Who: The Mizuki Quest Crew What: Mizuki Quest When: Roughly around the end of Feburary Where: The Caerula Arbor Warnings: Will come up in tags when appears
[... livio looks just about as unhappy and uncomfortable about this as gnosis and sesa, but... if it may help them get mizuki out of here alive, what choice does he have?
it takes him a while, nonetheless, to figure out how to put into words what feels so pathetic and selfish compared to everyone else's problems.]
... I don't think I'll ever feel like I deserve to be here. Ever do enough good to make up for all the bad, to earn -- my life.
The light level continues to tick up with every number rolled, revealing more and more of this strange chamber. Once the level ticks over "40%", it casts away the endless void of the water, blowing it away like smoke. You all still will not be able to see beneath the water (so your grippers are still obscured for the audience at home), but instead of being obscured by darkness, it's more like the water is just an extremely reflective mirror now. You can all look down and see yourselves as clearly as if someone else were looking at you.
Though, there are some notably odd things, the reflection does not "flip" your image like a mirror should. Mizuki does not show up in the water at all. The Seaborn merely cast shadows against the water, and do not really "reflect" themselves.
Ahead of all of you, now that a lot of the darkness has been cast aside, you can vaguely make out what's in this place. There's some odd silhouettes of things you can't quite make out because of its distance from the light, but on top of that you will all see... bodies? You think they're bodies. They're humanoid in shape, much bigger than the babies who care currently very enthralled with all of you doing Stuff(tm). They're covered in Seaborn features. Tentacles in place of flesh or limbs, coral growing out the eyes, fins, and other eldritch-y Seaborn corruption. They bleed blue in various places, implying they're fully corpses at this point.
Most alarmingly of all, these Seaborn corrupted corpses look familiar. They're you.
[As everyone starts to admit to their issues for the class, Sesa starts to feel more and more...guilty, for not having the strength or bravery necessary to do the same. He wants to open his mouth for once as much as he wants to chew glass, because he keeps his particular issues so close to his chest that very precious few even know about them.
His brother. His direct involvement with said brother's demise. The fact he's pretty much wanted by the government for illegal practices. And that's only beginning to scratch the surface...
Mizuki has been rescued from the arbor, and now all Sesa can think about is getting out of here with him, not that that's going to be made easy. He doesn't know what he's going to do if it turns out that he MUST admit to these things, to save him...to escape...?
The Vouivre brings his claws to his chest, because suddenly breathing feels that much more difficult. His eyes dart between members of their company, and though he feels like all eyes are locked on him, they likely haven't paid him much attention at all.
But...just as he opens his mouth, whatever he was going to say becomes lost the moment the darkness is suddenly swept away, leaving before them a view that has likely been hiding in plain sight this entire time. And...
It's not the first time he's seen himself...but it is the first time he's seen his own corpse, given that Flamebringer killed the wrong version the last time this happened. But it isn't so much that Sesa is seeing himself, all twisted and corrupted, his body fully taken over by that of the Seaborn influence.
It's that, with how disfigured and grotesque the bodies are, it doesn't look like him to his own eyes. It looks like someone else.
The claw on his gun's trigger begins to tremble, metal rattling audibly as Sesa staggers back a few steps in the water, suddenly lifting it up to aim straight at "his" head.
[ As the darkness lifts, and Joshua is able to look down and see his own reflection in the surface of the water, he... frowns. It isn't a true reflection, not in the way he's used to seeing - it's like looking at himself directly, as though there was another him standing on the other side of the water.
But the rattling of Sesa's gun draws his attention away. He'd been in an awful state before, when they had been mentally connected. Guns aren't familiar things to him, but he knows that it's a weapon, like arrows or crossbows. And that means it's dangerous in the hands of someone that isn't entirely stable.
He lifts a hand, gently placing it on Sesa's shoulder at the same time as he says: ]
Please, calm down. It's all right.
