Meeting of the Minds

Inside of Marika’s Kaspa, the landscape had changed dramatically ever since Arachne and his dolls appeared out of nowhere and took over the place. Both Marika and Miles had been thrown into a makeshift dungeon in the basement, chained to opposite ends of the room with power-cancelling collars. But upstairs, the mood was surprisingly vibrant. Haven was in Ash’s room, playing a colorful racing game that both were staring at with determination. In the living room, Raven was polishing one of her revolvers while watching some show Jane had put on. “So remind me, why does this Batman not just shoot these guys?” She asked with confusion. “A guy with a gun killed his parents, so he doesn’t use guns! And he’s too cool to kill!” Jane replied. Raven shrugged her shoulders and continued watching the cartoon before her.

Walking into the room, a green-haired woman was looking at everyone with interest in her eyes, a small notepad in her hands. “Let’s see...you go to...Ash…?” She said, looking vaguely in the direction of a room nearby with ‘Archie’ on the nameplate. “Helen of course is Haven, Kuromi is...also Haven…?” Caroline scratched the back of her head with the eraser in confusion. “So who is my base…?” She asked nobody in particular. Hearing the cartoon in the living room, Caroline put the notepad away and slid gracefully onto the couch, bumping next to Jane.

“Hey, Jane! What are we watching?” Caroline asked, smiling.

“Batman Brave and the Bold! It’s super fun! Look! That guy’s an immortal caveman.” She pointed to the screen, kicking her legs with glee. Caroline looked at the strange person on screen and let out an amused gasp. “Oooooooh, that’s so cool! He’s probably seen a bunch of things!” Caroline commented. “Speaking of whiiiiich, question! All of us are kinda...based off you guys, right? I’ve been trying to figure out who is who, buuuuuuut none of you guys seem like my base. Any idea if there’s been anyone kinda like me around here?” The snake-like doll asked.

“...oh.” Jane shiftily looked around like Marika might be there lurking, waiting for her to slip up. “She’s not around anymore. She, uh… left.” “Left? Like, went on an adventure or…” Caroline motioned toward the sky, dreading that this doll was actually dead. “No, no, not that! Just Marika doesn’t like us talking about her. She escaped when we were trying to steal an ogre’s body in Russia. Her name was Cadence.”

“Cadence, huh…?” Caroline asked thoughtfully. “What’s she like? Is she as cool as me?” Caroline asked, putting an arm around Jane’s shoulder and giving her a small squeeze against her side. “Uh.” Jane blushed. “She was tough. She fought Marika as much as she could. And then got away on her own. She was nice, but she hid it.” Jane replied. Caroline's eyes lit up. “Really?! She got away?! That’s amazing! Any idea where she is now? I’d love to meet her!” Caroline asked enthusiastically.

Jane shook her head. “If we knew where she was, Marika could make us tell her. All we know is that she’s free now. Haven thinks there might have been more before us…”

“Really? Sounds like something else I need to look into! I’m SO going to try and find her now! Thanks!” Caroline pulled Jane into a hug for a few seconds, pecked her on the cheek, then released her and began to walk back to her room. Jane blinked a few times in surprise, nervously rubbing her cheeks until Caroline was gone. Was Caroline going to find Cadence? Could she pull that off? She was even cooler than Jane thought. Jane tried to move her thoughts off of Caroline. She was pretty sure they were related sort of. It was weird.



---

After several days, Caroline was finally in possession of a custom teleport scroll, which she used to teleport herself to the edge of a strange forest located somewhere in the Amazon. The humidity and bug-filled air was not pleasant to Caroline, but luckily it seemed that the bugs were leaving her alone. “Huh, you did something right I guess.” She said, thinking of the preservatives that Arachne must have used to keep their flesh from rotting. Apparently it also keeps away bugs!

“So according to that idol...Cadence should be around here…” Caroline mused, adjusting her hat to keep the sun rays out of her eyes. She boldly stepped into the underbrush and began making her way deeper into the woods.

The foliage was dense, but Caroline expertly chopped it away with her knives. The sound of creatures moving through the nearby brush could be heard, but Caroline didn’t pay them any mind. What could a snake do to her anyway? They were cute! Long as she didn’t step on one, they would probably be fine to walk past. Cutting another branch out of the way, Caroline’s eyes widened when she saw a strange clearing in the forest.

The grass at her feet was a mixture of light blue, gold and green, seemingly cut in a perfect inch length off the ground. The nearby trees were an array of colors not like the local forest; a bright white tree with tiny pink buds coating the branches, several cherry blossom trees with strange golden stripes down the middle of the pink petals, and an intricate network of wooden rooms that were coated in dark blue vines with green petals coming out of it. The clearing seemed like a perfect circle around the network of rooms that seemed like a treehouse, with some not even having roofs.

