Margot woke up, her head in a fog. The last thing she remembered was stepping into the room that the job profile had designated for “competitors” to enter. Then everything got too colorful, and too bright, too fast, and she blacked out. Now here she was, sitting on the bottom bunk of a bunk bed.

Margot wasn’t sure when it happened exactly, or how it came to be, but for some reason, she was wearing a plush costume. There were no discernible features on the costume. It was just beige-colored fluffiness, with big button eyes.

More concerning, and more than a little panic-inducing was the fact that Margot could barely feel her magic. The flow of aether through her body and mind was sluggish in a way that it hadn’t been since she’d first summoned her and it felt like the power that dwelt within her body was being restrained by something.

The only thing that kept the panic at bay was the fact that there was a familiar density to her internal aether. This and the plush costume were the sole things that silenced the hateful voice that said every good thing that had happened to her in the past year or so, had all been in her head.

After collecting herself, Margot stood. She looked around and saw a dingy room. There were wooden floors and wooden walls. There was an old dust-covered desk. The room was middling in size but made positively tiny by the two bunk beds that took up a majority of the space. The windows had bars on them, like those one would expect to see in a prison cell, or in the apartments on the rougher ends of the city.

There was also a fireplace in the corner of the room that smelled heavily of evil-repelling alchemical ingredients.

“I must have been knocked out again. I do that too often...Getting knocked out...Note to self, research method of retaining consciousness regardless of outside intervention. Alternatively, research methods of retaining personal security and body autonomy during periods of unconsciousness.” said Margot. Annoyed to find herself waking up in yet another unfamiliar place.

There was a soft chirrup within the young woman’s head as her interface actually recorded the note. Margot felt her mood rise a notch higher. Being reminded of the interface’s existence was yet another assurance that she wasn’t just lying in some hospital, vividly hallucinating about what it’d be like if she’d managed to get her magic back, and maybe met someone who actually gave a damn about her along the way.

The most interesting feature in the room was the door. The material and color of the door changed every thirty seconds, and Margot could see that a strange energy dwelt within the door itself. Pulsing like a heartbeat.

To Margot’s eyes, that door was clearly alive. The ‘door’ was obviously some kind of spatial entity, doing a lousy impression of being an ordinary door.

To be fair, the creature was indeed door adjacent, yes, but it was also clearly something much more.

It took Margot less than three minutes to decide that she’d seen everything she needed to see of the little room. With her true sight, and the experience from her dreams, there wasn’t much the young mage would miss if she paid close enough attention.

Margot hesitantly opened the door. Observing the door as she made contact with the handle and turned the handle, watching carefully in case the door tried to do something to her.

Fortunately, the ‘door’ seemed determined to continue its masquerade. Sensing no sign of hostility from the creature, Margot paused as she passed through the ‘door’. She passed the strange creature a small portion of the stagnant aether that floated, frozen, within her body.

This was a calculated risk. It wasn’t anything that she couldn’t afford to give away, and she had a hunch that it would earn her a measure of goodwill with the creature.

The being, whatever it was, gave her the same feeling that Mint gave her. She got the sense the ‘door’ was a powerful creature, but an ultimately simple one. A beast that responded well to positive reinforcement and bribes in the form of food. In fact, that was what she began to name the creature, door-beast.

Margot stepped outside the room. It was night outside, but the moon was so high and full it could be a mistake for day.

She turned around to see where she’d just come from and saw a cabin behind her. A run-down, wooden shack, with peeling green paint, a chimney, and a flag on its roof. She immediately knew it was some kind of glamour. An impressive one, that was capable of almost holding up against her true-sight.

This was also true for the field she found herself standing in. There was a circle of similar cabins. Seven of them. All of them clearly aged, all of them covered in faded paint, all of them colored one of the primary colors.

Beyond the cabins, there were two other buildings. Like the rest of the buildings, they were made of wood. However, both of them were much larger than the cabins.

One of the buildings was squat, box-like, and simple. It was basically a much-expanded version of the cabins. The other building was larger and more ornate, looming over everything, and casting a somewhat ominous shadow.

In the background of these buildings was a mountain, surrounded by trees and bordered by a large lake.

Margot took it in and instantly knew that all of it was fake. The illusions that made up the strange setting in which she found herself were powerful ones. Powerful enough to force the world to support their existence. Yet they were still just illusions.

It left the young mage with a sense of disturbing uncanniness. Something that up until now, she’d believed was reserved for humanoids that didn’t quite come across as actual people.

Margot looked up and saw a bizarre smiling moon, drooling a liquid that looked a lot like oily black blood. She realized that the creator of the illusion might not have actually cared about having their work seen through.

Thus Margot stopped being concerned with the fakeness of her surroundings.

