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 Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 12:16 pm
Winta thought that with some boots and a coat she would be okay to make the trek to Zena, however, she didn't really take into account that the items she wore were far too cold for the ice haven she was going too. Sure they were to warm for the desert, but not warm enough for this place. With a shivery sigh Winta made her way through the various homes set-up, looking for her destination. Her goal was to reach the artisans here and find out how they made their sharp spears and how she could use that knowledge when she tried to make her own. Granted, they weren't very useful right now because she hadn't quite mastered how to whittle without making the wood to weak to even be used. Winta was certain she stuck out like a sore thumb here, not only by her coloring but just how idiotically she had dressed. Next time she'd make sure she studied up on the different temperatures of the various lands. "That might be easier said then done." She managed to stutter out before she clasped her hands over her opposite arms, trying in desperation to keep what small amount of body heat she had contained. It wasn't much. Her green-blue eyes scanned each hut, looking for any indication of a weapons maker. So far nothing. "They have one. . . Right?" Maybe some cultures of Earthlings didn't need weapons. The people of Tale rarely used theirs. "Maybe I should have tried my luck with the Alkidikes. Coming here was a stupid idea." Winta said with a frustrated groan before she promptly stamped her foot into the snow.
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Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2013 6:26 am
Ruelash leaned carelessly against the weaponcrafter's hut, grumbling about the time. He wanted to be out and about, not here in this stupid shithole of earthlings doing stupid things in this stupid stupid STUPID village. Being stupid.
Ruelash didn't have much in the way of a vocabulary.
Where was the snow-forsaken stupid pith of an artisan that lived in this village? He wanted to make his little dagger better because, well, it was the only weapon he was allowed to have as a violent and possibly dangerous prentice. It was a crappy, dull thing made out of chipped glass and bone, and- though he had crafted it himself, it was shitty.
He needed better. Sharper. Stronger. And he had some things to barter, some Chuka meat and skins, and some Mammu tusks he had found on his way to this village. The package he was carrying-another stupid package, always with the stupid packages- was still tucked under his arm. He had his priorities, and weapons came before his mission.
It was quiet today- clearly everybody had better places to be, (including him but no, he was here waiting), so he looked up when he heard the sound of footsteps.
He looked over the leaf-tribe woman before looking away. Obviously, not the artisan.
But then he looked again, puzzled.
Wasn't she cold in that? He could see her... Ah.
Yep, she looked miserable. He remembered the other leaf tribe member he met. Not her name, but hammer-girl worked just as well as any other name.
"You cold?" he asked gruffly, nodding. Of course she was. Just look at her, prancing around in that light stuff. Didn't she know better?! She could get sick and die.
He grimaced and struggled against the core instincts that made up his 'better nature'.
"Here." he growled unfriendlily, taking off his furred outer cloak and handing it to her, not meeting her eyes, "Wear it." he shoved it at her.
He'd want it back later, but he just couldn't sit there and watch this lady be cold. It felt wrong. Feeling wrong felt wrong-er than even that, so he wanted to prevent that however he could.
"What are ya doing out here in the cold with that. Ya tryin' t' kill yourself?"
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Posted: Sat May 04, 2013 2:34 pm
Winta despite her name really hated this cold, un-warm place. Why did she ever decide to come here? "Seemed like a good idea at the time." She said, her voice quivering from coldness. Just as she was about to give up and run as fast as she cold back towards her warm desert of wonderfulness she heard a voice call out to her. Was she cold? Seemed like a bit of an understatement. With a slightly frustrated look on her face she turned herself so that she could face the male that had called to her and quickly made her way closer to him. Just when she was about to yell out all her frustrations out at him, he had shoved a very warm furry cloak at her. Winta wasn't sure what to do other then to put it on like he said. "Thank you." She replied, not hiding her surprise at what had just happened. However, she really was thankful. Already she could feel the slight feel of her skin again. It would hurt later.
