Underneath my fingernails were scraps of some kind of meat I couldn't place. Firm bits of flesh, slightly spongy, and garnet red in the center. There was no chance for me to taste it again because even as I raised my hand to my mouth, the flecks of meat in the drying liquid evaporated like fog in the morning sun.
I don't need to recount all the boring details of how I stumbled home naked, how I begged for the use of a cloak from a passing farmer, how I sat humbly in the sun outside my house but felt not a moment of warmth under it. The important thing to record here is that the taste never left me. How about no?
Yeah. Yeah. No. This one.
Although I did get the distinct feeling that he was like eating a bit of a lung. I don't know. The, the description was, that's a
lung.
We're not quite at, like, Hannibal Lecter vibes yet, but this man's digging the cannibal hole still. Yeah. He's getting the pit ready to shove the lady in. He's,
he's full on. No. No.
Yeah. Yeah. He hasn't gotten the nice Chianti
yet.
Nor will he. Fuck this guy. Can we kill him?
Yeah, as we said before, on sight.
I'm sure interviewing this man is just 100 percent trustworthy, Riddleson. That man's doing his own thing. He's doing great. He's doing fine. He's not going to
get eaten. He's not going to get eaten or nothing. He's, he's, everything is fantastic. He's doing great.
He's all purple, that's like a weird color for me.
I get the feeling that Riddleson can take care of himself.
Beat this man back
with a stick, like, no!
No
lung for you. Welcome back to Ash and Snow.
14 FPS, 47.
43. Needful
information has begun to be primed. More information is needed, but all of it may not be able to be obtained in time. So far, all the first world legends and ties, the thin lands farms, origin point in the legends, everything seems to be our end point there. Threads and ties lead to a section of a potato farm in the area, of all things. And if the pattern holds, he will be coming from Maia tomorrow night, if we don't find him first.
And he thinks going after one of my associates is his best idea. Perhaps an ample distraction is to be had in taunting and gaining his attention. Saying his name enough should be there, but I believe I've twisted his tails into enough of a taunt to draw his ire. We'll see how much he
likes coming to the material plane with cold iron in my barrel. We return on scene in Vinehall, in the city of Seven Arches. It has been, for the first time in several nights, a Peaceful for our adventuring party as Vin Verin and Freya stood watch over Mia so that she could finally get some rest in safety. But now they have a destination to go to, but a full day until it's set to open. Where are you going? What are you doing?
I need to go pick up my weapon or else I'm gonna have a real problem when? Uh. It comes to actually doing the fighting. And I'll probably, uh, have drafted Mia to go with. Just so, you know, we're traveling in a buddy system.
Oh yeah, Mia's for sure going. She will not go anywhere without one of the adults.
As you say that, Vin is like, sulking in a corner a little bit. And this like, climbs out the window into the roof.
Aww, why is Vin sad?
Aaron just Going about his morning, collecting his notes, checking things over again, looking for the gaps that need to be filled for the day, and what time they have before finding a particularly empty section that hasn't had much investigation done into it, uh, very minimal success on the route, not a lot of details to be gathered yet. There's gonna be a lot of words on that! That's, that's not his handwriting either!
Just kinda gives it a look over, just silently staring at it for a moment while Freya and Mia are getting ready to go for the day. Pulls the sleeve of his arm up, bird comes out of it, he's on the roof, bring him here, and just lets the bird fly out after him. You hear
screaming from the roof like 30 seconds later.
I'll call him off when you come back in!
You could've
just asked! You could've not run! I wasn't running! Continued pecking.
Gets down with a huff, probably tries to punish the bird very poorly a couple times.
Bird just tucks a random, like, small little bead of metal at him. Fluts away, flies back over onto Baron's arm. Immediately sinks back into the tattoo on it. Just kind of pats the arm, pulls the sleeve back over it. Holds the hand out to the writing on the wall. And, I'm sorry to say this, I barely can read your handwriting. I saw the name, though. What is this supposed to be? What? This is, this is cursive!
Can't read cursive?
I can read Riddleson's handwriting, and I can't read this.
