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Zuki

Mushroom Hunt

Zuki
Sep 3rd, 2012
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  1. (5:54:25 PM) serpentLinguist: [>Echo: Pop over to the place. Look around for Ross.]
  2. (5:56:22 PM) ventricularPipefitter: [>Ross: Snake arms around Echo from behind, suprise hug! ]
  3. (5:57:35 PM) serpentLinguist: [>Echo: Squeak!]
  4. (5:57:46 PM) serpentLinguist: "R-Ross."
  5. (5:58:15 PM) serpentLinguist: "Don't /startle/ me like that."
  6. (5:58:49 PM) ***serpentLinguist slides her razor away. At least she didn't unfold it this time.
  7. (6:00:12 PM) ***ventricularPipefitter quickly disentages. Startle. Razor. Right.
  8. (6:00:19 PM) ventricularPipefitter: ((*disengages))
  9. (6:01:28 PM) ***serpentLinguist turns to give him a proper hug. "Sorry 'bout that."
  10. (6:03:08 PM) ventricularPipefitter: [>Ross: Hug get, I guess.]
  11. (6:03:12 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "It's fine."
  12. (6:03:49 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "It's a short walk from here, near where there's cracks that let in the surface-light. C'mon." He waves to indicate direction, and starts off.
  13. (6:07:01 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "So what do you know about Aelf?" Ross begins, ducking for an especially low ceiling, and snagging a faintly-glowing red mushroom as he passes. "lucidCthonia, that is."
  14. (6:21:05 PM) serpentLinguist: "Well. About what Myra knew, really." Her voice is tight as she says it, and she almost doesn't duck for the lower ceiling. "You played with her in your sixteenth session. You hit it off with a strong intellectual friendship and didn't tolerate each others' bullshit. You did a lot of shiny-work on her, including helping her remove her interest in romance."
  15. (6:22:35 PM) serpentLinguist: "She writes little articles after researching them thoroughly and then posts them, and she and Myrawere conversational acquaintances."
  16. (6:28:50 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "..." At the tone in Echo's voice, he doesn't pick up the conversational thread for another few minutes of walking. "She's a friend of mine, a dear one."
  17. (6:28:50 PM) ventricularPipefitter: A little while later. "Helped me pull my head out of my ass with the Skye-and-Mornei thing."
  18. (6:28:50 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "She's sharing a session with Dawn."
  19. (6:34:26 PM) serpentLinguist: She freezes. "She'd, well. Mentioned being unsettled by her, yes. How badly is it going between them?"
  20. (6:36:37 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "Dawn's their Ward of Heart. Aelf is suicidally depressed."
  21. (6:38:04 PM) serpentLinguist: "... Knight Syndrome bleedover?"
  22. (6:38:33 PM) ventricularPipefitter: (( ....do you want to ret-con that, because we sort of wanted the reveal to come from somewhere else? ))
  23. (6:38:50 PM) serpentLinguist: ((sure thing.))
  24. (6:39:31 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "Aelf trusts Dawn about as far as she can throw her."
  25. (6:41:35 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "In fact--" And they come out into a large-ish cavern, cracks in the ceiling that let in the dim atmospheric light of the Land of Sand and Caverns. Two-tone red mushrooms carpet the floor everwhere there is sufficient darkness. "Here. You need to see this."
  26. (6:42:56 PM) ventricularPipefitter: He opens his wallet, retrieves an open and powered laptop, and offers it to Echo. On the desktop are a text transscript, a short video, and a .png image of '13yrolds1stMarySue.shiny'
  27. (6:43:04 PM) ventricularPipefitter: (( http://pastebin.com/XE4Q5hNr ))
  28. (6:44:01 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "Let me get started on the mushrooms." Ross squeezes her shoulder, unsure if he's reassuring himself, or her, and he busies himself with the fungi.
  29. (6:47:39 PM) ***serpentLinguist stares at the picture for a couple moments, before moving to look at the transcript. She stands still as she does so, unconsciously orienting her back towards the nearest wall as she starts reading.
  30. (6:49:17 PM) serpentLinguist: The first thing she mutters is almost bitter. "There's /nothing/ wrong with her."
  31. (6:51:56 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "Nothing that she didn't want," Ross agrees, carefully.
  32. (6:54:22 PM) serpentLinguist: She turns to give him a look. "There's nothing /wrong/ with her. Yes, she's not normal. No, this doesn't make her less able to function. No, she doesn't want to undo it. But she... there's nothing wrong with her."