When the boy spoke again she looked at her spear that he had indicated and smiled. "I made this spear. It's not very good but it was my first try at one. We don't have much use for weapons in Tale, that's why I came here seeking out a weapons maker, hoping they might be able to give me some tips on how to make it usable." Winta replied, turning her green-blue back towards him. "What about you? Looks like that can't be very useful either. Though, maybe a bit more useful than mine." She grinned towards his knife. Maybe it was better to start on a smaller scale. Yes, that was a good idea.
"My name's Winta."
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Posted: Mon May 06, 2013 7:31 pm
Ruelash grunted.It may have been a 'you're welcome' about the coat, or it may have just been a grunt.
He had been thoroughly resolved to just wait there grumpily until he noticed her spear. And until she started talking about weapons.
"Ruelash." he lifted his glass knife to the light.
"Yeah, it's pretty weak. It kin only poke a bit. Maybe get an organ, if I'm lucky." he shrugged, though there was a definite pride to the gesture, "I made it m'self though. These too." he lifted his boots to show her the ice spikes that were still on them. Chi, was he showing off?
He took a look at the spear.
"Ya. You're right. It ain't a good spear." if he was trying to impress her, he clearly was terrible at it. "Though..." he took it from her hands and hefted it a few times before returning it, "... Ya could probably throw it if ya needed to." the weight was all wrong, but it had a decent enough grip. Ruelash had very low standards, though. If it killed a thing, it worked.
"So, what, you a weapons crafter or something?"
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Posted: Mon May 06, 2013 11:16 pm
"Nice to meet you Ruelash" Winta grinned a bit when he began talking about his knife. It always felt nice when you got to talk about something you put a lot of time and effort into she thought. Or maybe it was just her that felt that way. "Well it'll do more damage than mine." She told him truthfully. "What are those?" Winta asked with genuine curiosity since ice spikes weren't needed in the desert it made sense she had never seen or heard of them before.
At his remark about her spear she winced slightly but nodded her head. So she had a long way to go yet with it but it was a start. Considering how much flak she got for wanting to make weapons from her grandmother you would think that she wouldn't go for the path she was slowly heading towards, but nope. Either she loved being yelled at all the time or loved weapons way more than the average person. It was most likely the latter.
"I suppose if I was about to die and this was my only option I could throw it." She paused. "I think the throw would destroy it though." Winta laughed. When Ruelash asked her about being a weapons crafter it was as if her world lit up for a moment and she nodded vigorously. "I hope to one day make it as one. That's if I can make something more suitable." Winta gently wiggled her spear. "What about you?"
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Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 12:07 am
Nice to meet you?
Theres something he didn't hear.
Ever. He grunted an affirmative. Sure. Maybe it wasn't horribly terrible to meet her too. Maybe.
"Ice spikes." He looked at her, brusquely. How the hell couldn't she know what they were?
Oh right. Leaf tribe. From a desert, where there was no snow or ice. What a place. Another grunt. Maybe one of sudden understanding.
"Ya use them t' get traction on ice, sos ya don't go slippin' an' slidin' onta yer a**." he smiled, not a nice smile, one with teeth. "Or off'a cliff" He put his foot down, "Handy as hell" And maybe the grin stayed. A bit.
"Yeah?" he looked at the spear again, "Prob'ly would, but hey. If ya kill something, it works." He nodded, shooting a glare at the still empty hut. ********' stupid villagers and their stupid business.
Well fine then. He was talkin'... to a lady. With a spear.
"Dunno." he said, offhand, "I like to hurt things. Not gonna stay in a stupid village, thats f' sure." he mimed stabbing the building. If he had actually done it, he probably would have lost his dagger. He needed it.
"Well, if ya're here t' apprentice under this 'un, he ain't in, hasn't been in for, like, hours. An' he ain't that good anyway." he spat at the doorstep, the spit freezing into a goopy, icy mess.
