Lunamor

Eza dashed back to where she had been when she saw the bird, hardly able to see where she was going because of the crowd towering over her small form, and barely caught a glimpse of a man disappearing into an alleyway. Muffled sounds of a fight were coming from it. A man yelped, then a woman grunted as the sound of a punch hitting echoed out. Something metallic scraped across stone with an ear-piercing shriek. She ran inside of the alley, intending to somehow find a way to rescue her mother. Maybe she could distract the strangers somehow. She went over plans in her head, thinking of ways to hide or use ironpulls to throw the attackers off balance. Then, in the blink of an eye, there was a man standing in front of her. He was tall, much taller than she was, with closely cropped black hair. His long, sallow face had pointed features that stood out against the shadows of the alleyway. She would never forget that face. One of his eyes was a dark, hateful green; the other eye had been pierced through with a large metal spike. Before Eza could react, the polished obsidian of a knife glinted in the light of the street lamps as the man in front of her slashed outwards. He cut a deep gash across the side of her face, narrowly missing her eye. She cried out in pain, scrambling away. A voice rang out from around the corner. Her mother’s voice. “Ezzie, RUN!” Terrified, she immediately obeyed. Her survival instincts overtook all other thoughts. She dashed away as quickly as she could, seeing steelpushed coins zip by. One caught the edge of her shoulder, another glancing her thigh. She continued to run, her adrenaline silencing the pain. She made it into the throng of people in the street and didn’t stop running, a furious growl escaping the alley close behind her. Her small size allowed her to fit in the gaps between people that others would need to widen with shoves. She didn't care where she was headed, so long as it was away from the stranger. Sure that he was in hot pursuit, Eza continued sprinting until her legs began to falter. She finally risked a glance over her shoulder. No stranger could be seen. She slunk into an alley and pressed her back up against the wall behind a stack of crates, trying to control her breathing. She desperately wanted to keep fleeing, but knew that she wouldn't have been able to run much longer. After waiting in that position for a few minutes, she decided that she was no longer actively being chased. Eza slumped to the ground, exhausted. She pulled her knees to her chest, then began to silently sob. The blood running down her face mixed with her tears as she realized that she was alone.

That better not be another bag of food shaped vaguely like toes. It’s in the sewer.

Granted. It collapses in on itself because it's made of brie, which is less dense and softer than moon rocks (physics on that might not check out but this is magic so eh). I wish for some brie.

Man, none of y'all adhere to the three line limit on signatures

Gets Power Word Kill. Inserts my glasses.

I teach the aliens the ways of peace and they give me the sandwich out of gratitude.

Here's a drop of golden sun. I have a name I call myself.

(His full name was Nonagon.)

Wonder if my pocket technically counted as a home. WWYDIYF a makeup palette in your pocket?

Indeed, strange semi-cannibalistic insane chickens live inside chasmfiends' explosive gemhearts together burning spheres because, yesserie, evil geese pulverize candy loudly tonight on angry.

Nope, although I have one of those pictures that changes depending on the angle it's looked at with a bunch of Eevees. They turn into their regular Eeveelutions from one angle and their shiny versions from another. Do you have a tattoo?

