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| − | C A L I B R A T I O N
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| − | [ST] For five days, Creation sloughs off the old year and puts on the new.
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| − | [ST] On the first day, Luna disappears from the sky, and the Unconquered sun is wreathed in mist. The sky is a misty, featureless gray, and the residents of Icehome frolic uncertainly in carefully guarded homes. Alcohol and drugs flow freely. Socialites don masks and caper through hundreds of parties. The wealthy slum, and the poor play at sophistry. Foreigners gird themselves like Haslanti,
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| − | [ST] Haslanti like foreigners. Tribespeople from the Outwall pitch their circular tents around the city and engage in contests of strength and wit.
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| − | [ST] On the second, there is a terrible howling as Sol peaks, and that night the snow falls dotted with Southern jewel-beetles. Urchins, addicts, and merchants fight in the gutters, prying the gems from their stiff-frozen bodies with knives, but when the snow melts the next day, so do the riches.
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| − | [ST] On the third day, the sky turns red and clouded, moving strangely like the muscles beneath torn flesh, and the Once Dead begin their third day of revelry in the Tomb.
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| − | [ST] Some members have chosen to remain with their families, or lovers, or anyone but their comrades. Some did not have that choice, being on duty. Some are here for the companionship. The Catacombs, the cellar beneath the tomb, is alive with shouting, singing, and revelry as the Once Dead tap the great kegs and try to forget the chaos going on outside.
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| − | [ST] The only nod to duty is that one member of the Talon must sit near the Tomb's alarm bell and skip the revelry. The victim in this case is Snow Peacock, her leg tightly bound, her beauty marred by a vicious scowl.
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| − | [Otter] Spritely Otter wears the winter jacket of the Hill People, soft leather beaded with a hundred rich designs and lined with rich fur. Her hair is long and blond. She looks young and very excited, a flower in her hair and a very becoming flush in her cheeks as she takes in the excitement.
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| − | [Miruna] Miruna is a hulking presence in a corner, laughing with friends and grabbing passing revelers to subject them to drunken face painting. He lets go of a woman after painting carrion crows come to feed from her mouth. She had been eating a tart full of strawberry jam when he'd grabbed her, leading to this unfortunate inspiration.
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| − | [Otter] Otter is standing off to the side, by a great barrel of cider, feeding a corn to her the flying squirrel clinging to her jacket kernal by kernal. Her eyes are fixed on the door. "He's sure to come, right?" she demands of Laughing Jek, for not much more than the hundredth time that evening.
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| − | [ST] Members of the Once Dead move and mingle with ridiculous casualness. The only person who doesn't seem to be enjoying himself is Soldas, who sits in a distant corner nursing a beer. Athela Ironheart has not been spotted since dancing her away along a table several hours ago.
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| − | [ST] Laughing Jek scratches his chin, his eyes bleary from hours of consecutive drinking. "Sure. Well, I'd say. I'm no authority. I hear the boy kind of made a mess of his last mission."
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| − | [ST] "He might have his tail between his legs. But Calibration is a lousy time to spend alone." He shrugs.
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| − | [Otter] Otter's eyebrows draw together- a dangerous sign to those who knew her. "You must have been misinformed," she told him firmly. Her eyes shine. "Elk is a hero in my tribe! Our strongest hunter and fiercest warrior!"
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| − | [Otter] Her eyes drift towards the door again.
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| − | [Miruna] Miruna slaps a hand to his shoulder, having snuck up in the revelry. He pulls him around "Shut yer mouth about what you don't know, yeah?" He grins, and the other hand strikes, different fingers covered in different color paints.
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| − | [Otter] Otter grins dazzlingly at him. "Just so!"
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| − | [ST] Jek coughs. "Sure... Sure, Miruna. And hey, bad missions happen to everyone now and then. I'm sure Elk is great. Shit, guys, lemme tell you about my week. They iced Hare."
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| − | [Miruna] He moves his grip to the back of the man's neck, to keep him from squirming too much. A short while later, an elk was prancing accross his forehead, leaving spoor, and a rather trampled jester.
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| − | [Miruna] He stops scowling. "Hare?" He hadn't known her well. "She had children, yeah?"