[ Though now that he does look at what Sesa is aiming at... Even from a distance, it all looks familiar. It's all of them, twisted and grotesque, and... bleeding? He squints his eyes as he locates his own face in the chaos, a mass of limp tentacles where the Phoenix's pinions would emerge from his back if he were semi-primed. ]
[He's not shaming himself for not sharing, unlike Sesa. He would sooner let himself die here so that he's "taken out of the pool" so to speak, and therefore wouldn't have to answer the question because he's dead. Having opted to not participate in whatever that was seems to have yielded horrific results, though, which he stares at with a deep frown and his arms crossed.
He walks up to his own corpse, blue coral growing where feathers once did, dragon tail replaced with a longer, more skeletal-looking one in blue, flippers and tentacles poking out of his coatsleeves...
And he kicks it.]
I'm getting particularly bored of seeing my own corpse in front of me. Please come up with something different.
Affogato will feel Mizuki curl in a little on himself, little puffs of air coming out of him in something that isn't quite rhythmic. A nightmare? Is he in pain? It's hard to say for sure.
...
With a 1, Gnosis will feel something creeping at the edge of his mind. Something like a tickle at the back of his brain, or like a tickle down his spine, in the worst way. Gnosis is used to the cold, and used to being chilly, but he feels cold. He's shivering without even realizing it. And when he tries to move, sometimes his arm or other leg will move instead.
He is afflicted with 'Metastatic Aberration'.
Good news, he might notice (or anyone else who comes up to Gnosis) that looking closer at the reflections of the corpses in the water... they're not matching up. No really. Above, the order seems to be Gnosis, Jade, Dipper, Joshua, Affogato, Sesa, Livio and Razlo. That in the water seems to be... Sesa, Livio, Razlo, Affogato, Joshua, Jade, Dipper, Gnosis... and the moon, for some reason??
Everyone is going to watch Gnosis going from confidently kicking his own body to looking like he might be having a seizure (he's not, but he's definitely mad about his limbs right now, on top of the involuntary shuddering), and he glances at the water reflections and feels sick and just
ough
He tries to kick his own corpse again out of spite and slips and falls backwards into the water.
[on the one hand: yay, no time to dwell on his stupidass embarrassing confession. on the other hand: WHAT THE FUCK.
so... outright hitting the corpses doesn't seem to trigger some sort of... well, look, they're not immediately rising from the dead to attack. that's good, right?
livio steps up to gnosis to make absolutely certain he isn't harmed, and since the seaborn don't seem worried about him... he'll turn his attention to the... fun little fucked up bodies. the out of place order isn't lost on him, nor are the extra or changed limbs, nor the fact that he has two.
... honestly, if they do decide to reanimate themselves, he's pretty confident he could take a hit better than almost anyone here, so... catch him crouching in front of razlo's. it's extra bizarre to look at his face and know it's razlo based on the wideness of the dead eyes.
yeah, he's gonna poke it. away from any obviously seaborn bits, but poke it nonetheless.]
[oh gnosis is absolutely harmed he's just laying there letting the babies play because he Can't be mad at them. he also doesn't think he can move properly either so he's just resigned to his fate.
[ Gnosis kicks the version of him he dislikes, gets rightfully zapped for it, but... it seems to make Mizuki upset? Affogato has been ignoring the him up there, focused on Mizuki, and he frowns as he curls in on himself and seems? to become distressed?
His scowl turns dark as he glances up in time to see Livio poking at it. ]
Whatever you are doing seems to be affecting Mizuki. Do be careful.
[ Please... He strokes his hand gently over Mizuki's head, picking hair out of his face and smoothing it back. He refuses to look at himself, focusing instead on Mizuki, speaking softly to him. Just little reassurances. ]
[All of this is horrifying, but it's not the first time Dipper has seen his own corpse, and it's not the most grotesque thing he's ever had to wade through. It does startle him at first, but there's a very potent]
C'mon, really?
[That escapes him while he walks over to look at them.]
[Because he is your resident puzzle solver, and isn't distracted with kicking his corpse, Dipper frowns.]
