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Hello everyone, and welcome to the first chapter of The Bread Also Rises. To start things off I'm going to need a character detail. Just, basically any sort of character detail. What do you know about the main character that I do not?

Well, I was looking at a glowstick when you asked me that question. So, let's say our main character, he/she/it, has an uncontrollable urge towards glowing, pink objects. -James Valentine

Are... are you fucking kidding me? Seriously? This is why we can't have nice things. That's your character prompt? An uncontrollable urge towards glowing pink things?

Alright, fuck it. It's your character. You now suffer an uncontrollable urge towards glowing pink objects. Congratulations. Now, someone else, please. What can you tell me about why that might be the case?

There was a significant/traumatic event in the character's past where they didn't have a glowing pink object, and now he/she/it collects them obsessively, as though to make up for the time when he needed one the most. -Spoon_030

Huh. Now we're talking. That's actually pretty cool, nice suggestion. You just turned a silly, almost inexcusable character prompt and made it pretty awesome. I can work with that. I guess that we could use another prompt by now, though, just to get the story going. So, someone else, what more can you tell me about this_glowing pink object?_ What sort of traumatic event could have possibly happened, so that now our main character collects them obsessively? What horrible, terrible-

A baking accident. -Luprand

Oh for fucks' sake.

No, no, hear me out. I got this. The glowing pink object was a Queen Anne's cherry. No, not that kind of "cherry," get your head out of the gutter. Literally, a cherry. It was the last ingredient he needed for his golden recipe to win the competition to become the Royal Baker. This competition was going to rise our character out of his life of squalor, and up into the ranks of the nobility. It was his golden ticket! But he didn't have the cherry he needed to complete the recipe, and the competition ended in disaster. -Luprand

Okay. That's actually... pretty cool. I can work with that. We might even have enough to get started. I'll bring in more prompts as I need them, but for now, let's begin. Welcome to The Bread Also Rises!

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"It's like he isn't even aware of what he's doing."

"It's a tragedy, really. I hear his shop is in ruin."

"I just can't believe what's come of him. What is he even doing right now?"

"It's just such a tragedy."

These are whispers which surround the marketplace as they continue to sweep ash from the streets. How so much ash could possibly be produced by just one baker, nobody quite knows. Your name had started out as a minor murmur through the audience, as the common folk throughout the city gathered for the glorious competition. They watched your paws fly from jar to jar, expertly measuring your ingredients with the keen eye of years of experience, as well as an extraordinary level of natural talent. Watching you bake bread was like watching nature itself at work. But then something terrible happened. Something unpredictable, something you could never have counted on. The one thing that could foil the entire competition.

The cherry was missing.

The whispers of your name grew. What started as a low murmur turned into a powerful chant, as your oven began to spew ash. Your recipe had been brazen, but a baker with your skills should have been able to pull it off. Without that cherry, though, all hope was lost. There was no bread here - now there was only uncontrollable ash. Quickly you try to undo the damage, and pull the foul mistake of dough from the oven. However, this only serves to give your charred creation additional airflow, and ash takes to the sky. The townsfolk now giggle in mirth and pleasure. Not many exciting things happen in the life of a commoner. A grand competition to become to Royal Baker was the excitement of the year. But now there was ashfalling from the sky. The people loved you!

Up until the guards started making them clean it up.

Ash everywhere, and your name had turned from mirth to disgust. Making the common folk work on their day off, when they were supposed to be enjoying a spectacle put on by the Craftsman Guild itself. The folk had been promised free bread! And now they're cleaning up YOUR mess! Every look has become askance, people eye you with distrust. Everyone wants to know what on Earth happened. How could you produce this much ash? How is this even possible? What happened at the baking competition... uh, you? Yeah, you. With the face. Err... what was our name, again?

Liam! -Spencer Le Blaze

What happened, Liam? Through the streets people ask, and it's people of all walks of life as well. Even the upper class has taken an interest in you - something which never happens for a low-level baker. But you know it's only because you're a point of interest. A laughing stock, actually. They're just here to poke fun at the young, naive... okay, wait. How old are we, and what species are we, anyway?