Part of it was the mad moon. Part of it was a spell that had been woven into the illusion. Margot suspected it had been woven into the illusion for the exact purpose of making those with sharper senses like herself. A spell that was meant to massage the feeling of wrongness the illusory world gave off.

The third thing that distracted Margot from her concern over the who, where, and hows of her current situation, was the crowd of similar costumed, fluffy blobs, that was headed towards the largest building in the area.

Margot wandered towards the building as well. She hadn’t forgotten why she was in this strange place. She assumed the other costumed individuals were competitors, or ‘pieces’, like herself.

She eventually joined the crowd that stood in front of the porch of the ominous castle-like building. A man stood on the porch. Or rather a fish with a man’s body stuck below it, stood on the porch. This wasn’t one of the Fishman or Seafolk, Margot checked, using her reduced but still very acute senses to do so. This was a whole fish, that had been put in place of the man’s head.

The ‘man-’fish was tall. Slender in a way that made it look as if he’d been pulled through a taffy machine. He was dressed in a dapper fashion. Wearing shorts, a button-down shirt, and waistcoat covered with badges.

“Welcome campers...This is Camp Midnight. I hope you’re ready to have a fantabulous thirteen nights!” said the man-fish. His voice overly chipper and just a hair shy of being gratingly reedy.

“I’m Fishel, as in the official, in charge of this camp and the game. You, fine ladies and gents, are the hard pipe hitting, mothertruckers, who’ll be competing for the camp cup and your patron immortal’s victory.” said Fishel the man-fish.

“I think you already know who your team-mates are...So, just group up already, you crazy kids!” said Fishel. His eyes moving around in a discordant fashion that suggested that they were plastic disks, floating a water-logged plastic bubble, and glued onto the man-fish’s face.

Margot stood watching the crowd reorganize itself. She wasn’t surprised. She already knew that she’d be going into this alone. Yet, there was something intimidating about seeing with her own eyes how outnumbered. It was scary and just a little exhilarating. She couldn’t tell if the slow increase in her heart rate was fear or anticipation.

Then to her surprise, the man-fish started talking again.

“Oh, yeah ...The big bosses made a few changes. You, you, and you. Go over there. It wouldn't be fair if the numbers for one of the teams was too lopsided. Naturally, all the teams that are short the standard five get some extra benefits as well.”

Margot found herself surrounded by a group of three strangers in plush costumes. At first, she was confused and a little worried. Then she realized that this was probably Monty’s doing and relaxed.

“Hi…” said Margot.

“Glasses girl?” said a familiar voice.

“Um...Y-, Yes? How did you know I wear glasses?” said Margot.

“The folks at the college I go to taught me how to read aura and shit...I recognized your vibe from the last time we worked together.” said the stranger in the plush costumes.

Margot took some time to think, and quickly recalled the young man who could summon swords made of light.

“To-...Photogenic Swordsman?”

“Yo, nice to meet you again, Strange Mage. I was with this other team already but considering they were not-so-low-key planning on sacrificing me if things got dicey I’m not complaining about the change.” said Thomas Yu.

“You guys know each other?” said the crisp, no nonsense, voice of one of the other plush strangers.

“Yeah...Kind of.” said Margot.

“We’re comrades through combat and all that jazz.” said Thomas. Crossing his arms and nodding.

“Nh…”

Another voice, also female, but this time faintly accented and twangy, spoke up from the third stranger.

“I...uh...I don’t suppose you guys are the agents from the Boise Branch of the heroes guild, that I was supposed to meet up with?”

Margot and the other two just stared blankly at the costumed plushy that had just spoken.

The woman sighed. Seeming to deflate. A visual that was both tragic, and more than a little adorable, considering what she was wearing.

“I didn’t think so…” sighed the woman.

“S-, Sorry…” said Margot.

“The rules are simple folks. Do the challenges! Survive each night! And most importantly...have fun! And the team that has the most members still alive and kicking at the end wins! Hooray!” said Fishel. Speaking up, interrupting any plans, the teams might have been making.

“And to start things off...We’re gonna have a three-legged race!... Don’t worry! We’ll go easy on you this time. You won’t actually have to run with three legs, but Missus Fluffasaurus who just had her leg sawn off this morning, might be just a tad miffed about having to do it in your place…Good luck!”

As the man-fish’s words ended, the entire camp was shaken by an echoing bellow of outrage and furry. Everyone in the field turned and saw a massive scaled beast with one still bleeding stump rushing towards them.

“Is...Is that a fucking dinosaur?” said Thomas.

Margot grew pale within her costume. Suddenly feeling very vulnerable again as she was reminded of her current lack of power and her stifled magic.

“Worse...that’s an earth-wyrm.”

“Should...Should we be running now?... I kind of feel like we should be running now.” said the crisp voice from before. Her tone tinged with trepidation.

“Yes...That’s a very, very, astute assessment of our situation.” said Margot. Already turning to flee.