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    One year ago, depending on the calendar referenced, shortly before Crataz and Ivira entered the dungeon.


    In the dungeon mind space, a ghostly raven hopped across a crack in the remains of the foundational instincts. The raven cawed as a light flickered deep in the crack. The mental energy of the mind space swirled and condensed down into a glowing and slightly curved line. The light faded and the line turned green. The raven flapped its wings and hopped over to the vine. The mirror star reflected the raven''s curiosity across the mind space and onto the new vine. The vine drank in the light of the mirror star and grew.


    "Curiosity"


    The green vine grew slowly. It absorbed the sensory information that rained down and the mirror light from the star that orbited around the mind space. As the shadows from the cracked and broken foundational instincts fell across the information bundles, the green memory vine absorbed animal feelings of caution, hunger, desire to hunt, and the plant feelings of growth and pulling in water and nutrients.


    The memory vine grew along the ground, putting down roots and branching multiple times. The roots of the vine grew together with the fibers of the mushroom network, allowing the vine to pull in sensory information from all over the mind space. The subtle differences in the sensory rain mixed in the memory vine, providing nourishment and strength, but no distinct memories.


    A sensory and mental wave burst into the mind space as someone *knocked**. The sensation of a System message rained down on the memory right after the knock. Branches and leaves grew, incorporating the input and the raven''s curiosity. The contents of the System message blurred together as the memory vine absorbed it.


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    "Creation"


    The sensory rain shifted as a new worldlet formed on the far side of the captured space. Another System message arrived, longer and even more nourishing to the memory vine. Faint ghostly white haze appeared over the sections of the memory vine that formed from the input of the first System message.


    A second knock splashed across the mind space. The energy of the knock flowed along the mushroom fibers and up the roots of the memory vine. A ghostly branch formed above a section of vine near the center--where the first knock had been incorporated into the memory vine. The ghostly branch grew and began to radiate curiosity". The mirror star spread the curiosity around the space. Several illuminated branches absorbed the reflected curiosity into their growth from the second knock.


    Part of the sensory rain contained the vibrations of the voice of the dungeon fairy. Mana flow sensations spiked briefly, then both mana and vibrations dropped from that area of the sensory rain.


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    "Pressure"


    The sensation of pressure rose and fell. The sensory rain flowed into the memory vine from all over the space. The vine continued to grow. The pressure returned, strong and localized, overriding other sensory information. Mushroom network fibers carried the sensation around the mind space before it was absorbed into the memory vine or drained into the foundational instincts. One of the intact sections of the dungeon instincts absorbed some of the sensation of pressure.


    "void intruder, *alarm*" trickled up from the instincts. The mirror star reflected the alarm across the illuminated parts of the mind space. Information bundles reacted to the alarm according to their instincts. "danger", "fear", "hide" all reflected around the space, triggering more reactions from information bundles. The memory vine absorbed and incorporated energy from all these responses.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    The remains of the foundational instincts, plant and dungeon, took in mental energy full of "danger" and reacted. Mana flowed out of the dungeon core to reinforce vine branches and the barrier mana flows that separate the dungeon from the void. The sensation of pressure stopped, and the state of the mind space returned to equilibrium as the memory vine drank in the mirror light.


    Pressure returned, in a different location. Ghostly branches formed over multiple points on the memory vine. One ghostly branch was fully in the mirror light. "alarm, danger, defense" spread around the mind space, carried on the light of the mirror star. Dungeon defenses rose again, and the illuminated ghostly branch grew more solid. When the pressure dropped, the strengthened ghostly branch sank int into the memory vine below it.


    Pressure and defenses rose and fell together. Each iteration strengthened the memory of "alarm, danger, defense". A second source of pressure joined the first, and information bundles began to react with "discomfort". One of the pressure sources inverted to become a sensation of draining. Pressure and drain danced around the dungeon mind. Reactions from the information bundles churned through "danger", "weakness", and "distress" as the mirror star orbited the space, spreading the sensations unequally. The memory vine grew constantly, incorporating the sensations and reactions.


    The pressure and draining intensified. The anxiety of the ghostly raven mixed with the responses. The spider tree weasel information bundle bared its fangs and projected "fight!” The flying horse trembled and projected "flee!” The clam squeezed its shell more tightly and projected "shell!” The mirror star grabbed these reactions and reflected them everywhere its light could reach. The plant and dungeon instincts went haywire.


    Mental energy drained and surged chaotically around the mind space. Defenses rose and fell as ghostly branches flickered in and out above the memory vine. The sensations of pressure and draining struck at the same point, then vanished. The sensation of several System messages mixed with the turbulence of the mind space. The state of the mind space slowly returned to stability. The memory vine grew.


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    Two weeks later, the sensory rain turned red. Painful sensations fell across the mind space. Swelling, splitting, and burning feelings caused all the information bundles to thrash in agony. Intense mental energy crashed through the mushroom network, breaking many fibers. Mental energy and mana forced their way into various instincts, causing rapid fruit growth and other effects out in the dungeon.


    The jellyfish bundle, pushed low by the sensory rain, bumped into a red vine branch and became entangled with the leaves. The jellyfish instincts activated, trying to dissolve whatever entered its bell. When the vine growth surged forward again, a new branch speared through the jellyfish. Red energy from the vine flowed into the jellyfish bundle, carrying the sensations from the sensory rain. The jellyfish bundle absorbed the red and pushed pure energy out through its tentacles, back into the vine. On the next growth surge, a ghostly vine appeared above the jellyfish. The ghostly vine formed a circle, like a snake eating its tail. With each growth surge, the jellyfish pushed more pure energy into the vine branch, and the ghostly vine grew more solid. Eventually, the bell of the jellyfish dissolved the branch that had pierced through the information bundle. The jellyfish, now dark red, drifted away from the vine, and the severed branch fell toward the ground.


    When the severed branch hit the floodwater below, the ghostly circle branch flared brighter than ever. It radiated the concepts, "pain, absorb, grow”. As the branch briefly sunk under the sensory floodwater, the ghostly branch melted, spreading streams of white through the water in every direction. The roots of the vine absorbed some of the white as it drained the floodwaters to fuel the next growth surge. Mushroom network fibers absorbed and spread the white throughout the mind space. Soon after, ghostly branches of "pain, absorb, grow” appeared over all the new growth of the vine, shining brightly through the falling sensory rain.