let's set d o w n some (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
groundrules) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
westwhere2023-09-15 07:10 pm
groundrules) wrote in westwhere2023-09-15 07:10 pm
Entry tags:
- arc vii,
- asoiaf: daenerys targaryen,
- assassin's creed: jacob frye,
- ephes,
- game of thrones: jon snow,
- kingdom of the wicked: emilia,
- last case of benedict fox: benedict fox,
- legend of fei: xie yun,
- lockwood & co: anthony lockwood,
- mcu: america chavez,
- mcu: kamala khan,
- oh! my emperor: beitang moran,
- penny dreadful: vanessa ives,
- star wars: cal kestis,
- star wars: merrin,
- tian guan ci fu: xie lian,
- umbrella academy: five,
- untamed: lan sizhui,
- untamed: wen ning,
- warcraft: anduin wrynn,
- warcraft: wrathion,
- warframe: kahl 175,
- wheel of time: lan mandragoran,
- word of honor: wen kexing
the chainings
Escorted by shepherds, the party reaches most decadent Ephes — a citadel with a newly-raised, lethal army and ambitions of imperial expansion. The undead lady Messalina has approached the Senate of Ephes, asking for the citadel’s forces to liberate the unliving from the undead Brotherhood that “enslaves them.” In exchange, she pledges Ephes any territories she frees.
Ephes hides a beacon within the main temple of the world-making and world-ending chaotic Chained God, currently closed off while Senate leader Caius Justus considers Messalina’s proposal.
OBJECTIVE: Survive Ephes until the temple opens.
This first event of Arc VII lasts until 3 October. Use your character roles, pursue leads or nudge NPCs for clues!
POLITICS
Politically-minded characters take residence with their benefactors and receive two iron chain bracelets, which represent the Chained God. These bracelets and the red-purplish trim of your white cloth identify your political standing and attract the nagging, desperate or aggressive public pleas of your petitioners.
You hear, hastening to attend Senate sessions, that long-serving leader Caius Justus is unlikely to earn a new mandate. His peaceful, sedentary governance is unsuited to Ephes’ military ambitions.
Pair up with party members and submit threads by 23:59 GMT on 27 September of bribing, cheating or outright fulfilling the needs of one of the politicians below, to secure their vote for or against Messalina.
- ■ War veteran-turned-politician Sextus Longinus wants to leave his mark permanently on Ephes.
■ Senator Publia Secunda has been struck with court summons on charges of tax evasion. The court claims it has proof she has been passing the precious wares on her ships as geese.
■ Senator Ovidius Petronius’s wife fled home, ruining his image as a family man, after he was caught in compromising circumstances with another woman.
■ Severus Silvanus was overcome by sickness and wishes to throw a party worth remembering as he lives out his final year.
■ Once a formidable soldier, Senator Cassia Floriana has been for years denied an audience by the priests of the temple of the Chained God because of the blood on her hands.
■ Maximilianus Tacitus wishes to eliminate his reputation for stinginess — while spending not one coin.
Note: if multiple players go for the same Senator, we’ll assume they had more than one vote to cast!
GLADIATORS | non-gladiators can spectate or patron
Those assigned as gladiators are received by arena leader Laetio and housed in single or shared barracks cells in grounds near the largest stadiums.
Accommodations are scarce — pallets, hard stone ground — but food, healing and care are generously provided. Veteran gladiators are frequently measured and assessed. Strife is contained, and brawls are forbidden, while priestess of the Chained God visit periodically to bless warriors as ‘his children of chaos.’
At times, as you train or sleep, you sense you are watched. On other days, you wake from violent nightmares to see your wounds and bruises have vanished.
- ■ Newcomers are paired and taught how to throw fights, exaggerate their reactions and create slogans and outrageous personas. They are offered tattoos, haircuts and makeup.
■ You experience the first day in the arena around the OOC date of 18 September, when gladiators re-enact the Chained God’s first defeat and Chaining.