I'm, I'm from a temple bro. We took calligraphy classes! This is impeccable
handwriting! Well, what does it say? It's,
it's, it's mine. You can have it.
You wrote it on my notes! I
saw a spare parchment, and I got
bored. It's tacked to a wall! You had to physically lean up and write on this. Not on the table. The, the pins haven't been torn out. Why are you calling me out like that?
You
sucking dicks! You
Essentially, you walked up to the Thorn Barracks, and wrote, Vin did this on their wall. Except it's to my property. And I can't tell that you wrote, Vin did this, just the Vin part. Freya,
tell me this looks like good handwriting.
It looks like handwriting? Never
learned TNJ
cursive? No, I can't say I took that elective at the Arcanum Miriam.
That's an elective? Yeah. I hate
school.
Freya would just, noticing Varyn just kind of like staring at this at the wall, looking over at Vin. Staring back at it. The bird kind of pokes its head out of his sleeve and is like, thumping his hand holding one of the little metal balls he loads into the weapon of his. Just like, take it, take it. Bird just batting into his hand again. Look,
I just had some stuff on my mind. I had to write it
down. Was it at least at all relevant to the Kanipo investigation? I can give it a pass if it's relevant.
Uh, you, you really want me to read it? I feel like I'm getting peer pressured
here. I would ask that you read what you wrote on my notes so I can put it into the relevant pile of things that it would relate to and can put the string in the right places. Okay, can
I, can I
untack it? I would prefer that you didn't since that's where it's going now. I rip it.
Alright. Okay, okay. It's been a while.
In
the depths of the night, fear wraps its grip, within my heart it takes its hold. Dreams untamed, mysteries that slipped, an enigmatic figure, unknown and bold. Familiarity veiled, but I feel its trace, a haunting presence, both near and far. Unruly flames leap, my essence misplaced. Trembling, I feel my torment's bizarre.
Within my soul a storm takes flight and anxiety consumes my spirit yearns answers elusive hidden from sight Seeking soulless as my spirit churns yet I'll not surrender to fears dark rain through uncertainty clouds the path I tread I'll embrace the unknown thematic strain for I am Vin fire elemental undeterred through dreams and flames I'll seek the truth Documenting my journey my fears unmasked and poetic first I'll find Strength for Sooth, and face this mystery undeterred and steadfast.
And with that, I crumple it up, light my hair on fire, and gone. Alright, goodbye!
Back to the roof! That was actually a pretty good poem. Mia's just clapping.
Just takes out a new piece of paper, writes something on it, folds it up, and sets it on
Thin's pillow. Uh oh. I itch George's my pillow. And then I take it, pretending like no one noticed I took it. And then I itch back, inch back towards the window.
Opening, if you open it up, it just says, VIN, O's, and a amount of paper. Like, it's less than a copper piece in total. You'll replace the parchment. Fair's fair. I have to get that fixed now, before we can go anywhere.
I throw a copper at the bird. And then I run out the door. Bye!
Coffee
time! Coffee does sound good. What's coffee? Can I get some? This is
going to be a morning. Uh, I suppose I can catch him up when he's back from coffee. Uh, do not spend your whole day here. Perhaps half the day. We want sunlight. Meet back here sometime in the afternoon. Much to be done. Yeah. Uh, I'll be ready. Just kind of looks down at the bird that now has a piece of copper in its mouth. Roughly shoving it into his hand. Yes, thank you. Sets it back into his pocket. Looks back at the bird.
Pulls the sleeve back up, and just lets it sit on his arm rather than remaining as a tattoo. Alright, now, where do we start? Just kind of looks down at the bird and lets it start. Just sort of randomly, seemingly, go to pages and set string onto the wall. No, no, that one's not going to match there. Uh, oh yeah, this page. Uh, just starts going about working with the bird to make this conspiracy
board. Frightened Mere, you head over to the Silver and Cold. You head back to the Silver and Cold. And the blacksmith, Cameron Lee, greets you again. Well, hello stranger. Hey. I got your rapier. Thank you.
Uh, it's really, um, it's gonna be really
helpful.
