The Beanies aren't quite sure why the three of them were tumbling past starry skies, oversized confections and everything else in between. Er, correction. The Beanies aren't quite sure why the four of them, including Demony who was latching onto the backs of the Beanies, were tumbling past trippy, eclectic sights that made as much sense as a psychedelic movie. The last thing the Beanies remembered before this was hugging and embracing Demony as their friend, and they hadn't the slightest idea how that could possibly correlate to them now spinning for what is feeling like an eternity in the vast expense of... wherever this was.

Luckily for the Beanies, their 'journey' in this mysterious realm was soon coming to an end as the colourful sights slowly desaturated, replaced with blinding whites and after a few moments of pure white, colour began to return to their view... and they were spinning sideways, which resulted in the centrifugal force sending the Beanies flying and falling in an arc shape apart from each other. Demony, now somehow heavier than the Beanies, fell near the center of the arc.

The Beanies were mostly dizzy, though unhurt, so they slowly got back up while bobbing unsteadily throughout from all the rolling they just did. Star in particular got up first and shook their head violently in hopes of shooing the dizziness away, and turned around to check on the other two. Upon seeing a groggy Goody-plush, Star rushed to them in a panic.

Goody was teetering around trying to maintain balance, and a slip on their right leg sends them collapsing... right onto Star's chest.
"(Goody-plush okay)?" Star asked with a concerned voice as they looked at Goody-plush's face.
"(Goody no feel goodie...)" Goody groaned, before remembering about Chili and snapping into alert mode. "(Oh, where Chili?)" Goody turned their head around scanning the surroundings, and found Chili lying flat on the floor. Oh dear. Star and Goody ran as fast as they could to help Chili get back up.

With that, the Beanies were all together again. The trio get the feeling they're forgetting something though... Oh right, Demony! The Beanies try scouring around for their new friend, but their attention was swiftly drawn elsewhere. There was someone else here.

---

SPOILER: Click to show

Quest Name: World of Wonder
Participants: Exactly Two
Location: One of the listed locations below
Post Requirements: 5 posts per person, 200 words per post
Reward: +2 Renown, 1 Mystical Archive Ticket
Description: At each location, where there once sat a beautiful ring of flowers, now sits a literal rip in space - a portal of raw magic that seems to be leaking into Charon. This portal is unstable and does not seem to connect directly to the Land of Wonder, but instead a small pocket of space, like a tunnel. The Crown is asking you to enter one of these portals and record what you find, while staying careful not to disturb anything there. The Crown is not interested in making enemies out of the Fae.

You are stepping into the unknown, but in order to protect the people of Charon, we must be aware of their potential. Scholars believe the Fae are here to stay, and if we are to be successful in integrating them, we must learn fast. Don't stay too long or get yourself into trouble, record what you find and come back home!

SPOILER: Click to show

King's Valley

Nomad's Stone

A ripple in space lies at the base of the Nomad's Stone and connects to a small pocket of the Land of Wonder. Once you step through the portal you will find yourself in a fancy dining room in a massive hall. At its center is a large table covered in whatever foods would most appeal to you, and you feel compelled to help yourself. The food is delicious and perfect, with each bite making it harder and harder to stop. As food is consumed it is quickly replaced with something new.

It had been months since Raoul last encountered the strange and mysterious patches of fae flowers. From being tossed and turned in Dragon’s Cradle with Astrid due to them to even turning into a horse with Tatalia he had sufficiently understood how much of a danger these things could be. Submitting his reports of the encounters to the authorities and collecting some information about the strange phenomena was all he could do before. However, there had been a change recently with the Crown now asking adventurers to enter these same rips through the Land of Wonder to see what was leaking into their world. The dhampir couldn’t help but comply and was eager to get to the bottom of what was going on. He would decide to head to his first encounter with the strange patch of flowers returning to the King’s Valley and looking into the Nomad’s Stone. It was a decent start to get information and it’d be far enough away in case anything bad happened.

Raoul would set up camp near the Nomad’s stone, taking days to collect research and findings about what he observed about the portal. So far nothing seemed too out of the ordinary with the sound of crackling energy being dispensed from the ripple in space. However during one afternoon as he was writing down notes a trio of bears who were idly walking by tripped into the portal and fell inside of the strange realm beyond.

“Oh no, dammit those innocent fellows fell in, who knows if they can get back here in one piece by themselves. I have to jump in and help them get back myself, they don’t seem exactly like the adventuring type”, and after quickly collecting his things the Dhampir would jump into the portal flying through some sort of strange and astral dimension. His mind bent at such intense and overwhelming visions colors he’d never seen before entire words and feelings he’d never felt before. Before he could get acclimated to the strange sensations he felt his body crash hard against a solid wall.