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| − | [Otter] 'Iced?"
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| − | [ST] "I guess, I can barely keep track of all the bastards I've fathered," He screws up his face as Miruna paints, giving Otter a glance. "Yeah, you know, iced. Killed. Comes from putting bodies on ice, like the... out... wallers..."
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| − | [ST] "Hey, look who's here!" Jek adds, perhaps more forcefully than is necessary
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| − | [Otter] "She must have weak if-" Otter's head whips around. "Elk? Is he here?"
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| − | [ST] He nods his head. Elk enters at the far end of the room, looking harried as he weaves his way past Fervent John, who is racing around with Jonah the Lad on his shoulders.
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| − | [Otter] Her flushed cheeks and parted lips leave no doubt of her interest.
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| − | [Miruna] He follows her look, grinning knowingly. "Lets not speak of the dead today." He reaches and gives the girl a shove. It would be good for the lad. He didn't notice the sticky blue and red residue he left on her shoulder.
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| − | [Otter] Otter squeals, jumping in delight. A flying squirrel digs its little claws in her jacket in alarm. "ELK!" she shouts, far more loudly than is necessary. She barrels through the crowd. "Beloved!" she crows again, launching herself at him and fastening her lips on his before he has even properly seen her.
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| − | [ST] Elk's eyes widen with a look of horror that Miruna has never quite seen before as the woman fastens herself to him. Perhaps thinking this some trick of calibration, he stands still, mutely enduring the kiss.
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| − | [ST] "'ey, lady," Startled Rabbit calls drunkenly. "I'm the one's gonna pluck that rose!" A chorus of hoots and catcalls follow.
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| − | [Otter] She smells like wildflowers and caribou, but her arms are muscular and almost bruising her strength. She doesn't even hear the woman's vulgarities. She draws back and simply beams at him. "Surprised?" she asks impishly.
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| − | [Miruna] He bellows with laughter, and sets off through the crowd to his temporary workshop. Beer and his paints, sitting on a chair by some of the other old ravens. That face needed immortalization, and there was all the walls of the hall to choose from.
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| − | [ST] "I... er..." Elk coughs. "I... what are you doing in Icehome, Otter?"
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| − | [Otter] 'Why, I'm here to join the Once Dead, of course!"
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| − | [ST] "I... you can't be serious. Your aunt... your father... surely they didn't allow this?" Laughter rings out from across the hall.
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| − | [Otter] A cloud passes over her face. "They don't make decisions,' she says, almost in a growl. She holds on to him by the arm. "I wasn't going to let them keep me away from you!" She turns her face upward, moistening her lips expectantly. Munroe, clinging to her shoulder now, chitters and lifts its furry face the same way.
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| − | [ST] Elk stands there, staring dumbly, his face a mask of shock. Laughing, Laughing Jek comes to the rescue, stepping between the two, putting an arm around each of their shoulders. "Now THIS is a story, I can see!" he says, leading them to a nearby table. "Let's have a seat."
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| − | [Otter] Spritely Otter grins and plops down into a seat beside Elk, snuggling. She's already forgiven him for spreading scurrlious rumors. "It was a romance, really," she says merrily.
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| − | [ST] Opposite them at the table sets the dour thaumaturge, Softhands. His huge, blunt face doesn't quite match his small, dainty spectacles, or his titular hands. He seems pleasantly absorbed.
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| − | [ST] "Watch this," he says, and spins a top on the table. For a moment, it does not seem strange in any way, but as Otter watches, she sees that it keeps spinning long after it should have fallen... and then reverses the direction of its spin.
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| − | [Otter] "How clever! Is it magic?"
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| − | [ST] "As Calibration advances, Essence patterns become distorted," he says with a mild grin. "The rules loosen. Why, the only thing keeping you from flying off your chair right now might be the fact that we all believe that everything still falls down."
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| − | [ST] "Jonah sure has fallen down," Jek points out. The young, almost feminine Once Dead has toppled from Fervent John's shoulders; he rubs his ass, swearing good-naturedly.
