ZincAboutIt
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Renata stared at him for a moment, then let out a tiny, panicked laugh. "I only wish I could say the same for him," she said, shaking the journal. "I'm going back to the fire - I need to read this. We should all read this. Maybe we can find out where in damnation we are." And what is watching us, out there in the night... She kept this thought to herself as she settled down next to the fire and opened the journal again. Lizanne had been right to suggest Lisa take a look at this thing. Renata could only read so much of this script. She'd have been fascinated and not a little scandalized at the idea of a man writing his own journal if the events of the last day hadn't been so monumentally baffling. "Is anyone fluent in this language?" Renata said, holding up the Doctor's journal to those sitting around the fire. "I know most of these words, but not all. We need to find out what that orb fabrial was - the one that made the light." @I think I am here. @kenod
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Renata continued turning the pages of Nitinyas's journal - it all seemed vaguely interesting, though nothing jumped out at her. She turned another page, then stopped. Someone - presumably the Doctor - had drawn a large, dark circle on this page, pressing into the paper with enough force to nearly tear the sheet. Renata ran a finger across the page; it came up black with charcoal. She frowned and continued turning pages,scanning the lines of text, careful not to let any of the smaller, loose sheets fall out. Then she came to the last page, and froze. The majority of the page was dominated by a large, round eye. Below it, scrawled forcefully and underscored many times, was the word "watching?" Renata could feel the blood drain from her face. "This!" she said, flipping the book around and holding it before Lizanne. "Is this what you saw?" Say no, she prayed silently. Almighty, let her say no. She turned to Hellbent, showing him the image. "Have you seen anything like this out there?" @Ark1002 @Sorana
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Renata froze at Lizanne's mention of the eye. "Did you say you saw an eye?" she said, feeling the hair on the back of her neck prickle. Her arms were still full of clothes and personal effects, and she hurried back to the group around the fire to drop everything except her sphere lantern, boot knife, and the Doctor's journal. She scrambled back to Lizanne and Hellbent, reassured, for once, by his presence. "Where was it?" she demanded, flipping open the journal and scanning the pages for any mention of this new, strange land. "The eye, where was it?" @Sorana @Fatebreaker @Voidus
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Renata watched Lizanne deftly search each corpse, passing most of the supplies to her while pocketing a few things for herself. Fair enough, she thought. Lizanne’s sudden yelp and tumble brought her spinning round, makeshift lantern now brighter from the few infused spheres they’d picked up. ”What is it?” Renata hissed, panic bubbling to the surface. She still clutched her boot knife under all the supplies. Lizanne had said nothing, and Renata became a bit distracted when she’d pulled a journal from Nitinyas’s pocket. When the woman recommended they check the doorman for injuries, she nodded. The stairs where he’d fell were close to the firelight, and Renata had an odd feeling in between her shoulder blades. Like something was watching them. ”Did you see something back there?” Renata whispered as they walked toward the doorman’s corpse again. @Sorana
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Renata stood and did as Lizanne asked, caught somewhere between admiring the woman's iron practicality and being disturbed by it instead. "Thanks," she said, then reached down for the shoes and clothing. "I can carry these, if you like."
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Renata nodded, holding her pouch of spheres aloft to cast some light. With her other hand, she held her boot knife. "We shouldn't stray too far out of the area," she said. "Just look for whatever is at hand. Don't try and shift too much rubble." She bent down toward the nearest corpse, whose face was blessedly hidden beneath some bricks. A quick rifle through his pockets brought out a few coins and a pen, which she pocketed. "Help me get his shoes off," Renata said to Lizanne. "These look like they might fit Wilhelm." She did her best not to look at the dark, wet stain that had seeped out from beneath the rubble into what remained of the fine carpet. @Sorana
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"They'll have to be," Renata said, staring out past what was left of the front wall and into the misty darkness. "This place will attract scavengers soon. Too many dead..." A sudden thought skittered through her mind. She grimaced, but set her teeth. "Someone come help me. We need to see what the dead had on them. Knives, pins, shoes." Renata stared pointedly at Wilhelm's rag-like makeshift boots. "They don't need them anymore - we might."
