The Pause [Adopted Book]

The Green Village

Cycle 845 Notes:

I can't seem to figure Hypno out.  When I first realized he came into the cycle, I thought he did it for revenge or something.  He never really seemed to like me.  I know it's not my fault that he ended up in his current state, but based on the terrible hallucinations he always gives me, I'm not sure he agrees.

But that's started to change.  Now, when we do come across each other, he hardly ever scares me or uses his hypnosis on me.  Instead, we actually talk for a little bit.  I'm not sure if he's luring me into a false sense of security or not, but I'll certainly take the kindness.  It's kind of nice not to worry about him so much.  Even in the loops, the hallucinations he gives me aren't as vivid or terrifying.  I guess I know they're fake by now, but it's still nice not to go through the pain I did during the first loop.

I've started to wonder if maybe we could be friends.  I know we haven't usually gotten along, but we're both close to M, and have known the Professor for a while.  It might be a good place to start.  Maybe I should invite him over to my house at some point.  I could make dinner or something.  True, it would compromise my location if he ever got in a pranking mood, but I'm not sure what else to do.

The truth is, sometimes this cycle gets really lonely.  Once in a while, I can talk to Gerald about everything, but it's not the same.  He's hardly ever around.  He's always following Origin.  I've thought about talking to the nearby steves once or twice, but I know that's a bad idea.  I don't want to disturb the timeline.  If Hypno was my friend, maybe I could actually have someone to talk to about this entire mess.

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I waved as Lime walked away, but he didn't see me.  Pouting, I turned to the leafy jungle, quickly disappearing into the lush biome.  Thanks to Masterpiece's maps, I knew exactly how to get to the Green Village from here.  I pulled out said map and squinted at it, eyes trailing to the little white banner marked 'Green Village'.  I stared at the area around me, looking for landmarks to help me navigate.

There was a tree over there, and there.  Some vines.  A lot of melons.  Oh!  A parrot!  Excited, I walked over to the little gray-and-yellow bird.

"Hi!"  I greeted, fishing some seeds I had accidentally picked up out of my inventory.  Its head tilted as I held up the snack.  In less than a second, all the seeds were gone.  "Man, you're a fast eater."  I murmured, staring at my empty, green-stained hand.  The parrot flew away.  I slumped, returning to the map.  Time to get back on track.  No more feathered distractions.

How exactly was I supposed to navigate when the trees were so thick?  I stared up at the canopy above, weighing my chances of climbing one of the trees successfully.  If I could get high enough, I would be able to reorient myself, right?  I tried climbing up the vines, but it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.  For one thing, they had awkward gaps between them that made it difficult to switch from one tendril to the next.  For another, they led right up to the thickest part of the foliage, which made it nearly impossible to get up.  I slipped down the vine, sighing to myself.

Maybe it would be better just to walk around and hope to find a good landmark?  I tried for a while, admiring the beautiful jungle around me, but still finding nothing recognizable from the map.  Most of the melon arrangements and foliage down here was blocked by the canopy above.  Finally, I sat down with the map in my lap, trying to think of some other idea to try.  

I could always go back to Masterpiece's room and try to find a better map, maybe one that showed the ground floor?  Actually, it would be a better idea to find Hypno, and ask him to teleport me.  But then how would I get back to Lime?  He would be worried about me.  And all of those plans were kind of useless, anyway, because I didn't know how to teleport.