We're in our early twenties. -Suko Gryphon And what, we're a baker, right? Preeeeety sure we're going to be a meerkat baker. Also, have you decided on a gender yet? Because I'm pretty sure we're male. -Hayrider

The upper class have started to poke fun at you, the lowly meerkat baker. You know, the one who actually thought he could win the competition. And not just that, but he blackened the sky with his terrible bread! What a laugh, what a marvelous scandal! We would never even consider buying bread from the likes of_him!_ And since the upper class is laughing at you, everyone else has started doing it too. Why, even your friends have started to look down on you. There goes Liam! Careful, don't let him near your bread!_ _Otherwise we'll be sweeping for days!

It's gotten pretty bad. By now it's been... lets see, probably a few months since the fated event. You were hoping desperately that it would all blow over, but it hasn't. Nobody comes into your baking shop anymore, and it's not like many people knew about it to begin with. You can barely afford to keep the candles lit, and above all the listless depression has enveloped you. It haunts you.

It's all you can do just to gather just one more cherry.

A part of you knows that it's unsustainable. You can't keep this up forever. But, to be fair, you aren't entirely in control just yet. It's like you've been on autopilot ever since the accident. All you can see is the cherry that went missing, all you can hear is the laughter. To be fair, you've collected quite a few cherries since then, only now you can't afford to buy the other ingredients. In fact, you can't really afford much of anything.

Life has gotten pretty bad over the past few months, until finally something snaps. You come to understand that something needs to change. Anything needs to change.

So, then. What changes?

We move to a new kingdom, to get a fresh start! -Hervor Kanavar

Why, yes you do! You realize that there's nothing for you here. You've lost everything, the tax man is bleeding you dry, plus the Craftsman Guild has stopped subsidizing your shop. Nobody wants to buy bread from such a failure. You just need to get out. Maybe there can be a fresh start, something new. A place where nobody knows your name, a new kingdom with a new oven, a place where a meerkat could bake to his heart's content!

Bread! Bread everywhere! Confectioneries! People who could appreciate you for what you do, and not just laugh at you for one small, career destroying mistake. It's time to move on! And that's what you do! You take what minor, minor scraps with you that you can - and you leave. No plan, and not really much of a destination in mind. Just so long as you get out of here and on to something new.

Basically what you take with you is your cherries. It's literally all you have to your name, now. The shop bled the last of your coin purse dry, and you didn't even have much to begin with. You do have your cherries, though, in a neat little jar. You also have a small satchel to put them in. A part of you considers bringing the last of your flour, but what use would that be? You don't want this flour, it's tainted with the memories of your failure. No, you keep the cherries and nothing else. You don't even keep your baker's apron, neither the chef's hat. You hang these things up for the last time, although you are sporting a brown leather jacket, as well as a commoner's cap.

It's the meager beginnings of an adventure. And you're not even sure where you're going. But as long as it's away from here, you're okay. With that said, now, what happens next?

Now we form an unlikely bond with a secondary character or group. Somehow our meeting this character or group involves our ability to bake bread. This person or group will play a primary role in shaping the hero's journey. -Tenax

You've just left the city. You've been traveling for a while now, just straight down the King's Road, just seeing where your legs take you. For a little bit there you were even able to keep your tail from brushing against the ground, because you were excited to be on the way to your fresh start. That only lasted for about an hour, though, or maybe two. Then your tail started to droop. Your paws started to hurt, too - a commoner like yourself couldn't particularly afford shoes, and with the remarkably wide range of species and anatomies, shoes were definitely something of a specialty item. Most folks didn't have shoes. But then, most folks weren't on the road, traveling to secure a new life.

Still, whatever is out there waiting for you, it's gonna be big. You just know it! Even when your tail drags against the road you're still certain that there are big, big things on the horizon. But then the sun starts to set. You've been walking along this road for hours and hours now. Your paws aren't bloody, but they're certainly sore. Worse than that, though, is the hunger. Hunger has set in.