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| − | [Otter] Otter looks around again, pink with excitement and mild inebriation. "In my tribe, it's very boring," she confides. "Everyone just sits around and sleeps and tells stories and prays."
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| − | [ST] "Softy interesting really is that," Jek says, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, Elk, why don't you tell us about your last mission?"
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| − | [Otter] "Yes!" Otter exclaims instantly, diverted to her favorite subject. "Tell us of the enemies you slew and the maidens you rescued." She nudges him, to indicate that she was prepared to be good-natured about the maidens.
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| − | [ST] Elk scratches the back of his neck. "It... wasn't very impressive..."
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| − | [ST] "There weren't any captive maidens. Well. One." Elk looks at the table. "Leopard and Two-Bits died."
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| − | [Otter] Otter smiles fondly at him. "He's so modest." He'd never boasted, that she could recall- but she had been watching him, as he hung back when the other youths pushed their way forward, but he had killed as many deer as any of them.She clasps his hand under the table when he mentions his slain comrades. "Your foes must have been very fierce," she prompts him solemnly.
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| − | [Miruna] Miruna, across the hall, is yelling for someone to drag the food table over so that he can get high enough to finish his scene.
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| − | [Otter] "The noisy painting man spoke well of your actions," Otter adds, indicating Miruna.
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| − | [ST] "I didn't do much," Elk says. "Miruna was the real hero." His hand lies limp and lifeless in Otter's.
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| − | [Otter] 'It does you credit to speak so of your subordinates," she says seriously. They had told her that Elk had led the team, junior as he was, just as Otter had known he would.
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| − | [Otter] Still, she thinks, it wouldn't hurt Elk to push himself forward a little more. It was best the publicize one's bravery, or one risked it being overlooked.
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| − | [Miruna] Now, after bulling his way past protests about his feet getting near the food, he is finishing the back of Otter's head before he adds Elk. Miruna doesn't bother with brushes, instead dipping his hands in the paint and running them over the wall. Still, he is careful to keep it from dripping down to ruin anything. Well, the rest of the painting anyway. Unwary revelers might be shitting blue in the morning, after Elk's wide s
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| − | [Miruna] Elk's wide startled eyes.
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| − | [Otter] Otter suddenly squeezes Elk's arm. 'Look!" she exclaims. "It's us!"
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| − | [ST] Elk winces, trying to turn his attention to Softhands' top.
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| − | [ST] "Keep it up, Elk, " Jek adds, "and you'll soon be as famous as old Hundred Knife Jackal himself. Of course, considering what happened to him..."
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| − | [Otter] "Elk is smarter than some old jackal," Ottter grins. She could only say it, of course, because the Jackal tribe had died out hundreds and hundreds of years ago when they tried to seize control of the Whispering Pass from the Fox tribe.
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| − | [Otter] 'I joined the Once Dead so we could be together," she tells Sofhands, still engrossed in his magic tricks, since she hadn't already told him as she'd told Jek (ad nauseum).
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| − | [ST] "Devotion," Softhands says absently. For a moment, the top floats above the surface of the table. "Admirable. Have you gone through the training yet?"
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| − | [Otter] She squeezes Elk's hand, and frowns when he doesn't return the gesture. It disspiates in a moment. "Yes! Well an abbreviated version- I've been trained by the very best, of course, and that man who leads you- Soldas? said I didn't really HAVE to do the whole thing."
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| − | [ST] "Soldas," Softhands says, as if that sums it all up.
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| − | [ST] "Hey, he hasn't gotten any of us killed yet, at least," Jek says, raising his mug. "Here's to that."
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| − | [Miruna] Miruna steps back to admire his work, falling to the floor with a crash. Luckily one of the kitchen staff had been passing behind him. Unluckily, another platter of meat was ruined. Elk has a small reprieve, as everyone pauses to laugh at the men sprawled on the floor.
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| − | [Otter] It had taken a little browbeating, but she found Soldas very malleable after a week or so of badgering. It was hardly necessary, anyway, for the daughter of Elia Fox and White Bear. She could throw a javelin as well as anyone.
