cookie had canons for arms.. probably some kind of guard for the place… they soon stop as they detected something…
“Warning! Anomalous energy detected! Initiating search protocols!” The robotic cookie was now immediately searching the room… ah, they knew they were here.
*his wings spread out the rest of the way, his hair thrashes around even more, and he starts bapping at the robotic cookie with loud, angry owl screech*
The knight next to him had his flaming hair all proofed up, and he starts hissing at the robot. He was also.. stomping from time to time? Ok you go.
“WARNING! Anomaly detected: egg shaped device on intruder one! Cross-referencing- WARNING! Hostile intruders detected! Initiating Defense protocol!” The robot was now shooting at them!
EGG SHAPED DEVICE?? HUH???? SALT DID YOU STEAL THIS THINGS EGGS???
*he screeches at the robot again. and the second it starts shooting at him, their surroundings are flooded in darkness and stars and blinking eyes, he lets his form melt into the darkness of it so the thing has no chance of hitting him*
“NO? ITS THE- AA!!” Silent Salt did not have the same luxury of going into the darkness like Shadow Milk did! And had to dodge out the way. He did not want to destroy his mother’s stuff so he just hisses at the robot and runs.
*a few blue puppet strings descend from the ceiling to tie around the robot’s canons so he can pull those around in an attempt to prevent the other cookie from getting shot*
“ITS THE THING THAT AMPLIFIES MY VOICE!” He eventually finds a new place to hide once the robot was not distracted. Hiding in a very dark place in the court.
*he’s so so so tempted to tear this robot apart with his Other Realm.. but that would … probably not be the nest entrance … sooo, instead, he flies down the hall to a different darkened hiding spot where he can curl up with his head resting on his wings*
The knight doesn’t respond… in fact it’s as if he’s just disappeared by how quiet he was being.. he had turned off the device. The robot meanwhile was still searching.. the ruckus had gotten the attention of some of the workers inside… and that probably means the two witches inside will also be alerted soon, or already were.
It did not take long for First Salt and First Sugar to be alerted of an intruder.. just after the court closes for the day? And one of them had a device of First Egg’s… that got them to come out and assess the situation.
Silent salt had somehow crept all the way to where shadow milk was and makes an incredibly faint mrrp sound.
*he stays in the corner he’s curled up in, though he does look over at Salt with an equally quiet mrrp before he goes back to looking around in case anyone else might be coming to them*
*he’s looking … paler than usual, but he’s back to breathing normally, so he’s probably fiine*
First Sugar watched Glass Canon go away and- oh! There were the intruders!
“I think we found them already sister!” She nudged her sibling who looked at the two cookies coming towards them.
“… not as hostile as the Overseer had said.” First Salt noted as the looked to the knight, who was rapidly approaching in excitement… he looked somewhat familiar.
*he slowly relaxes as he gets closer to them and starts getting excited about meeting other witch cookies! he mostly contains his excitement, though, so the only real sign of it is his wings starting to twitch slightly*
“Excuse me, who are you two?” First Sugar moves her sister out the way to greet the.. so called hostile intruders. First Salt still trying to figure out where she’s seen the knight before… who immediately seems to want her now as he practically jumps her and starts nuzzling.
A cookie of his word, he does send a telltale sign to shadow milk that he’s ready… well at least he hopes he actually gets it…. Naaah it will work. The said thing he sent was a crow, and now the crow was staring into Shadow Milk’s soul.. almost literally. It’s just standing there… menacingly…
*he stares back at the crow for a while before floating over to try and give it head scritches*
*staring into his soul is probably just a normal bird thing, right? ehhhh, maybe someone thinks this is a good method of sending messages to cookies..*
*…*
*ooohhhh, right, that Silent Salt Cookie. probably him. he’ll just have to figure out. where he’s supposed to be meeting him..*
Silent Salt was currently loafing on a tree branch, waiting for Shadow Milk to arrive… he uh, he wasn’t at his best but he was currently, ignoring the feelings right now.
*… he was planning on loafing on a tree branch! how dare Silent Salt steal his ideas!? clearly, this was purposeful and malicious. mhm*
*… then again, it doesn’t really mean he CAN’T do it anyway.. and it DOES look comfy… … yeah, he’ll just float up to a branch slightly higher than where Salt is and settle down to loaf there until the other seems ready to leave*
“No I uh…. I got kidnapped twice. Once by the Crème Republic the other time by some cookies who really wanted my power… I got out fine though.” Ok, that was way too casual why did you say it like that?!
The knight climbs down the tree carefully, sliding down the trunk of the tree, he’s not about to get stuck in a tree while Shadow Milk was right there!
“A castle you say? Last from what I understood some aren’t in a castle.. at least the one I saw… First Sprinkle was it..? Apparently married to the swan.”
“She was nice to me, because she also got kidnapped… actually a lot of cookies did.” He had no idea how to get to the castle so, he was heavily relying on shadow milk right now… to his dismay.
“Yes Timekeeper was one of them, and several others… and a dragon.” The bit about the dragon was very.. very bitter. Clearly he did not like said dragon.
“.. perhaps a portal will be necessary if it’s that far.”
“Dragons are horrid things, they will crumble all you hold dear staring down at you with those wretched cold eyes.” He looks at the portal and soon goes through it.. jeez he really did not like that dragon huh.
“I already dealt with all the dragons in the barren after that ivory dragon left…. I do not understand how you can like dragons.” He was starting to smell the new scents.. so many berries…
“It’s not that ominous, all I did was kill every single one of them and send them far under the land of the dead.” He saw a berry bush… he had an urge to eat the berries.
“You did say it was difficult to get to. But I assume it’s because you have to row across the sea to get to it.” He gets in the boat.. this might be very easy!
… there’s some sort of magical barrier fog stuff around to make it REALLY hard to find it. i was able to use magic to propel the boat most of the way there, but i did have to do some rowing…
*he sits in the front of the boat, away from where the oars are. seems he’s planning on NOT helping with the “rowing over there” part*
He made a grumbling noise, guess HE was rowing the boat. Great, wonderful! He looked to see if any of the ghost knights would help… wait why are they staying at the shore and refusing to get close?
“Wow you all, letting me row by myself.” He grumbled to the knights…. No one else can see the knights he looked like he was talking to thin air.
“I would usually have help… but SOMEONE doesn’t want to and the rest are scared of a little bit of fog!” He starts to row towards the island shrouded in fog,
hmmmmnaaaahhh. i’m not going to help with the rowing. this is YOUR journey to reunite with YOUR mother and i am merely here as the helpful guide leading you to where she might be found!
*he turns his head all the way around to grin at him*
there’s not enough room on this boat for your little hoard, anyway. let them stay behind and fear the fog
“This is the first time they’ve ever acted like that! They’re usually never this scared…” he looks back at the shore, the knights were expressing, a lot, as if trying to get him to not go into the fog… weird.
At first the boat ride seemed to be normal.. Silent Salt wasn’t sure why his knights were acting so weird but the boat was nice, and it was quiet! But then he started to hear screams… ok, yeah that’s normal actually, he constantly hears screams back home this is nothing.
*he curls up as good as he can in the front of the boat, planning to attempt to get a nap on the ride over. though that attempt does get interrupted by the screams. he looks around for a few seconds, but when he sees no source for them, he just starts ignoring them instead and goes back to his nap attempt*
After a while the screams were getting annoying so he was about to snap at whatever ghosts were there to shut up…. But there’s no ghosts… instead there’s a OCEAN OF BOILING JAM FILLED WITH COOKIES.
“What the fuck?!” He flinched, trying to keep himself from falling off the boat.
*he’d been ALMOST asleep when he hears Salt. at which point he flinches at the unexpected noise and sits up straight to look around. hmm. jam ocean.. he’d made a few oceans into jam during his … timeline shenanigans. that had been pretty fun… but … something seems off. he looks around more closely at everything. the ocean. the jam. the cookies. the shadowy..things..he almost always sees somewhere in his vision.. he looks back at the cookies.. he can’t focus on their faces. there’s no way they’d appear around them this quickly. so, hallucination. he’s good at ignoring those. this won’t be any problem at all!*
“The ocean wasn’t like this before?!” He clearly couldn’t tell that it was a hallucination. It looked way too real for him. He hisses at the blood ocean… yeah that definitely will work.
exactly! it wasn’t like this a few seconds ago, there was no sign of any part of it looking like this a few seconds ago, there was no sign of any other cookies out here a few seconds ago. soooooo, what does that tell you about what might be going on here?
He hisses again… yeah he really is hissing at the ocean! One of the fake cookies tries to reach out to grab at him and he immediately starts swatting at the water- oh this is water.
He kinda stares at the ocean for a bit as he tries to process that yes, that was water, that was not boiling jam despite what it smells and looks like.
*he starts laughing and applauding him in an obviously sarcastic way*
bravo~! congratulations on noticing the obvious! of COURSE the shit that wasn’t there two seconds ago and has no sensible method of appearing here is a hallucination!!
“You are strange…” he mumbles and keeps rowing, a little faster now. On the account of there suddenly being two more oars being moved… seems at least two of the ghost knights did eventually come over.
… WHY DO YOU NEED 800 OF THEM?? that is FAR too many. for you specifically. i do not trust you not to. try and storm my spire or something of that nature
“That was how many knights I had before they were all crumbled and remained as souls, not all 800 of them show up all the time but there’s always at least 20 around me”
“I believe I may have cursed the entire barren… it was while I was slaughtering an entire army after their deaths but I’m not sure if they somehow still got affected or just, refuse to move on.. I have tried to get them all to pass on but they keep coming back” he can finally see the shore up ahead, they definitely are getting closer at least.
oh. that explains a lot. i HAVE been wondering if that place was cursed.. sorta assumed it would have been on purpose, though..