She pulls it out, and says, Look at the craftsmanship. And grabs your hand, and is touching the top of it, while gently having your hand caress the rapier. Feel the cold. of the iron. This is gonna suit you very well. Don't you agree?
Yeah, no, I think it's I think it's perfect. I say as I, you know, run my hand along the blade, just sort of in a way that, um, I'm not running my hand along the edge of it, but, you know, sort of the flat of it, sort of feeling the the way it is engraved, especially with that, uh, rune. You know, take it after a second, feel the balance in my hand, you know, sort of let myself take a couple of gentle swings with it, just sort of feeling the heft and the weight of it. So are you
satisfied?
Very, very satisfied. It is going to be perfect.
It's just looking back and forth between this, like, what's happening here?
She asks for the amount of gold, which I'm entirely
sure what
I'm not even sure what it is, but I know have, I know have taken it from my funds already. So.
As
you hand the gold over. There is maybe a little too much hand contact with you dropping the coin into her palm and her fingertips caressing the bottom of your hand. Well, I always seek to have a happy customer. That means they'll come back.
Uh, I mean, I imagine I'm going to be around Seven Arches for a while, so, you know, you'll probably see more of me.
I hope so.
Ugh, come on, Mia. Um, I promised to teach you how to fight. We're gonna do that.
Yeah, bye cutie
just like waves thinking the whole conversation was about her like, okay. Bye
If somewhere like I don't know the thornleaf barracks as a or somewhere has a place that I Can sort of set up so I can teach Mia how to
fight Absolutely. There is plenty of space in various plazas, but absolutely the thornleaf barracks has an adequate field with like dummies Set up and hay bales with targets on them for you to practice whatever you're doing.
Take a moment, set up, and turn to Mia and just be like, No judgment or anything, you've, have you ever, anything, at least before the, the other day? Mm mm. We'll start off with something super, super simple. You know, just start off with some hand to hand combat. You know, get you comfortable with the movements. If you wanna move a little bit closer, uh, and then With sort of very gentle motions that Freya will sort of show you the, the ideal stance for how to fight hand to hand.
Walk you through how to do just, you know, your basic punch and maybe a basic kick.
She squares up and she, she like, tries really hard to throw a punch. There's probably zero force behind it. She's just like, eh. Like it's light and fluffy and kind of goes real wide and is not. It's not the greatest, but she's trying.
Everyone has to start somewhere, Mia. I didn't really do a lot of fighting either until I got to the, uh, the Arcanum Mirium. That's where I kind of
But you're so good at
it! Yeah, I, um, I did a lot of, I did a lot of that. I worked really hard because I, I've always wanted to be a Pathfinder. Find a path? Yeah, that's the deal. Uh, find, be a Pathfinder, help people. Have those. Massive, globe spanning adventures that they have. Go to, find pyram like, delve into pyramids in Osirian that nobody's seen before, you know? She's
just looking at you, like, dumbfounded. Uh, uh, I We didn't do I didn't really want to leave the village. I mean, no, I didn't really want to leave. I was I kinda had to leave. You remember how I shot, like She just bakes ray beam motions with her hands from her eyeballs. I did that and I said, I said the village. I don't know how to control any of it. And every time I do use it, I just get real bad and I can't see for days.
Interesting.
Well, maybe when we're done with Kniepa, we can actually look into whatever this is.
She like slaps a hand over your mouth when you say Kniepa. I was like, No! Don't say it!
No!
Sorry, bad habit. Oh, whenever we're done with this, we'll look into whatever's going on. I mean, I, when I was a kid, I, I met this woman named Alina, she's a, she's a Pathfinder. She told me that if I worked really hard, studied hard, and proved myself, one day I could be a Pathfinder. It's kind of what I was working on when, you know, all that happened. I was working with her, and I was gonna take my entrance exam for the Pathfinder Society, and all that time.
We were just looking at some old ruin outside of Otari. There was a moment where I God, it was so obvious now, but I thought there was this really famous Pathfinder guy. He was hitting on I thought he was hitting on me. He offered me a drink. I stepped through the arch and the next thing I know it's weeks later.