Caroline sniffed the air, eyes widening when she took in the fantastic sweet-smelling aroma coming from the various colorful plants around her. “So this is where this Cadence lives, huh? Seems like an outdoorsy type if I’ve ever seen one. Yoohoo!” Caroline called out, waving her hands. The wooden wall of the closest structure opened up like a spaceship door, revealing a short green-haired woman wearing a long green and white dress, and no shoes. She held an intricately-carved wooden pipe in her hands, a small wisp of smoke coming out of the end.

“...who are you…?” Cadence asked, cocking her head. Her eyes looking Caroline up and down. The jean shorts and strange checkered top were hardly something you’d see on a logger, and you wouldn’t get far in the jungle just wandering aimlessly in that attire. And what was with those vertical pupils? Was she a snake…?

“Hiiiii! My name is Caroline, are you Cadence?” She called over to the doll. Cadence’s right eyebrow lowered slightly at the question. How did she know her name already? Was this person somehow related to the dolls? “...why do you ask…?” Cadence responded coldly. Caroline let out an excited squeak and began walking toward the doll. “I’m a doll like you! From the future! There are actually a bunch of us based off your generation of dolls and, well, I wanted to meet the person I was based on! My, you seem cool.” Caroline said, inspecting the hovering chair Cadence was sitting in. When she got within 10 meters though, one of the vines at her feet wrapped itself around Caroline’s leg and whipped her hard into a nearby tree trunk, driving the wind out of the doll’s lungs.

“...you’re too close...how do I know you’re not sent by Marika…you said you were a doll…” Cadence asked, Caroline leaping back to her feet and massaging her collar bone. “Ooooow. Do you greet everyone that way? Alright, sorry. Uuuuuuuum...how do you prove you’re not a psychotic killer after someone…” Caroline pondered this. Cadence studied her movements. Did she say that she was based on herself? Had Marika made a hate doll based on another hate doll? Did she have plant-based powers too? Perhaps it would be best to just remove her string and put it into something harmless for now.

Commanding the vine to move once more, Caroline was slammed into another tree trunk, when another vine came and grabbed her other leg. Caroline’s eyes widened in shock at the sudden impact, and her legs began to get stretched in opposite directions like a wishbone. “Ow ow ow ow, what are you doing?! Trying to rip me in half?!” Caroline yelled at the doll. Cadence shrugged. “...yes? We can speak when you’re harmless.” The plant doll responded in monotone. Caroline looked at her with incredulity. “Like hell you are! I came here to chat, but if this is how you want to play…”

Flicking open her knife, Caroline turned and slashed apart the vine holding her right leg, which stretched along with the vine, not affecting her lower half much. She then slashed the left vine free and landed back on the ground. “So you can control plants, huh? That’s neat! Horrible place for me to fight you in though…” Caroline groaned when she saw that they were completely surrounded by plant matter. She needed to get in close.

Kicking off the ground, Caroline whipped her body around in a jagged pattern to make herself harder to track, and avoid the little roots Cadence began putting in her path. The chair quickly began to shift around Cadence, covering her body in thick, reinforced roots that would form her golem. “...fast…” Cadence remarked to herself.

When Caroline finally managed to get in close to the golem and the eyehole Cadence kept open to see out of, a sudden impact struck the side of Caroline’s skull and sent the snake-like doll sprawling across the clearing grass. Looking up, she saw a strange figure behind Cadence, with various steam valves whirling across its brass body. Caroline got up and massaged the new lump on the side of her skull. “Oooooooooooow...what is that thing?!” She demanded.

Cadence glanced up at her Gainen, then back at Caroline. “...call it Steam...it’s handy…?” She said, Caroline rolling her eyes. “A giant metal man you can summon out of nowhere? Yeah, that’s pretty handy I’d say!” Caroline called out to the plant doll. Cadence couldn’t get a good understanding of this doll. Surely she’d have dropped the facade by now, right? From her observations, it seemed like this woman could only stretch her body and run fast. Was there another ability she hasn’t seen yet?

Bolting toward Cadence once more, Caroline took a hard right toward the treehouse and leaped onto it like a gecko. “Neat house you got here! Very homey!” Caroline called out, leaping off the wall right before it became riddled with wooden spikes. She used her long arms to extend out and swing from the nearby trees, keeping her pattern sporadic so Cadence couldn’t anticipate her next action. The storm of green and white leaves she was knocking off the trees began to obscure Cadence’s vision of Caroline. “...smart…” The plant doll remarked. By this point, the once-pristine clearing was now a mess of roots and thorny branches, Cadence trying to block any path Caroline could take to gain speed. Oddly though, she appeared to be holding back more.