■ Characters can fight NPCs, each other, or demonic large beasts. These hefty creatures attack head first and thrash the arena, often striking spectators.
■ Injuries can happen when fighting beasts, but unlikely from other gladiators. The highest official attending a fight may choose the loser’s punishment, but must pay exorbitant fees for losses to the arena. After a noble boy orders a veteran gladiator severely beaten, you hear Laetio threatening the child’s anguished father with repercussions from Narula, leader of the Hand.
■ Submit a fight thread by 23:59 GMT on 27 September for the winner/s to address the stadium.
■ Other party members can pay or coax Laetio to receive their ‘favourite’ gladiator(s) overnight at their villas. Return by dawns.
WHITE NIGHT
One night (OOCly: 24 September), after gladiator games on the sixth of twelve Chainings, you wake up in a bleary haze, your thoughts and movements slow. Stifled screams and heavy footsteps erupt distantly. In pitch dark, you spot the slithering, deep silhouettes that are checking cells — progressing towards you.
- ■ If you glimpse their coarsely carved masks depicting wolves, you are overcome with a sudden, insurmountable terror and the certainty that your visitors are inhuman.
■ Stumbling, you flee your surprisingly open cell, overcome by dread that won’t abate until you find living company. Some of the emptied cells you pass by have been clearly ravaged. On the walls of three untouched cells of veteran gladiators, you see a wolf’s head coarsely painted in fresh blood. Hide with your companions, until sleep suddenly claims you.
■ The next day, you wake back in your sleeping quarters. Laetio accuses some gladiators of going mad from last night’s celebratory drink and destroying the cells. Servants have been cleaning attentively, with all blood paintings gone.
■ Your memories of the night are increasingly diffuse: at times you describe the intruders. At others, you speak of creatures or people from your own past that terrify you.
■ A veteran gladiator, the Beast of Brenne, is absent from the morning call. Laetio regretfully informs he perished from wounds incurred in yesterday’s games. He calls a toast to the Beast of Brenne and bans drink for the rest of the Chainings.
THE HAND
Characters reach the barracks as part of a set of 100 new recruits. They are subjected to three days of intense training, ranging from running and parkour basics to weights and strength building, basic dagger combat and surviving hard (magically induced) weather conditions. The recruit batch is overseen by Hand leader Narula and members depend on each other for food or care.
Throughout this, recruits are made to heavily depend on Brother Narula, who negotiates and awards privileges and regularly visits for interviews not unlike interrogations. Recruits are largely orphans, convicts or disinherited — lone wolves, says Narula, who only find their pack in the Hand.
Every ten days of the 100 after recruitment, the worst performing five conscripts are removed from the ranks, stoking vicious competition and internal sabotage that Narula allows on the premise of soldiers needing both brawns and cunning.
Permanent injuries are banned. Beware blades left in your shoes and itchy, ground nettles powder on your uniforms.
HONEYED
Within days of receiving your assignments, you must shadow a group of Hand veterans and guard a Hive — an agricultural cluster outside of Ephes — during a grains transfer.
- ■ New recruits follow veteran soldiers into the eerily silent, vast farmland dominated by high rows of wheat and corn. You feel watched and something touches your legs and thighs. Within farmers’ hearing, veteran soldiers laugh it off as rabbits, snakes — but privately tell you to walk outside the line of vision of scarecrows littered in the fields.
■ The transfer proceeds peacefully until midday, when alarms blare, and a brawl starts near a defunct watering well: a dozen Hand veterans have gone berserk and attack indiscriminately. They are dark-eyed, heaving and struggle with speech and coordination. They seem less wrathful than anguished, desperately calling to ‘Make homes’ as they slaughter and sever limbs.
■ Immobilise the attackers, or take civilians to safety in warehouses.
■ The berserk soldiers are removed — allegedly taken for healing and discipline, but never seen again. At the barracks, Narula says the incident was the result of heatstroke.
