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 Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 9:22 am
C L A S S x Q U E S T x R E F L E C T I O NClass Quest 2 ...
(N/A - Xilarn solo)Results: Akiyal meets Xilarn.
Word Count: N/A
JR Word Count: N/A
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Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 9:26 am
A D O P T I O N x S O L OOne Good Reason ...
(N/A - Xilarn solo)Results: Xilarns considers adopting Aki.
Word Count: N/A
JR Word Count: N/A
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Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 9:27 am
A D O P T I O N x S O L OMinutes to Memories ...
(N/A - Xilarn solo)Results: Akiyal bonds with his adoptive father.
Word Count: N/A
JR Word Count: N/A
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Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 9:55 am
P R P x R E F L E C T I O NRough and Tumble AKIYAL'S THOUGHTSResults: ???
PRP Posts: ???
JR Word Count: ???
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Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 3:50 pm
H U N T x R E F L E C T I O NThis Would Have Been Great ...
(N/A - Xilarn solo)Results: Clips of Aki adjusting are revealed while he is left behind with a babysitter during one of Xilarn's hunts.
Word Count: N/A
JR Word Count: N/A
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Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2016 10:20 am
W O R L D x E V E N T x R E F L E C T I O NMonsters? Daddy ain't had no right not to tell me how long he'd be gone.
Not when he knows how I feel about it. And what if he doesn't come back? That does seem to be the way of people, when they says they 'won't be long...' You think they'll return, and then they never do. Daddy says I'm too young to travel with him; that I'll get hurt or be in the way or complain too much. But better that than being left alone. I want to travel too, so if he's going out anyway, just don't make sense why I can't follow.
'Specially if he's gonna lie about it. He's usually not gone more'n a day. And I like Janella and Kan, but I don't wanna live with them forever... Kan's a lotta trouble. Says lotsa things I don't like and don't wanna hear. He was going on about monsters. The ones from that faraway island. I know not to believe him. He just says things cause his mama lets him. I haven't never even seen none of them Yaeli people, so I dunno why the monsters would get here quicker than them.
Jan's right. It's nonsense. And my dad will be home soon and I can tell him how I feel about his hunting trips; not great.Results: +1 Versatile Point; Akiyal is terrified of people leaving him.
Word Count: 825
JR Word Count: 219
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Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2016 12:44 pm
P R P x R E F L E C T I O NChase the Wind I have become pack-master.
Or I've at least taken a step up from pack-pup, which is a nice accomplishment on its own, for now. I've obtained my own beastie to take me places I couldn't go alone. Although, Naeght was always mine, in a way, for as long as I can remember. He's been there for me for near forever, sometimes even when my father wasn't... He liked me best, and Dad has Gadot for all his chores, so this is just the pieces falling where they were always gonna.
My mama used to tell me I would fly. Can't say for sure if she meant on the back of a mountain mutt, but it feels like destiny, all the same. Still dunno where I'm flying to, if I'm being frank. Maybe just away. It's not like I care much for Sauti. I'm going to meet my grandparents in Oba. That's a start. Who knows about after. Maybe the forests or the beaches or the mountains. Anywhere is more exciting than the 'plains.'
Even sounds boring. 'Plains.'
Can't really believe anyone lives here at all.Results: After a bit of growing, Akiyal and Xilarn decide to see what awaits them in Oba.
PRP Posts: 22
JR Word Count: 185
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Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2016 12:45 pm
P R P x R E F L E C T I O NJust Fly Away AKIYAL'S THOUGHTSResults: ???
PRP Posts: ???
JR Word Count: ???
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Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2016 2:29 pm
W O R L D x E V E N T x R E F L E C T I O NRemembering the Past I left Oba when I prolly shouldn't've. There were moods and feelings happening everywhere, and no one was in the right mind. Not gonna point any fingers, but my dad did bring me here, so it's more his fault than mine. I'm not dumb enough to bring friends around that can't tolerate Fire Earthlings; dunno why he'd think it was a good idea to bring his Wind kid to parents that loathed anyone not Fire.