[ Jade looks over this with keen eyes of his own. Surprisingly, or not surprisingly, he's not afraid at looking at his own corpse. Given the damage he did to his own doppelganger, and also life in the ocean, he seems not too worse for wear. The only thing he thinks for a moment that everyone else is probably thinking is:
Lets hope they don't stand up of their own accord, hm?
He's got that wry little toothy grin too. Though, eyes flick down to the reflections when Dipper mentions it. ]
Hm... Well, it appears that Sesa and Livio need to swap to match the reflections. As for the moon...
[ Getting closer to it, Jade summons a small rock with flora magic. He aims it for the moon's reflection to see what happens when you throw something on it. Any thud from underneath the water if it connects with something, if it even ripples at all, etc. He's not flinging it hard or anything, just testing things! ]
[As Joshua places a hand on Sesa's shoulder, the Vouivre's eyes flicker over to look at him. Thank god for Joshua, because Sesa was 100% probably going to just shoot one of the corpses, ideally his own because he cannot look at it any longer. The face is so disfigured by tentacles and coral bits that it doesn't look exactly like Sesa anymore, only just enough, and that's the part he can't stand.
That, and the knowledge that hurting these things- or even making contact even slightly- is having an affect on Mizuki...god. Fuck.
Reluctantly, he puts his gun away, slinging it back over his shoulder as he quickly sweeps past the others to bend down and check on Gnosis, reaching under his arms to see if he can help the Liberi sit up.]
Livio meets a similar fate to Gnosis. He feels something scratching at the corners of his brain before everything goes... dizzy. Wobbly. It's a bit like he's drunk except only the bad parts. His reaction speed is a lot slower, and sometimes it's hard to tell where he is at all. He's still here, physically, and he still has enough sense to process everything as needed, but things are just...
...slow.
Livio has been afflicted with 'Neurodegeneration'.
Mizuki, again, shifts. Tentacles cling to Affogato's arm and squeeze - not hard enough to hurt, but definitely with intent. He does not wake up.
[ The tentacles squeezing is enough to tell Affogato that touching them probably isn't good. The reaction from Mizuki is a REACTION, which in a way is good, but the warning is clear.
Even if it's not hurting Mizuki, it's making him distressed. He shhh's softly down at him. ]
It's all right, little love, they won't damn themselves anymore with their own need to prod.
[ To the others as he shifts Mizuki to cradle him better. ]
Investigate with your Ovens damned eyes, not your hands or feet!
[ Oh, wonderful. So touching the things is not on the table. Joshua sighs, turning to look at Sesa, and then at Gnosis. Whatever is happening when they touch these things, it isn't good.
To Sesa: ]
Is he hurt? I don't know what's wrong, but I can try to heal him.
[ He's keeping an eye on Livio, too. He's the only other one to have touched the bodies. ]
[Sesa glares in Affogato's direction, thinking Are you going to offer any aid or are you just going to sit and bark at us?, but he keeps it to himself while he turns back to focus instead on Gnosis in front of him, still trying to help him lean against his front for support even if he isn't necessarily able to sit up on his own.]
It's the Nethersea Brand...I imagine these...creatures must be riddled with it, if they are Seaborn. It afflicts you if you touch it and seems to largely affect the nervous system. I'm not sure if your healing could aid with that, but anything would help.
[Good news, Gnosis is alive?? Bad news he definitely bruised his ass and upper back when he hit the ground but y'all don't need to know that. Worse news is he's still having difficulties moving; he tries to adjust his limbs and his right arm elbows Sesa in the ribs when he's trying to move his left.
He also looks like a drowned rat.]
I'm having difficulties moving my limbs, sorry. [And he's shaking involuntarily still, yay.] I'm normally resistant to these sorts of effects, so I think it has more to do with the corpses themselves, if they can be called that. I don't know if it can be healed away, unless you know of a way to cleanse neurological effects.
The water does ripple when Jade throws the rock into the water, though nothing more happens than that. The moon is still very there after the water settles. He can reach in the water to get his rock back. It's still only ankle-deep.
Gnosis, the three babies you held earlier at trying to lay on your arms to help "warm you up". They're doing their best.