MESSALINA’S INFILTRATORS
Some party members join Messalina’s group as paid campaign aides. Stationed in the Senate’s summer villas outside of Ephes, the lady’s eclectic group comprises volatile magic users and necromancers, the undead and demonic creatures — who coexist in tenuous peace. It’s every wo/man to themselves after dark, when the villa walls and defences are drawn up and gates lock to prevent the indiscreet exit of a blood-thirsting demon.
Mid-summer
It becomes rapidly clear that Messalina does not trust the good will of Ephes and wants to cut a deal quickly by bribing, blackmailing, or interceding with Senate leader Caius Justus. She also seems unsettled by the Chained God, who she fears is a hidden undead liege controlling Ephes.
”Not every Sleeper sleeps deep.”
Messalina assigns party members to bolster the campaign of Maximus Faustus — previously a young, promising and popular politician with hopes of becoming Senate leader… who has been replaced by demonic shapeshifter Alir.
- ■ Infiltrate noble functions and learn what would steer patricians towards Faustus’ cause.
■ Patricians widely feel that Caius has been too sympathetic towards plebeians and neglectful of his own people. They want to see more grand gestures celebrating Ephes’ noblest class. See to it.
■ Some superstitiously associate Caius with the cult of the Chained God, whom the Senate leader brought back to forefront.
■ Alir is fiercely intelligent, quick-witted, dry — with little regard for humans, beyond their delicious hearts. Watch him while in public, as he succumbs to his hunger and lures innocents in dark corners to rip out their innards and feast on their flesh. Pay off or exterminate witnesses.
■ A derisive Alir questions Messalina’s plans for peaceful coexistence and the innocence of Ephes. He urges his caretakers to inspect Caius’s private home on the night of the full moon (OOCly: 20 September). You may take along other party members.
■ That night, Caius’ villa is well lit, bursting with song and closed from the inside. Scale the walls to enter and find a feast held by shadowy silhouettes of Caius’ ancestors. First they interact with you, then ignore you, then, increasingly inconvenienced, seem to recognise there is something wrong about you, before giving chase, daggers in hand.
■ On a high table in the great reception halls, you can find the entombment masks and personal effects of all of Caius’ ancestors who are present at the feast. Caius’ personal study contains nearly year-old letters of trade, reports on the fragility of the then-6,000-strong Hand and a broken worship tablet depicting the Chained God’s fourth Chaining.
■ In the kitchens, you find well-secured barrels of fish and wine — jump in together, or hear movement from the servants hidden within. You have time for one question.
CIVILIANS
Characters assigned civilian roles may safely assume their Ephes posts for a handful of days, before the religious celebrations of the Chained God’s twelve Chainings start. The all-Father of the universe, the Chained God is set to birth, consume and rebirth the world, and was chained twelve times by the first heroes of humanity to contain his destruction.
- ■ The numerous priests of the Chained God wander the roads and mark the foreheads of civilians with salted ash — which briefly brings out your anger, greed or selfishness.
■ Priests say you feel the frustration of the bound Chained God. Some of those ash-touched experience visions of a heavily fettered, amorphous creature, struggling in agony in a cavernous room. Those with supernatural powers find their abilities are volatile for a day.
■ Those who ‘see’ the Chained God are brought and tested for holiness by Priestess Valeria, for it is known the Chained God chooses brief emissaries during the days of Chaining.
■ Newer acolytes greatly defend the religious cult: a great earthquake rattled the main temple of the Chained God last year during the Chainings, and falling debris only spared the faithful who prayed within.
Off with his —
On the sixth day of Chaining (OOCly: 23 September), the news shouter of Ephes’ main marketplace receives a pouch containing the decapitated head of Tavernus, brother of Ephes army leader Narula.