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Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 8:36 pm
Winta's auburn colored head bobbed as she nodded as if she was understanding what the boy was trying to explain to her, which she did, but only to a limited extent. "I can't even remember how many times I fell while making my way here. Would have been handy to have those. If they are spikes can use them as weapons?" Winta grinned excitedly at the idea of having your feet be weapons too. Just the fantasy of kicking out her foot and stabbing someone in the neck made her squeal. "I don't like to hurt things. . . At least I've never tried to. But I like the idea of it?" She said, framing her statement as more of a question. It probably wasn't normal for either of them to admit what they had but it was just the two of them standing there talking, so what did it matter?
When Ruelash told her about the situation with the artisan she couldn't help but let out a frustrated groan and unlike him she actually hit the hut, only she did it with her foot which hurt like hell. "OH SPARKLING KINFA!" She promptly exclaimed as she held her foot and hopped around. "I came to this frozen hell only to break my foot!" Winta let out another frustrated groan before she sat down on the ground, still holding her foot with some tears trying to fight their way through as she looked up at Ruelash. "No offense but this place is miserable. How can you stand it? I mean, look at all this ice!" She told him, forgetting about the fact that he had wanted to get out of this village too. Winta almost pounded her fist against the snow and ice covered grown but managed to think ahead a little quicker before she really did break something.
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Posted: Thu May 09, 2013 6:28 pm
Ruelash was rarely properly surprised. This was one of those times. He had expected her to shut up, maybe give him a shaky polite smile and nod. He didn't really think about what he said before he said them, but that was usually the response of these idiotic earthlings to hearing him say that he liked to hurt things.
What the hell was she doing liking it too? Even the idea of it?
He stared at her with confused sulfurous eyes, their usual predatory glint temporarily lost. He blinked once, twice.
"Yes. Well. They're handy things..." he managed to snap out of it, but only a bit. He kept looking at Winta like he was seeing someone real for the first time. Except when he contemplated his boots briefly.
"Well, I dunno if they'd be good for kickin', ya'd have to get your foot at a really crazy angle, and th' boots and spikes are heavy...." he tapped the front of the boot, "Less ya put a spike here. Or a dagger. Or somethin' sharp. Then ya could kick and... stab... at the same time..." Holy s**t. He had never thought about that. His eyes widened and he looked at his boots.
He had to try that. That sounded like fun.
"... Bet they'd do a lot of damage if ya stomped though." he grinned, still considering his boots, "Ya get an enemy down, an' just when they think ya're gonna let 'em up, you STOMP. Hard." He mimed it in the snow. It wasn't satisfying, but he could imagine how it felt on an actual living thing. Satisfying, real satisfying, he bet. "A looooot of damage."
He watched her hit the hut, quasi-sympathetically.
"Hut's too thick for him to hear anyway." he commented, noting that her foot didn't look so good. He knelt to inspect it, "Snow'll keep it from swelling." he mentioned, almost offhand. Advice? Freely given? That was not usually something he did. If Ruelash was more self aware, maybe he would wonder if he was sick.
Especially as an actually friendly (sort of) grin spread across his face.
"Sure, its miserable, but it's ******** pretty ain't it? you get out into the tundra, and there's nothin' but white an' crystal all around, quiet as a grave. Splash some blood red on the snow, an'..." the grin widened, maybe slightly less friendly, slightly more normal for Ruelash, "Ya get per-fek-tion."
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Posted: Sun May 26, 2013 11:38 am
She held her ankle in both of her hands as she looked down at her foot. It was clearly swollen through the poorly made, old, boots that she had managed to scrounge up in Tale. Next time she came she'd have to make sure she layered up a lot more. "If it was out all the time though they would see it coming. You'd have to hide it in the boot and then when it came time to hit them with it, have it pop out at the last second." Winta replied, still inspecting her foot for a moment before looking up at Ruelash.
"Snow? Won't you get that nasty back stuff covering you?" Winta asked. She'd heard from her grandmother that people from Tale that went to Zena often came back with black stuff covering themselves and when her grandmother was a child after some time they'd die. Now though she'd said that they'd take the black part of your body off. "I don't want to lose my foot. Wouldn't be able to climb anymore." She said, giving him a look like he might be slightly crazy for mentioning it, but was willing to hear him out. After all, she didn't live in Zena and who knew what kind of healing properties the snow had. Winta was rather ignorant about the area's beyond Tale. Just the way her grandmother liked her to be.