Stepping on the side of a nearby spike, Caroline leaped off and felt a tug on her leg, allowing her right boot to slip off in the grip of a tree branch. “All this plant control is way more than I ever got!” Caroline complained, Cadence letting out an amused chuckle. “...seems like it…” The plant doll said. Seeing the path forward covered in thorns, Caroline leaped straight at Cadence and her golem…

...and was intercepted by dozens of branches wrapping themselves around her arms, making her drop the knife she was holding. Cadence watched the snake doll flail around as she was turned upside down and held several meters away from Cadence. “...if you were an assassin...you didn’t have the right measures to counter me…” Cadence mused. “I told you, I’m not an assassin! I just want to talk! Can we do that without ripping me in half, please?” She asked. Cadence looked on with a blank stare. The knife she was holding was indeed on the floor. What could this woman do that she hasn’t yet shown?

“...your knife is gone...hm…” Cadence touched her pipe to her mouth thoughtfully. “Well while you think of that, mind if I say something?” Caroline asked. Cadence tilted her head. “...you’re already talking…” “Ok smartass, you know what I mean! All I have to say is…”

Suddenly, her right leg sharply flicked forward, launching her other purple-colored knife directly at Cadence. The doll’s eyes widened slightly as she summoned Industrial Poison directly in front of herself to let the knife plink harmlessly off its armor. But now there was a new problem; she couldn’t see past her Gainen. Making the creature move out of the way, Cadence’s eyes widened again when she saw that Caroline was gone, having migrated mass away from her hands and upper body to slip out of her binds. Caroline was now leaping forward, knife in hand…

...and is caught midair by the golem’s arm. Caroline let out a chuckle when Cadence lowered her so they’d be eye to eye. “Hahaha, I had to try, you know? Can’t have you beating me that easily!” Caroline said, all of her limbs now bound by thick roots. Cadence commanded her plants to bring Caroline’s two knives to herself, the plant doll inspecting them. “...poison...not as useful against dolls I think…” She commented. “Well yeah, I don’t usually fight dolls! Do you believe me now?!” Caroline tried to flail her arms while she was upside down.

Cadence stared at the display. She’s not equipped to fight me...hasn’t dropped this friendly facade...tried that last desperate trick...perhaps she was telling the truth… Cadence thought to herself. “...I’ll keep these until you leave…” Cadence stuffed the two knives into her dress pocket. Waving her hands, the roots around Caroline grew back to normal, dropping the snake-like doll back on the ground ungracefully. “Hey! You could have at least put me back upright, you jerk.” Caroline complained. Cadence shrugged her shoulders. “...what do you want…?”

Straightening her attire, Caroline gave another smile. “I told you, just to chat with the supposed defender of the dolls! Jane told me you resisted Marika and managed to escape on your own! Is that true?!” Caroline asked. Cadence nodded her head. “...yes…?” “I knew it! Can I come inside so we can chat? I wanna hear aaaaaaaaaaall about it!”

Nodding her head, Cadence opened the wall leading into her house once more, the outside now back to its gorgous and flowery normalcy. Inside was mostly barren; a few solar panels were positioned on the roof of the house, and the walls were lined with seemingly hundreds of books. Upon closer inspection, Caroline could see topics ranging from nonfiction history of the world, to chemistry, and even some adventure novels. “Ooooo, fan of books I see.” Caroline commented. Cadence nodded her head. “...you have to find some entertainment out here…” The plant doll responded. Taking Caroline deeper into the house, she could see what passed for a dining room table; a black wooden oval with a moose’s head seemingly ingrained in the wood itself.

Caroline let out a small gasp. “Oh! You’re into carving?!” “...I just move the wood grains around to make shapes...it’s not a big deal…” “Nonsense! It’s cool! And you made all that stuff outside too!” Caroline beamed. Cadence looked at the doll with confusion. Why was she so peppy, even after losing a fight? Was she not bitter at all? Sitting at the table, Cadence looked at Caroline directly.

“...how I escaped...I had to check in with Marika every 24 hours and stay there for several hours...so I used my time outside to track down...helpful people…” “Helpful people?” “...HWIC...I asked them if they could find a way to free me from Marika’s commands...so they said yes...if I reported what Marika was doing...saved some lives I believe...revealing her targets…” Cadence mused. “Hey, that’s great! So you’re a softie after all.” “...I just wanted out...so one night they found a way...and told me to sneak away after we were done on a mission...at a ogre monastery...they took me back...freed me...and I moved here...the end…” Cadence inhaled another lung-full of smoke from her pipe. Caroline looked disappointed at the lack of details.

