Branches of Time.

curiosity.

For as long as she could remember, Monkey Hat loved to follow other markers along. Not in a stalker-ish way, she just liked to observe from a distance what was going on. That way, she learned a lot about what other markers were up to.

Such as Serenity and Zen being best friends, she wouldn't have discovered that without spying on them in Candyland!

But one night, as she was doing her usual walking around, no real destination in mind, she noticed something.

The player.

They seemed to be climbing up the clock tower, for some reason.

Monkey Hat didn't know why, all the clock tower did for her was that she just liked to look at it to check what time it was. Speaking of, it was quarter past eight, or 8:15.

Then, [Player] touched the clock, before vanishing into thin air, leaving Monkey Hat completely bewildered. Her curiosity peeked, as she quickly ran over there, wondering how could that be.

While she always had a fear of heights, sometimes she wouldn't process that what she was doing INVOLVED heights. That's why she didn't immediately start having a panic attack halfway up the tower.

Hearing the clock tick loudly, she carefully touched one of its hands...

...

Where... was she?

She was in some kind of kingdom... it seemed peaceful, but where did [Player] go? They were just running around, turning on orbs, or something like that. Weird...

Then again, Marker had gone missing, and Monkey Hat knew how close they were with each other... makes sense [Player] seems so panicked.

After they turned them all on, [Player] began to get a ton of water, seemingly watering some kind of plant. Monkey Hat hid behind some rocks that were there, trying not to be found.

Slowly, the plant grew taller and taller, until [Player] climbed up it. Monkey Hat did the same, although a bit further behind, and somewhat apprehensive about it.

Nonetheless, she reached the top... and eavesdropped on a conversation [Player] was having with another marker. A rather pretty one, in Monkey Hat's eyes.

"So... what happened?"

"I found a time traveller's secrets... they noticed, took me here, and stranded me above this dungeon."

"Who is this time traveller?"

"...They go by the name... Dark Markery. I overheard them whining about some 'plans to replace Purple Marker' or something like that."

"Can you tell me everything you know about them."

"Gee, you're asking a lot of questions. Alright, I guess."

Monkey Hat kept staring at the marker, taking in how they looked. They had a lot of turquoise on them, from a teal body, a dark aquamarine cap with leaf patterns and a foliage crown on it, and a light teal emblem... whatever the circle thing most markers have.

No matter what... they seemed so beautiful... perfect, even. They had some kind of scent around them, most likely flowers.

Monkey Hat was used to being around flowers; one of her mutuals was literally Flower Marker. They spoke occasionally, and she found her rather fun to be around, although a bit egotistical at times.

Overall, her best friend was Vermillion Marker. They hit it off amazingly, being rather chaotic... and loving gossip. They'd gossip about any marker and every marker.