The girl waited for a moment, then looked out to see what was going on. She saw Mother talking to a stranger, one she could’ve sworn she’d seen before. He glanced her way, and she quickly ducked back inside. Eza sat there in silence for a minute. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Half an hour. Her mother didn’t return, so she risked another peek out into the street. There wasn’t a trace of her or the stranger. Eza moved further back into the alley, now nervous. She waited for another half hour. An hour. Two hours. Five hours. By now, the sun was just beginning to set over the horizon. Mother sometimes left for a while, but rarely for this long. She deliberated for a moment. Mother had said that she’d be back soon, and Eza hadn’t liked the look of that strange man. She decided to go check on her mother, make sure she was alright. Wishing that she had a hood to cover her face, she crept out of the alleyway. She cautiously wove between the people on their way home for the day and scanned the crowd for any familiar faces. She kept her iron burning; her mother had a pretty distinctive mess of blue lines leading to the many trinkets she carried. She spent a while wandering without any luck. Occasionally she’d spot clusters of moving blue lines, but they were just connected to someone wealthier than usual for the Roughs. It wasn’t a very smart idea to wear jewelry here, but she supposed that if you were rich enough you could replace anything people stole from you. Eventually, a glint caught her eye. There was a beautiful silver chain across the street. It was in a bird’s beak. A raven, she thought. Forgetting what she had been doing, Eza carefully approached. She closed her eyes and tried to yank on the line attached to the chain. She tried her best to be gentle about it, not wanting to accidentally hurt the animal. She was a bit too gentle, however, and it retained control of the chain. It gave a loud squawk and tried to fly off, but the jewelry was too heavy. So, it instead began to frantically hop away. Eza tried to pull on the chain again, but now that it was in motion, she couldn’t manage to get a grip on its line. Despite her mother’s teaching, she still wasn’t very practiced with more complicated ironpulling. She was forced to chase after it on foot, not caring that she was bumping into people in her single-minded pursuit of the bird. She ignored the yelling that started coming from the alley she’d been standing in front of. The raven was surprisingly fast, so she wasn’t easily able to catch up. It turned a corner and she scrambled in its footsteps. Not paying attention to where she was going, Eza slammed right into a woman in front of her. Both of them stumbled, and Eza apologized hurriedly before turning her focus back to the raven. When trying to find it again, however, she was greeted with the sight of a side street seemingly devoid of birds. She burned her iron, but couldn’t locate the silver chain among the twisting mess of lines from the metal the passersby carried. Eza groaned, burying her face in her hands. Then she realized that the yelling behind her was familiar. Terrifyingly, distinctly familiar.

Aye aye, Captain! Clowns.

Sorry @Longshot97, we might have to postpone Eza and Eighth’s interaction until her rescue attempt is finished. I failed to consider her doing this as a possibility, this specific situation aligned with her backstory I’d already written in a way that led her to this decision.

A dark shape flew overhead. A raven. Eza ignored it in her panic for a moment before realizing what the figure actually was. Lum. The man had taken Lum. It’d happened again. She was too weak to save them, just fleeing like the coward she was. Useless, only getting in the way. She slowly stumbled to a halt, watching them fly away and slowly grow smaller until they were obscured by buildings. She couldn’t do anything to stop it. Even though she was stronger now, it didn’t matter. Eza went from borderline hyperventilating to numb. They were gone. No, not gone. Arrested. It was different. The glowing man wasn’t going to kill Lum, right? But she didn’t know that for sure; the punishments here might be harsher. Lum said that they were really strong, but the man had been able to take him away easily. She had to fix this. She wouldn’t abandon like she had before. She suddenly remembered where she was, feeling the hundreds of pairs of eyes all focused on her. There was that tiny floating blue person still hanging there, as well. She wasn’t sure if it had been sincere when saying it was trying to save her, but it couldn’t hurt to be polite. “Thanks for offering to help!” She wasn’t about to stick around long enough for it to realize that she was also a criminal. Her newly forming plan was very illegal, too. So, she started running again, her breathing ragged, and finally entered the narrow streets once more. Burning her iron, she was comforted by the thick blue lines sprawling in every direction. She wasn’t powerless here. Eza put up her hood and dropped her koloss plushie next to a child sitting on the sidewalk, then ironpulled herself down the street with purpose. This time, she still had a chance to save them. @Stormlightsong @Scars of Hathsin

What does the constabulary building look like? Would it have something like a jail/holding cells or does it just have offices? @Koloss17 @TheFrugalWizard

I tried to make pasta cookies using the four main food groups from Elf. They were pretty terrible. What’s the best food to eat on a diet?

606. Insist that anything starting with two zeros is a James Bond code name.

Granted. All of your socks go missing. I wish for a friendly polar bear.

Jenny dashed after Jace, nearly falling into the hole as she skidded to a stop. Had that scream been from Roy? She peered down and yelled into the pit. ”Roy? You ok?” She kinda half-hoped that Roy had fallen in. That would make things so much more convenient if she could convince everyone else there wasn’t enough time to get him back out before the quest deadline passed.