*he looks between the shore and the rowing cookies. he’s getting rather impatient to get there, but he also still doesn’t want to help with the rowing, but then again it WOULD give him something to do until they got there..*
“It was meant to be against those cookies but, I think I accidentally cursed the whole land above ground. Everything underground is safe. The only reason I know my knights were somewhat got by is… because they can’t speak.”
… i accidentally cursed a rather large portion of the Yogurt River. probably a biiiiit before your cursing.
that does explain a lot, though. i’ve been curious why your knights were so quiet..
*he floats a bit further back in the boat to start rowing one of the oars. he is IMMEDIATELY regretting this decision, it takes a lot of energy and it doesn’t take long at all before he’s getting sore. buuut, he’s committed to this decision now. so he’s gonna act like everything’s fine and keep on rowing*
Finally they made it to the shore! The hallucinations were still in full affect though. Everything looks dead, but this wasn’t as bad as the screaming… for now.
*he floats off the boat, crossing his arms to try and hide how much they’re shaking from his short stint at rowing, and starts looking around. then he floats off in the direction he remembers the castle being in*
Silent Salt follows… creators this place was eerie… but he soon started to see something he uh… should not. … wait was that elder faerie over there? Off the path?
*he thinks he might hear something coming from behind them, and is a bit too distracted by trying to figure out where that’s coming from to really watch what Salt’s up to*
*it sounds like a group of his friends talking with each other about something.. he really wants to go join them..*
*he doesn’t really notice the other cookie wandering off.. he’s decided to try following the sounds he’s hearing. off the path and back towards the sea*
Who wasn’t affected by the hallucinations? The two ghost knights… and right now they’re both stuck between keeping their commander from doing something stupid or stopping the jester from ALSO doing something stupid… well there is two of them…. So they split up… to which the once cheery Kala Namak knight makes herself visible before promptly bonking the jester.
*he glares at her for a few seconds, but turns back to float back towards the path while grumbling to himself. something about there supposedly being “very interesting mushrooms” in the direction he’d been trying to go*
*he goes back to leading the way towards the castle. eventually, they’ll make it out of the woods and arrive in a field that. probably used to be full of flowers*
… i’ll pretend you’re talking about a literal butterfly because that makes it sound a LOOOOT funnier
“If my mother is actually here I do not want her to think I’m talking about an actual butterfly.” He looked at what felt like an endless dead field of flowers.. how could any of the creators stand living in a place like this? He wouldn’t be able to bare it, and he lives in practically a barren dead land.
They were getting closer, the hallucinations were starting to fade by then. And Silent Salt was starting to move a lot faster now. He recognized the castle. He had childhood memories in this castle. He was now bounding off like a kitten.
*… now that’s an invitation to race if he’s ever seen one! he flies past over the knight, wings folded close to himself and staring intently towards the castle*
Oh so that’s how it will be huh? Nox can’t run that long, and he’s definitely can’t catch up on foot, so he does the only other option and summons something again… oh my god he has two horses. And he immediately jumps from nox to the other one and continues the chase
*he turns his head around to look behind him. HOW DOES THAT KNIGHT KEEP SUMMONING HORSES??? he can go very quickly when he wants to, but this new horse is gaining on him. he’s never been one to play fair, especially when he looks in danger of losing. so he turns around completely, diving down towards the two chasing him with a loud screech, turning back to continue towards the castle at the last second*
The new horse rears up frightened, forcing the knight off the horse before returning to the stables in which he came… but he still was not ready for defeat and summons one more animal…
And that’s how shadow milk soon sees a LITERAL LEOPARD chasing after him.
*he looks back at the chaos he’d caused, laughing his head off before. wait, was that a leopard? why is that a leopard? where did the leopard come from? he makes a rather undiginified squeaking sound of surprise before zooming off back towards the castle, leaving behind nothing but a couple of blue and cyan wing feathers that slowly drift down to the ground*
The leopard did not have a great reaction to that, and it jumps forward, arms outstretched as if to grab, Silent Salt was currently holding on for dear life.
*he was going far too fast for any direction changes and ends up just. crashing headfirst into the leopard and flopping to the ground, looking slightly dazed*
They made it.. they were at the castle! The leopard plops shadow milk down and is sent back to where it was summoned from. Though the place was… more ominous than he remembered Silent Salt was still very ecstatic to be back in what was basically his childhood home. Even if his mother wasn’t here he at least got to relive his memories even just for a bit..
“Hopefully my mother is here still, I’m not sure how we will find her if she’s not” he was moving closer to the castle now, looking around for something..
He was quiet for a little while before he starts digging, he had found the hole, but it was a little to small… he wanted to die inside he hated the feeling of dirt but at the same time it feels nice.
He followed soon after once he dug through a little more. Definitely as big as he remembered it to be! Now it’s the question of where the first cookies would be…
The castle felt wrong… mostly because they were not alone with whatever first cookies were here… but because there’s an actual witch inside the building along with several familiars… at least she wasn’t in the hall right now… but there was the feeling of a first cookie nearby
*wow! the castle feels a LOT weirder than when he was last here. that’s probably fine, though! he’ll just keep floating along, following the feeling of a first cookie being nearby. because even if she’s not the one they’re looking for, she might know where to find her. also it means meeting a witch either way*
And it was definitely the WORST time for the invading witch to come out from the magic kitchen. Who immediately sees them! …. Uh oh.
“That’s.., not my mother..” the knight mumbled… The witch immediately went to grab the closest one of them, which was Silent Salt but thankfully, narrowly misses him.
*A WITCH!! he ALMOST immediately goes toward her, but.. then he remembers.. masked faces, a table loaded with cookies… the crunch of dough between his teeth*
*he makes an odd sound somewhere between a scream and a whimper before he flies into the nearest hiding place, shaking a little*
“Shadow Milk what the hell come ba-ACK?!” Aaaand he hit the side of the wall trying to avoid the huge witch again, and was immediately taken by then a cat had came over due to the noise, is ordered to look for the remaining beast, before silent salt is brought into the magic kitchen.
*he stays hidden. he doesn’t want to go follow that witch, he does NOT want to help Silent Salt*
*… however, he can’t think of any cookie he would say deserves to be eaten, not even that traitorous knight. so, he … probably should at least TRY to help him*
*he lets himself sink into the shadows of his hiding place, using them to sneak past the cat and after the witch*
The shadow witch had put silent salt in a jar, he didn’t have the same feeling as when those thirteen cookies showed up but he definitely felt powerful, the other cookie to. No need to eat him yet until she looked through things…
In that time, said first cookie that had been sensed a little bit ago was also sneaking closer..
First Cream was hidden in one of the shelves… she really needed to get them both out the kitchen… didn’t know where the jester went but she does see the knight… so she starts moving towards the counter… not very well hidden.
Luckily the witch did not notice…. Yet. Silent Salt did though! … and so did the first cookie, who immediately decided to distract the witch in the meantime.
*he looks around a lot to make sure the witch hasn’t spotted him yet as he works on getting the jar open. eventually, after pulling at it for a bit, the lid opens slightly*
The second that lid was slightly open Silent Salt is immediately trying to get out, he hated the jar, he wanted out right this second…. He bashes head first into the glass trying to get up, good job silent salt… good job.
*he bites his tongue to try and resist the urge to laugh at the knight. it’s only partially successful as he still makes a muffled, rather spluttery chuckling sound. then he removes the lid the rest of the way*
What makes this more funny than it should be is immediately after he gets onto the lid the jar falls over on the table and him along with it. Causing him to tumble out.. well at least he’s out. The knight is not amused.
*he barks out a very hastily stifled cackle at that. he is TRYING to NOT attract the witch’s attention. the knight acting hilarious is not helping with this endeavor*
*… he’s still very audibly giggling, though. he wasn’t able to get himself entirely silenced*
Silent salt.., wasn’t talking? He was clearly trying to shush the jester but he was not making any noise at all. He did arch up and hiss at the witch, a very quiet hiss, before starting to speed off. The first cookie was at least still distracting the witch
To the Witch of Light finally she got the witch to get out! That had taken a bit longer than she thought… First Cream immediately starts looking for those two newcomers. By then the knight had hidden behind a few jars of ingredients and… she can see him.
That just made them feel even more, strangely familiar. Some flickers of, something. More little cookies skittering on the countertops… definitely not the exact same but, one did hiss… more visions from the Witch of Light it seems… The knight in response to the pat hisses. Ok his voice is back now…?
“I apologize for not reaching you two sooner, I am glad neither of you were harmed.”
Strange they were… she did not mind, she has seen weirder things.
“My name is First Cream, and both of yours?” That definitely got the knight to pay attention. His head snapping towards the first cookie.. his eyes are so dilating under that helmet.
“Silent Salt.” She heard him respond. Why did that feel familiar…?
*he turns towards her and introduces himself with a bow. he looks so happy. they found one of the former witches! … okay to be more accurate, she found them, but STILL!*
“And you believe that she is here?” The poor knight glanced at the other cookie… annoyed, perhaps. she directs her gaze towards the knight. “Who is your mother by chance?”
Silent Salt stops glaring and once again gets excited. “Prescription… or erm… First Salt, if that’s what she’s called by now. Is she here?” He.. knows which names? Definitely not a normal duo then…
“No, she and her sister aren’t here, they were here a few months ago however..”
“You have been here before?” Now she at least knew how the two figured out where the castle was.. never mind that, she didn’t want to leave them empty handed on their search.
“They live in a city, right in Wholegrainia, their court is right around the edge of it in fact. I would advise a warning however.. the twins may be a bit more alert now.”
*he turns to start floating back towards the entrance to the castle, before pausing, having decided to not resist the temptation to get in one more comment specifically meant to annoy the knight*
and likely to end with one of us going to court. i vote for Salt, he’s not been put on trial yet. as far as i know
“I’ve already been to court.” Silent Salt then growled, “it was a horrible experience. Framed for murder, hunted down, and treated like an animal.”