Yeah, I was mad. And yeah, I took it out on him. And yeah, being home alone still sucks. But, as I expected, I can still count on good ole' my people to look out for me when times don't go the way I want 'em to. I decided to stay with Jan and Kan until I'm ready to tell my dear old man he can come home.
Yes, it is my right to tell Dad when he is and is not allowed to be at home. Buggar off.Results: +1 Versatile Point; basically all people suck.
Word Count: 842
JR Word Count: 164
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Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2016 2:49 pm
D E V E L O P M E N T A L x S O L O
Ride Along "So, ahhh..." Janella clicked the very tip of her fingernail against the yellowed wood of her kitchen table. She had an elbow propped on the surface, with her cheek rested in her palm, and her dark blue gaze trained on the lad sitting at the other end, hardly an arm's length away. Her lips were puckered, eyes narrowed, brows pinched. She was no novice when dealing with scheming boys, having dealt with one of her own for all its teenaged years. And something here just refused to add up. "When ezzactly did your dad say he was coming back?"
Akiyal was not blind. He could see the suspicion as clear on her face as if she'd so much as told him how she felt. He sat opposite the older woman, though chose to pointedly take a deeper interest in his food, rather than anything Janella had to say. He sucked up (in typical fashion befitting a young man) a sloppy mouthful of noodles and chewed thoughtfully before letting his attention lazily wander back to the middle-aged mother of his best friend. Jan was significantly less of a pushover than his father, and her patience for bullshit ran about as narrow as razor wire.
If there was a time to tread carefully, it was now. "Dunno. He didn't," Aki retorted with a roll of his shoulders as he twisted his utensils aimlessly about the remains of his meal. It wasn't a lie, per se, though he was in no mood to admit to the threats he'd made of hate and abandonment. Despite over a decade of knowing the woman, Akiyal had no doubt she would respond poorly to such knowledge.
The assertion made Janella sit up and lean back against her chair. She flicked her fingers in his direction. "He jess didn't say?" She demanded crisply. Aki speared his fork into a chunk of meat, ignoring her. "I can't right imagine a reason- Boy. Look at me."
Impatience descended upon her like the thinnest sheet of ice on a sunny day in late autumn. Crisp, sparkling, dangerous. A hair's breadth from cracking. The drop in her tone was no more forgiving than a plummet into those icy waters would be. Akiyal groaned softly and tipped his gaze from his bowl to look at her, pout firmly in place. "No," he insisted. "He didn't say. But we saw his parents there, and I'm sure he wanted to spend more time-"
"Aaaaachaw," Jannella scoffed, waving her hand about in front of her as though she were dispersing a foul smell. "Don't make me listen to your lies. I'm not interested. Sameways as I'm not interested in why you're here and he isn't, so much as that's how it is." She crossed her arms, clucked her tongue, and tipped her chair back on its two rear legs, eyeing the young man before her. "I only ask cause I got business to the west and plans to head out. I'm taking Kan, so I don't expect you'll want to be left by your lonesome. Don't really seem the neighborly thing to do, to leave ya. Not when I know how you are, Akiyal."
He might've argued that he'd be fine on his own and didn't actually need her here. But nothing he said on the subject was likely to be believable. Not when he'd come straight to Janella's home the first night he arrived back in Kesris, after leaving Oba. Aki grunted and slouched down into his seat. "You're leaving, then? When?"
"We were gonna leave in two day's time- take our grains down to Yware for their herbs and them nice smokey, dark woods." When Aki blinked back at her in mild confusion, she shook her head. "Tale. Yware's in Tale."
"Oh. Ah." Tale. Why did they always go to Tale? Janella's and Xilarn's trips were as routine as the seasons themselves. Yet somehow, he'd never been to any of Tale's actually established, map-worthy settlements. Jan had to go. Aki didn't want to be left alone, and she wouldn't feel right leaving him unattended. "Well, I could go," Akiyal asserted, cracking her a boyish grin. "And I'll help you do, Iunno, whatever you need help doing."