Joshua, the seaborn you brought with you is holding your hand again, mimicking your voice from something you just said: "What's wrong...?"
[ Neurological effects... The Phoenix's fire can heal wounds, mend damaged tissue. Would this count? He hasn't tried it on any sort of illness or effect, though. He frowns, thoughtfully. ]
I don't know if my healing would work or not. But, I am the Phoenix - I cannot go without trying.
[ The seaborn baby takes his hand again, using his own voice to ask a question, and he looks down to it as he lifts his free hand to hover over Gnosis' chest. ]
He isn't feeling well, little one. I need to summon a flame, but I promise it will not hurt you. All right?
[ Focusing, he draws upon himself, flame lighting on the back of his hand and letting the warmth of the healing magic flow through Gnosis. If there is damage that can be healed, it will find it. ]
Unfortunately, there is not really any damage that Joshua can find. Not really. With an 18, while he cannot heal Gnosis, he'll be able to tell it's because there's... nothing to heal. Joshua will notice it's not necessarily an illness either. In fact, everything seems to be working as intended? Gnosis is fine. He is functioning and nothing is wrong.
But obviously his magic and Gnosis' reactions are giving him different answers there. How strange.
[Gnosis goes to flip his left wrist like "it's okay don't worry about it" and he instead raises the right way too fast and hard and slaps Sesa with it. You know what, he's going to stop moving now.]
I appreciate the attempt regardless, Joshua. [What he needs is probably like, spiritual healing. A cleric. Church. To find God. Anyway, he's going to continue appreciating the little baby seaborn and being a godless heathen.] I think I can sit up on my own, if the two of you want to attempt to figure out what's going on with the bodies and the reflections.
[fun facts: livio does not know what being drunk feels like. alcohol is technically poison, and his freak of science metabolism burns it out too fast to have any effect. so this whole time, he's just... stayed crouching here, maybe a little wobbly, not quite registering how out of it he is because he doesn't have any frame of reference. obviously he knows what dissociation is like, that's just... his life, but.
while everyone is saying things, discussing what to do, he slowly looks back and forth along the bodies and their reflections... and he's just gonna grab razlo by the hair and start dragging the corpse over to where it's reflected in the water.
like, really, really, really slowly. probably stumbling while he's hunched over the body like a damn gargoyle (no offense zahliya or zonari). anyone feel free to stop him??]
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it takes him a while, nonetheless, to figure out how to put into words what feels so pathetic and selfish compared to everyone else's problems.]
... I don't think I'll ever feel like I deserve to be here. Ever do enough good to make up for all the bad, to earn -- my life.
cw: eldritch body horror
Though, there are some notably odd things, the reflection does not "flip" your image like a mirror should. Mizuki does not show up in the water at all. The Seaborn merely cast shadows against the water, and do not really "reflect" themselves.
Ahead of all of you, now that a lot of the darkness has been cast aside, you can vaguely make out what's in this place. There's some odd silhouettes of things you can't quite make out because of its distance from the light, but on top of that you will all see... bodies? You think they're bodies. They're humanoid in shape, much bigger than the babies who care currently very enthralled with all of you doing Stuff(tm). They're covered in Seaborn features. Tentacles in place of flesh or limbs, coral growing out the eyes, fins, and other eldritch-y Seaborn corruption. They bleed blue in various places, implying they're fully corpses at this point.
Most alarmingly of all, these Seaborn corrupted corpses look familiar. They're you.
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His brother. His direct involvement with said brother's demise. The fact he's pretty much wanted by the government for illegal practices. And that's only beginning to scratch the surface...
Mizuki has been rescued from the arbor, and now all Sesa can think about is getting out of here with him, not that that's going to be made easy. He doesn't know what he's going to do if it turns out that he MUST admit to these things, to save him...to escape...?
The Vouivre brings his claws to his chest, because suddenly breathing feels that much more difficult. His eyes dart between members of their company, and though he feels like all eyes are locked on him, they likely haven't paid him much attention at all.