Sounds very similar. I was off to see someone about my eyes. Then I woke up somewhere else with no answers. But she like pulls out kind of a nice walking stick. I got this. That's it.
Pull out the ring that I have on the leather cord around my neck. Sick. Yeah, that's all I, all I found that I came out with, you know, besides the tattoo. Yeah, how do I get one of those? I don't want any tattoo. The ring, uh, I was wearing it on my, you know, left hand when I came out of the portal. So, you know, I apparently, I guess I got married during the weeks I don't remember. Well, I
hope whoever you're married to is okay, if that's what happened. I mean, I don't know. It's so hard to know these things.
It's kind of one of the things I'm hoping to figure out. You ever feel like
we're in over our heads?
Yeah, yeah I do. But, uh, I always think about what would the Pathfinders do? What would Valeris and Mariciel do? They would push on, they would figure it out. They win in the end in all the stories, so.
Mia just looks at you and like, her, her tails start wagging a little bit and she's like, Whoa. Whatever, I'm scared. I'm gonna ask myself what Freya would do and then she like stands up and she's like show me how to throw a punch again
Right. Yes, you gotta make sure you you know, you don't keep your thumb because then you're gonna break something
Okay, and she's like puts your thumbs on the outsider for fists
Yeah, and then, you know, you want to go kind of cross your body. She crosses
her body and like, throws a really weak punch, but she's like, this is better.
It's getting better. You're really getting there. We'll keep at it.
There is a soft plop sound behind you, Mia. And Freya, you see something fall out of seemingly nowhere. Mia's
like, I'm not gonna Nope. That didn't just happen. I'm not scared.
I'm gonna just be like, it's fine, it's fine. What is it? I'm
not gonna cry
or anything. You adjust your vision, Freya, so that you can look over Mia's head and see what's behind her. And there is something horrific. There is a bird there. With its wings broken in several different places. However, that's not the spookiest thing about this. It is so far midday when the sun is highest in the sky and this bird is casting no shadow.
It's fine. It's fine. Don't look. Mia's
not taking her eyes off you at all. She's
terrified. Can I make any kind of like arcana check to see if I understand what's going on? This is the 19th.
You think that somehow, this is another gift from Kinipo.
Focus on the training dummy, you know? Do what I told you. Don't look behind you. Don't look around. Don't turn around.
Totally, like, turns around. But I like to think that Mia's having a slightly bad vision day. So it's, it's a little fuzzy for her. So she can't make out everything, which makes it less Horrifying. I think at this point, Freya's voice, like the, the panic, the slight panic in her voice is what's freaking Mia out. What does Mia
do?
Mia would turn back into a fox after realizing that she can't really see and start relying on her other senses. So she'd give like really good sniffs, a bunch of really good sniffs around the area.
You definitely smell the scent of death. Yep. Nope.
Freaked. Done. Done. Out. Dope. Probably, like, in between Freya's feet, like, mm
mm. Yeah, I think it's best if we get back to the rest of the group before anything else.
Yeah, we're hiding your bag.
Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna put my bag down so you can get in it.
She just, like, gets
in it and, like, peeks her little head out, like,
mm. Yeah, I imagine it's like the videos of, like, the dogs in the
bag.
Back at Vine Hall, what are Vin and Varyn doing?
Varyn's going over a lot of this. paperwork that he's got laying around here, reorganizing a couple things, trying to find the gaps that need to be filled yet before he heads on out for the day, and he's using the aid of the bird a lot more. If N was still hanging around, he would actively hear Varim, like, speaking out loud to it, directing it where to go. It kind of Seemingly, silently gesturing, and him responding in kind of, Um, yes, that one could work there, I suppose.
And we tie that to there. Set the note. Back to, back to the stint lens part. Where, where were we on that? Um, and fully just deepening his work with this thing that he just woke up with and never really thought to try and figure out.
And what
about Vin? Vin He's creeped out about a lot of things in this particular time of his life and one of them is Varan talking to a bird so he leaves pretty quick and Gets breakfast somewhere in Vinehall. He is mostly keeping to himself He's lost in thought a lot of a lot of time.