Right. It sounded convincing to him. Less so to Janella if her expression meant anything.
The aged Wind woman groaned and rolled her eyes and tipped forward until she could flop her head down onto the table. It was, unfortunately and since she didn't have an estimated return time for the boy's father, her best and likely only option. Unpleasant though it may be. "I'm not about to get in trouble with your old man if you get hurt and start whining like a wee babe," she warned pointedly, quickly glaring back up at Akiyal. "And I don't wanna hear whining at all, to be honest. Any of that, and you'll be sent back." She went back to tapping her fingers against the table. "You got a means of telling him where you're going? Soon?"
He nodded, grinned, and crossed his arms behind his head.
"As a matter of fact, Naeght knows where to find my old man, so he'll be happy to deliver anything that needs saying." Supposedly. Hopefully. Probably. The odds seemed more for than against, anyway. And that was good enough.
"You'd best be ready to work."
Aki sent her another amused quirk of his lips and most nonchalantly leaned back, 'casually' flexing his arms over his head. Despite being once malnourished, Aki had grown out of being small. Janella could've easily reminded him that he still lacked anywhere near the degree of muscle she had herself, and it wasn't as if he had heaps of experience with straight days' worth of manual labor. but Akiyal wasn't smart. And he likely assumed his larger girth meant more physical strength. "I think I'll manage alright." Of course he did.
She scoffed instead. "Whatever. Dumb kid."x
x
Results: Let's have new adventures in Tale.
Word Count: 989
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Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 11:23 am
P R P x R E F L E C T I O NStick Shot AKIYAL'S THOUGHTSResults: ???
PRP Posts: ???
JR Word Count: ???
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Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 10:18 am
D E V E L O P M E N T A L x S O L O
The Bridge Near Southbluff Sometimes Akiyal forgot that other teenagers his age actually had notable experiences outside their hometowns. And Kan, despite being close friends with Aki for over a decade now, was still surprisingly no exception.
”You’ve… been here before?” Akiyal asked hesitantly as he peered over the lip of a cliff leading down, down, down into the unfathomable blackness of a deep Tale crevice. The bottom was nowhere in sight, and while he assumed it was the location for some age-old river burrowing its way through the earth, there was no sound to back up the claim. Only silent darkness. In the few times he’d traveled with his father, Akiyal had never seen anything like it.
Kan crossed his arms behind his head, shot Aki a far-too-amused grin, and continued walking along the edge of it. “Oooh yeah. The first time I came with Mama, she brought me this way just to see it. I think there's a bridge around somewhere. She's afraid of it, though, especially with our carts and animals and such, so she made us walk all the way around. Took forever."
Yeah, such was probably true, if the sheer depth was anything to go by. Aki glanced up along the length of it, then back down the way they'd came. Canyon in every direction. How did they even get around it?
Irrelevant, as Kan continued. "If you hadn't sent Naeght off, you could've flown down there. Maaan, wouldn't that have been cool?" Unfortunately, the large raptrix had been sent out, back to Oba, with a letter from Aki to Xilarn, as Janella very adamantly suggested. That was several days ago, now, though. And Naeght really should be returning in the very near future, barring any unforeseen circumstances. The young Wind boy found that he wasn't especially worried. Not yet.
In the meantime, this place. ”You really think I need a fluffy monster to make it down all that way? I could do it with my own bare hands.” Aki asserted in typical boastful teenage boy fashion. He crouched near the edge, and as he did, Kan took up a squat beside him.
Feeling reasonably unconvinced, the older boy plucked a pebble from the side and chucked it out toward the middle of the canyon, where it promptly descended into darkness. There was no sound signifying its landing, and Akiyal snorted. ”You gotta drop it near the side so we can hear it,” he reprimanded, before swiping up his own stone and dropping it within arm's length over the edge. Still nothing.
"Maybe the rocks are too small."
”Whad'you wanna throw in?”