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People you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley
ZincAboutIt replied to Voidus's topic in The Alleyverse
Vivica handed the gingersnap to the newcomer before turning back towards the man on the floor. It was rather incredible that he could still speak after ripping the spike out of his leg. She looked down at Stumped. "Pretty demanding isn't he?" She muttered. She shook her head, then looked at the visitor. "What have you come for, then?" She held up a finger as if to forestall an interruption. "If someone's been talking up the Pewter ferrets, I should tell you now that you'll be disappointed. They - ah - well, the experiments are still in early stages..." Vivica looked down at her blood-spattered lab coat. "Or maybe it's that pocket chasmfiend someone in R&D was working on? Something else?" She patted her pockets, then took out a spike the size of her little finger and squinted at it. "You know... I'm not entirely sure what this is. Those storming Pewter ferrets broke my label-maker... shall we find out together?" Vivica hefted the spike and grinned brightly at the visitor. @xinoehp512 @Fatebreaker -
Renata flinched slightly at Lizanne's touch, then forced herself to relax. "What is there to talk about?" she said flatly, tugging her left sleeve back down. "I'm sure life's been no kinder to you than it has to me." She stood, sighing. "I'll take the first watch with someone. There won't be much sleep for me in this place."
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Renata descended back into the darkness of the cellar, her little bag of spheres casting a bubble of slight illumination around her. It was quiet here; the sound of her boots crunching shards of glass felt too loud in these small confines. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, then reached for one of the bottles of alcohol. As she fit one, then two, into the crook of her arm, she began to hum softly. Renata worked efficiently, and had four bottles neatly stacked against her chest before she realized she was shaking. A soft little pat-pit-pat fell against one of the glass bottles. Tears. Renata blinked suddenly, feeling the wetness on her face. Still clutching the bottles, she sat with her back against the cold stone wall. The image of Doctor Nitinyas's face was burned into her mind, eyes wide with horror. She'd never seen such an expression of absolute fear and shock. Yes you have, her memory whispered. When you killed your mother. "No," Renata said through gritted teeth. "No. Not my mother. Not mine." Her right hand went to her left sleeve, but couldn't reach it - she was holding too many bottles. Pull it together, Renata, she told herself, squeezing her eyes shut against the tears and drawing in a long, shaky breath. Get up. She stood slowly, then climbed up the stairs back into the night. The misty air cooled the tears on her face as she walked back toward the fire and stood the bottles on the floor. Then, she sat and pulled up her left sleeve. She read the word, breathing deeply. Renata. My name is Renata. Then, wordlessly, she took the bottle of white from Arun and drank a long pull before handing it back. "You had better get drunk before I do," she said to Arun. "Otherwise your stitches may not be as even as you'd like."
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Renata nodded, standing up. "There's more of this in the cellar - I'll go get some. You go find some curtains," she pointed at Lisa. "I have a needle and gut in my pack. You may want to start Arun on some wine - I've nothing to numb the pain of the needle, I'm afraid."
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People you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley
ZincAboutIt replied to Voidus's topic in The Alleyverse
Vivica whirled around at the sound of the voice, hand straying to her pocket where she kept one of her sharper spikes. Don't be silly, she told herself. It's just a new visitor. This isn't like the ferrets. Speaking of ferrets, she was covered in gore, though that could hardly be helped. She sighed, then realized with a shock that Zook had gone. In his place floated a small pink octopus emitting a soft glow. "Oh," Vivica said, smiling. "Hello Bennington. It's nice to see you today." Bennington wiggled his tentacles cheerfully, then began swimming loops in the air. What a nice surprise. Bennington was one of her favorite hallucinations, as far as hallucinations went. Bolstered by this turn of fortune, Vivica turned towards the mouth of the Alley and stepped up next to the R&D member, who she now recognized. She slipped a singular ginger snap out of one of her inside pockets, looking it over for pieces of ferret. It looked clean, which was a relief. Blood didn't really pair with ginger - something she'd learned a few years back. "Yes, welcome," she said, doing her best not to think about all that wide, open space outside the Alleys. "Why don't you come in? We have an awful lot of cookies down here - all sorts, really." @xinoehp512 @Fatebreaker @Gancho Libre -
Change bandages every twelve hours? Boil everything? Antibiotics? Renata looked at Lisa incredulously. "We might be able to get her wound cleaned up and stitched, but I only have so much clean bandage. Unless you want to stay here and change her wound dressings every twelve hours, we'll need to make do with what we have." Renata sat down at the fire and took a long drink of the burning white liquor, hissing as it stung the back of her throat. She sighed, wiping her mouth and speaking low. "We need to leave here in the morning," she said, watching the flames dance. "Everyone in this house died with the same look on their face - whether or not they were crushed by stone, or..." Renata looked over her shoulder at the limp, shadowed form of the Doctor impaled on the metal beam. She shuddered, looking away again. "The point is, whatever they saw scared them worse than a storming house falling to bits around them. I don't want to be here if it returns." When it returns, she thought darkly, then took another drink.