“Ugh, oh my brain hurts so much and everything feels like it's spinning”, he’d call out while holding the sides of his head still in a daze as he struggled to stand back up gathering his senses and scanning the room.

The Beanies found themselves tumbling again, this time sans Demony, as they seem to have accidentally walked into some weird spatial effect without realising it while they were trying to approach the stranger they saw. Chili, by now, was getting really bored and just plain unamused from all the circles their body was drawing in the eclectic spaces and crossed their arms in annoyance. Goody was panicking as was their modus operandi for unexpected situations. Star tried to stay as aware of their ever-changing situations as best as possible, not that it would help in any way.

Soon enough, the Beanies would find themselves falling flat onto the ground from the above. Not necessarily anything new thanks to their size, but that didn't make it any more enjoyable. Anyway, the Beanies slowly lifted themselves from the floor and-

"(BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEFFFFF)!!!" Chili immediately pounced into action and dived right at a teppanyaki beef steak, sizzled into perfection.
The excited Chili shout would spring the other two Beanies into alert mode, whereby Goody would see the most elaborately crafted gingerbread house-er, castle, really, standing at a corner of the table. It spoke to Goody so intensely that their legs found themselves carrying their host towards the undoubtedly awesome gingergoodie.
"(No Goody-plush no)!" Star would pull Goody back with their eyes closed, having the gut feeling that they should not look at the dinner table. "(Goody-plush need to ask permission before eating!)"
"(Woo... Goody waaaaaant,)" Goody's internal conflict between the goody Goody and the gingerbready Goody was now commencing in their mind.

When Star opened their eyes looking at the side, they would see the stranger who was at that other place too. Not sure what to do, and not like they had any idea what was going on anyway, Star decided to do the tried-and-true method of checking on the stranger and see if he knew anything.
"Hello!" Star greeted, while continuing to drag Goody as far away from the dinner table as possible.

Looking around his surroundings Raoul would realize that he was in some sort of room, not just any room, some sort of stylish dining room. For whatever reason the fae ripple had sent them into some sort of high-class and fancy dining room. The walls were draped with colorful and elegant wallpapers that were reminiscent of noble estates. However, what immediately caught his attention besides the strange three bears nearby was what lay in the center of the room. A giant table that was covered with the most delicious food he’d ever seen in his entire life. From the finest steaks to the most tasty-looking stews and soups everything seemed so appetizing. Before he could approach it though Raoul stops himself shaking his head thinking, ‘This might be a trap and this food could be dangerous or tampered with’.

He would stand by and observe the bears before greeting them kindly, “Hello there good fellows it seems like you guys have accidentally fallen into the fae portal huh? You guys should've been more careful this is a very sensitive and unknown dimension. Well, nonetheless it’s nice to meet you. My name is Raoul O. Ardelean the dhampir detective. Who are you fellows and do you know anything that’s going on?”.

'Fae portal'? Was that why the Beanies were now, um, wherever they even were? Star was feeling a little tempted to be snappy about telling them to be careful, but the misadventure was far from over and well, the least careful Beanie was already gorging away at their next meal - a full course consisting of crabtastic cuisine crafted through creative implementations of culinary techniques.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Raoul! I'm Star, and this is Goody! Sorry Star-plush can't spare a limb to give a proper greeting," Goody was now beginning to struggle against Star trying to shake free from their grasp.
"Hi Mr. Raoul!" Goody would take a moment to wave at Raoul before proceeding to flail around in the general direction of the gingerbread castle. "(Goody want gingerbreaddddddddddd!)"
"Also, the little polar bear currently ransacking the dinner table like nobody's business is Chili," Star groaned as they introduced their other fellow. "Hmm... Is Demony also here?" Star pondered aloud.
"Goody no see Demony," Goody snapped out of foodie mode and scanned the dinner table, spotting star-shaped confections in the process which looked about as tempting as a rock in the face of GINGERBREAD CASTLE. "Oh, Demony is black shadowy thingy who likes to be a meanie to us. We're friends now though!"
"All Star-plush knows is that we went from spinning in one weird dimension, landed on somewhere not-here, then we ended up tumbling our way to this massive dinner hall that somehow has all our favourite foods." Even without sight, the tantalizing smells were starting to get to Star too. Must. Not. Look. At. Food.

The dhampir would simply chuckle at the bear’s silly introduction, for being in an otherwise unknown and strange situation they seemed to be quite lively. Why it was starting to get infectious, his nerves would calm slightly relaxing seeing no immediate danger. Raoul wanted nothing but to begin scarfing down the food in front of him, however, he shook his head quickly dispelling that thought. Even as his stomach grumbled loudly he couldn’t take the risk of this still being a trap or trick of some sort.