You're a baker by trade. Usually you're surrounded by flour, and wheat, and bread galore! You practically haven't gone hungry a day in your life. If you ever needed something to eat, you'd just bake some bread and be good to go. But now you don't have that luxury. You're out on the road with nothing but your jar of cherries - and you would_never_ break into that jar for something as simple as hunger. Why, you'd starve before you broke into that jar of cherries! But it's been hours since your last meal. The starvation has begun! Each step starts to become dreadful and your new reality has begun to set in. This is what it's like to have nothing.

Then an opportunity sets in. Off there, down the road a ways. It's dusk but you can still make out a group. They're stopped for some reason, and you see horses (the feral kind) and a few wagons. There's people walking about, but it's hard to make out how many. You do have hope, though. Maybe they have something you can eat! Maybe these people can help play a primary role in shaping your journey!

The leader of the group is a high-strung, super intimidating super bitch. She's a black cat. And she might be the leader of some sort of underground enterprise? -Hayrider Merchants is the group he meets, and now that you mention it, these guys _do_seem a little shady. We offer to turn their raw materials into bread, feed their caravan if they feed our character as well. That's how we first meet. -Kregen

It doesn't take too long to come up to the halted procession. It looks like the wheel to one of their carts has broken, and a few of them are standing around deliberating. You're pretty sure it's a raccoon who's kneeling down, inspecting the wheelbase, and there's a bird of some sort standing next to him. It looks like they're having some sort of an argument, and you're almost hesitant to approach them. The hunger is driving you, though. Surely they have something you can eat! But if you thought that the raccoon and bird looked unfriendly, then there was no way you could have anticipated the black cat who was in charge.

The bird glances up, sees you, and squawks while pointing. You can't make out the bird's words, but the squawk nature of his speech is unmistakable. And that's when you see her. The cat is tall, perhaps an inch away from being unnaturally tall, and the way she stalks toward you makes your fur stand on end. This is not a woman who wanted to be dealing with a broken wheel in _her_caravan. And she doesn't want to deal with a rogue, haggard looking meerkat, either.

"What do you want?" Her words are sharp and accusatory. The tone of her voice gives away that she suspects you think that her group is up to no good. That may or may not be the case. You haven't gotten a solid look at her group yet. All you really want is a loaf of bread.

"Bread?" The cat is incredulous. "We don't have any bread!"

"But what sort of merchants don't have any bread? Please, you must give me something to eat!"

Something you said makes the cat stop in her tracks, and her tail flicks around deliberately. "Yes," she says, her demeanor changing drastically. "Why, yes. We are merchants. That is a correct assumption you have made."

You blink at the sudden change in her nature, but the black cat continues speaking. "However, being merchants, we have sold the last of our bread. In fact, we have hardly enough food for our crew as it is, and cannot spare any more. Good day, meerkat."

The cat offers a sharp wave as a dismissal and returns to her crew, very prim-like. What a cat like her is doing out here on the road you'll never know. But you can't just leave things the way they are, you need something to eat!

"Wait!" You shout after the cat and she turns quickly on her heels, clearly unhappy to be called after like that. "If you are merchants, then surely you have raw materials!" You feel like you might be floundering here, but it's the best you can come up with. "Flour, sugar, eggs. These are all staple ingredients to any caravan, but useless by themselves. If you give me your ingredients, I can bake you the best bread you'll ever taste! Enough bread to feed your entire crew, for days! All I ask for is even one loaf to take for myself."

Before you can continue your speech the cat cuts you off sharply. "Ha! Bake bread? Here, on the King's Road? We have no oven, young meerkat, clearly you must be delusional. I will waste no more time with you."

You come back quickly. "And I suppose a baker could never bake bread on simply an open fire?" The cat stops as though to consider your proposal, and you give it everything you've got. "Well, a skilled baker can. And a skilled baker," you continue, stepping closer for dramatic effect, "can bake the most delicious bread you've tasted in your life. Why, back at the capital my bread is famous! I'm the most well known baker in all the kingdom! Not a single household hasn't heard the name of Liam the Baker!" You wince inwardly at having given your real name, but it looks like your bravado is working. And thankfully it looks like they haven't heard the wondrous tale of Liam Ash-Bread, because the name doesn't seem to influence her opinion of you one way or the other. In fact, it looks like she's still deciding on what to do with you, so you press the matter further. It's now or never!