He spends about an hour trying to figure out this, this voice that he keeps hearing as he tries to figure out what best way he can quell that voice in his head that nearly did some bad things, but he mostly is keeping to himself this morning. Especially if Varian starts talking to this bird, which is almost equatable to whatever Vin hears in his head, to him. And
it's while you're thinking of trying to quell this voice, that it comes back. Finn,
are we
not having a good time? I'm going to try to ignore it. Finn, you
must advance. This
line of inquiry a group
has made. There is something I need. In
the Thin
Lands.
That you will retrieve. I'm trying to keep my silence. Maybe it'll go away if I don't look at it. Remember, Finn.
I may be far.
And
you have this momentary loss of control with your hand as the utensils you were using to eat your breakfast, you take one of the knives and start to go across your palm. As suddenly as it came, control returns back to you. As you look and see the damage that you have done to yourself.
I will quickly take a tablecloth or a napkin or something and grip it with my hand and throw it in my pocket like nothing happened. And then I will pay if I need to pay at Vine Hall and
leave. I think Vin would probably notice if he's in his right mind, like aware of anything happening around him after that moment. He would notice Varyn's pervert just like seating opposite side of the room, just kind of staring at him. I want to kill this
bird. So bad.
Just kind of, just staring at you, just gives a single, like it doesn't even call, it's just looking.
How important is this familiar to your character?
Apparently, Varyn doesn't know how to load his own weapon. The bird does it.
I ignore the bird this time. It
would not so much, like, fly to, like, land on you, but just sort of, like, flutter over near your feet and just, like, look up, just hop its way around and start going off in the direction where Varen was at. I run the other way. Just kind of notices, starts to follow
you. I run fast.
Her just keeps flying.
And eventually, you're nearing the door when suddenly Freya's body is right there in front of you. The bird's trying to kill me! The bird's trying
to kill me! The bird just kind of lands on the top of the door as it opens and just kind of looks down at Vin.
What did I walk into?
Bird's trying to kill me! So the
bird is trying to kill you as I look between the bird and Varen?
Varen's in the other like, not even in this room. Varen's like two rooms away at this point, at least. And just kind of bird just stares down at Freya, just looks over at Vin. Kind of leans its head a little bit in one direction, and looks at Vin's hand, stuffed in his pocket, and then just looks back at Freya, flies back off towards Varan. Get your sword!
Yeah, yeah, I got it. Vin's changing topics very obviously, and
I also worked on teaching Mia how to fight. She like, throws up some fists. Just imagine Little Fox
doing that. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh.
Are you ready
to move on then? Yeah. I definitely think we should, with all post haste, because our friend is now leaving gifts for Mia. I
didn't. I
Okay. Just like, you know, Varan's in a mood, he's like, talking to himself, and then talking to the bird, and the bird's following me around. So Varan
is just being Varan.
It's like Varan in Overdrive. I don't know, I haven't known him for very long, this is the first time I've seen him so hyper focused. Varan? Yeah, you talk to him. I'll, I'll wait outside.
Bye! You just kind of vaguely in the distance as Vid is saying that can hear Varan not like yelling or anything but muttering speaking volume to himself Okay, um
Okay,
it's just like when I had to deal with Ranvi. Okay, I can do this I'll just feel like if you want off, they could put the bag down. Yeah She's takin
a nap.
Yeah, I'm guessing Mia's just takin a
nap at this point. Mia was, she like, pokes her little head out,
like Okay, I was asking if you wanted down, but if you're just takin a nap, it's fine. Well,
I'm okay with just hangin out in here. I don't, I don't really wanna get out. It seems kinda scary.
Ah, okay. Alright, I'm gonna go towards the sound of Aaron's voice.
He's kinda eventually getting over there. It's not hard to find him, he's not being secretive or anything. He's got further expanded, these pieces of paper on the wall. The bird's just kind of sitting on his arm, and he's just vaguely speaking to it, and just, he didn't follow you back, so that's interesting at the very least. Either way, uh, he just kind of finally notices after a moment of you standing in the doorway, Ah, Freya, man, fantastic you're back.