  33. (7:03:17 PM) serpentLinguist: Her voice is almost desperate as she says it.
  34. (7:04:38 PM) serpentLinguist left the room (quit: Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client).
  35. (7:09:12 PM) serpenLlinguist [[email protected]] entered the room.
  36. (7:12:19 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Ross tenses. He -wanted- to argue the point, it's so /damned/ /uncanny/ to see Myra moving liquid and deadly on the screen like that--but. He forces his clenched fist to relax, his shoulders to un-knot. He concedes.
  37. (7:12:48 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "There isn't. There isn't a damn thing wrong with her. Dawn is who she wants to be."
  38. (7:17:18 PM) serpenLlinguist: She nods, slumping to sit, all the tension melting from her as she turns back to regard the shiny picture.
  39. (7:18:41 PM) serpenLlinguist: "So."
  40. (7:18:54 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "So."
  41. (7:22:45 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "So Aelf wants to know what's up with Dawn, and she won't take no for an answer, and I'm obligated to give her -something-."
  42. (7:25:16 PM) serpenLlinguist: She looks at him. "Everything Dawn said is the /truth/. She's done nothing wrong. And the truth of her identity is something Myra entrusted to me, and me alone."
  43. (7:27:02 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "No, it isn't my story to tell or give away." Ross's voice and gaze are solid. No doubt here.
  44. (7:28:28 PM) serpenLlinguist: Her eyes are tight as she continues. "I'm not going to buckle into her demands and tell her everything just because she wants to know. It's none of her business, and frankly, we'd both be doing the rest of the founders wrong by telling her before them."
  45. (7:28:43 PM) serpenLlinguist: "So."
  46. (7:29:47 PM) serpenLlinguist: She bites her lip, glancing down at the video clip and transcript. "How little can we give her to get her to give up on this and stop harassing Dawn?"
  47. (7:30:53 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "That's what I wanted to walk with you about. Aelf isn't the first to infer she's been playing for longer than five sessions, for all that you've seen her /aggressively/ not identify with the ones she didn't play."
  48. (7:31:19 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "Anyone else who knows Heart well enough could look at that photo and tell you it's not a single-digit Replayer."
  49. (7:31:57 PM) serpenLlinguist: She nods. "It's apparent." There's no question in her voice.
  50. (7:40:37 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "For all that Dawn--" Ross pauses. "Will you jump on me if I suggest that the way she skitters away from the topic like water on a hot griddle whenever 'You are clearly a veteran of more than five sessions' comes up isn't functional, and raises suspicion?"
  51. (7:44:36 PM) serpenLlinguist: She winces. "No, I-..." She sighs. "No, that's... well. It's true." She rubs the back of her neck and wrings her hands, before working her favorite ring off and spinning it around in her fingers.
  52. (7:48:17 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Ross walks back over, and sits down beside, looking off into the dim red distance. "Hn. Y'know, she's Ward. Probably a way I can spin that."
  53. (7:53:55 PM) serpenLlinguist is now known as serpentLinguist
  54. (7:55:51 PM) serpentLinguist: She nods slowly.
  55. (7:56:03 PM) serpentLinguist: Thoughtfully.
  56. (7:57:18 PM) serpentLinguist: "Yeah, you could. Wouldn't hold water after she rerolls, but her 'native' was Hope and she rolled Fate afterwards as well."
  57. (7:58:47 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "Well, Fate's why she doesn't ask questions about herself, just trusts her instincts. Ward--well, 'denial.'"
  58. (8:00:25 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "Isn't that also her native?"
  59. (8:01:38 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "What I'm saying is more like, 'What's obvious to the co-player may not be obvious to the Inheritor, stop trying to rush her maturity quest and let her get to this on her own time.'"
  60. (8:02:55 PM) serpentLinguist: She nods. "That works, as long as you think it'll keep her from prying."
  61. (8:05:24 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "I don't have to help her, Dawn certainly won't, and I can't risk our friendship on misdirection and Cryptic Shenanigans more than can be plausibly written off."
  62. (8:05:50 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "Aelf is worse than me when it comes to a puzzle or a secret. *Much* worse. I'll do what I can."
  63. (8:09:45 PM) serpentLinguist: She snorts derisively. "Obviously." And nods, more softly. "...don't be afraid to refer her to me if things start getting strained. I'm not asking you to risk your friendship on this."