"Besides," you mention, casting about for something else to grasp on to. Then you remember the broken wheel. "Your crew will be repairing that carriage for some time yet. And if your supplies truly are as low as you say, then this opportunity is golden for business. After all," you say, raising your voice so others might be able to hear, "what better way to reward your crew for their hard work than with fresh, delicious, bread?"

The cat glances around nervously, seeing if anyone heard that. Much to her dismay, they did. Both the raccoon and bird (you can now make out it's a crow) are watching you with interest, and now appearing from towards the front of the caravan you can see a fox and a badger as well. Just like typical workers, the mention of food definitely got their attention. And no self-respecting leader would renege on the promise of food. But she doesn't look happy about it as she whirled once more to face you.

"Listen here, Liam the Baker." She somewhat spat the words with disgust. "This is my caravan, this is my business, and you are not invited into it. I do have the materials you seek, and we will bring them out to you. You stay away from my caravan, though - I don't want you near any of my cargo. And this open-fire bread had better be as marvelous as you claim, baker, or you'll pay for wasting my time."

What a bitch. True to her word, though, the badger and fox start to approach you with jars of raw materials, and you help direct them into building a fire pit ideal for making bread. It's also difficult to gauge who is more excited for it, you or the crew. They bring you mixing bowls, they bring you utensils, and they offer their services however they can. But you don't need their help. In fact, it's likely they would just get in your way. Besides, don't they have a wagon wheel to fix or something? Time to leave the master to his craft, because that's what you are. Even if you became the laughing stock of the city, these people don't know that! This is the fresh start you had been hoping for! It's time to start anew! It's time to prove what you are to the world around you!

You are Liam! The Baker!

It doesn't take long for the fire to reach appropriate bread levels, and in the meantime the others have largely left you to your craft. It seems like the leader of their crew, that black cat, really doesn't like you very much. The crew doesn't seem to understand what the problem is, though. That's probably just because they can now start to smell the bread in the air. And this time you stuck with a simple recipe. No trying to impress the entire kingdom this time around, and you're not exactly sure how you made so much ash during the competition, but there's no chance of that happening again. You're just going to keep this nice and simple. Just you, the fire, and bread. Glorious amounts of bread.

Many other bakers would have been tempted to leave their dough unattended whilst it was baking. But not you. You have one shot to make a lasting impression on this caravan of mystery travelers, and you're striving for this to be some of the best bread you've ever made. Still, it is a little bit funny. For claiming to be merchants there seems to be something odd about this group. The fox in the group seems somewhat shady, like he wants to get you alone for some reason. Not that you're being a racist for calling a fox shady - it's genuinely how the gentleman carries himself. It was all in minor details, too. A surreptitious glance here or there, or a flick of his unkempt tail when maybe there shouldn't have been one. It was just an impression you got, but by now you had learned to trust your impressions. After all, it's that same intuition which made you so good with baking in the first place.

And speaking of baking, it seems like the first loaf is done. It has an oddly glazed look, with exactly the right texture and exterior you might expect. Ordinarily you might never suspect such a thing could be made over an open fire, and you're not even sure how it happened - you've just always had a talent for baking. You call over the cat who's in charge, who never actually gave her name.

Melony -ShontheWolf

"I have a name, meerkat. It's Melony." Oh, so what, she's allowed to have a name and you're not? She knows what your name is, apparently she's just too good for it. What a bitch.

"Yes, Melony." You emphasize her name. "The first loaf of bread is ready. It's still quite warm, but tell your crew that-"

"CREW!!!" Melony shrieks, instantly summoning her small team of rag-tag, misfit caravanners to her side. Either these people are quite excited for your bread, or terrified of getting on their leader's bad side. With what little time you had spent around her, you suspect that her crew has the right idea. Thankfully, though, your bread really should be able to speak for itself. You're so confident, in fact, that you just hand over the loaf and immediately start work on shaping the next lump of dough, ready to take the first loaf's place. You have a lot of work still to do.

Melony now starts a small soliloquy whilst holding your loaf of bread. "Let us see," she champions, speaking to her captive audience of employees, "what this baker is capable of." With that she breaks your loaf of bread into two.