Actually, needing a hand with something, I was hoping Finn was still here, so I was trying to get his attention. Why does
Finn think you're killing him, or trying
to kill him? Probably the anger over the, I can't even say anger, the more so annoyance over the parchment issue. It just required a fair amount of rearranging this morning for me to manage to. But I was actually looking to get his assistance, uh, the higher up pages are tending to get a hard to reach on the stool I have to keep borrowing out of the bar they're requesting back, so. He can get on the roofs, he can very easily get on the walls, simple
enough. Well, um,
we do have, uh, I believe we have an appointment in a potato field
soon. Before evening, yes, we'll want to be there before the, uh, before night falls. Yeah, I don't
really want to be out before night, so I'll, I'll go get, uh, yeah.
You do want to be out before night, but you don't want to be out after.
Yeah, that. Everything's kind of
dark. Uh, before you go anywhere, along with Mia, just kind of shuffles around a couple of pieces of paper. Where did I leave? Oh, here. Uh, he just kind of shoves a couple of pages over and pulls out the first little effigy that you were left. But it's been sort of changed a bit. The pieces have been like snapped and broken and rearranged into, they're clearly the same pieces. But the little bits of wood have been, like, rearranged into a weird symbol.
It doesn't really seem to have any particular meaning. But pressed into the center of it is a little, probably about marble sized, cold iron bead. That has just been set into the center, and all of the points seem to latch onto this. Something of a good luck charm, I would think. In a version of Kanipo's work, plus a bit of anti fay cold iron. At the very least, it'll piss the man off, rather than having Leaving you more presents, perhaps. Deface enough of them and maybe he'll give up. Mia,
like, sticks
her little paws out and is just like, Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh.
Grabby
paws. Eh, eh, eh. Really, hold on. Just kind of pulls out a little bit of the bread string that he's been using and ties it off to both ends and sets it around the fox's neck. That should do plenty well. Looks at
it. Sniffs it. Our, um, lovely friend, Mr. Slim, is, uh, leaving Mia presents. Oh, what this time? A bird. It was
a bird? Me, I freaked out. Like, what?
It's a very dead bird. This guy looks at the much larger bird on his arm and just kind of sets it to jump down onto a table nearby. I hate to ask, but do you have it?
Uh, on me, it doesn't have a
shadow. I think Vin will come back at this point. Realizing no one followed him out to adventure.
Oh, Vin, fantastic.
I thought,
I thought we were going. Brief regrouping before we head out for anything. Again? Okay. You just kind of see Varen like, look down towards Vin's hand. Are you alright? Uh, your
bird, your bird, your
bird nicked me. His beak is not nearly that sharp. Unless you're standing there letting him drag it across your hand, I doubt it would make a wound that large.
How do you know it's underneath this piece of cloth?
Because you're holding it so tightly and the stains growing.
That's what I thought. You had no evidence.
like you're acting awfully
weird. Then I've had this as long as I can remember. Quite lly comes out when I need help.
I cut myself while I was I while I was eating, I wasn't paying attention. I was thinking about other things and I cut myself. I don't like the bird though.
That's fine, you don't have to like the bird. That's good, because I don't. But the bird seems to know when I need to take my focus off something. It distracts me, on purpose. Have you ever been so focused on something you've forgotten to eat or drink or relieve yourself for hours on end? Sounds like a you problem. It has been, yes. The bird helps with that. It distracts me. That's
needed. I'm pretty good at using the bathroom when my body tells me to. Are you not? Do you need to change your sheets?
Varen just kind of switches a little bit here, just sort of strains himself a little bit. Just locks eyes with Vin a moment and pulls the bandana that he typically is wearing off so that his face is fully exposed. He just sets his arms hand in hand on his stomach, just staring at Vin. Not a presence that Varyn typically takes with a lot of people. Vin. This. Is a serious situation. I understand. You didn't want to come here in the first place. I understand. You wish to take a day off.
I've given you every out that you've wished. All I ask is a bit of honesty. Something is wrong with you. Not in a physical sense. There is something eating at you. And I know that from reading people. It is what I do. What is going on. It is fine to ask for help. But if you don't ask, we can't offer. Mia came to us when her life was threatened by an entity we barely know anything about. That we can barely even prove is real.