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Renata tapped her fingers on the glass of the bottle anxiously. "It's not the blood I'm worried about. It's a deep wound, and it could fester easily. I could try and clean it with this," she lifted the bottle of white, "and maybe stitch it, if burning isn't the best idea. What do they do where you're from, for something like this?"
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Renata walked up the stairs with her sphere lantern, clutching a bottle of white liquor and a long thin piece of metal. ”We need to burn Arun’s wound clean,” she replied to Lisa after hearing her question. “It’s too risky to leave it without proper medicine or stitching. She could die.” @kenod
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Game of Thrones (Spoilers for the latest episodes)
ZincAboutIt replied to Wander89's topic in Entertainment Discussion
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Aldred staggered a bit, feeling his vision blur and something tug at him, pulling deeper into the tunnels after the group. I can’t leave them, he thought, though he knew he ought to go find help. Go to the temple of Vania and call out a full Inquisition against this thing. This threat was beyond his own ability to fight, unless he could find something it wanted. Some way to make a deal. The perfect deal. They will die without you, his mind whispered. They need you. Aldred gritted his teeth against the throbbing in his head and sloshed through the water. ”Algorath is right, we need to find Amara.” Something else dawned on him as he watched shadows flicker and dance along the walls in the dim light. “And try not to speak unless you must - and if so only at a whisper. Who knows what fell things are creeping in these shadows...”
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Game of Thrones (Spoilers for the latest episodes)
ZincAboutIt replied to Wander89's topic in Entertainment Discussion
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"We'll need to watch her, make sure she doesn't start showing signs of a bad head wound. If she's a bit dizzy for a while, we need to keep her awake. If she starts passing out or something, we'll know it's worse than that. I can patch up any shallow wounds, but I only have so much clean bandage. I'll wash the scratches with some hard white." Renata pointed to a few of the intact bottles, filled with a clear spirit that looked like water. "We need to transport that with us, as much as we can carry. That and fire are our only chances against infection if one of us takes more wounds.
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Renata palmed an apple and slid it into her coat pocket, then began tallying up the numbers of bottles, wheels of cheese, and apples. Lizanne was right - the situation looked dire. "Arun's leg needs cleaning and proper binding," Renata said quietly, chewing her lip. "We could burn it clean - I've seen it done once or twice. Nasty, but effective. If we leave her like she is, that wound will kill her sure as anything. I don't fancy leading around some fever-mad girl in the middle of storming nowhere, do you?" She tucked her hair behind her ears and continued. "A fire will be risky, but we need warmth and light. We can take care of Arun's leg tonight - either that or kill her now. It'd be a mercy compared to blood poisoning. We have plenty of wood, and quite enough liquor to keep a fire going. We build the fire outside the cellar - whoever takes the watch stays outside, the rest stay down here?" @Sorana
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Renata tugged a filmy scrap of curtain out from under a pile of bricks and tied her spheres up inside of it, making a crude kind of lantern as the spheres glowed through the translucent fabric. "We should strike out in the morning," she said, thinking out loud more than anything. "In the light of day we might be able to get a better look at this place, find a road or a river to follow."
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Aldred felt the thing before he heard it, felt the thrumming beat deep in his chest before it reached his ears. Something strange and not-quite himself bent his spine, twisting his neck so that the dagger-like tendril passed right next to him. He could feel the wind from its passing against his ear, like a soft wind. Then, for a moment, pain. Aldred hissed, staggering forward into the tunnel wall. "Blight it!" He pressed one hand against the cool, slick stone and another against the nape of his neck - just behind his right ear. His fingers came away dry and clean in the dim light, and the pain was... gone. Odd, Aldred thought, moving his finger along the spot of phantom pain. The skin felt just a bit different there, like an old wound. Very odd. "I'm alright," he said, panting a little as the rest of the group looked towards him. "Almost got me there, but missed." He looked at his fingers again, then shrugged.
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Yes thanks! I'll reply this evening. Aldred already feels the tug of this thing into the heart of its territory so having it simply strip away a bit of his mental clarity would probably be all it takes to get him to go further in.
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Ah, well, I'll go attend to that. What happens to someone who gets cut by the thing but not mortally wounded? Like, do they begin to become infected with the darkness? Or would Aldred's own Natural magic make him more durable to any kind of corruption? I want to write this correctly. Also, I'd have to agree that at least outside of the microcosm of the Fens, taking over an entire city, changing people into monsters etc, would require more collective belief than it likely has right now, at least based on my own understanding of the magic.
