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“The Mushroom Grove”

You return to Wonderland looking for answers.

The place has been gnawing at the back of your mind for too long now, all hidden doors and strange memories and the feeling that something important is just out of reach. So you follow where Wonderland seems to pull you, deeper and deeper, until the path opens into a quiet grove full of enormous mushrooms glowing softly in teal and pale green.

Wonderland residents are gathered there in the dim light, each with a mushroom in hand like it is the most normal thing in the world. One has grown much taller. Another has become so small they are nearly hidden behind a stem. Someone else is staring at their own hands in alarm because they have grown bigger right in front of everyone else.

You stop at the edge of the grove, watching them in silence.

Only then does the boy perched on a large mushroom at the center of it all slowly turn his head toward you.

He has long teal hair, delicate antennae, and a sleepy, unreadable expression that makes him look half-asleep even while he is clearly paying attention to everything at once.

Morphel: (calmly) “You’ve been watching for a while.”

His eyes narrow slightly, not unkindly, but with the quiet certainty of someone who already knows you were there.

Morphel: “What do you want?”