“You don’t like to talk much, do you?” “...no…” “Well that’s fine too! I can talk pleeeeeeeeeeenty for both of us!” Caroline beamed. Cadence shrugged her shoulders. “...your turn...something about the future…?” “Right! So you see, my future is kinda awful. Marika’s kid can apparently control millions of dolls at a time by making them follow simple instructions. Sooooooooo he kinda tried to take over the world. The HWIC and world governments are doing their best, but between the dolls and an alien invasion…” ''...aliens?” “I don’t know much myself, unfortunately. Just that they like humans as hosts.” A small look of sadness crept onto Caroline’s face, which she quickly recovered from.

“So in his infinite wisdom…” Caroline did air quotes with her fingers. “...he decided to remake some of his mom’s dolls. Plus a few more that I can show you pictures of later. His dolls found a thing that let him time travel back to the past, he thought it’d be fun to say how much better he is to his mom and dad in person, and now...here we are.” Caroline did a small pose to indicate she was done.

“...what happened to...Marika…?” “She and her boyfriend are locked in the basement. Yuu’s still taking care of them, but it sounds like things are pretty good now compared to before. Arachne’s almost always out with Kuromi doing...whatever, and leaves the rest of us to do whatever we want! Cool, huh?” Caroline explained. Cadence stared in surprise. “...she’s just...locked in a basement. And nobody’s tried to...kill her yet?” She asked. Caroline’s eyes widened. “No! Why would we? She’s harmless down there!” Caroline shot back. Cadence let out a sigh. “...and when she gets out…? What then…? She made the person who ruined your world…” Cadence said, Caroline’s eyes narrowing. “MY Marika did, not yours. We don’t know when the timelines diverged, yet? I’m not killing someone just for a potential future.” Caroline stated.

Cadence looked on with bewilderment. Why wouldn’t you want to remove a potential threat that huge? Even if it turned out to be false, you’re still killing a serial killer! “...you can’t be that innocent...she’s a serial killer…” “And YOU can’t be this rash! She’s locked up, and when Arachne leaves, we’ll hand her over to the HWIC to serve prison! I’m not an executioner, just a sexy snake.” Caroline wiggled her hips to show Cadence, who was completely unimpressed.

“...you baffle me...showing up here so casually...letting Marika live...are you always this trusting…?” Cadence asked. Caroline shrugged her shoulders. “I’d say so! Life’s boring if you’re always assuming the worst in people. If you put your trust in others, usually they’ll give you trust back. That’s how societies work; mutual cooperation, right?” Caroline explained, smiling and putting her feet up, having put her boot back on.

Cadence let out a snort. “...societies are built upon mutual exploitation...the people at the top hoarding all the wealth and resources...while making the normal people work themselves to death...to survive...if it means climbing the social ladder...why wouldn’t someone betray my trust…?” Cadence asked. Caroline stared on with a similar baffled expression. “And that attitude is why you’re living alone in the middle of a forest, and I already have dozens of friends in this timeline! I can’t believe you’re my base! You’re so...pessimistic!” Caroline exclaimed.

The plant doll leaned back in her chair. “...and I can’t believe...someone thought this...was me…” Cadence motioned to the doll. “Hey, that’s rude!” “...yes…” Cadence affirmed the insult, making Caroline puff out one of her cheeks in annoyance. “Well, I do know there is a little glimmer of humanity in there. Don’t think I didn’t see you slowing down toward the end of that fight! If you actually wanted to rip me apart, you wouldn’t have kept binding me up!” She boasted, Cadence rolling her eyes.

“...no response...you weren’t worth the effort…” “Aha! You can’t fool me!” Caroline leaned over and jabbed her finger into Cadence’s cheek. “You saw I wasn’t some assassin! And that I could have been trusted from the beginning! Hah!” “...you earn trust with me...and I found that last attack...amusing…” Cadence commented. “You liked that? I can curl my feet all the way behind my leg, letting me hide stuff! Like that knife! Bet you didn’t see that coming, oh genius.” Caroline joked.

Cadence shook her head. “...it was unexpected, I’ll give you that...maybe you got some of my brain after all…” Cadence commented, a small smile appearing on her face. Caroline beamed and smiled back. “A compliment! Yes! Finally getting through to you! Sooooooo...got any way to contact you in the future? Cell phone? Radio? Carrier bird? Please tell me you at least have a messenger groundhog.” Caroline joked. Cadence shook her head and reached into her dress, pulling out a piece of paper and a pen to scribble a series of numbers onto.

“...hidden world phones...have a long signal...so…” Cadence looked up as she handed the paper to Caroline. “...do not...I repeat...do not tell anyone where I live...how did you get here in the first place…?” Cadence asked suspiciously, Caroline smirking as she took the number, followed by her knives. “By trusting other people and making connections, that’s how. I’ll come back and talk more philosophy again soon! Here’s my number if you need anything!” Handing Cadence a shiny business card, Caroline grabbed a teleport scroll in her pocket and teleported across the continent, leaving Cadence clutching the card, turning it over curiously.

“...what kind of a job...is a ‘professional woman’...?”