At his last remark Winta could only nod, her eyes taking a quick scan of the area. "When I was making my way here I saw a mountain of ice floating on the water. That was really pretty." However, she could only shrug at his mention of blood on the snow. "I've never hurt anyone before so I wouldn't know anything about, well, everything you just said." Winta laughed a little. He seemed passionate about a lot of things. She wasn't sure what he wanted to be but she was certain it'd have to do with fighting. "I'm sure everyone would feel safer with you protecting them." Winta smiled confidently as she patted his shoulder.
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Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 8:49 pm
"Wait, like a... uh... a..." Damn, he thought he was on a roll. He devolved into muttering, trying to figure out what her idea reminded him of.
"A sheathe!" he said, victoriously, "Like for claws on those animals that don' have 'em out all the time?"
Ooo, that would be cool.
"Wait, wait, wouldn't it be even better if ya had spikes on, uh, gauntlets that were like claws? An' you could make them come out when ya wanted to make a punch really hurt?" he grinned viciously, though for once the malice was not aimed or associated with the person he was talking to. A rare occurance indeed.
"Or... Or ya could use them as claws" of course, "An tear up someone without 'em even suspecting..."
Ooo, that was so cool. He wanted one.
Oh, he could imagine how powerful he would feel with hand-mounted claws.
"It'd be real great, wouldn't it t' charge up to an opponent an', when he looks at you with that confused look people have when someone comes up all unarmed, ya slash 'im down with claws..." he looked at her, grinning, "Ya gonna make somethin' like that? 'cause I'd test it out for ya!"
Oh yeah, she wanted to make weapons.
And was an amateur.
What did Ruelash care about that part? He was talking about hurting and weapons!
"Ya don't gotta worry about icebite if ya catch it fast and keep it warm. A little bit 'a snow won't kill ya. 'Less you some kind 'a sissy..." he thought for a moment, "You ain't one, ain't ya?"
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Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 10:08 pm
"That might not be a bad idea either." Winta replied, pondering it as she looked at her foot again. Maybe putting ice on it wouldn't be such a bad thing after all. Ruelash wouldn't let her lose her foot, would he? No. He seemed like a great guy. "I think you could put anything inside the gloves, depending on what you needed them for." Maybe you could attach hooks in them to make you climb trees easier. Her eyes grew wide and lit up. "I--I should make them! Y-Y-You test them!!!!" She stuttered out as her mind tried to keep up with her tongue. Already her mind was thinking of the best type of material to use. Winta wouldn't admit it, but she was good with making jewelry and things like that so making gloves would be no problem. Making the metal, however, was a whole 'nother story. "I might not be able to make them for a while though. Not the way they should be. Will you test them out even if it takes some time?"
Her attention was once more drawn to her foot which was now throbbing in her poorly made snow-shoes. "It won't? Well. . . Okay. Is it a good idea to take my boot off outside?" Winta asked, once more only having the reference her grandmother had given to her about the other lands. Which, once again was all the things she wanted her to hear in order to keep her home. Not all of it was the truth. In fact most of it was probably an old-wives-tale. His question caught her off guard and she actually took a moment to ponder it. "Depends?" She shrugged. "I'm afraid of losing my foot so I suppose in this case I am, however, I'm not about a lot of other things." Winta smiled. "Not afraid of heights, or weapons, or blood or anything like that. Makes sense though. Otherwise I couldn't be a Weapons maker later on could I?" Winta laughed. "Zena is very different from my home. Like using snow to treat things like this." She added, putting her injured foot up against his knee as gently as she could. "So what should I do doctor Ruelash?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 9:16 pm
"What, like a multi... multi... uh..." Ruelash bent down to examine her foot. "A many-use thing. With, uh, different claw thingies for different uses? Like... Big, blunt 'claws' for bashing things and real sharp pokey claws for punchin' things and little hooked claws for climbing things...?" Not something he had ever thought about.