The shocked newscaster drops the head, shakily reading out the message stitched on the pouch: Animals die for men to live. Men die for gods to prosper. — a quote attributed to the Chained Gods and carved on his main temple’s outer walls.
Locals may share Tavernus was a taciturn man who previously served as Narula’s lieutenant in the Hand, before retiring five months prior and taking up agricultural trade.
Group up to investigate — and throw your hat in for a RNG pick to win the head.
NIGHT OF KNIVES | EVERYONE WELCOME
The twelfth day of Chaining (OOCly: 29 September) ends the yearly religious festivities of the Chained God with multiple street celebrations and private dinners.
Popular political upstart Maximus Faustus holds his own night-long banquet, opening his doors to all.
The affair sprawls over multiple floors of Faustus’ enormous villa, with entertainment ranging from poetry, theatre, artistic and magical recitals on the lower floors to a gladiator performance and heavy opioids upstairs. Conveniently, the guest list includes every figurehead of Ephes and their main political and financial backers. Patricians seem amused but flattered by Faustus, who was ‘no one’ before Messalina’s support, but who has been generous in his appreciation of the city’s elite.
- ■ Sign up for a RNG draw for a conversation with Faustus by 23:59 GMT on 18 September.
■ No better time to publicise your feats or generosity. Why not have your character (including gladiators) perform or bring an offering?
■ Servants apologise as you smell an excess of musk and oud, hiding, they say, spillage from an accident caused by a fired manservant. You can still glimpse glinting trails of cleansed lamp oil.
■ Messalina attends the banquet for two hours, but hastily withdraws at midnight, after receiving a letter.
■ Towards the middle of the night, priestess Valeria asks to conduct a religious séance, allowing one person to channel the Chained God and speak to Ephes.
■ After 2 a.m., torch lights dim down, as twenty masked pantomimes enter the main banquet halls, shushing the rooms silent. In good spirit, they ridicule the partygoers, even poking fun at you with inside jokes they should not know about…
■ …before slashing the throats or stabbing some of the high-profile Senators present, sparking a chaotic stampede.
■ The main villa doors have been closed from the outside. Fire broke out within and spreads rapidly, after the rims of main halls curtains were drenched in lamp oil. Rescue some of the Senators, or help the crowds escape Faustus’ burning villa.
■ The assassins are exceptionally strong fighters whose combat style some might recognise from the Hand’s drills. They fluctuate between having physical bodies and merging with shadows.
■ Come morning, a list is found on the main hall floor of Faustus’ villa with an assassination contract for the murdered and targeted Senators. All had intended to support Messalina. The contract is signed with the seal of a ring showing a wolf in profile.
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He appreciates that he seems to sense that, and even more that he doesn't ask how the world ends. Usually that's what people focus on when he's casually brought it up, although usually not in this much detail. Nobody needs to know that his family is personally responsible for most of the apocalypses that he's seen.
Allison had a complicated relationship with their father, like they all did, but he does wonder why she took such a big gamble. None of them listen to him, so he doubts that she did in the future. The way Jacob talks about his sister sounds more like another brother of his, making excuses for the man.
It seems like a better topic, so he hums and turns his attention back to him, mulling that over for a moment before he asks an innocent question like they've been making small talk all along. ]
Is she your only sibling?
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Besides, he doesn't want to know how the world ends. It's not his world he thinks, he hopes. But if he knows, then he can't ever unknow it. He already knows too much about how his own world works, and he wishes he did not. He can't unknow it, can't unlearn what Ethan taught them, and he's had enough of ruining his own life.
He would rather not talk about home, about Evie, about Ethan, but he supposes it is his turn. Five has talked about his experience, after all.]
Yes. Twin. [He pauses and then tries to relax the knot in his shoulders.] Our mother died back then, and he never remarried. Probably because he was hell-bent on training children to be soldiers.
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Funny how you like to think that's a more exclusive club. [ Probably extends beyond them, but Five wasn't raised to be an assassin. That came later, though they'd all killed way back when they were kids playing at superheroes. ] At least you knew what you were worth to him. Nothing else matters when you're a means to an end.