And you would sit here and debase me and my work by walking in here and saying that The knife wound across your palm was from being absent while eating. Do you think me a fool? Do you think me a child? I want to help you. I want to help everyone here. And you come to me with this. I'm not annoyed with the poem. I'm not annoyed with the parchment. In the moment, yes, it was troublesome. But all I'm here to do is help. Give me the chance to. This kind of settles himself back.
Be as. It's completely, 100 percent hidden in the bag. Like, you can't even see fur.
Freya's just like, this seems like a conversation between the two of them. I'm sure they'll be outside when they're ready. Just sort of gently walk backwards towards the door.
This involves both of you as well. He is to be traveling with us, and if he's keeping secrets that could endanger us, injuring himself, that is a problem for
all of us. You are not the first person to lecture me about what I know or don't know, and I highly doubt you will be the last. Baron, I do not know you. I know you have a very recent history, but I don't know who you are. I don't know anything about your bird. I don't know anything about your gun. We are here. All four of us are here on Happenstance. I don't understand why Our room is filled with parchments. I don't understand, and I feel like standing here is just avoiding a problem.
And you come And you want to lecture me about what I think, what I do? You mentioned you are so hyper focused that you forget to do basic needs. But you can't believe that I was absentmindedly doing something? That is no different than your own actions. How dare you accuse me.
Fair. The point taken. You've saved my life on more than one occasion. You saved Maya's life and Freya's as well. You've been nothing but trustworthy. I've attempted to do similar to you, give you every benefit of the doubt in situations necessary. From your response with what happened at the massage parlor with Mia, something is wrong.
You've cut your hand, seemingly one way or another, accidentally or on purpose, with or without your own say, and that same hand is the one that threatened to choke Mia from her own recollection of the events. I just want to help. Investigating is what I do. Give me some lead to begin on. Something to look into. Something to help you with. I understand if you don't know me. But know what I've been doing. This work. What we've been looking into together. You've been a part of that. This
trustworthiness. You guys seem like nice people. But we've all have met the nice person. Or maybe not you Varan. I don't, I don't know. Well, who've you met recently, but you, you think that we're entering the city and we're talking to all these people and everyone's motivations are right in front of them. They're holding their, you know, emotions on their sleeve. You think this Riddleson or all the other people we met don't have ulterior motives.
You think that when we are asked to deal with this druid problem. That they didn't have secondary motivations. I don't know what is going on. And, I will consider myself a skeptic. I don't know what your intentions are. I I don't know. I just don't know. I think we're all here because we got a mark that somehow says we are connected. How are we connected? Maybe Maybe this is all we're all just puppets in a larger scheme.
Maybe we have You know, all went on a drunk binge and woke up at the same tattoo parlor. I don't know anymore, but we're sitting here and saying, I am proving this about X, Y, Z. No, you shouldn't, you shouldn't trust me. You shouldn't trust any of us. We, we are, we are just trying to figure this out together. You know, we, we've had one encounter with a weird creature that almost got us all killed. You know, we, we are trauma bonding, at best.
So, I, I can tell you I don't know what's going on. I can tell you that we all don't know what's going on. We're all changing somehow. And I don't know if this bird was with you before the missing moment, I don't know what is happening, but, can this, this bird even be trusted? Why are we not treating this with more skepticism? I have.
You don't think I've looked into it? You don't think the moment I woke up, With this thing in my arm that I haven't been looking at at every chance I've got you think I trust Riddleson I certainly don't truly. Do you think I trust that man? He found me in a tavern. He's a means to an ends He's a mean to your ends You want to know what happened just as much as I want to know what happened as Maya does as Freya does Yes, sure. Call it trauma bond.
I felt we had plenty of bond the night we were out drinking before that ever happened Or, when we covered for each other and getting ourselves out of dodge when it came to escaping the thornies here. They weren't going to kill us. At that worst, they were going to arrest us. I would say we bonded plenty, but I'm not going to force you to say anything you don't wish to. If you don't want to tell me something, that's fine. I just want you to know that in all of this, you did save my life.