"Look, it'll be hard t' walk on if it swells up 'cause then you won't be able to take it in or outta your shoe. An' then ye'd be stuck here an' seein as you're not likin' the cold, I don't think you want to, yeah?" he helped her get her snowshoe off- he scoffed at even calling it a snowshoe. It couldn't keep the cold out-what was she thinking?
"'Sides, if you're careful ya wont get Icebite in this weather. This's the warm months. You just wait for the cold months." he scooped some snow and held it against her foot, "If you were here when it got REALLY cold, ye'd be lucky if ye were in a town, caz' then I'd say take the swellin' foot and lay low for a while. If ya weren't in town" he said conversationally, "Ya'd end up dyin' in the tundra caz' ya couldn't move to safety. But yer in town and ain't here in the cold months, so..."
He trailed off, a little surprised to hear his own voice at all. He usually didn't talk to anybody. But this one... This one was not like the rest. ESPECIALLY in the way she said his name. That got a blink and a pause from him.
"... 'm not a doctor... he said, inspecting her foot. He didn't have healer-type knowledge, but if he had a swelling foot like that he knew he'd be fine so long as he kept the swelling down. She'd be fine. "But I'd like t' test out the claws?" Wait, that didn't sound right.
What did he care how things sounded? Since when? Since when did he actually care about someone's welfare?
"Willin' to wait for claws." he growled, a little puzzled. He really wasn't the smoothest operator.
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Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 2:16 am
Her head nodded along as Ruelash talked about the differing types of blades she could use in order to get the right type of weapon. "I guess that means I'll have to come back after this and try climbing the ice here." She said, a look of thought coming over her features. "I wonder how much pressure you'd need. Less than a tree?" She added mostly talking to herself. These were ideas she was going to have to go over in detail when she got home. Maybe draw up a few sketches and grab various types of materials, come back and see which worked best in Zena.
While Winta was pondering her own ideas she hadn't entirely tuned Ruelash out, which was honestly saying something because the girl couldn't hold more than one thought in her head at a time when it came to weapons. Winta couldn't help but laugh a little when she looked from her shoe to his. "I think I'd enjoy it more if I had the right clothing for this weather. If you wore all that you'd probably die before you made it half way through Tale on account of the heat." Winta took that moment to snuggle further into this coat which was really warm. When Ruelash slipped her shoe off she felt the pain shoot up her leg but bit her lip and tried to think of when she carved out a weapon for the first time from wood. Yes, it was a very pleasant thought. Not that Ruelash had been a brute about taking her shoe off, but the damage done to it was still fresh and it hurt.
"This is the warm months?" Her green-blue eyes grew wide in both shock and amazement. He had to be pulling her leg right? No, he wasn't. Well, she was as good as dead the next time she visited wasn't she? "Guess that means you'll have to visit in the cold months." Winta replied, looking up at him. "I'll come here in the warmer months so I can show you what materials I have and see what works best and you can come in the colder months to take them back and test them out!" She said excitedly. It was nice to find someone who understood her vision, let alone her. "My grandmother might literally tie me up in my room for the rest of my life when she see's you, but oh well. I'll stash a knife from now on." Winta shrugged it off as if her strict grandmother was like a common house fly.
Once more Winta laughed at Ruelash's remark. "Oh really? Well you look like a doctor to me right now." She put the back of her hand over her head and turned her head to the side slightly. "I'm such a damsel in distress." Her hand fell from her head when she began laughing again. It wasn't untrue, at least when it came to places like Zena. This Leaf Earthling was way out of her element here but back at home she'd be way more useful and a little less pitiful. So when Winta had calmed down from her laughter she looked from Ruelash, to her foot, then back to Ruelash. "So doctor Ruelash. . . It doesn't look really funky does it?" Winta asked with a slightly scrunched up nose. "The ice is really cold." She smiled again, pulling his coat around her tighter. Yeah she was getting a little chilly from having her foot exposed to the cold air and ice being applied to it but she'd live. Right? Yes. Ruelash wouldn't let her die. He was her friend and even though they'd only met today they'd found that they had similar goals in life and oddly enough those two were dependent on the other.