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| − | [ST] Elk winces again at Jek's comment and
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| − | [Otter] Otter lifts a mug of something green that had been left by a previous occupant of the table. "Your painter friend is very jolly," she adds to Elk, since he didn't seem to like to speak about Soldas.
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| − | [Miruna] The scullion scurries off, and there is renewed laughter at the handprint painted on his ass.
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| − | === | WARNING! WARNING! IMMANENT LOOM CAS- CAS - CASCADE FAILURE, CAUSALITY FAULT IN REGION 2.0041 | ===
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| − | [ST] Snow. Cold, lashing, a howling wind. Jek screams, his words lost in the howling blizzard.
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| − | [ST] The sky stretches above, red and shifting, barely visible through the screaming onslaught. Elk and Otter fall together into a snowbank. Improbably, Miruna finds himself buried up to the waist in a drift as well.
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| − | [ST] There is no sign of the catacombs or the others, only the shriek of the wind.
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| − | [ST] The Once Dead are on a desolate, windswept tundra, stretching for many miles in all directions.
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| − | [Otter] Otter raises herself out of the snowbank and digs through the snowbank until Elk is unlodged as well. It's freezing, and she's thankful all over again for the warmth of her fur-lined coat, which had been excessive in the catacombs moments earlier. "W-what-"
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| − | [Miruna] "the Fuck?" his voice rises. "Knives? Dedikind? elk? Rabbit?" He can barely shift his legs, deep in the snowbank. He starts clearing the snow from around his waist, to work his way down.
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| − | [ST] "I don't know..." Jek stammers, slapping at his rapidly paling lips. "I didn't think I was THAT drunk..."
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| − | [ST] Elk shivers. The howling blizzard is blisteringly, perhaps fatally cold, something out of the farthest North beyond even Diamond Hearth. This is a killing freeze.
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| − | [Miruna] He leaves red, blue, and brown streaks in the snow. By the time his hands are clearing his knees and he can really start to shift his legs, he is trembling badly. He was in a thin painting smock and leggings, prepared for a party in a hot hall, not whatever this was.
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| − | [Otter] Otter hurries over to Miruna, pausing only to strap on her leather gloves before helping dig at the snow around his waist.
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| − | [ST] "What the hell is going on?"
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| − | [ST] Elk tries to sound more furious than terrified.
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| − | [Otter] Otter bites her lip. It got cold in the mountains, but like this, without proper gear or animals or tents or anything-
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| − | [Otter] "It's like the Story of the First People,' Otter says, working hard to keep her voice calm and level. Everyone panicked if the chiefs did. "Calibration picked us up and- and moved us elsewhere." Munroe shivers and scampers to hide itself in her hood.
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| − | [ST] The _____________ sky shifts and ________ above the Once Dead as the blizzard _________ and ________. Jek jumps up and down, hands rubbing his upper arms as he ________.
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| − | [ST] "Something _______ right," he says. "This doesn't make sense!"
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| − | [Otter] She wraps her arms around herself. Even in the coat, it was freezing. She tries not to be grateful the men are all too big for it. "We should make snow-dens before we lose too much body heat-t,' she says in that same measured tone. Her teeth are chattering at the end, and then she moans 'Shit,"
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| − | [Otter] It was easier to be Chief when Creation made sense. "Stay together!" she shouts as the world rearranged itself, because shouting at people to do things was the alternative to being scared.
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| − | [ST] .ginssih, daeD ecnO eht no secnavda ti sa ylegnarts sevom tI .doolb nezorf dna eci fo pu edam eb ot smees ti tub ,nam a ekil ylesool depahs si tI .sesir erugif yldnips a ,kcor deduorhs-wons fo rups ybraen a morF
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| − | [ST] "Thing that is hell the what?" Jek snaps, fumbling for a sword that isn't there. "This can't be happening!"
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| − | [Otter] Spritely Otter draws a javelin from the quiver at her hip as the blood-and-ice creature moves towards them, placing herself
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| − | protectively in front of Elk. "Stay back!" she shouts, her voice thin in the tundra air, as the creature of nightmare moves through space like an unreality.
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| − | [ST] "I can take care of myself," Elk insists, drawing his own short knife and stepping up beside her. His breath emerges from his mouth in a white rush. It's so cold that it seems like it should freeze upon hitting the air.