Akiyal probably should've expected the answer he received, whether it came in simple spoken words or the immediately much more entertaining physical answer: everything. From larger stones to sticks and leaves to clumps of dirt and finally, most rewardingly, large globules of snot and saliva, spat as far out as either of them could manage. Needless to say, they never did manage to figure out how long a drop to the bottom would take.
Several minutes into the game, and Aki decided that to get his mucousy projectile to go farther, he needed to build up appropriate momentum. And to do this, he would need to take a running start directly at the wide, deep, dark crevice, before coming to a halt immediately at the edge and jettisoning his spit at the opposing wall. He could hit it, some great many feet away, he assured Kan. If he wanted to.
Thus, the run began.
Akiyal made it a handful of paces before a decidedly not-Janella voice from behind made him freeze. "What in the name of the gods do you brats think you're doing?" An arm whipped out and burrowed into the back of Aki's shirt. The next instant, he was yanked to the ground, bum first, and staring up at a rather agitated-looking Ice man that Aki had never seen before. "Are you trying to die?" The man snapped gruffly. Akiyal opened his mouth to reply but never got the chance. "This is real near the dumbest thing- What were you trying to accomplish?"
It was at this time that the young Wind boy found his voice and temper, and he snapped back, ”It ain't none a your business. I wouldn't have fallen! I ain't stupid!”
"You look it to me," the man retorted. "Get up. You got someplace to be? I know you sure don't live around here. Who are you traveling with? Ya aren't runaways, are you? Won't live very long, if you are."
Akiyal bolted to his feet as quickly as instructed and didn't bother dusting himself off. The man, now that Aki had a better full-frontal look at him, wasn't especially unimpressive in terms of stature. Taller than the Wind boy (if not bulkier), scarred in the face, and very, very deeply unamused. This didn't phase Aki in the slightest, and his baby blues clashed with the Ice man's narrowed yellow irises. ”I'm not runnin' from nothing,” Aki retorted. ”And I'm going where I wanna go with whoever I wanna go with.”
Kan was, ever-so-unfortunately, In Akiyal's opinion, always significantly less defiant of those with more years under their belts than his younger and mouthier companion. When he stepped to Aki's side, the Wind boy knew better than to expect backup. "We weren't trying to cause any harm," Kan murmured apologetically. "We're camping with my mother over those hills," he pointed off in the direction they'd come from. "Just traveling through on our way to Jauhar... We'll be off in the morning, so... Sorry if we're trespassing, or something."
Akiyal was not sorry, and was still firmly of the mind he could spit at the other side of the canyon, but the Ice man seemed to have very minimal interest in letting two pea-brained teenage boys run amok near the canyon crevices any longer.
Despite Aki's attempts at reasoning that they could just 'head farther down' and away from the encounter with the strange man, Kan seemed significantly less interested in continuing the day's adventures. It was really more disappointing that he couldn't handle one scolding more than it was upsetting that they couldn't continue to explore these unfamiliar lands. Still, Akiyal supposed they still had the trip back.x
x
Results: This is actually how teenage boys process information.
Word Count: 1047
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Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 10:21 am
O R P x R E F L E C T I O NSins and Virtues I wonder what's in that stuff Janella's been feeding us. I felt near-normal when I closed my eyes and tucked into my bedroll, but I don't guess I've ever had a dream quite like that one before. Cause to me, it seems like dreams just usually kinda happen. You don't really control nothing, you just sorta watch the goings on like you're not even in your own body. But not this one. I felt like me in this one, like I was there, and it was weird.
I didn't much like it.
I dunno if the events made me happy or sad... I think some people died, and maybe it was my fault or not. I think I won some things- got paid real nice, or did I? Y'know, maybe I don't really know, and I don't guess it matters.
I guess it's just the change in scenery doing this to me. We made it out of Sauti, so I'm not near my home anymore. Not that my dad would be there if I was... Maybe I was too hard on him. It's been a while now. We've had some distance. I'm not ready to go home, since I'm just now getting to explore, but I wouldn't mind seeing him, I think, and letting him know I'm not mad at him...Results: +1 RP Requirement; Aki dreams.