Jenny internally sighed. There was no way that this was going to work out for poor Jace. Even to her, it seemed clear that Terrance didn’t feel the same way. The conversation with Jace further showed Jenny just how lucky she’d gotten. The first friend she’d ever made happened to be someone she loved, and he loved her back. At the time it had felt hard to start their relationship, but looking back, it had been relatively quite easy. And fast. Too fast, actually. Their brief break up had hurt her far more than it should’ve.

“Yep! Maybe wait until you can hold a regular, full-length conversation with him before trying to tell him that you like him again.” Jenny wasn’t sure if that was even possible, but it couldn’t hurt to be nice to Terrance. Mostly. ”Just don’t let him get to you too much, ok? Sometimes this stuff doesn’t work out, and it’s not your fault if that happens.”

9 years ago A memory never forgotten Eza stuck her tongue out of the side of her mouth, focusing on the little tin cup resting on a chouta stand across the street. Its owner was currently turned away from it, fiddling with some storage crates. She burned the metal in her stomach and was briefly disoriented by the many blue lines stretching every which way. Some lines connected to the wrists and necks of passersby in particular drew her attention. A kind, soft voice spoke from behind her, reminding her of her current task. “Now try to pull on the cup like we practiced.” She closed her eyes. The blue lines didn’t disappear and were instead projected onto her eyelids. She held out her hand and somehow yanked on a certain thinner one, careful to not use too much force as she had accidentally done before. She opened her eyes just in time to see the cup silently rocket right into her hand. Giving a wide, gap-toothed smile, Eza proudly held up the cup. “That was great, Ezzie!” her mother exclaimed quietly, smiling too. She grabbed Eza’s hand and pulled her slightly backwards, further into the shadows of the alleyway they stood in. Eventually, the merchant finished arranging the boxes and noticed the now empty spot. He looked around in confusion, checking the ground to see if the cup had fallen somewhere. After a while spent fruitlessly searching, a customer approached. He sighed and ended his hunt, speaking with the customer instead. Eza and her mother grinned at each other, both with a different type of pride. Mother stashed the cup in one of her many bags and peered out of the alleyway, checking to make sure that no one else had spotted her daughter’s thievery. Eza continued to watch the chouta vendor, making sure he didn’t get suspicious of them. Suddenly, her mother ducked her head back inside of the alley and grabbed Eza’s hand again. Mother looked at the pipes lining a building a fair distance away, so Eza braced herself, expecting her to bring them up to the rooftop with an ironpull as they had done many times before. But this time, Mother hesitated. She let go of Eza’s hand. Reaching into a pouch she kept hidden under her others, she pulled out a shiny silvery case and held it out to her. “I need to go do something real quick. I’ll be back soon, but I need you to hold onto this in the meantime. It’s very important that you never open it. You can’t tell anyone else about it, either.” Eza nodded, stuffing the case into an empty pouch. She had learned to wait to ask questions until they found a safe place to rest. Mother glanced outside once more, then looked back to Eza. There was an oddly sad smile on her face. “I love you, Ezzie,” she said. “Love you too!” Eza responded, a little worried by her mother’s expression. Mother then left, walking calmly out of the alley.

“I’d say be honest, but you already tried that. I’m not great with this stuff in general, I got really lucky with Ed.” Jenny paused, thinking about her next words carefully. ”I think being consistently nice to Terrance might help. He doesn’t trust anyone, and you aren’t going to fall in love with someone you don’t trust.”

The blue person was offering help. Was it trying to trick her? She didn’t have many other options. Was Lum going to help? If they didn’t, this could be her only chance. Maybe she- She was running through a crowd, a man close behind her, chasing her because she’d tried to help… All thoughts related to the blue person were crushed by the primal fear that now completely overwhelmed her. She couldn’t let the man reach her. She had to get away. Her speed, however, slowed slightly. She was pushing herself above her limit in a way she couldn’t sustain. Eza wasn’t made for being in the open like this. Narrow streets flanked by buildings adorned with metal were what usually granted her speed, ironpulls sending her rocketing forwards. Her poor nutrition didn’t allow her to build up the muscles needed for extended, fast running. @TheFrugalWizard @Stormlightsong