The first cookie looked somewhat taken aback by that. “Their court is different, you both will be fine. Just don’t disturb them while a case is ongoing and you won’t be charged with watching the trial.”
“Crème republic system for you, don’t recommend it.” He replied… oh creators his mother has a court! She’s not here but she’s only continent away! That thought was starting to push away his general annoyance… he had an urge to hug the first cookie.
i would make a much better court if i was put in charge of one :)
*he would not*
*… he’s also very tempted to hug the First Cookie. and he is significantly worse at resisting temptation. so. she’ll likely find herself getting hugged by a little blue weirdo pretty soon*
“No you would not, you would make it a performance. If all versions of you are similar enough to do the exact same thing” And seems like he knew that it wouldn’t be better. He resisted the urge to go for a hug as he looks back at the first cookie.
“Of course, safe travels-“ First Cream was caught off guard by the sudden hug…. Watching as the jester sped off before she could react, and the knight following suite..
*he flies back towards the hole they got into the castle through and crawls through it to get outside. “accidentally” kicking some dirt at Silent Salt’s face in the process*
*he shakes the dirt off of himself once he’s out of the hole and continues floating towards where they’d left the boat, head turned all the way around to watch the knight with the evillest, most mischevious giggles ever. he is very happy with the misery he has caused him*
“I’ve had no time to clean it I’ve been kidnapped twice?! By two different groups?!” He hisses again, “and I don’t even know how someone has that many eggs! If just came through a time rift!!
*he stares at him with a very unimpressed expression*
you got pelted by eggs through a time rift, and you have no idea who it might be. hmmmmm. who do you know of who miiiiight just be capable of opening time rifts and are known for using them for … rather ridiculous reasons?
“My grandchild, who was not there at the time, and it’s not a shadow milk, the one who came about thirty minutes after was very angry, and we fought for a bit physically.”
“Oh I made him help clean the office up, there were some things that couldn’t be fixed… like holes in the walls, but it’s better than the mess it was before.”
though … for me … the time travel idea came up after i’d absorbef that little part of the Ultimate Cookie and what remained of my friends..
… and it’s possible i am more stubborn than the normal variant, so, yours may give up once it becomes clear the inevitable end for it is in a complete wasteland..
“I’m still going for that plan, I won’t let him get any of the ultimate cookie, it’s a bunch of souls in body after all.. once I’m done I can get them out and see if I can put them to rest”
“That thing is full of souls, souls that never got to live apparently. I have worked with many kinds of souls in the past. And I can just, force them into the afterlife! Besides, better me than my version of you”
… … ehhhhhhhhmmmmmm … the thing makes stuff that you’d usually know is a bad idea seem like a REALLY good idea. that is the last warning i’ll give you about this plan of yours
“… even if I do deserve anything that comes at me, I failed my virtue, maybe even long before we fell, maybe you and that other shadow milk were right.”
“The only reason I say that is, every version of myself I keep hearing about seems to actually be, you know, the worst somehow… even as a virtue! I did try to stay true but maybe i failed in another way”
not to say i LIKE you >:( you’re just … marginally less infuriating than my version of you >:( why are you smiling at this? >:( it’s not a compliment >:(
*… he baps him a few times. this is definitely a very vicious attack that will completely disprove the “he doesn’t want to attack the knight” allegations. mhm. yeah. totally*
*then he notices how close they’re getting to land and sits up straight, staring towards the shore with his wings twitching slightly in excitement*
The baps result in a light hiss, and the knight jumps off the boat and onto the shore as they got very close. Where he’s immediately warmed by a bunch of the ghost knights.
Silent salt was immediately back at the berries while thinking… they were back near the Hollyberry Kingdom… so perhaps they can find a map or something to see if they can teleport to wherever that city is…
“You don’t think we’ll be attacked on sight while looking for a map will we?”
*aaand without waiting for any agreement from the other cookie he turns into a rather large dog and starts sprinting towards the nearest market area where he may find a map, tail wagging wildly behind him*
Silent Salt was immediately running after him- witches he should have expected it but he didn’t.. the hollyberrians weren’t to concerned about the Very Normal Dog at least!
*he darts around for a bit, finds a blueberry cobbler he steals a few bites of, tries to run off with a bottle of berry juice and, eventually, he finally grabs a map before zooming off to go back to Silent Salt*
*after several minutes, the Completely Normal Dog finds him and shifts back into his normal form to float up into the tree and sit next to the Knight, panting slightly and holding the map out towards him*
*he stretches and yawns before snatching the map back from Silent Salt and looking it over. once he’s sure where they’re heading, he floats off the branch and opens a portal there*
*he comes through after him and closes the portal*
*his feathers fluff up and he tries to shrink a bit into his collar. he’s not sure he likes how loud it is here either. he’s much more use to living alone in the middle of nowhere..*
The knight sips off away from the crowd and close to the alleyways… he just had to follow these weird black paths with machinery on them and he can get to the courthouse! … so he starts following them very close to the road.
*he floats a little lower and closer to the ground as he trails after Salt, staring down at the ground right in front of himself, trying to ignore how loud it is.*
He almost got hit by a bus. Yeah… this is why you shouldn’t be this close to the road.. the knight did not like the bus however, and hisses at it before going through the alleyways the rest of the way there.
*he sticks right behind Salt, staring at the ground, completely stiffened up with all his claws out. the only reaction he has to the bus is to flinch in surprise and almost crash into the knight*
*he Does Not like it here, it’s way too loud, there’s way too many cookies, he just wants to fly off and hide in the woods again*
Both of them are hiding in the dark now! Where their away from the noise until it seemed like everyone had left! … there was one cookie here though, a robot?
*he’s huddled up against the Knight to be even more hidden from whoever else may be nearby, even purring a little now he’s out of the crowd and noise of the city*
*he tilts his head at the … robot cookie?? with a curious “mrrp?”*
The cookie had canons for arms.. probably some kind of guard for the place… they soon stop as they detected something…
“Warning! Anomalous energy detected! Initiating search protocols!” The robotic cookie was now immediately searching the room… ah, they knew they were here.
*his wings spread out the rest of the way, his hair thrashes around even more, and he starts bapping at the robotic cookie with loud, angry owl screech*
The knight next to him had his flaming hair all proofed up, and he starts hissing at the robot. He was also.. stomping from time to time? Ok you go.
“WARNING! Anomaly detected: egg shaped device on intruder one! Cross-referencing- WARNING! Hostile intruders detected! Initiating Defense protocol!” The robot was now shooting at them!
EGG SHAPED DEVICE?? HUH???? SALT DID YOU STEAL THIS THINGS EGGS???
*he screeches at the robot again. and the second it starts shooting at him, their surroundings are flooded in darkness and stars and blinking eyes, he lets his form melt into the darkness of it so the thing has no chance of hitting him*
“NO? ITS THE- AA!!” Silent Salt did not have the same luxury of going into the darkness like Shadow Milk did! And had to dodge out the way. He did not want to destroy his mother’s stuff so he just hisses at the robot and runs.
*a few blue puppet strings descend from the ceiling to tie around the robot’s canons so he can pull those around in an attempt to prevent the other cookie from getting shot*
“ITS THE THING THAT AMPLIFIES MY VOICE!” He eventually finds a new place to hide once the robot was not distracted. Hiding in a very dark place in the court.
*he’s so so so tempted to tear this robot apart with his Other Realm.. but that would … probably not be the nest entrance … sooo, instead, he flies down the hall to a different darkened hiding spot where he can curl up with his head resting on his wings*
The knight doesn’t respond… in fact it’s as if he’s just disappeared by how quiet he was being.. he had turned off the device. The robot meanwhile was still searching.. the ruckus had gotten the attention of some of the workers inside… and that probably means the two witches inside will also be alerted soon, or already were.
It did not take long for First Salt and First Sugar to be alerted of an intruder.. just after the court closes for the day? And one of them had a device of First Egg’s… that got them to come out and assess the situation.
Silent salt had somehow crept all the way to where shadow milk was and makes an incredibly faint mrrp sound.
*he stays in the corner he’s curled up in, though he does look over at Salt with an equally quiet mrrp before he goes back to looking around in case anyone else might be coming to them*
*he’s looking … paler than usual, but he’s back to breathing normally, so he’s probably fiine*
First Sugar watched Glass Canon go away and- oh! There were the intruders!
“I think we found them already sister!” She nudged her sibling who looked at the two cookies coming towards them.
“… not as hostile as the Overseer had said.” First Salt noted as the looked to the knight, who was rapidly approaching in excitement… he looked somewhat familiar.
*he slowly relaxes as he gets closer to them and starts getting excited about meeting other witch cookies! he mostly contains his excitement, though, so the only real sign of it is his wings starting to twitch slightly*
“Excuse me, who are you two?” First Sugar moves her sister out the way to greet the.. so called hostile intruders. First Salt still trying to figure out where she’s seen the knight before… who immediately seems to want her now as he practically jumps her and starts nuzzling.
A cookie of his word, he does send a telltale sign to shadow milk that he’s ready… well at least he hopes he actually gets it…. Naaah it will work. The said thing he sent was a crow, and now the crow was staring into Shadow Milk’s soul.. almost literally. It’s just standing there… menacingly…
*he stares back at the crow for a while before floating over to try and give it head scritches*
*staring into his soul is probably just a normal bird thing, right? ehhhh, maybe someone thinks this is a good method of sending messages to cookies..*
*…*
*ooohhhh, right, that Silent Salt Cookie. probably him. he’ll just have to figure out. where he’s supposed to be meeting him..*
Silent Salt was currently loafing on a tree branch, waiting for Shadow Milk to arrive… he uh, he wasn’t at his best but he was currently, ignoring the feelings right now.