But...just as he opens his mouth, whatever he was going to say becomes lost the moment the darkness is suddenly swept away, leaving before them a view that has likely been hiding in plain sight this entire time. And...
It's not the first time he's seen himself...but it is the first time he's seen his own corpse, given that Flamebringer killed the wrong version the last time this happened. But it isn't so much that Sesa is seeing himself, all twisted and corrupted, his body fully taken over by that of the Seaborn influence.
It's that, with how disfigured and grotesque the bodies are, it doesn't look like him to his own eyes. It looks like someone else.
The claw on his gun's trigger begins to tremble, metal rattling audibly as Sesa staggers back a few steps in the water, suddenly lifting it up to aim straight at "his" head.
He hasn't shot, not yet, but.]
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But the rattling of Sesa's gun draws his attention away. He'd been in an awful state before, when they had been mentally connected. Guns aren't familiar things to him, but he knows that it's a weapon, like arrows or crossbows. And that means it's dangerous in the hands of someone that isn't entirely stable.
He lifts a hand, gently placing it on Sesa's shoulder at the same time as he says: ]
Please, calm down. It's all right.
[ Though now that he does look at what Sesa is aiming at... Even from a distance, it all looks familiar. It's all of them, twisted and grotesque, and... bleeding? He squints his eyes as he locates his own face in the chaos, a mass of limp tentacles where the Phoenix's pinions would emerge from his back if he were semi-primed. ]
... what... is that?
light suicidal ideation cw
He walks up to his own corpse, blue coral growing where feathers once did, dragon tail replaced with a longer, more skeletal-looking one in blue, flippers and tentacles poking out of his coatsleeves...
And he kicks it.]
I'm getting particularly bored of seeing my own corpse in front of me. Please come up with something different.
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...
With a 1, Gnosis will feel something creeping at the edge of his mind. Something like a tickle at the back of his brain, or like a tickle down his spine, in the worst way. Gnosis is used to the cold, and used to being chilly, but he feels cold. He's shivering without even realizing it. And when he tries to move, sometimes his arm or other leg will move instead.
He is afflicted with 'Metastatic Aberration'.
Good news, he might notice (or anyone else who comes up to Gnosis) that looking closer at the reflections of the corpses in the water... they're not matching up. No really. Above, the order seems to be Gnosis, Jade, Dipper, Joshua, Affogato, Sesa, Livio and Razlo. That in the water seems to be... Sesa, Livio, Razlo, Affogato, Joshua, Jade, Dipper, Gnosis... and the moon, for some reason??
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Everyone is going to watch Gnosis going from confidently kicking his own body to looking like he might be having a seizure (he's not, but he's definitely mad about his limbs right now, on top of the involuntary shuddering), and he glances at the water reflections and feels sick and just
ough
He tries to kick his own corpse again out of spite and slips and falls backwards into the water.
Someone else can get this puzzle he's dead jim]
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so... outright hitting the corpses doesn't seem to trigger some sort of... well, look, they're not immediately rising from the dead to attack. that's good, right?
livio steps up to gnosis to make absolutely certain he isn't harmed, and since the seaborn don't seem worried about him... he'll turn his attention to the... fun little fucked up bodies. the out of place order isn't lost on him, nor are the extra or changed limbs, nor the fact that he has two.
... honestly, if they do decide to reanimate themselves, he's pretty confident he could take a hit better than almost anyone here, so... catch him crouching in front of razlo's. it's extra bizarre to look at his face and know it's razlo based on the wideness of the dead eyes.
yeah, he's gonna poke it. away from any obviously seaborn bits, but poke it nonetheless.]
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please be careful poking corpses, kids.]
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His scowl turns dark as he glances up in time to see Livio poking at it. ]
Whatever you are doing seems to be affecting Mizuki. Do be careful.
[ Please... He strokes his hand gently over Mizuki's head, picking hair out of his face and smoothing it back. He refuses to look at himself, focusing instead on Mizuki, speaking softly to him. Just little reassurances. ]
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C'mon, really?
[That escapes him while he walks over to look at them.]