PRP Posts: 8
JR Word Count: 221
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Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 10:23 am
P R P x R E F L E C T I O NTune For the Trees I ain't never tried to make friends with an Alkidike before, and I prolly won't again. But just in case it wasn't clear, this one's alright.
I still haven't forgiven their kind for what happened when the extremists decided they could try and take over the world. I lost a lot back then, and until I've gone and forgotten everything I could've had, I'll keep hating every single last one of them I meet or see. Mnyiri's one-of-a-kind, though. I can't be blamed for having a soft spot for a real weird girl.
I think she might've been born with a Wind's spirit, even if she's stuck in an Alkidike body, because she's certainly got more pizzazz than I expect from any other warrior bug woman. Didn't peg them crazy women for music-lovers, but this'un is. She's clearly very different. Judging by the crowd, though, I'm not the only one who's not real interested in their kind. These Shifters even live real close to Alkidike villages. Shouldn't they have a little more tolerance for them?
Not that I guess it's my place to judge. Just seems like you wouldn't live near a thing you didn't like. Don' really want any of the lot in Sauti, either. I suppose.Results: Met and danced for Mnyiri.
PRP Posts: 10
JR Word Count: 208
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Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2016 11:31 am
C L A S S x A F F I N I T Y x S O L O
Remember When We Never Had to Remember There was something to be said for sleeping out under the stars. Not that this was an especially foreign activity to Akiyal, having grown up in a climate temperate enough to permit such things for a vast majority of the year. But the place of it (Tale) still felt new, even if they were nearing the end of their month-long trading excursion across Tendaji. Judging by Janella's chipper, upbeat, and somewhat cocky attitude, her mission must have been as much a success as could be hoped for. Aki still wasn't especially sure of the ins-and-outs of the whole practice, but then, he didn't really care. All he knew was that it looked suspiciously like they were headed back with the same amount of stuff they departed with, when it seemed to him like the goal should be to come back with more.
But again, she seemed happy. Akiyal was pleased to have been able to explore, Kan's 'merchant training' was apparently going well, and the stars were as lovely in this part of the world as any other.
Admittedly, watching his best friend start to take on more adult-like tasks did force Aki to ponder over what he might do with himself if he ever did move away from home. He'd always said he wanted to. That had always been clear. But he'd never given ample consideration to what he'd actually do. He wasn't a great hunter like his father, didn't have things to trade like Janella. Moving generally meant he couldn't be a farmer, nevermind that he didn't want to be.
As he stared skyward, the first thought that came to mind was the usual, 'I'll figure it out when I get there. The wind will be my guide.' Dad had never been especially fond of that outlook. But they weren't exactly the same. He didn't expect Xilarn to understand. The thought did lend itself to allowing him to leave whenever he wished, with minimal preparation and no thought to his course.
That's what normal Wind people did, wasn't it?
This expedition didn't really cement the thought. Not a great many of the people they'd encountered seemed to be aimlessly wandering anywhere, with 'the wind as a guide.' And whatever excuses he could make about he and his father not being the same didn't really apply to Janella and Kan. They were Wind, like him, and they seemed to have a pretty clear idea of what role they played in society.
Still, Aki didn't suppose it mattered very much in the present. He'd figure it out when he figured it out, whenever that would be. For now, he should probably try and get to sleep. By the sound of Kan's snoring, no one else was having quite as much trouble. Or was that Janella? Either way, the both of them were out, and he didn't want to be the one holding them up when they set off in the morning.
His eyes slipped shut, and his mind continued to turn over and over. What would he do with himself? Where would he go? How would he live? Would he go alone? 'Alone' always sounded absurdly unpleasant. He definitely didn't want any of that to be in his future. Visions of scouring the plains and forests by himself, with crackling twigs underfoot, darkness all around, and nothing and no one to guide him-
"Aki? Akiyal. Is that you?" When fingertips probed the outside of his blanket and nudged against his arm, crystal blue orbs squinted open. It was dark. The night's fire had gone out. "Oh."