*… he was planning on loafing on a tree branch! how dare Silent Salt steal his ideas!? clearly, this was purposeful and malicious. mhm*
*… then again, it doesn’t really mean he CAN’T do it anyway.. and it DOES look comfy… … yeah, he’ll just float up to a branch slightly higher than where Salt is and settle down to loaf there until the other seems ready to leave*
“No I uh…. I got kidnapped twice. Once by the Crème Republic the other time by some cookies who really wanted my power… I got out fine though.” Ok, that was way too casual why did you say it like that?!
The knight climbs down the tree carefully, sliding down the trunk of the tree, he’s not about to get stuck in a tree while Shadow Milk was right there!
“A castle you say? Last from what I understood some aren’t in a castle.. at least the one I saw… First Sprinkle was it..? Apparently married to the swan.”
“She was nice to me, because she also got kidnapped… actually a lot of cookies did.” He had no idea how to get to the castle so, he was heavily relying on shadow milk right now… to his dismay.
“Yes Timekeeper was one of them, and several others… and a dragon.” The bit about the dragon was very.. very bitter. Clearly he did not like said dragon.
“.. perhaps a portal will be necessary if it’s that far.”
“Dragons are horrid things, they will crumble all you hold dear staring down at you with those wretched cold eyes.” He looks at the portal and soon goes through it.. jeez he really did not like that dragon huh.
“I already dealt with all the dragons in the barren after that ivory dragon left…. I do not understand how you can like dragons.” He was starting to smell the new scents.. so many berries…
“It’s not that ominous, all I did was kill every single one of them and send them far under the land of the dead.” He saw a berry bush… he had an urge to eat the berries.
“You did say it was difficult to get to. But I assume it’s because you have to row across the sea to get to it.” He gets in the boat.. this might be very easy!
… there’s some sort of magical barrier fog stuff around to make it REALLY hard to find it. i was able to use magic to propel the boat most of the way there, but i did have to do some rowing…
*he sits in the front of the boat, away from where the oars are. seems he’s planning on NOT helping with the “rowing over there” part*
He made a grumbling noise, guess HE was rowing the boat. Great, wonderful! He looked to see if any of the ghost knights would help… wait why are they staying at the shore and refusing to get close?
“Wow you all, letting me row by myself.” He grumbled to the knights…. No one else can see the knights he looked like he was talking to thin air.
“I would usually have help… but SOMEONE doesn’t want to and the rest are scared of a little bit of fog!” He starts to row towards the island shrouded in fog,
hmmmmnaaaahhh. i’m not going to help with the rowing. this is YOUR journey to reunite with YOUR mother and i am merely here as the helpful guide leading you to where she might be found!
*he turns his head all the way around to grin at him*
there’s not enough room on this boat for your little hoard, anyway. let them stay behind and fear the fog
“This is the first time they’ve ever acted like that! They’re usually never this scared…” he looks back at the shore, the knights were expressing, a lot, as if trying to get him to not go into the fog… weird.
At first the boat ride seemed to be normal.. Silent Salt wasn’t sure why his knights were acting so weird but the boat was nice, and it was quiet! But then he started to hear screams… ok, yeah that’s normal actually, he constantly hears screams back home this is nothing.
*he curls up as good as he can in the front of the boat, planning to attempt to get a nap on the ride over. though that attempt does get interrupted by the screams. he looks around for a few seconds, but when he sees no source for them, he just starts ignoring them instead and goes back to his nap attempt*
After a while the screams were getting annoying so he was about to snap at whatever ghosts were there to shut up…. But there’s no ghosts… instead there’s a OCEAN OF BOILING JAM FILLED WITH COOKIES.
“What the fuck?!” He flinched, trying to keep himself from falling off the boat.
*he’d been ALMOST asleep when he hears Salt. at which point he flinches at the unexpected noise and sits up straight to look around. hmm. jam ocean.. he’d made a few oceans into jam during his … timeline shenanigans. that had been pretty fun… but … something seems off. he looks around more closely at everything. the ocean. the jam. the cookies. the shadowy..things..he almost always sees somewhere in his vision.. he looks back at the cookies.. he can’t focus on their faces. there’s no way they’d appear around them this quickly. so, hallucination. he’s good at ignoring those. this won’t be any problem at all!*
“The ocean wasn’t like this before?!” He clearly couldn’t tell that it was a hallucination. It looked way too real for him. He hisses at the blood ocean… yeah that definitely will work.
exactly! it wasn’t like this a few seconds ago, there was no sign of any part of it looking like this a few seconds ago, there was no sign of any other cookies out here a few seconds ago. soooooo, what does that tell you about what might be going on here?
He hisses again… yeah he really is hissing at the ocean! One of the fake cookies tries to reach out to grab at him and he immediately starts swatting at the water- oh this is water.
He kinda stares at the ocean for a bit as he tries to process that yes, that was water, that was not boiling jam despite what it smells and looks like.
*he starts laughing and applauding him in an obviously sarcastic way*
bravo~! congratulations on noticing the obvious! of COURSE the shit that wasn’t there two seconds ago and has no sensible method of appearing here is a hallucination!!
“You are strange…” he mumbles and keeps rowing, a little faster now. On the account of there suddenly being two more oars being moved… seems at least two of the ghost knights did eventually come over.
… WHY DO YOU NEED 800 OF THEM?? that is FAR too many. for you specifically. i do not trust you not to. try and storm my spire or something of that nature
“That was how many knights I had before they were all crumbled and remained as souls, not all 800 of them show up all the time but there’s always at least 20 around me”
“I believe I may have cursed the entire barren… it was while I was slaughtering an entire army after their deaths but I’m not sure if they somehow still got affected or just, refuse to move on.. I have tried to get them all to pass on but they keep coming back” he can finally see the shore up ahead, they definitely are getting closer at least.
oh. that explains a lot. i HAVE been wondering if that place was cursed.. sorta assumed it would have been on purpose, though..
*he looks between the shore and the rowing cookies. he’s getting rather impatient to get there, but he also still doesn’t want to help with the rowing, but then again it WOULD give him something to do until they got there..*
“It was meant to be against those cookies but, I think I accidentally cursed the whole land above ground. Everything underground is safe. The only reason I know my knights were somewhat got by is… because they can’t speak.”
… i accidentally cursed a rather large portion of the Yogurt River. probably a biiiiit before your cursing.
that does explain a lot, though. i’ve been curious why your knights were so quiet..
*he floats a bit further back in the boat to start rowing one of the oars. he is IMMEDIATELY regretting this decision, it takes a lot of energy and it doesn’t take long at all before he’s getting sore. buuut, he’s committed to this decision now. so he’s gonna act like everything’s fine and keep on rowing*
Finally they made it to the shore! The hallucinations were still in full affect though. Everything looks dead, but this wasn’t as bad as the screaming… for now.
*he floats off the boat, crossing his arms to try and hide how much they’re shaking from his short stint at rowing, and starts looking around. then he floats off in the direction he remembers the castle being in*
Silent Salt follows… creators this place was eerie… but he soon started to see something he uh… should not. … wait was that elder faerie over there? Off the path?
*he thinks he might hear something coming from behind them, and is a bit too distracted by trying to figure out where that’s coming from to really watch what Salt’s up to*
*it sounds like a group of his friends talking with each other about something.. he really wants to go join them..*
*he doesn’t really notice the other cookie wandering off.. he’s decided to try following the sounds he’s hearing. off the path and back towards the sea*
Who wasn’t affected by the hallucinations? The two ghost knights… and right now they’re both stuck between keeping their commander from doing something stupid or stopping the jester from ALSO doing something stupid… well there is two of them…. So they split up… to which the once cheery Kala Namak knight makes herself visible before promptly bonking the jester.
*he glares at her for a few seconds, but turns back to float back towards the path while grumbling to himself. something about there supposedly being “very interesting mushrooms” in the direction he’d been trying to go*
*he goes back to leading the way towards the castle. eventually, they’ll make it out of the woods and arrive in a field that. probably used to be full of flowers*
… i’ll pretend you’re talking about a literal butterfly because that makes it sound a LOOOOT funnier
“If my mother is actually here I do not want her to think I’m talking about an actual butterfly.” He looked at what felt like an endless dead field of flowers.. how could any of the creators stand living in a place like this? He wouldn’t be able to bare it, and he lives in practically a barren dead land.
They were getting closer, the hallucinations were starting to fade by then. And Silent Salt was starting to move a lot faster now. He recognized the castle. He had childhood memories in this castle. He was now bounding off like a kitten.
*… now that’s an invitation to race if he’s ever seen one! he flies past over the knight, wings folded close to himself and staring intently towards the castle*
Oh so that’s how it will be huh? Nox can’t run that long, and he’s definitely can’t catch up on foot, so he does the only other option and summons something again… oh my god he has two horses. And he immediately jumps from nox to the other one and continues the chase
*he turns his head around to look behind him. HOW DOES THAT KNIGHT KEEP SUMMONING HORSES??? he can go very quickly when he wants to, but this new horse is gaining on him. he’s never been one to play fair, especially when he looks in danger of losing. so he turns around completely, diving down towards the two chasing him with a loud screech, turning back to continue towards the castle at the last second*
The new horse rears up frightened, forcing the knight off the horse before returning to the stables in which he came… but he still was not ready for defeat and summons one more animal…
And that’s how shadow milk soon sees a LITERAL LEOPARD chasing after him.
*he looks back at the chaos he’d caused, laughing his head off before. wait, was that a leopard? why is that a leopard? where did the leopard come from? he makes a rather undiginified squeaking sound of surprise before zooming off back towards the castle, leaving behind nothing but a couple of blue and cyan wing feathers that slowly drift down to the ground*
The leopard did not have a great reaction to that, and it jumps forward, arms outstretched as if to grab, Silent Salt was currently holding on for dear life.