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[But Jacob knows how many assassins are the children of assassins, who in turn are the descendants of assassins. Bred and brought up to continue the war against the Templar Order. He and Evie were two of hundreds, probably thousands, over the years.
He drinks another great gulp of the alcohol, and then looks at Five, his hazel eyes sad.]
Was it the same for you?
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He pulls his glass closer and averts his gaze once he sees that look on his face. If only he knew those were the best years of his life. ]
Dad adopted me and my six siblings by paying off our mothers, because we were special. Trained us so we could save the world one day. [ Although he's got confirmation now that he was planning something bigger, however much he orchestrated their lives. ] I already told you how that goes.
Everyone's got a story. Maybe one of them are going back to a world that's better than this one.
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Jacob's childhood was not the best. Better the ages of six to twenty, the only respite he had was sneaking out of his father's home to go on his own adventures. If those years for Five were treasures, Jacob wouldn't take them from him. He's not cruel.]
Seven? That's a lot of mouths to feed. Supposing if he bought you, he wasn't shy of money.
[Most people with seven children struggle to feed them, clothe them, send them to school. Five, despite everything, might not have suffered so badly. At least in those respects.]
If they want to go back, that's their business. If they are given the choice.
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He's grateful to have Allison here, but he still failed her like he did the others. The best he can do is fix things here in case he can't come up with a better alternative. ]
Eccentric billionare. I was raised by a robot and a talking chimpanzee. [ Just going to breeze by that reveal. Diego might take offense to the way he refers to their mother, but that doesn't change facts. Still, the last thing he says makes him curious how similar they really are. He shifts in his chair to watch him a little too intently. One of those things about living in isolation: he forgets that people generally don't like to be stared at. ]
If you have a choice, which do you pick?
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Of course being raised by a monkey and a... rowboat? What the hell? Is not something Jacob comprehends. He doesn't get to ask about that, although hes not sure how to go about asking, because now Five is looking at him, studying him, in a way that makes Jacob turn to stare back. For someone that is meant to be mostly unseen, being looked at directly is extrely off putting. ]
Stop that.
Look... [ He sighs, and drains his cup. ] I dontcknow about you, but I've never got to male a big choice. Everything I did was controlled. I should go home. But...
[ But staying here, wherever and whatever here is, would stick two fingers up at his old life. Forever. ]
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The answer he gives catches him off guard. Of all the reasons, he didn't expect him to say he'd abandon his home out of spite. ]
You want to stay for the thrill of it?
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More like two fingers up to an old life. But yes, just for the thrill of it. Make my own choice, be whatever I want to be. Doesn't that appeal to you? Being something other than what your father made you into?
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When I was younger that might have been enough. [ His father was a brilliantly cruel man who had no business adopting anyone, but Five doesn't give him all the credit to making him what he turned into. ]
Still, we've got problems here that aren't going away. We've got a ways to go before I'd settle on retiring.
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[That makes Jacob raise his brows, his expression greatly amused. He's had too much to drink to hide the fact he finds that turn of phrase funny, especially coming from one so young.]
I'm not moving out to the sticks and starting a farm just yet. This place has problems, home had problems. We'll try to fix the ones here, but new ones will pop up. That's how it works.
[But he can choose. He can choose to help here. Sure he didn't choose to come, but if he can choose to stay? That's a big deal.]
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He takes a moment to let the alcohol settle and dull his reaction, then moves past it. ]
I guess that’s one way to look at it. [ Generalizing it to abstract ‘problems’ is putting it extremely mildly, but it does make it easier to cope. Who is he to judge? ]
I might be chasing a pipe dream. The odds are against us, but I don’t know that we’ll get another opportunity like this one.