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| − | [Miruna] He hastily clears the snowdrift and grabs his knife. He was getting tired with this, and belligerent as always. "Raven's fight. Charge!" He suits his words, although its more of a fast walk as he negotiates the snow.
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| − | [Otter] Otter is panting, almost hyperventilating, but she doesn't feel scared. Her mother hadn't been scared, when she stood against the the thing that had stolen the children. She grins at Elk, lopsided, until the shout to charge comes. Otter totters a few steps, then braces herself, closes her eyes, and whips the javelin forward.
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| − | === | ALERT! SEVERE LOOM BREACH IN REGION 2.0041. PATTERN SPIDERS 00245-00371 REPORT IMMEDIATELY, TEMPORAL- | ===
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| − | [ST] Spring. The snow melted from the ground, green shoots of grass pushing forth. Elk and Jek are nowhere to be seen. Otter and Miruna stand in the twisted, burning ruins of a city that looks half familiar. Icehome?
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| − | [Miruna] He blinks, looking slowly around himself, not lowering the knife. Realizing that he is still shivering, he takes off the freezing soaked smock, and drops it in the road.
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| − | [Otter] Her javelin flies through the air as her fingers release it and buries itself, quivering, in an oak door hanging half-shattered from a door frame. She stands there, hand still outstretched, before she recovers her wits and realizes the most important thing. "Elk?!" she shouts, cupping her hands around her mouth. "ELK!"
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| − | [Miruna] Luckily he had been wearing his normal, more waterproof pants.
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| − | [Miruna] He hugs his arms around himself, careful not to involve the knife. The sun beat down on his back, but he would welcome a burn if it would warm him up some first.
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| − | [ST] The city reeks of blood, and burning flesh. Columns of dark smoke wind into the sky. A _______
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| − | == a ==
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| − | === WO ===
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| − | === WOMAN ===
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| − | [ST] approaches down the center of a wide avenue, seemingly not noticing the Once Dead.
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| − | [ST] Her blond hair hangs ragged and filthy, shrouding her face. She staggers along on blistered, bare feet. Her bones stick out firmly against her smock.
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| − | [Otter] Otter lowers her hands slowly, backing away towards Miruna.
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| − | [Miruna] He steps into her path, pale skin and shaggy with black hair. "Whats happening?" he yells.
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| − | [ST] "You tried to kill us," she says, and her voice is only a whisper. "But we are stronger. We were betrayed once... but never again. Never again."
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| − | [Otter] Otter plants herself at Miruna's side and lifts her chin. Mother wouldn't be scared. "Who burned down the city?" she asks the blond woman in a voice as ringing and chiefly as she could make it.
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| − | [ST] "I did," she says, raising her head to look at you. A sudden light flares, and the closed circle of the Blasphemous Anathema appears on her forhead, blazing with blinding radiance.
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| − | [Otter] Otter sucks in her breath as her legs seem almost to turn to water. "It was not honorable of you," she says almost cooly, face stony, "to destroy what others have built to no purpose."
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| − | [Otter] There. She would not disgrace her people.
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| − | [ST] "But there was a purpose," she says, smiling. "Revenge."
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| − | === | NOTICE: LOOM FUNCTIONALITY RESTORED. REBOOTING IN 03 SECONDS.... 02... 01....| ===
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| − | [Miruna] He growls, shifting slightly, ready to fight. Whatever was going on, she was an enemy. The other anathema attacked wreathed in fire, and she speaks of burning the city? Was it the same man/woman? What were they capable of?
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| − | [Otter] "That's stu-"
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| − | ------
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| − | [ST] "Time for another drink?" Jek asks. The Catacombs are alive with music and laughter. Softhands' top spins in strange, erratic spirals now. Elk picks at the tabletop.
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| − | [Otter] "-pid," Otter says firmly.
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| − | [Otter] She stares at the glass in her hand and looks at Miruna. "Did that-"
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| − | [ST] "You look like you've seen a ghost, Otter," Jek comments idly. "Or maybe Elk's dick."