*he was going far too fast for any direction changes and ends up just. crashing headfirst into the leopard and flopping to the ground, looking slightly dazed*
They made it.. they were at the castle! The leopard plops shadow milk down and is sent back to where it was summoned from. Though the place was… more ominous than he remembered Silent Salt was still very ecstatic to be back in what was basically his childhood home. Even if his mother wasn’t here he at least got to relive his memories even just for a bit..
“Hopefully my mother is here still, I’m not sure how we will find her if she’s not” he was moving closer to the castle now, looking around for something..
He was quiet for a little while before he starts digging, he had found the hole, but it was a little to small… he wanted to die inside he hated the feeling of dirt but at the same time it feels nice.
He followed soon after once he dug through a little more. Definitely as big as he remembered it to be! Now it’s the question of where the first cookies would be…
The castle felt wrong… mostly because they were not alone with whatever first cookies were here… but because there’s an actual witch inside the building along with several familiars… at least she wasn’t in the hall right now… but there was the feeling of a first cookie nearby
*wow! the castle feels a LOT weirder than when he was last here. that’s probably fine, though! he’ll just keep floating along, following the feeling of a first cookie being nearby. because even if she’s not the one they’re looking for, she might know where to find her. also it means meeting a witch either way*
And it was definitely the WORST time for the invading witch to come out from the magic kitchen. Who immediately sees them! …. Uh oh.
“That’s.., not my mother..” the knight mumbled… The witch immediately went to grab the closest one of them, which was Silent Salt but thankfully, narrowly misses him.
*A WITCH!! he ALMOST immediately goes toward her, but.. then he remembers.. masked faces, a table loaded with cookies… the crunch of dough between his teeth*
*he makes an odd sound somewhere between a scream and a whimper before he flies into the nearest hiding place, shaking a little*
“Shadow Milk what the hell come ba-ACK?!” Aaaand he hit the side of the wall trying to avoid the huge witch again, and was immediately taken by then a cat had came over due to the noise, is ordered to look for the remaining beast, before silent salt is brought into the magic kitchen.
*he stays hidden. he doesn’t want to go follow that witch, he does NOT want to help Silent Salt*
*… however, he can’t think of any cookie he would say deserves to be eaten, not even that traitorous knight. so, he … probably should at least TRY to help him*
*he lets himself sink into the shadows of his hiding place, using them to sneak past the cat and after the witch*
The shadow witch had put silent salt in a jar, he didn’t have the same feeling as when those thirteen cookies showed up but he definitely felt powerful, the other cookie to. No need to eat him yet until she looked through things…
In that time, said first cookie that had been sensed a little bit ago was also sneaking closer..
First Cream was hidden in one of the shelves… she really needed to get them both out the kitchen… didn’t know where the jester went but she does see the knight… so she starts moving towards the counter… not very well hidden.
Luckily the witch did not notice…. Yet. Silent Salt did though! … and so did the first cookie, who immediately decided to distract the witch in the meantime.
*he looks around a lot to make sure the witch hasn’t spotted him yet as he works on getting the jar open. eventually, after pulling at it for a bit, the lid opens slightly*
The second that lid was slightly open Silent Salt is immediately trying to get out, he hated the jar, he wanted out right this second…. He bashes head first into the glass trying to get up, good job silent salt… good job.
*he bites his tongue to try and resist the urge to laugh at the knight. it’s only partially successful as he still makes a muffled, rather spluttery chuckling sound. then he removes the lid the rest of the way*
What makes this more funny than it should be is immediately after he gets onto the lid the jar falls over on the table and him along with it. Causing him to tumble out.. well at least he’s out. The knight is not amused.
*he barks out a very hastily stifled cackle at that. he is TRYING to NOT attract the witch’s attention. the knight acting hilarious is not helping with this endeavor*
*… he’s still very audibly giggling, though. he wasn’t able to get himself entirely silenced*
Silent salt.., wasn’t talking? He was clearly trying to shush the jester but he was not making any noise at all. He did arch up and hiss at the witch, a very quiet hiss, before starting to speed off. The first cookie was at least still distracting the witch
To the Witch of Light finally she got the witch to get out! That had taken a bit longer than she thought… First Cream immediately starts looking for those two newcomers. By then the knight had hidden behind a few jars of ingredients and… she can see him.
That just made them feel even more, strangely familiar. Some flickers of, something. More little cookies skittering on the countertops… definitely not the exact same but, one did hiss… more visions from the Witch of Light it seems… The knight in response to the pat hisses. Ok his voice is back now…?
“I apologize for not reaching you two sooner, I am glad neither of you were harmed.”
Strange they were… she did not mind, she has seen weirder things.
“My name is First Cream, and both of yours?” That definitely got the knight to pay attention. His head snapping towards the first cookie.. his eyes are so dilating under that helmet.
“Silent Salt.” She heard him respond. Why did that feel familiar…?
*he turns towards her and introduces himself with a bow. he looks so happy. they found one of the former witches! … okay to be more accurate, she found them, but STILL!*
“And you believe that she is here?” The poor knight glanced at the other cookie… annoyed, perhaps. she directs her gaze towards the knight. “Who is your mother by chance?”
Silent Salt stops glaring and once again gets excited. “Prescription… or erm… First Salt, if that’s what she’s called by now. Is she here?” He.. knows which names? Definitely not a normal duo then…
“No, she and her sister aren’t here, they were here a few months ago however..”
“You have been here before?” Now she at least knew how the two figured out where the castle was.. never mind that, she didn’t want to leave them empty handed on their search.
“They live in a city, right in Wholegrainia, their court is right around the edge of it in fact. I would advise a warning however.. the twins may be a bit more alert now.”
*he turns to start floating back towards the entrance to the castle, before pausing, having decided to not resist the temptation to get in one more comment specifically meant to annoy the knight*
and likely to end with one of us going to court. i vote for Salt, he’s not been put on trial yet. as far as i know
“I’ve already been to court.” Silent Salt then growled, “it was a horrible experience. Framed for murder, hunted down, and treated like an animal.”
The first cookie looked somewhat taken aback by that. “Their court is different, you both will be fine. Just don’t disturb them while a case is ongoing and you won’t be charged with watching the trial.”
“Crème republic system for you, don’t recommend it.” He replied… oh creators his mother has a court! She’s not here but she’s only continent away! That thought was starting to push away his general annoyance… he had an urge to hug the first cookie.
i would make a much better court if i was put in charge of one :)
*he would not*
*… he’s also very tempted to hug the First Cookie. and he is significantly worse at resisting temptation. so. she’ll likely find herself getting hugged by a little blue weirdo pretty soon*
“No you would not, you would make it a performance. If all versions of you are similar enough to do the exact same thing” And seems like he knew that it wouldn’t be better. He resisted the urge to go for a hug as he looks back at the first cookie.
“Of course, safe travels-“ First Cream was caught off guard by the sudden hug…. Watching as the jester sped off before she could react, and the knight following suite..
*he flies back towards the hole they got into the castle through and crawls through it to get outside. “accidentally” kicking some dirt at Silent Salt’s face in the process*
*he shakes the dirt off of himself once he’s out of the hole and continues floating towards where they’d left the boat, head turned all the way around to watch the knight with the evillest, most mischevious giggles ever. he is very happy with the misery he has caused him*
“I’ve had no time to clean it I’ve been kidnapped twice?! By two different groups?!” He hisses again, “and I don’t even know how someone has that many eggs! If just came through a time rift!!
*he stares at him with a very unimpressed expression*
you got pelted by eggs through a time rift, and you have no idea who it might be. hmmmmm. who do you know of who miiiiight just be capable of opening time rifts and are known for using them for … rather ridiculous reasons?
“My grandchild, who was not there at the time, and it’s not a shadow milk, the one who came about thirty minutes after was very angry, and we fought for a bit physically.”
“Oh I made him help clean the office up, there were some things that couldn’t be fixed… like holes in the walls, but it’s better than the mess it was before.”
though … for me … the time travel idea came up after i’d absorbef that little part of the Ultimate Cookie and what remained of my friends..
… and it’s possible i am more stubborn than the normal variant, so, yours may give up once it becomes clear the inevitable end for it is in a complete wasteland..
“I’m still going for that plan, I won’t let him get any of the ultimate cookie, it’s a bunch of souls in body after all.. once I’m done I can get them out and see if I can put them to rest”
“That thing is full of souls, souls that never got to live apparently. I have worked with many kinds of souls in the past. And I can just, force them into the afterlife! Besides, better me than my version of you”
… … ehhhhhhhhmmmmmm … the thing makes stuff that you’d usually know is a bad idea seem like a REALLY good idea. that is the last warning i’ll give you about this plan of yours
“… even if I do deserve anything that comes at me, I failed my virtue, maybe even long before we fell, maybe you and that other shadow milk were right.”
“The only reason I say that is, every version of myself I keep hearing about seems to actually be, you know, the worst somehow… even as a virtue! I did try to stay true but maybe i failed in another way”
not to say i LIKE you >:( you’re just … marginally less infuriating than my version of you >:( why are you smiling at this? >:( it’s not a compliment >:(
*… he baps him a few times. this is definitely a very vicious attack that will completely disprove the “he doesn’t want to attack the knight” allegations. mhm. yeah. totally*
*then he notices how close they’re getting to land and sits up straight, staring towards the shore with his wings twitching slightly in excitement*
The baps result in a light hiss, and the knight jumps off the boat and onto the shore as they got very close. Where he’s immediately warmed by a bunch of the ghost knights.
Silent salt was immediately back at the berries while thinking… they were back near the Hollyberry Kingdom… so perhaps they can find a map or something to see if they can teleport to wherever that city is…
“You don’t think we’ll be attacked on sight while looking for a map will we?”