“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance Star, Goody, and Chili, and don’t worry I understand it’s hard to concentrate on getting to know each other given our unusual circumstances”.

Raoul would give the bear eating at the table a friendly wave before focusing on the most sensible of his new companions.

“That’s interesting you say one of your associates didn’t make it to the other side with you? I did think I saw another one of you guys fall into the portal. Perhaps this ‘Demony’ fellow landed somewhere else? It could be a possibility that the fake portal as unknown and whimsical as it is could have sent him elsewhere”.

Moving from the wall to the center of the room, Raoul would begin his examination attempting to get a hold of things. Calling out to Chili he’d ask, “How does the food taste my friend? Does everything seem normal and real enough to you? Is there anything that seems off or weird about the quality or flavor of the meals?”.

After hearing their response the dhampir took a look at the table in front of them, it was a fairly elegant and fancy-looking table. However, something strange about it caught his eye, as the bears continued to eat the food just kept on appearing. No matter how much they scarfed down it was almost like the table itself was generating more food to replace it.

He’d think out loud scratching his chin, “Odd, perhaps this table has been magically enchanted or even affected by some sort of fae aura”.

Meanwhile, Demony was somewhere, wherever that was, and wandering further and further away from the portal, relishing in its freedom away from that repulsively saccharine storybook and from those blasted Beanies who seemed outright destined to foil its evil plans without fail. It was not long, however, before it began to feel a gnawing emptiness in its being. It did not understand what it was, but accompanying it was a general sense of enervation, and gradually every step became heavier until finally, it found itself lying on the ground. Wait. Lying on the ground? Demony took the moment to attempt to observe itself, and it shrieked in pure horror internally. It had a physical form now. Oh no. That meant the gnawing feeling was... hunger. Demony's brain was now filled with a litany of expletives as it begrudgingly began to carry itself back to the portal, holding on to the slightest hope that it might rectify this condition.

The Beanies, of course, knew none of that and were continuing their little misadventure as usual.
"Goody sure Demony not here." Goody replied with the utmost confidence, not that they understood or cared where that certainty came from at the moment. GINGERBREAD was fast occupying all of their thoughts, and Goody's struggles against Star's grip further intensified.
"Best. Food. EVER! Everything smells real enough for Chili, and the food gets better with every bite!" Chili was done with the crustacean cuisine by this point in time and working their way through multiple servings of noodles and pasta, of the souped, dried and creamed varieties. Those words seemed to have broken whatever remained of Goody's self-restraint, and they promptly broke free from Star's grip and made a beeline for the gingerbread castle.

"GINGERBREAD!" Goody began nibbling away at the gingerbread castle like there was no tomorrow. Gingerbread was exceedingly rare outside of winter unless they baked their own, so there really might be no gingerbread tomorrow.

"Aaaaah, Goody-plush!" Star inadvertently opened their eyes trying to find Goody, and spotted all those shiny, sparkly star-shaped confections that was all but screaming to be eaten. Star could resist no longer, and began chowing down too, relishing in all its sensational goodness.

A genuine hearty laughter escaped the dhampir’s lips as he leaned against the walls looking at the sight of three polar bears scarfing down the gingerbread house and sweets. The scene was such a silly and nonsensical series of events that he couldn’t help but be amused. It reminded him of those old fairy tale books he would snatch and steal when he was a young kid attempting to survive on his own. Such tales gave him great joy and humor when oftentimes they were the only thing that could stave his hunger.

“Alright ahaha I’ll leave you fellows to get to the bottom of this strange buffet we have in front of us, I’ll start investigating the room to see if maybe there’s something out of place. Just hold on my friends and save at least some food for me”.

Raoul would then begin examining every single inch and corner of the dining room trying to figure out what any of this meant. But no matter how hard he looked, he stared at the floorboards and wallpaper and nothing seemed useful in giving him an answer. Well, that was until he closed his eyes out of frustration trying to shut out everything around him and refocus. It was during that innermost moment of silence that he heard something. A faint ringing and whooshing sound from the floor itself.

Raoul would call over Star to his side as he placed his ear to the floor trying to listen to the faint sounds. Fast movement, the sounds of a kitchen operating, and the squeaky hums and jingles of people were coming from under them.

“Something or someone is under us it seems”, he called out to the group curiosity and nervousness filling his tone.