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We all are, to a greater or lesser extent. But maybe some bits of those dreams aren't completely out of reach. A drink with a friend, a nice new hat. Peace and harmony forever probably aren't happening. Probably won't get that farm. But that's life. Take what happiness you can by the balls while it's in front of you.
[Which is why they both get another top up of cognac.]
So whats this pipe dream of yours?
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Maybe not forever, but for once. I tried... [ He's killed more people than he can count, he's reversed time, and still watched his siblings die over and over again. Now that he doesn't look much older than he did when he disappeared at thirteen, it's like none of it ever happened. He lost the scars he had before he came here, so now those decades only exist in his mind. ]
I figured... if we had one less enemy, I could spend more time looking for them.
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He listens, even as he puts the Cognac down, to the young man with a heart so heavy that Jacob doesn't know how many people it might take to lift it up again. Or maybe he does- seven, siblings by circumstance and design, not by blood. But perhaps that makes those bonds all the closer. Here he is talking about abandoning his only family, his twin for this world, and here is Five wishing so earnestly to have them back.
He might think about that when his blood-alcohol level isn't so high.]
I can't offer you one less enemy. But I can offer you a friend to help you fight them.
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It seems like a strange thing to say to him. He doesn't make friends so easily. There's very few who would claim to be one, and they were never quick to call themselves that. Maybe he looks like he needs one, or his sob story is getting to him. More likely parts of it resonated.
Eventually, he lifts his glass to cheers, and takes a drink. Then he leans back, noting how his head feels heavy. Not smart, if he’s supposed to be keeping his guard up for a rogue shapeshifting demon, but… possibly what he needed. ]
I wish I could say I liked our odds.
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And this tavern doesn't look like the sort that has regular brawls, which is a shame.
He refocuses on Five, raising his glass in reply and watching the young man relax. Might be time to call it a night soon, while they can both walk back to whatever lodgings they've got.]
Ah, well. Wouldn't want it to be easy, right?
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Which is why he's still waiting for the evening to turn. The bartender eying them might be first when he notices they drank most of the bottle between them. ]
It's not a good idea to blink when I've been drinking. [ In his mind, this is a polite way of letting him know he can't use his powers right now. ] You might have to pay the man.
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[ Jacob looks excited at the possibility, grinning and eyes bright despite the haze of alcohol.
He has no idea what powers Five might have or what use they might be in a fight, but he thinks he could take on the barman and the other patrons alone if need be. But fighting with friends is always far more enjoyable. ]
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So while his instinct is to reply 'no, you idiot', nostalgia has him lingering on the idea and speaking loud enough for the bartender to hear. ]
That all depends. Do you have any money?
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Now, that's what they'd like to know! But if I tell them I do, then they'll rob us, right? And if I say I don't, then this bastard is going to get cheesed off because we can't pay for the drinks. So either way, we'll get to throw a few punches.
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It would be mildly satisfying to prove him otherwise, if given the excuse. He's grinning at the man to see if he'll give it to them. ]
You'll have to forgive my brother. [ Sure, maybe he hadn't been listening to their entire conversation. ] He forgets that we're here on a mission of peace.
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[But that's a low murmur now, because as much as he'd love a fight, and he is almost vibrating with the need to taste blood and feel the hammering of his heart, but he pushes it down. Doesn't sound like Five wants a fight either.
So he digs his fingers into the pouch on his belt, and brings out some coins, counting them out.]
But that was a good bottle. Can't say fairer than that.
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My treat. [ It's not often he enjoys someone's company, so he's earned some generosity. Although how much he enjoyed it may partially be the alcohol talking. Never one to understand the value of money, he's not even sure how much he just put down, but it keeps the man behind the bar happy.
When he moves to get out of his stool, he's immediately reminded how good of a bottle it was, and he grabs something to steady himself. He thought it was the counter, but on further inspection he grabbed Jacob's sleeve. After a moment of staring at it, he pats his arm like it was entirely intentional. ]
Time to go.
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