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Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 7:47 am
"Hmmm." Pressure? What was she... Ohhh, pressure to get the climbing spikes to stick. Ruelash got it.
"Different pressure, caz the ice is more rigid an' cracks easy. Wood grips a bit better, too, caz its rough" if he understood plants were actually properly alive, he would have included that too. Because it made sense to him that a living thing would grab and hold. "Ice, if ya hit it too hard, it shatters. Wood shatters too, but its a bit harder to shatter." Climbing was something he knew about. "Ice is slick, so ya want to get yourself handholds..." he stopped 'treating' (read, putting snow on) her foot to take out one of his pitons to show her. "You take these, you stab'em in, and then you use them to help climb. You yank one out when you need a new handhold." Crap. He needed a new one too, didn't he. "Works for rock too, but rock takes more force and isn't as slick as ice. Ice is a tricky 'un." he grinned, remembering the times that he'd been out climbing and ice had nearly proven his downfall. That had been such a rush!
"So, in the Tale, What ya gotta do to survive?" Water would be an issue, right? It was in Sauti.
"Ya never get snow, huh?" wait, wait, that meant it would be a whole different set of skills! Oooooo... He wanted to see, he did! He wanted to go out there and let Bergchi or whatever god ruled the hot Tale try to kill him! That would be fun!
"So what do you climb there? 's it flat, or is it all hilly like Sauti?" He liked hilly, but hey. He was happy for something new.
He poked at the foot. "The ice is 'sposed to be cold" he said, rolling his eyes, "That's why it's ice. Yeah, it started swellin' but the cold's keeping it down." He noticed how pale her foot was getting- was that her foot or just her skin color? Nah. She was more tan than a Wind Earthling. The other Leaf person had been, too.
He nodded abruptly and put her shoe back on. Pale meant that the blood wasn't there, and blood had to be there, so he would let it come back. Wasn't like her shoe wouldn't let cold in, thin-a** thing that it was.
"There." he said, "That should do it. Ya'll be able to walk home..."
He looked at her, crouched like some wild animal around her feet.
"Wait. Why would your gran tie ya up? She don't like you travellin'?" That was dumb. "But if she ties ya up, won't you want to escape more?" Like his sister's Raptrix!
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Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2013 5:37 pm
Winta absorbed every word Ruelash said, thinking up ways she could craft an item to fit every need someone had. It would be tough to make something that had a hidden blade for example but she was up for the challenge. Winta wasn't sure how she would fare with making weapons or tools for those of other tribes but with Ruelash as her companion how could she fail? It was decided almost immediately in her brain that they would have a give take sort of friendship. Winta liked those.
"In Tale we have huge trees that we climb. We use tools or we just freely climb. It depends on the individual really." Winta added. So there were some similarities. While one tribe had tree's another had ice mountains. Winta would have to test climbing one sometime but that time wasn't now. Especially with her foot in this condition. At Ruelash's question Winta grinned. "No water, no wind, just endless desert. It's a long ways to the next settlement so it's surviving the heat that's the biggest problem. We know how to conserve our water and the best ways to keep cool so very few have problems. Then again, there's always that one idiot that never pays attention." She laughed a bit.
When Ruelash removed the snow from her foot she let in a breath of air through her teeth. It looked funny to her. Rue had assured her that it would be fine so she believed him. "Thanks." Winta replied, inspecting it for a moment. When Ruelash once again asked her a question, this time about her grandmother tying her up she looked from her foot to him. "Nope. She hates the idea of me making weapons too." Winta sighed. "Yeah, but she's really good at tying complicated knots. Plus there's no guarantee that by the time I got out of them I wasn't being thrust into a marriage with some homely baker or something." She herself rolled her eyes. It was crazy what her grandmother would do to keep her family line going. Not that it would end with Winta anyways. One day she'd surely do those things. Maybe. In the very distant future. "Very distant." She muttered.
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