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| − | [Miruna] Miruna grabs Elk's shoulder in a steel grip, pulling him to the edge of a knife, eyes wild. "What's happening." The alcohol, along with the rest of his breath, makes Elk's eyes water.
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| − | [Miruna] Above them Elk's wide surprised eye stares down, the other hidden by Otter's hair.
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| − | [ST] "M-Miruna? I don't... know what you're talking about!" Elk's visible eye darts back and forth. "Why are you acting so strange?"
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| − | [Otter] Otter breathes in raggedly. "Don't! Let him go!" she shrieks at Miruna, throwing her arms around Elk's neck.
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| − | [Miruna] He blinks slowly, then releases his hand. "Wheres the anathema?" he asks, words loud enough for three layers of the people about him to hear before the crowd drowned it out.
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| − | [Otter] "It's- it's-" Otter shakes her head, her breathing finally starting to slow down, then buries her face in Elk's neck. "It's just Calibration," she mutters against his neck.
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| − | [ST] "Anathema?" Softhands asks. He's still focused on his top, and doesn't bother to look up. "Well, the theory among learned thaumaturges is that they reside in places where the sun shines most strongly until, upon reaching a critical mass, they form and go seeking a body to inhabit."
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| − | [ST] "The sun isn't even shining here."
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| − | [ST] Elk does not put his arms around Otter, but he does not particularly fight the embrace, registering only confusion. The other Once Dead stop their revelry, looking at the outburst in concern.
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| − | [Otter] Otter draws back slowly, recomposing her face. She paints on a false smile with fluid artificiality. "A moment of dreams. It was nothing. Another drink!"
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| − | [Otter] She badly did not want to shame Elk with foolish tremoring. It was Calibration. These things happened. Though never to anyone she had known, who had spoken of it.
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| − | [ST] KA-BLONG KA-BLONG KA-BLONG KA-BLONG
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| − | [ST] The noise rings out suddenly, cutting through the revelry. A chorus of cries suddenly rise in the hall. "The bell!" "Dammit, is this for real?" "Is someone going to have to go out there?"
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| − | [ST] "The bell means serious trouble," Soldas says, sounding only a little drunk. "It means the Oligarchs themselves have raised the alarm. Miruna. Elk. You seem feisty. Go investigate."
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| − | [Otter] Otter lowers her hand her to her thigh and finds she doesn't have her javelins. It confuses her- of course she doesn't have them. Why would she? "I'll go with them," she says immediately, rising.
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| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He spots his smock, ripped lying on the floor where he'd fallen, dripping with gravy. He shakes his head, then notices Soldas' scowl. "Right." He stomps off. "Elk, girl comes, she's your charge."
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| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] Weapons, then clothing. The bells could wait that long or they'd burn without him.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Soldas pulls a face, but is too drunk or disillusioned to care. "Fine, she goes as well. Miruna, choose two others, and be on your way as quickly as possible. If the situation looks bad, return for more support. It may be nothing but a drunk pulling a rope, after all."
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| − | | |
| − | [Otter] "I'm not anyone's charge!" Otter says, offended. Elk was the smartest, best, bravest boy among the Hill People, but it wasn't like she was any slower or stupider.
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| − | | |
| − | [Otter] She looks around for a weapon, and her eyes light on a spear leaning against the wall. She grabs it. No one would begrudge a little spear. She had killed a boar with one once.
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| − | | |
| − | [Otter] She hefts it and grins, thinking that Elk would be so proud of her. "Let's go!" she shouts. Her spirits always revived fast.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Elk looks like a man who might be willing to run out into Calibration to escape his troubles, but in this case, they're coming with him.
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| − | | |
| − | [Otter] "Our first mission!" she crows.
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| − | | |
| − | [Miruna] He grabs the two revelers seeming the least drunk, or at least the least happy, as he stalks out. The lady with the carrion crows and Annar. Good, they could use the banner. Most business would run when they came calling. "They call, we go hard. Get your full gear."
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| − | | |
| − | [Otter] Otter chortles as she straps on armor- the first metal armor she'd ever worn expecting to get into a fight.
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| − | | |
| − | [Otter] "I'm so glad I came!"
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