*aaand without waiting for any agreement from the other cookie he turns into a rather large dog and starts sprinting towards the nearest market area where he may find a map, tail wagging wildly behind him*
Silent Salt was immediately running after him- witches he should have expected it but he didn’t.. the hollyberrians weren’t to concerned about the Very Normal Dog at least!
*he darts around for a bit, finds a blueberry cobbler he steals a few bites of, tries to run off with a bottle of berry juice and, eventually, he finally grabs a map before zooming off to go back to Silent Salt*
*after several minutes, the Completely Normal Dog finds him and shifts back into his normal form to float up into the tree and sit next to the Knight, panting slightly and holding the map out towards him*
*he stretches and yawns before snatching the map back from Silent Salt and looking it over. once he’s sure where they’re heading, he floats off the branch and opens a portal there*
*he comes through after him and closes the portal*
*his feathers fluff up and he tries to shrink a bit into his collar. he’s not sure he likes how loud it is here either. he’s much more use to living alone in the middle of nowhere..*
The knight sips off away from the crowd and close to the alleyways… he just had to follow these weird black paths with machinery on them and he can get to the courthouse! … so he starts following them very close to the road.
*he floats a little lower and closer to the ground as he trails after Salt, staring down at the ground right in front of himself, trying to ignore how loud it is.*
He almost got hit by a bus. Yeah… this is why you shouldn’t be this close to the road.. the knight did not like the bus however, and hisses at it before going through the alleyways the rest of the way there.
*he sticks right behind Salt, staring at the ground, completely stiffened up with all his claws out. the only reaction he has to the bus is to flinch in surprise and almost crash into the knight*
*he Does Not like it here, it’s way too loud, there’s way too many cookies, he just wants to fly off and hide in the woods again*
Both of them are hiding in the dark now! Where their away from the noise until it seemed like everyone had left! … there was one cookie here though, a robot?
*he’s huddled up against the Knight to be even more hidden from whoever else may be nearby, even purring a little now he’s out of the crowd and noise of the city*
*he tilts his head at the … robot cookie?? with a curious “mrrp?”*
The cookie had canons for arms.. probably some kind of guard for the place… they soon stop as they detected something…
“Warning! Anomalous energy detected! Initiating search protocols!” The robotic cookie was now immediately searching the room… ah, they knew they were here.
*his wings spread out the rest of the way, his hair thrashes around even more, and he starts bapping at the robotic cookie with loud, angry owl screech*
The knight next to him had his flaming hair all proofed up, and he starts hissing at the robot. He was also.. stomping from time to time? Ok you go.
“WARNING! Anomaly detected: egg shaped device on intruder one! Cross-referencing- WARNING! Hostile intruders detected! Initiating Defense protocol!” The robot was now shooting at them!
EGG SHAPED DEVICE?? HUH???? SALT DID YOU STEAL THIS THINGS EGGS???
*he screeches at the robot again. and the second it starts shooting at him, their surroundings are flooded in darkness and stars and blinking eyes, he lets his form melt into the darkness of it so the thing has no chance of hitting him*
“NO? ITS THE- AA!!” Silent Salt did not have the same luxury of going into the darkness like Shadow Milk did! And had to dodge out the way. He did not want to destroy his mother’s stuff so he just hisses at the robot and runs.
*a few blue puppet strings descend from the ceiling to tie around the robot’s canons so he can pull those around in an attempt to prevent the other cookie from getting shot*
“ITS THE THING THAT AMPLIFIES MY VOICE!” He eventually finds a new place to hide once the robot was not distracted. Hiding in a very dark place in the court.
*he’s so so so tempted to tear this robot apart with his Other Realm.. but that would … probably not be the nest entrance … sooo, instead, he flies down the hall to a different darkened hiding spot where he can curl up with his head resting on his wings*
The knight doesn’t respond… in fact it’s as if he’s just disappeared by how quiet he was being.. he had turned off the device. The robot meanwhile was still searching.. the ruckus had gotten the attention of some of the workers inside… and that probably means the two witches inside will also be alerted soon, or already were.
It did not take long for First Salt and First Sugar to be alerted of an intruder.. just after the court closes for the day? And one of them had a device of First Egg’s… that got them to come out and assess the situation.
Silent salt had somehow crept all the way to where shadow milk was and makes an incredibly faint mrrp sound.
*he stays in the corner he’s curled up in, though he does look over at Salt with an equally quiet mrrp before he goes back to looking around in case anyone else might be coming to them*
*he’s looking … paler than usual, but he’s back to breathing normally, so he’s probably fiine*
First Sugar watched Glass Canon go away and- oh! There were the intruders!
“I think we found them already sister!” She nudged her sibling who looked at the two cookies coming towards them.
“… not as hostile as the Overseer had said.” First Salt noted as the looked to the knight, who was rapidly approaching in excitement… he looked somewhat familiar.
A cookie of his word, he does send a telltale sign to shadow milk that he’s ready… well at least he hopes he actually gets it…. Naaah it will work. The said thing he sent was a crow, and now the crow was staring into Shadow Milk’s soul.. almost literally. It’s just standing there… menacingly…
*he stares back at the crow for a while before floating over to try and give it head scritches*
*staring into his soul is probably just a normal bird thing, right? ehhhh, maybe someone thinks this is a good method of sending messages to cookies..*
*…*
*ooohhhh, right, that Silent Salt Cookie. probably him. he’ll just have to figure out. where he’s supposed to be meeting him..*
Silent Salt was currently loafing on a tree branch, waiting for Shadow Milk to arrive… he uh, he wasn’t at his best but he was currently, ignoring the feelings right now.
*… he was planning on loafing on a tree branch! how dare Silent Salt steal his ideas!? clearly, this was purposeful and malicious. mhm*
*… then again, it doesn’t really mean he CAN’T do it anyway.. and it DOES look comfy… … yeah, he’ll just float up to a branch slightly higher than where Salt is and settle down to loaf there until the other seems ready to leave*
“No I uh…. I got kidnapped twice. Once by the Crème Republic the other time by some cookies who really wanted my power… I got out fine though.” Ok, that was way too casual why did you say it like that?!
The knight climbs down the tree carefully, sliding down the trunk of the tree, he’s not about to get stuck in a tree while Shadow Milk was right there!
“A castle you say? Last from what I understood some aren’t in a castle.. at least the one I saw… First Sprinkle was it..? Apparently married to the swan.”
“She was nice to me, because she also got kidnapped… actually a lot of cookies did.” He had no idea how to get to the castle so, he was heavily relying on shadow milk right now… to his dismay.
“Yes Timekeeper was one of them, and several others… and a dragon.” The bit about the dragon was very.. very bitter. Clearly he did not like said dragon.
“.. perhaps a portal will be necessary if it’s that far.”
“Dragons are horrid things, they will crumble all you hold dear staring down at you with those wretched cold eyes.” He looks at the portal and soon goes through it.. jeez he really did not like that dragon huh.
“I already dealt with all the dragons in the barren after that ivory dragon left…. I do not understand how you can like dragons.” He was starting to smell the new scents.. so many berries…
“It’s not that ominous, all I did was kill every single one of them and send them far under the land of the dead.” He saw a berry bush… he had an urge to eat the berries.
“You did say it was difficult to get to. But I assume it’s because you have to row across the sea to get to it.” He gets in the boat.. this might be very easy!
… there’s some sort of magical barrier fog stuff around to make it REALLY hard to find it. i was able to use magic to propel the boat most of the way there, but i did have to do some rowing…
*he sits in the front of the boat, away from where the oars are. seems he’s planning on NOT helping with the “rowing over there” part*
He made a grumbling noise, guess HE was rowing the boat. Great, wonderful! He looked to see if any of the ghost knights would help… wait why are they staying at the shore and refusing to get close?
“Wow you all, letting me row by myself.” He grumbled to the knights…. No one else can see the knights he looked like he was talking to thin air.
“I would usually have help… but SOMEONE doesn’t want to and the rest are scared of a little bit of fog!” He starts to row towards the island shrouded in fog,
hmmmmnaaaahhh. i’m not going to help with the rowing. this is YOUR journey to reunite with YOUR mother and i am merely here as the helpful guide leading you to where she might be found!
*he turns his head all the way around to grin at him*
there’s not enough room on this boat for your little hoard, anyway. let them stay behind and fear the fog
“This is the first time they’ve ever acted like that! They’re usually never this scared…” he looks back at the shore, the knights were expressing, a lot, as if trying to get him to not go into the fog… weird.
At first the boat ride seemed to be normal.. Silent Salt wasn’t sure why his knights were acting so weird but the boat was nice, and it was quiet! But then he started to hear screams… ok, yeah that’s normal actually, he constantly hears screams back home this is nothing.
*he curls up as good as he can in the front of the boat, planning to attempt to get a nap on the ride over. though that attempt does get interrupted by the screams. he looks around for a few seconds, but when he sees no source for them, he just starts ignoring them instead and goes back to his nap attempt*
After a while the screams were getting annoying so he was about to snap at whatever ghosts were there to shut up…. But there’s no ghosts… instead there’s a OCEAN OF BOILING JAM FILLED WITH COOKIES.
“What the fuck?!” He flinched, trying to keep himself from falling off the boat.
*he’d been ALMOST asleep when he hears Salt. at which point he flinches at the unexpected noise and sits up straight to look around. hmm. jam ocean.. he’d made a few oceans into jam during his … timeline shenanigans. that had been pretty fun… but … something seems off. he looks around more closely at everything. the ocean. the jam. the cookies. the shadowy..things..he almost always sees somewhere in his vision.. he looks back at the cookies.. he can’t focus on their faces. there’s no way they’d appear around them this quickly. so, hallucination. he’s good at ignoring those. this won’t be any problem at all!*
“The ocean wasn’t like this before?!” He clearly couldn’t tell that it was a hallucination. It looked way too real for him. He hisses at the blood ocean… yeah that definitely will work.
exactly! it wasn’t like this a few seconds ago, there was no sign of any part of it looking like this a few seconds ago, there was no sign of any other cookies out here a few seconds ago. soooooo, what does that tell you about what might be going on here?