I owe you a debt. And, well, given the chance to repay it, I would like to offer my services to do so. Bye. If you don't feel that you can trust me, in that aspect, I understand. I don't know if you can trust me either. But, I do my best to be who I've become so far. And, well, that person wants to see a solution to this. A solution to Maia's issue. The end of Kanipo, so that this land can rest without its influence.
And, well, whatever's bothering you, I hope we can eventually get to the bottom of it and take care of it as well. If you wish to be going, I'm happy.
Listen, I just want to be free of any of this. I want to be in the wall of heaven, climbing, climbing those mountains. I want to be in the forest, you know, in a hammock eating, you know, fresh blueberries that are not poisonous. I want to, I don't, I don't want to be here. You are right. But I. I'm feeling like I am compelled to do it, and now my body does weird things I can't, I can't explain. I don't know how else to, to tell it to you, I just don't know. You wanna see?
You wanna see what I can do? You wanna see these new things that just are happening to
me? Yes. Eventually. When you're willing to show them. I'm not going to force you.
I activate my deviant ability. We begin to see, like, my body kind of elongate a little bit, and piercing through that fur, we begin to see bits and pieces of almost these, like, small spikes, maybe about three inches, envelop all around his body, piercing through that fur, piercing around his things, coming out of his knuckles, his joints, all these different places. So much so, where he can't even walk on the floor. When he tries to move forward, he makes this deep, heavy, scratch.
Is this what you want? Is
this what you want to see? Well, it's certainly part of it. I believe Freya earlier was, during that fight, fading in and out. I'm not sure what Mia may have done to her. I don't even know what's been done to me. But, it's a start. If you wish, and begin looking into it, you can find out what's causing you to not be able to control your actions, or what's compelling you. It's what I've been doing since I woke up, is trying to find out these things. We're all mysteries. Every one of us.
Every person we've met, every individual we've spoken to in regards to this, Canepo, all of us. We have our own stories to tell, our own failures, our own successes. I wouldn't let them define me. And if there's something you don't want to be happening, I'm happy to assist in changing it. Or at least, figuring out what's causing it. Every investigation has to start somewhere. I've had my eye on you since we met. Creepy.
Oh, you're He just kind of gestures to Beyond just the bone spikes now protruding out of his body. I've not met many Venarin themselves. I don't believe most of them are flaming as you are. I don't believe most of them find themselves compelled into action that they don't wish to take. I don't remember what or who I was. Not being able to control your actions, I think you could understand how it would feel. Not know why or
what you may have done
without your own memory. I apologize for raising my voice, pegging you into this situation against your will. If you wish, I'll make sure the bird doesn't go following you again, and if I ease your attention, I will come see you about myself. If there's any other concessions that you would like to be made, I'm more than willing to discuss them. But, as you pointed out, there is work to be
done. The bones retract into his body, they only last for a short minute of time. And as this happens, he's visibly weakened by this. Uh, part of my backlash is that I get real hungry. So he goes in there, he's like, I need second breakfast, I'll be back, and, and thank, and thank you Varan, I appreciate the, the sentiment there.
As much as I can do. If you two are ready, let's have a meal before we go, and we can be on our way. There's a potato patch out in the Thin Lands, that if records from what I've gathered follow, that is where I can eat a little TNX. Or at the very least, a way for reaching it. Yeah, works for me. As he's leaving the room, just, same goes for both of you, by the way. If there's anything that you need looking into or that you're not sure of, I'm more than willing to listen or lend a hand.
Yeah, I'll
let you know. You all share an early supper, and then make your way to the Thinlands. It is foggy there. And The sun is starting to go down, causing the scenery to become noticeably dimmer. As you approach the potato patch Varyn has identified, you do see a light through the fog. It's not exactly bright. It's almost the absence of brightness. It's almost like a grey hole has formed in the middle of this potato field. As there's a zapping of some kind of energy coming from it.
But as you start to approach it, you hear growling. What our adventures will find at this potato field and on the other side of the portal, you'll have to find out next time on Ash and Snow.
Ash and
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