The bread tears with the most satisfying crunch. Inside the loaf are the most perfect, pillowed clouds, cooked absolutely to perfection. Steam releases from the center of the broken loaf, and with it releases even more scent of the freshly baked goodness. The crow in particular can be seen visibly struggling against the scent of bread which is in the air. If sweat could bead against that feathered exterior it certainly would have by now, but it's easy for you to imagine anyway. In fact, everyone seems to be salivating, and by all measures it's impressive the crow has held on as long as he has. In the end he does cave, however. The crow steps forward involuntarily, while Melony is still brandishing the bread triumphantly (for some reason), and pecks a section of it right out of his leader's paw.

The crew falls silent. There is a combination in the air of defiance against Melony, by eating bread from her paw, and hushed wonder as the crew wonders what sort of bread their mystery baker is responsible for. And you just keep right on forming the next loaf of bread, placing it just so on the appropriate stone, all cool-like, pretending like you don't care either way what these people think of your bread.

But in reality, you do care. You care quite a bit. Because ever since that baking accident life just hasn't been the same. Baking is what you do, baking is who you are. And, pitiful though it might be, accolades and thanks from this odd band of misfits is just what you need to restore your spirits, and to remind yourself that just because one baking competition failed miserably doesn't make you a failure for life. And, thankfully, those accolades are on their way.

"Oh," the crow begins to speak. "My," he continues, around a mouthful of bread. "GAWD!!!!"

The crow squawks his delight and the polite mannerisms of a lifetime of culture get thrown out the window. He just leans over and pecks another massive chunk directly out of Melony's paw, equivalent to eating food off of someone else's plate with just your face. Crow doesn't care, though - and the bird's enthusiasm for your creation fuels the other members of the caravan. Already they have been salivating at your bread, and with the bird's vigor well established by now, group mentality kicks in.

Their leader is swarmed as all four members of her small caravan pluck the bread away from her, each tearing away a handful for themselves, biting in earnest and then sighing in delight. Either these men haven't eaten anything in quite some time, or it is genuinely the greatest bread they had ever tasted. You're hoping for option #2.

"Men, Men!" Melony tries to restore order, but against your baked goods it's no use. The chaos and disorder is too much for her to control, and then a rogue paw reaches up and gently inserts a section of your warm, tender bread into her open muzzle.

Her eyes bug out as she takes her first bite. Then they close in earnest as she savors your bread. And that's when you know, as they all stand around the firepit, and as you continue to bake even more bread - you have them hooked. A caravan of travelers, most of whom are misfits seemingly like yourself, and with your bread you have effectively become one of their ranks. Possibilities are endless, because, from the looks of it - you have been away from home for less than a full day, and already you've stumbled upon your new home.

It's bound to be an interesting adventure, to say the least. But at least it has what seems to be a proper start. The only thing for it is to continue baking through the night, and then see what tomorrow will bring. You, Liam the Meerkat, have no idea what might be in store. But maybe you, the reader, do.

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Thanks a bundle for reading everyone, it was lots of fun to write and I hope you enjoyed it as well. I'll upload another segment tomorrow, it should be about the same length. As a sneak peek for tomorrow's segment, we get to know more about the fox (whose name is Ridinger, by the way [courtesy of Luprand]), and a little more about the caravan as well. Beyond that, though, I'm just about out of prompts, and I'm going to need your help to keep the story going.

Leave any prompts whatsoever as to what you think should happen next. You can leave suggestions in the comments below this story, or participate in a discussion over on my subreddit, r/pantherfloof. You can also tweet suggestions at me, which will be the most topical way to give me suggestions. My Twitter is Finnpanther, and the hashtag for this series is officially going to be #FurryBread. I'm also going to be posting these updates to my Tumblr, which can be found here.

At the end of each day I'll compile all the suggestions and segments of story and upload them to my SoFurry page. However, you can read the story as the pieces are made over at this google doc. If you want to get involved in a group discussion, and give the most up-to-date suggestions for what happens next in the story, that's where you should look. And aside from that, thanks everyone for reading and I look forward to talking with you guys tomorrow!

Thanks for reading!

-Finn