He hisses again… yeah he really is hissing at the ocean! One of the fake cookies tries to reach out to grab at him and he immediately starts swatting at the water- oh this is water.
He kinda stares at the ocean for a bit as he tries to process that yes, that was water, that was not boiling jam despite what it smells and looks like.
*he starts laughing and applauding him in an obviously sarcastic way*
bravo~! congratulations on noticing the obvious! of COURSE the shit that wasn’t there two seconds ago and has no sensible method of appearing here is a hallucination!!
“You are strange…” he mumbles and keeps rowing, a little faster now. On the account of there suddenly being two more oars being moved… seems at least two of the ghost knights did eventually come over.
… WHY DO YOU NEED 800 OF THEM?? that is FAR too many. for you specifically. i do not trust you not to. try and storm my spire or something of that nature
“That was how many knights I had before they were all crumbled and remained as souls, not all 800 of them show up all the time but there’s always at least 20 around me”
“I believe I may have cursed the entire barren… it was while I was slaughtering an entire army after their deaths but I’m not sure if they somehow still got affected or just, refuse to move on.. I have tried to get them all to pass on but they keep coming back” he can finally see the shore up ahead, they definitely are getting closer at least.
oh. that explains a lot. i HAVE been wondering if that place was cursed.. sorta assumed it would have been on purpose, though..
*he looks between the shore and the rowing cookies. he’s getting rather impatient to get there, but he also still doesn’t want to help with the rowing, but then again it WOULD give him something to do until they got there..*
“It was meant to be against those cookies but, I think I accidentally cursed the whole land above ground. Everything underground is safe. The only reason I know my knights were somewhat got by is… because they can’t speak.”
… i accidentally cursed a rather large portion of the Yogurt River. probably a biiiiit before your cursing.
that does explain a lot, though. i’ve been curious why your knights were so quiet..
*he floats a bit further back in the boat to start rowing one of the oars. he is IMMEDIATELY regretting this decision, it takes a lot of energy and it doesn’t take long at all before he’s getting sore. buuut, he’s committed to this decision now. so he’s gonna act like everything’s fine and keep on rowing*
Finally they made it to the shore! The hallucinations were still in full affect though. Everything looks dead, but this wasn’t as bad as the screaming… for now.
*he floats off the boat, crossing his arms to try and hide how much they’re shaking from his short stint at rowing, and starts looking around. then he floats off in the direction he remembers the castle being in*
Silent Salt follows… creators this place was eerie… but he soon started to see something he uh… should not. … wait was that elder faerie over there? Off the path?
*he thinks he might hear something coming from behind them, and is a bit too distracted by trying to figure out where that’s coming from to really watch what Salt’s up to*
*it sounds like a group of his friends talking with each other about something.. he really wants to go join them..*
*he doesn’t really notice the other cookie wandering off.. he’s decided to try following the sounds he’s hearing. off the path and back towards the sea*
Who wasn’t affected by the hallucinations? The two ghost knights… and right now they’re both stuck between keeping their commander from doing something stupid or stopping the jester from ALSO doing something stupid… well there is two of them…. So they split up… to which the once cheery Kala Namak knight makes herself visible before promptly bonking the jester.
*he glares at her for a few seconds, but turns back to float back towards the path while grumbling to himself. something about there supposedly being “very interesting mushrooms” in the direction he’d been trying to go*
*he goes back to leading the way towards the castle. eventually, they’ll make it out of the woods and arrive in a field that. probably used to be full of flowers*
… i’ll pretend you’re talking about a literal butterfly because that makes it sound a LOOOOT funnier
“If my mother is actually here I do not want her to think I’m talking about an actual butterfly.” He looked at what felt like an endless dead field of flowers.. how could any of the creators stand living in a place like this? He wouldn’t be able to bare it, and he lives in practically a barren dead land.
They were getting closer, the hallucinations were starting to fade by then. And Silent Salt was starting to move a lot faster now. He recognized the castle. He had childhood memories in this castle. He was now bounding off like a kitten.
*… now that’s an invitation to race if he’s ever seen one! he flies past over the knight, wings folded close to himself and staring intently towards the castle*
Oh so that’s how it will be huh? Nox can’t run that long, and he’s definitely can’t catch up on foot, so he does the only other option and summons something again… oh my god he has two horses. And he immediately jumps from nox to the other one and continues the chase
*he turns his head around to look behind him. HOW DOES THAT KNIGHT KEEP SUMMONING HORSES??? he can go very quickly when he wants to, but this new horse is gaining on him. he’s never been one to play fair, especially when he looks in danger of losing. so he turns around completely, diving down towards the two chasing him with a loud screech, turning back to continue towards the castle at the last second*
The new horse rears up frightened, forcing the knight off the horse before returning to the stables in which he came… but he still was not ready for defeat and summons one more animal…
And that’s how shadow milk soon sees a LITERAL LEOPARD chasing after him.
*he looks back at the chaos he’d caused, laughing his head off before. wait, was that a leopard? why is that a leopard? where did the leopard come from? he makes a rather undiginified squeaking sound of surprise before zooming off back towards the castle, leaving behind nothing but a couple of blue and cyan wing feathers that slowly drift down to the ground*
The leopard did not have a great reaction to that, and it jumps forward, arms outstretched as if to grab, Silent Salt was currently holding on for dear life.
*he was going far too fast for any direction changes and ends up just. crashing headfirst into the leopard and flopping to the ground, looking slightly dazed*
They made it.. they were at the castle! The leopard plops shadow milk down and is sent back to where it was summoned from. Though the place was… more ominous than he remembered Silent Salt was still very ecstatic to be back in what was basically his childhood home. Even if his mother wasn’t here he at least got to relive his memories even just for a bit..
“Hopefully my mother is here still, I’m not sure how we will find her if she’s not” he was moving closer to the castle now, looking around for something..
He was quiet for a little while before he starts digging, he had found the hole, but it was a little to small… he wanted to die inside he hated the feeling of dirt but at the same time it feels nice.
He followed soon after once he dug through a little more. Definitely as big as he remembered it to be! Now it’s the question of where the first cookies would be…
The castle felt wrong… mostly because they were not alone with whatever first cookies were here… but because there’s an actual witch inside the building along with several familiars… at least she wasn’t in the hall right now… but there was the feeling of a first cookie nearby
*wow! the castle feels a LOT weirder than when he was last here. that’s probably fine, though! he’ll just keep floating along, following the feeling of a first cookie being nearby. because even if she’s not the one they’re looking for, she might know where to find her. also it means meeting a witch either way*
And it was definitely the WORST time for the invading witch to come out from the magic kitchen. Who immediately sees them! …. Uh oh.
“That’s.., not my mother..” the knight mumbled… The witch immediately went to grab the closest one of them, which was Silent Salt but thankfully, narrowly misses him.
*A WITCH!! he ALMOST immediately goes toward her, but.. then he remembers.. masked faces, a table loaded with cookies… the crunch of dough between his teeth*
*he makes an odd sound somewhere between a scream and a whimper before he flies into the nearest hiding place, shaking a little*
“Shadow Milk what the hell come ba-ACK?!” Aaaand he hit the side of the wall trying to avoid the huge witch again, and was immediately taken by then a cat had came over due to the noise, is ordered to look for the remaining beast, before silent salt is brought into the magic kitchen.
*he stays hidden. he doesn’t want to go follow that witch, he does NOT want to help Silent Salt*
*… however, he can’t think of any cookie he would say deserves to be eaten, not even that traitorous knight. so, he … probably should at least TRY to help him*
*he lets himself sink into the shadows of his hiding place, using them to sneak past the cat and after the witch*
The shadow witch had put silent salt in a jar, he didn’t have the same feeling as when those thirteen cookies showed up but he definitely felt powerful, the other cookie to. No need to eat him yet until she looked through things…
In that time, said first cookie that had been sensed a little bit ago was also sneaking closer..
First Cream was hidden in one of the shelves… she really needed to get them both out the kitchen… didn’t know where the jester went but she does see the knight… so she starts moving towards the counter… not very well hidden.
Luckily the witch did not notice…. Yet. Silent Salt did though! … and so did the first cookie, who immediately decided to distract the witch in the meantime.
*he looks around a lot to make sure the witch hasn’t spotted him yet as he works on getting the jar open. eventually, after pulling at it for a bit, the lid opens slightly*
The second that lid was slightly open Silent Salt is immediately trying to get out, he hated the jar, he wanted out right this second…. He bashes head first into the glass trying to get up, good job silent salt… good job.
*he bites his tongue to try and resist the urge to laugh at the knight. it’s only partially successful as he still makes a muffled, rather spluttery chuckling sound. then he removes the lid the rest of the way*
What makes this more funny than it should be is immediately after he gets onto the lid the jar falls over on the table and him along with it. Causing him to tumble out.. well at least he’s out. The knight is not amused.
*he barks out a very hastily stifled cackle at that. he is TRYING to NOT attract the witch’s attention. the knight acting hilarious is not helping with this endeavor*
*… he’s still very audibly giggling, though. he wasn’t able to get himself entirely silenced*
Silent salt.., wasn’t talking? He was clearly trying to shush the jester but he was not making any noise at all. He did arch up and hiss at the witch, a very quiet hiss, before starting to speed off. The first cookie was at least still distracting the witch
To the Witch of Light finally she got the witch to get out! That had taken a bit longer than she thought… First Cream immediately starts looking for those two newcomers. By then the knight had hidden behind a few jars of ingredients and… she can see him.
That just made them feel even more, strangely familiar. Some flickers of, something. More little cookies skittering on the countertops… definitely not the exact same but, one did hiss… more visions from the Witch of Light it seems… The knight in response to the pat hisses. Ok his voice is back now…?