The dhampir then stood back up and with determination would say, “I have to get to the bottom of this”, before starting to try to pull up the floorboards themselves. After initial attempts failed he grabbed his whip wand and used it to pull off a small floorboard. Placing his eye through it he gasped he saw what was under them. Some sort of bustling fae kitchen operating at full capacity, twenty to thirty to forty fairies just flying with whimsy cooking all manner of elegant and delicious looking food.

"Little fairies?" Star commented while continuing to nibble away at a star-shaped strawberry jam cookie. "Hi little fairies! Thanks for the food! Sorry for eating them without your permission!" Star, unaware of the Fae's nature, gave them a genuine thanks and not really apologetic apology.
"Goody want to say thanks for the gingerbread too!" Goody was about halfway through the gingerbread castle now.
"Chili wanna know how you all cook this!" Having finished vacuuming all the noodly goodies, Chili was now chomping an entirely edible tree of succulent fruits and freshly ripe vegetables.
"Eat as much as you want! All we'd like is for you to enjoy our food forever!" The fairies sung in pure joy, its malice hidden in its obsession.

It was then, however, that a discordant factor would enter the portal. Demony had arrived, disoriented and with a burning hatred of everything that it could not eat. The fairies took note of their new guest and tried to whip up their enchanted food designed to appeal to its targets... Only to find that the magic seemed to not work on it. The kitchen tried once more, and nothing. The magic simply fizzled and nothing would appear in its place.

Demony felt jolts of emotion flowing into itself as the magics formed. The Fae's magic was indeed effective, but it did not appeal to Demony, no. The taste meant nothing if ■ was not suffering, and the only thing it would want to consume was ■, if it could just remember what it was supposed to be and not a distorted facsimile. For all the Fae's magic, they could not possibly give Demony what it wanted, and a newly-vitalized Demony ran towards the fairies, glaring at them with the hatred of a thousand agonies. The Fae kitchen, genuinely fearful of a horror even more incomprehensible than itself, proceeded to cast a spell that expelled their guests, and so the quartet would find themselves back where they originally were. Oh, and with Raoul.

“Yes little fairies it seems, shhh be careful now”, he whispered at Star trying not to get too much attention to them. After all, fairies were known to be troublesome and tricky fellows with a fickle sense of morality. This whole thing could be an elaborate trap or prank designed to hurt or ridicule the adventurers.

“Hmph, is that so?”, the dhampir scoffed as the fairies gleefully informed their guests to keep eating and gorging themselves on their delicious food. Something didn’t sit right with him for what reason would these flying tricksters just give them food for free? There had to be a motivation behind it and knowing just exactly how deceptive fairies could be after his last encounters with them Raoul was on high alert once more.

However, before he could question them any further suddenly a strange black cat figure arrived from above, dropping down from another strange fae portal. This figure who Raoul could describe as malevolent and unruly dashed at the fairies terrorizing the kitchen. Just as Raoul tried chasing after it the entire room warped and pushed everyone out. The group landed right where this adventure started at Raoul’s camp this time with the addition of three bears and a shadowy cat’s presence.

"Is everyone okay?", he called out making sure they were all safe and in one piece.

"No Chili not okay! Where food go!?" Chili looked around frantically, eyes widened and teary.
"No more gingerbread..." Goody was downcast, mourning the loss of gingerbread.

"We're fine." Star just outright ignored the two's dramatic reactions and answered Raoul in the affirmative. 

Demony could feel Goody and Chili's despair seeping into its being and it was glorious. What was not glorious, however, was the fact that it appeared to be permanently stuck in this tetrapod form. It may stretch and contract as a whole, but it can no longer be one with the shadows nor could it generate multiple limbs from its body. Though of course, the worst part about this ordeal was that it now knew hunger, and for some godforsaken reason it seems that it can only eat the Beanies' emotions. More expletives filled its head as it slowly made its way to the Beanies, sorely tempted to cause them further agony before it finally took a proper look at Raoul. The fellow was doing well to hide it, but it could feel some sort of evil energy seeping out of him and it personally was not liking its odds, what with its unfortunate transformation into what appeared to be a little feline with bear ears. So it decided to just curl around the Beanies and burrito them in its shadows.

The Beanies, thinking it was a gesture of friendship, hugged Demony right back and overloaded the latter with their fuzzy wholesomeness, causing it to basically short circuit and become docile for the time being.

The man chuckled amused at the dramatic reactions of the other two before himself sighing, “Yeah I forgot to get something from the table compleltly, I at least should have grabbed a muffin or something on the way out. Even if it was trapped at least I wouldn't be as hungry as I am now”.