Aki's gaze twisted in the direction of his traveling companion. It was difficult to sort precisely what was going on, but he grunted mutedly, "Who else would be here? Think I invited a pretty stranger into my blankets for the night?"
Kan's answer took him longer than Aki expected, and the younger boy squinted through the darkness toward his best friend in time to see his outline shift about into a sit. "Hardly," he hissed back in response. "I heard something. Thought you might've gotten up."
"You hoped. Scared little baby."
"Hey, you, you better shut up. I ain't scared. Was gonna say we better go check it out," Kan asserted, tossing blankets off himself and dusting grassy debris from his sleep shorts. "Could be dangerous. We're the men and all that. I gotta protect my mama."
Akiyal was not convinced.
On the other hand, he didn't really want to be tumbling around trapped in his blankets with a carnivorous wild animal stalking about either. With a grunt, he kicked his sheets away and got to his feet. Since Kan was already headed through the sparse smattering of trees and away from camp, Akiyal followed his lead. "Prolly just a bug, or the wind, maybe-"
The resounding crrrnch that echoed from ahead was not in a position to be Kan, not that Aki had his vision to back the thought up with. But his friend's actions in the next instant did solidify the sentiment. Kan staggered back, his shoulder hitting Aki's chest before being promptly wrenched away. It didn't feel like he imagined that. Kan yelped, hit the ground, and the first word out of his mouth might have been deserving of a sneer, if not for the extremely unsavory-feeling circumstance. "Mama!"
It was at that point, that Aki caught glimpses of other shadows. People, not animals, and a hand, not Kan's, buried itself in the front of his tunic and yanked forward. He took a staggered step forward, immediately flailing out to knock the offending limb away. Instead, his foot caught against his friend's form, and he toppled to the ground in a heap.
The shadows slipped back toward the boys' camp.
Akiyal's heart thundered. People. Thieves, then, waiting until they'd hit the hay to make off with all the crap Jan and Kan had worked so hard to get. None of it belonged to him, so Aki should hardly care about that part. His life was more of a concern, and it seemed like if the younger boys decided not to follow, there probably wasn't as much of a reason to do away with them. It wasn't as if he was trained, and neither way Kan. Any success they'd have in fending bandits off was probably fairly minimal.
But it wasn't right. No, it wasn't his, but he'd watched Jan and Kan work the entire time he'd been with them. That was their livelihood being stolen. He couldn't sit aroudn and wait for thieves to make off with their stuff. Kan must've agreed. After a tangle of limbs, curses, and spits of, "Get off me, blundering idiot," the two boys were back on their feet and pelting after the small raiding party.
Not that Akiyal knew what they'd do when they got there. Scream. Wake Janella. Could she stop them? Probably not by herself. How many were there? Did they have weapons? Aki didn't. And if he did, he wouldn't especially know how to use it. Kan probably had a utility knife, but he probably didn't know how to fight with it, either.
This was all Aki had time to think. There were no special attempts to keep quiet once the bandits were in the small three-person encampment, and stealing an already-loaded cart was probably not the most challenging of tasks. The only thing Akiyal had time for following that thought was to launch himself at the nearest person with the only weapon he had available, his fists. And those were effective against nearly everyone they'd met in the past. It was still dark, and he was still blind, but the assault must have been unexpected, because when he crashed into the thief, it knocked them both to the ground.
Afterward, everything else sank to the periphery, and Aki became hardly anything more than a great mess of flailing limbs and sharp shouts. Surprise was apparently an extremely potent weapon, because it wasn't the man Akiyal knocked to the ground that fought back, but a second one that landed a foot on his shoulder and kicked him sidelong to the ground.
He scrabbled afterward, squirming and struggling to find some level of purchase, to get back to his feet, attack again. But a boot directly to the side of his head quelled that particular desire and any other he might've had. Whatever outlining shadows he saw faded out, and later, he wouldn't recall hitting the ground.x
x
Results: Aki decides his fists are the most useful weapon he can carry. Janella goes missing.
Word Count: 1414
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