“I apologize for not reaching you two sooner, I am glad neither of you were harmed.”
Strange they were… she did not mind, she has seen weirder things.
“My name is First Cream, and both of yours?” That definitely got the knight to pay attention. His head snapping towards the first cookie.. his eyes are so dilating under that helmet.
“Silent Salt.” She heard him respond. Why did that feel familiar…?
*he turns towards her and introduces himself with a bow. he looks so happy. they found one of the former witches! … okay to be more accurate, she found them, but STILL!*
“And you believe that she is here?” The poor knight glanced at the other cookie… annoyed, perhaps. she directs her gaze towards the knight. “Who is your mother by chance?”
Silent Salt stops glaring and once again gets excited. “Prescription… or erm… First Salt, if that’s what she’s called by now. Is she here?” He.. knows which names? Definitely not a normal duo then…
“No, she and her sister aren’t here, they were here a few months ago however..”
“You have been here before?” Now she at least knew how the two figured out where the castle was.. never mind that, she didn’t want to leave them empty handed on their search.
“They live in a city, right in Wholegrainia, their court is right around the edge of it in fact. I would advise a warning however.. the twins may be a bit more alert now.”
*he turns to start floating back towards the entrance to the castle, before pausing, having decided to not resist the temptation to get in one more comment specifically meant to annoy the knight*
and likely to end with one of us going to court. i vote for Salt, he’s not been put on trial yet. as far as i know
“I’ve already been to court.” Silent Salt then growled, “it was a horrible experience. Framed for murder, hunted down, and treated like an animal.”
The first cookie looked somewhat taken aback by that. “Their court is different, you both will be fine. Just don’t disturb them while a case is ongoing and you won’t be charged with watching the trial.”
“Crème republic system for you, don’t recommend it.” He replied… oh creators his mother has a court! She’s not here but she’s only continent away! That thought was starting to push away his general annoyance… he had an urge to hug the first cookie.
i would make a much better court if i was put in charge of one :)
*he would not*
*… he’s also very tempted to hug the First Cookie. and he is significantly worse at resisting temptation. so. she’ll likely find herself getting hugged by a little blue weirdo pretty soon*
“No you would not, you would make it a performance. If all versions of you are similar enough to do the exact same thing” And seems like he knew that it wouldn’t be better. He resisted the urge to go for a hug as he looks back at the first cookie.
“Of course, safe travels-“ First Cream was caught off guard by the sudden hug…. Watching as the jester sped off before she could react, and the knight following suite..
*he flies back towards the hole they got into the castle through and crawls through it to get outside. “accidentally” kicking some dirt at Silent Salt’s face in the process*
*he shakes the dirt off of himself once he’s out of the hole and continues floating towards where they’d left the boat, head turned all the way around to watch the knight with the evillest, most mischevious giggles ever. he is very happy with the misery he has caused him*
“I’ve had no time to clean it I’ve been kidnapped twice?! By two different groups?!” He hisses again, “and I don’t even know how someone has that many eggs! If just came through a time rift!!
*he stares at him with a very unimpressed expression*
you got pelted by eggs through a time rift, and you have no idea who it might be. hmmmmm. who do you know of who miiiiight just be capable of opening time rifts and are known for using them for … rather ridiculous reasons?
“My grandchild, who was not there at the time, and it’s not a shadow milk, the one who came about thirty minutes after was very angry, and we fought for a bit physically.”
“Oh I made him help clean the office up, there were some things that couldn’t be fixed… like holes in the walls, but it’s better than the mess it was before.”
though … for me … the time travel idea came up after i’d absorbef that little part of the Ultimate Cookie and what remained of my friends..
… and it’s possible i am more stubborn than the normal variant, so, yours may give up once it becomes clear the inevitable end for it is in a complete wasteland..
“I’m still going for that plan, I won’t let him get any of the ultimate cookie, it’s a bunch of souls in body after all.. once I’m done I can get them out and see if I can put them to rest”
“That thing is full of souls, souls that never got to live apparently. I have worked with many kinds of souls in the past. And I can just, force them into the afterlife! Besides, better me than my version of you”
… … ehhhhhhhhmmmmmm … the thing makes stuff that you’d usually know is a bad idea seem like a REALLY good idea. that is the last warning i’ll give you about this plan of yours
“… even if I do deserve anything that comes at me, I failed my virtue, maybe even long before we fell, maybe you and that other shadow milk were right.”
“The only reason I say that is, every version of myself I keep hearing about seems to actually be, you know, the worst somehow… even as a virtue! I did try to stay true but maybe i failed in another way”
not to say i LIKE you >:( you’re just … marginally less infuriating than my version of you >:( why are you smiling at this? >:( it’s not a compliment >:(
*… he baps him a few times. this is definitely a very vicious attack that will completely disprove the “he doesn’t want to attack the knight” allegations. mhm. yeah. totally*
*then he notices how close they’re getting to land and sits up straight, staring towards the shore with his wings twitching slightly in excitement*
The baps result in a light hiss, and the knight jumps off the boat and onto the shore as they got very close. Where he’s immediately warmed by a bunch of the ghost knights.
Silent salt was immediately back at the berries while thinking… they were back near the Hollyberry Kingdom… so perhaps they can find a map or something to see if they can teleport to wherever that city is…
“You don’t think we’ll be attacked on sight while looking for a map will we?”
*aaand without waiting for any agreement from the other cookie he turns into a rather large dog and starts sprinting towards the nearest market area where he may find a map, tail wagging wildly behind him*
Silent Salt was immediately running after him- witches he should have expected it but he didn’t.. the hollyberrians weren’t to concerned about the Very Normal Dog at least!
*he darts around for a bit, finds a blueberry cobbler he steals a few bites of, tries to run off with a bottle of berry juice and, eventually, he finally grabs a map before zooming off to go back to Silent Salt*
*after several minutes, the Completely Normal Dog finds him and shifts back into his normal form to float up into the tree and sit next to the Knight, panting slightly and holding the map out towards him*
*he stretches and yawns before snatching the map back from Silent Salt and looking it over. once he’s sure where they’re heading, he floats off the branch and opens a portal there*
*he comes through after him and closes the portal*
*his feathers fluff up and he tries to shrink a bit into his collar. he’s not sure he likes how loud it is here either. he’s much more use to living alone in the middle of nowhere..*
The knight sips off away from the crowd and close to the alleyways… he just had to follow these weird black paths with machinery on them and he can get to the courthouse! … so he starts following them very close to the road.
*he floats a little lower and closer to the ground as he trails after Salt, staring down at the ground right in front of himself, trying to ignore how loud it is.*
He almost got hit by a bus. Yeah… this is why you shouldn’t be this close to the road.. the knight did not like the bus however, and hisses at it before going through the alleyways the rest of the way there.
*he sticks right behind Salt, staring at the ground, completely stiffened up with all his claws out. the only reaction he has to the bus is to flinch in surprise and almost crash into the knight*
*he Does Not like it here, it’s way too loud, there’s way too many cookies, he just wants to fly off and hide in the woods again*
Both of them are hiding in the dark now! Where their away from the noise until it seemed like everyone had left! … there was one cookie here though, a robot?
*he’s huddled up against the Knight to be even more hidden from whoever else may be nearby, even purring a little now he’s out of the crowd and noise of the city*
*he tilts his head at the … robot cookie?? with a curious “mrrp?”*
The cookie had canons for arms.. probably some kind of guard for the place… they soon stop as they detected something…
“Warning! Anomalous energy detected! Initiating search protocols!” The robotic cookie was now immediately searching the room… ah, they knew they were here.
*his wings spread out the rest of the way, his hair thrashes around even more, and he starts bapping at the robotic cookie with loud, angry owl screech*
The knight next to him had his flaming hair all proofed up, and he starts hissing at the robot. He was also.. stomping from time to time? Ok you go.
“WARNING! Anomaly detected: egg shaped device on intruder one! Cross-referencing- WARNING! Hostile intruders detected! Initiating Defense protocol!” The robot was now shooting at them!
EGG SHAPED DEVICE?? HUH???? SALT DID YOU STEAL THIS THINGS EGGS???
*he screeches at the robot again. and the second it starts shooting at him, their surroundings are flooded in darkness and stars and blinking eyes, he lets his form melt into the darkness of it so the thing has no chance of hitting him*
“NO? ITS THE- AA!!” Silent Salt did not have the same luxury of going into the darkness like Shadow Milk did! And had to dodge out the way. He did not want to destroy his mother’s stuff so he just hisses at the robot and runs.
*a few blue puppet strings descend from the ceiling to tie around the robot’s canons so he can pull those around in an attempt to prevent the other cookie from getting shot*
“ITS THE THING THAT AMPLIFIES MY VOICE!” He eventually finds a new place to hide once the robot was not distracted. Hiding in a very dark place in the court.
*he’s so so so tempted to tear this robot apart with his Other Realm.. but that would … probably not be the nest entrance … sooo, instead, he flies down the hall to a different darkened hiding spot where he can curl up with his head resting on his wings*
The knight doesn’t respond… in fact it’s as if he’s just disappeared by how quiet he was being.. he had turned off the device. The robot meanwhile was still searching.. the ruckus had gotten the attention of some of the workers inside… and that probably means the two witches inside will also be alerted soon, or already were.
It did not take long for First Salt and First Sugar to be alerted of an intruder.. just after the court closes for the day? And one of them had a device of First Egg’s… that got them to come out and assess the situation.
Silent salt had somehow crept all the way to where shadow milk was and makes an incredibly faint mrrp sound.
*he stays in the corner he’s curled up in, though he does look over at Salt with an equally quiet mrrp before he goes back to looking around in case anyone else might be coming to them*
*he’s looking … paler than usual, but he’s back to breathing normally, so he’s probably fiine*