  64. (8:18:24 PM) ***ventricularPipefitter nods back. "Thank you, Echo. 'M already doing enough of that as it is." He shifts in his sitting position, edging towards her, then back in place. "You'd know the right things to say in that regard; I'd be suprised if she doesn't approach you at some point."
  65. (8:26:00 PM) serpentLinguist: She looks at him as he moves towards her, and casts her gaze down as he moved right back. She sighs softly. "I hope she does. It's not right for her to harass you or Dawn. I sort of wish I'd... No, I don't. I just. /Just/. Gods." She shakes her head and turns back to meet hiz gaze. "...no matter how things go, I'm glad I wound up in this session with you."
  66. (8:30:10 PM) ventricularPipefitter: /That/ gets a smile. A warm, sincere, one, that goes all the way to his eyes and shows his teeth. "Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad I met you, too."
  67. (8:40:28 PM) serpentLinguist: She shifts a bit closer, to put her hand over his. "Now. Let's take a look at these mushrooms, why don't we?" She gestures at him to hand over the one he picked over.
  68. (8:44:19 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "Eh? Right, right." The mushroom in hand is--well, half-crushed. Unsuprisingly, they're the sort of picture-perfect toadstool you'd never expect to see in a natural cave, and they glow in the two-tone red shades of Time. Along the wall, are dull orange shelf fungi. "Here's one of the others, also."
  69. (8:46:11 PM) serpentLinguist: She smiles. "Ten to one they're both inedible. Found any that don't glow?"
  70. (8:51:26 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "Honestly, what with spritely faux-food and crystalanth-glow, I was keeping an eye out for the lit stuff. As for regulars..." Taps his tooth, thinking "Yeah. Dungeon entrances. There's one."
  71. (9:11:16 PM) serpentLinguist: She nods. "Red first, then?" She holds the thing up, making sure she has [Smoke and Mirrors] running.
  72. (9:18:01 PM) serpentLinguist: "Well. Let's see." She takes a tiny, experimental nibble, swallows, and starts to lurch back, then... freezes. Every last motion stops - the beat of her heart, the swing of her hair, the movement of her eyes.
  73. (9:19:35 PM) ventricularPipefitter: (( brb. ))
  74. (9:33:45 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "'Cho? 'Cho!" That is -not- normal, that is -not- good. Immediately, he reaches for his Aspect, decaptchaloguing the brass pocketwatch.
  75. (9:37:51 PM) ventricularPipefitter: He places it in front of her forehead, clicks the button to open the cover, and frowns at the numbers inside--the hands aren't moving, either. He flips it over, pulls a tiny key off the watch's chain, and quickly, quickly, winds it.
  76. (9:42:32 PM) serpentLinguist: After another half-second, she startles suddenly, at the feel of cold brass on her forehead. "Wh-..." She blinks.
  77. (9:44:27 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "Thirty-seven seconds."
  78. (9:44:41 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "And a bit."
  79. (9:46:05 PM) ***ventricularPipefitter furrows his brow at the watch a moment longer, then flicks it back into elsewhere. "Any perception of missing time?"
  80. (9:49:09 PM) serpentLinguist: She looks at him, giving him an odd expression. "Not in the slightest. Strange. But..." She examines her hand, still holding loosely to her favorite ring. "I can tell now that I lost that time."
  81. (9:51:13 PM) ***ventricularPipefitter nods, not backing out of her personal space. "You were frozen in place. Breathing, motion, the whole gig."
  82. (9:51:50 PM) ventricularPipefitter: He very deliberately takes the rest of the red mushroom out of her hand, and captchalogues it. "I think we can say those are not for eating."
  83. (9:52:03 PM) serpentLinguist: She nods. Pauses, grins. "It's perfectly /edible/." Chuckles. "But I wouldn't want to see what feeding time-mushroom soup to carapaces would do to my approval."
  84. (9:53:57 PM) ventricularPipefitter: Ross laughs and laughs at the notion, as much to break the nervous edge as anything. "Ahahaha, of course not, haha, hee, no."
  85. (9:54:21 PM) ventricularPipefitter: He regards the card. "Wonder if -I- could eat them safety. Rather not find out now."
  86. (9:55:14 PM) serpentLinguist: She nods curtly. Looks to the shelf mushrooms. "...shall I?" she says, half-jokingly.
  87. (9:56:04 PM) ventricularPipefitter: "...let's not tempt fate, and just go find the ones that don't glow."
  88. (9:57:46 PM) serpentLinguist: She laughs, slipping her ring back on as she comes to stand. "Agreed."
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