However, he shook off this selfish thought and instead wanted to focus on the positive, “Well at least we’re alive and well for the most part besides emotional pain from leaving. Sure it’s unfortunate that the food is gone but at least we didn’t get hurt or any mischievous trap played on us thanks to your friend over there. Thanks by the way”, he’d say pointing at Demony.

He then sat back took out his notebook an pen beginning to collect notes of the entire situation, “Alright well before we all go and start celebrating like you guys seem to be doing we have to write a report about what we saw. The fae portals are still very new and very dangerous so it’s best to send what we learned to the authorities. Chili and Goody, how do you feel? Does your stomach feel full? Are there any negative effects from consuming fae-created food or jumping through the portal and back?”.

Listening to Raoul thank Demony, the little fairies must have been quite the troublesome fellows, the Beanies thought.
"""Thanks Demony!""" The Beanies redoubled on their snuggling, and Demony simply took it as its mind was now on autopilot.

"Chili felt like Chili could just go on eating forever!" Chili answered with arms spread widely. "Chili still wants more foodddddddddd~"
"Chili-plush always wants more food. When is Chili-plush ever truly full?" Star chimed in to hint to Raoul that Chili was not going to be a useful witness.
"Hey! Chili does become full!" Chili was offended at the snide remark. "Chili is full when there is no more food!" Chili puffed their chest proudly and put their paws on their hips. Star couldn't resist a facepalm, and then, noticing something in the corner of their eye, slowly made their way over to it.
Goody, in the meantime, took the moment to ponder, putting their paw below their nose and wondered. "Goody doesn't feel full, but Goody doesn't feel hungry either. Other than that, Goody just sad there is no more gingerbread." Goody's head tilted forward and downwards, with their ears flapped forward, expressing general depression.
"Goody-plush! Chili-plush! Demony! Come here!" Star called out to their fellow Beanies and waved their arms in the air. Next to them with a hard-cover book of blankest white.
"Could this be..." The Beanies would open up the book in unison, and be greeted with empty pages made of paper with dulled edges. Still, the familiarity was there.
"""Our storybook!""" The Beanies chimed in unison. """The Wholesome Trio's Beanieventures!""" Star, realising that Raoul would obviously be completely lost as to what it could be about when there is literally nothing on the book, added thus: "We came from this storybook!"

“Hmm interesting and is that normal you would say Chili? Did you feel extra hungry after eating that food the fairies made? It could be that they put something in it to just make you eat and eat. Perhaps if we weren’t taken away by force we’d be stuck in there forever just eating until we couldn’t anymore. However given Star’s claim it seems that could just be normal and that could be my cynicism reaching for an answer here”, Raoul would say jotting down his observations.

Still, the eager bear’s fervor for flavor and taste was an amusing one, truly it seemed like it had a good time today at least.

“Ha, so Goody says they don’t feel hungry or full though you did eat quite a lot if my memory serves me well. Another theory of mine is perhaps none of that food was real or at least real in the normal sense. Perhaps it was simply only food that existed in the fae dimension alone”.

As the dhampir sat he'd write a detailed and thorough report of the day including the fae kitchen’s existence, the appearance of a normal-looking dining room in the fae realm, as well as the general process of going through a portal a voice broke him out of his concentration. He closed his notebook and placed it back into his pocket standing up and heading towards the commotion that was happening, “Hello what’s going on fellows? A storybook you say? How’d that get here? Wait what? You guys came from that exact storybook”, a confused and curious expression on Raoul’s face as he questioned them.

"When Chili starts eating, Chili is always hungry! Chili is full when Chili stops eating!" A statement that would undoubtedly appear nonsensical to anyone listening to it.

Goody shrugged in response to Raoul's statement about the food. Magic was not their strong suit in the slightest, especially given that their story never delved into magic much and that they were in a completely unknown world.

It was only then that Star realised the very prospect sounded entirely preposterous. Oh well. They would try to explain anyway.
"We're the protagonists in our story, The Wholesome Trio's Beanieventures! And well, Demony is the overarching antagonist. The story ends with us becoming friends though!" The Beanies would close the book and gather around Demony, giving them cute nuzzles to emphasize their friendship, completely oblivious to Demony's inner feelings about them.
"We were at the ending of our story, then we found ourselves tumbling in some other dimension similar to the one we spun along when arriving at that magical dining room just now. We flew out of that sideways, landed here, then we ended up accidentally tripping into the 'Fae portal' where we met Raoul!" Star then continued their explanation.
"Chili is sure we came from storybook!" Chili seconded.

"Goody too!" Goody thirded, and Demony would silently nod as well. 

"What is this world called?" Star then asked, the other two Beanies also tilting their heads in wonder.