[Because he is your resident puzzle solver, and isn't distracted with kicking his corpse, Dipper frowns.]
The reflections don't add up.
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Lets hope they don't stand up of their own accord, hm?
He's got that wry little toothy grin too. Though, eyes flick down to the reflections when Dipper mentions it. ]
Hm... Well, it appears that Sesa and Livio need to swap to match the reflections. As for the moon...
[ Getting closer to it, Jade summons a small rock with flora magic. He aims it for the moon's reflection to see what happens when you throw something on it. Any thud from underneath the water if it connects with something, if it even ripples at all, etc. He's not flinging it hard or anything, just testing things! ]
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That, and the knowledge that hurting these things- or even making contact even slightly- is having an affect on Mizuki...god. Fuck.
Reluctantly, he puts his gun away, slinging it back over his shoulder as he quickly sweeps past the others to bend down and check on Gnosis, reaching under his arms to see if he can help the Liberi sit up.]
Hold on, I've got you....
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...slow.
Livio has been afflicted with 'Neurodegeneration'.
Mizuki, again, shifts. Tentacles cling to Affogato's arm and squeeze - not hard enough to hurt, but definitely with intent. He does not wake up.
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[ The tentacles squeezing is enough to tell Affogato that touching them probably isn't good. The reaction from Mizuki is a REACTION, which in a way is good, but the warning is clear.
Even if it's not hurting Mizuki, it's making him distressed. He shhh's softly down at him. ]
It's all right, little love, they won't damn themselves anymore with their own need to prod.
[ To the others as he shifts Mizuki to cradle him better. ]
Investigate with your Ovens damned eyes, not your hands or feet!
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To Sesa: ]
Is he hurt? I don't know what's wrong, but I can try to heal him.
[ He's keeping an eye on Livio, too. He's the only other one to have touched the bodies. ]
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It's the Nethersea Brand...I imagine these...creatures must be riddled with it, if they are Seaborn. It afflicts you if you touch it and seems to largely affect the nervous system. I'm not sure if your healing could aid with that, but anything would help.
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He also looks like a drowned rat.]
I'm having difficulties moving my limbs, sorry. [And he's shaking involuntarily still, yay.] I'm normally resistant to these sorts of effects, so I think it has more to do with the corpses themselves, if they can be called that. I don't know if it can be healed away, unless you know of a way to cleanse neurological effects.
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Gnosis, the three babies you held earlier at trying to lay on your arms to help "warm you up". They're doing their best.
Joshua, the seaborn you brought with you is holding your hand again, mimicking your voice from something you just said: "What's wrong...?"
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I don't know if my healing would work or not. But, I am the Phoenix - I cannot go without trying.
[ The seaborn baby takes his hand again, using his own voice to ask a question, and he looks down to it as he lifts his free hand to hover over Gnosis' chest. ]
He isn't feeling well, little one. I need to summon a flame, but I promise it will not hurt you. All right?
[ Focusing, he draws upon himself, flame lighting on the back of his hand and letting the warmth of the healing magic flow through Gnosis. If there is damage that can be healed, it will find it. ]
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But obviously his magic and Gnosis' reactions are giving him different answers there. How strange.
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I cannot... feel anything. It's as though I'm trying to heal someone that needs no healing.
[ But Gnosis is clearly suffering effects... Isn't he? Unless... ]
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I appreciate the attempt regardless, Joshua. [What he needs is probably like, spiritual healing. A cleric. Church. To find God. Anyway, he's going to continue appreciating the little baby seaborn and being a godless heathen.] I think I can sit up on my own, if the two of you want to attempt to figure out what's going on with the bodies and the reflections.
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while everyone is saying things, discussing what to do, he slowly looks back and forth along the bodies and their reflections... and he's just gonna grab razlo by the hair and start dragging the corpse over to where it's reflected in the water.
like, really, really, really slowly. probably stumbling while he's hunched over the body like a damn gargoyle (no offense zahliya or zonari). anyone feel free to stop him??]
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anyway, brings this out of the brain subthread
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