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 Posted: Wed May 31, 2017 8:36 am
Gil had been so sure he was going to return home and immediately pass out upon entering his hollowed out tree, but all of that changed when he caught a whiff of the slowly cooking meat in Peace's nicely renovated living space. It really did look a lot more comfortable here than the last time he'd visited, Gil thought as he looked around waiting for his chosen cut of venison to finish cooking. He passed the time telling Peace all about his recent run-ins with ill-informed hikers, the henchmen of those parahumans they'd fought, and of course his encounter with Stephen and Accalia. Once he'd caught his friend up on all his recent misadventures, he made sure to express an interest in her own doings, though he knew he may not be able to get a truly detailed answer,
"It looks like you've been busy as well. I like the changes you've made to your living area here, and congratulations on finishing your sign! Anything else interesting been going on in your neck of the woods?"
Gil watched Peace's nonverbal responses attentively as he munched on his venison. He much preferred it to the bear he'd had on his last visit. However, he was certain it would've been greatly improved by the addition of some spices. Another good gift idea, right there. Remembering his recent self-admonishments, Gil broke himself out of his gift-giving reverie and refocused on his friend's gesticulations. Not to say that he hadn't been paying attention before, but now he willed himself not to be distracted, by food or otherwise.
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Posted: Wed May 31, 2017 12:45 pm
 Peace could hardly believe her ears when Gil said that he'd also been dealing with a bunch of trespassers. She wondered if being so close to the city just made them automatically more likely to run into undesirables or if this were a more recent phenomenon. At his congratulations and acknowledgment of the improvements she'd made to her living situation, Peace offered a thumbs-up and a nod, then launched into a pantomime of her days since they'd last seen each other.
First she traced out a large triangle starting at the ground near her and going up to about shoulder-height while she was sitting. Just to clarify what exactly it was, she also held her hands by her head and rested it on them for a moment, but then continued with her story by grabbing something invisible where the triangle had been and pulling. She threw that invisible thing over her shoulder and made a walking motion for a bit before dumping it off somewhere. Then she made a shoveling motion while shoving the rest of her food into her mouth, then made a walking motion and pointed toward the city. She made some generic martial arts moves, followed by some wavy arm movements while she blew air through her lips noisily, imitating the wind. She raised a fist, mimed a punch, used her hands to make bursting movements all over her body, clutched at her head while screaming silently, then punched again and wiped invisible sweat from her brow with a look of accomplishment.
Peace nodded to herself after pausing to recollect, then punched the air a bunch of times. Then she did the girliest thing she could imagine and flipped her hair, looked at her nails, and played with a couple of invisible plastic horses--all things, incidentally, she remembered doing as a kid, minus the "invisible" part--followed by pointing at herself and shaking her head, then pointing at a patch of air next to her and nodding. Then she got up just to sink to her knees and pretend to not be able to move, which she followed up with a half-hearted tackle after a few moments. Then she raised her arms like a wrestling champion. Next was another sequence of walking and pointing at the city, followed by some more martial arts-type moves and walking and pointing at her name on the mountain.
Peace mimed falling asleep, then jerked awake like she'd been electrically shocked and looked around. She punched a few times, then pointed at the healing cuts across her body, even going so far as to hike up one pant leg to show him a cut running the length of her calf, shallow though it was after healing for more than a week. After displaying her injuries, she punched the air a couple of times and then sat looking indignant but triumphant for a few moments. She also mimed someone holding out their arms, then pointed at the deer pelts she was wearing, the little venison she still had in the cooler, and a couple of antlers that were sitting in the dirt off to one side.
The next scene probably looked a bit weird. Peace made a pushing motion with a great deal of strain in her face, then held one fist up and slowly dropped it toward the ground, where she had it rise back up a little bit and opened her hand before letting it fall again. Then she picked up a bunch of small invisible things and mimed walking, then pointed at her name etched into the mountainside. Then she made some more kung fu movements. Then she repeated the pushing movement a couple of times. Then she pointed at a fading bruise on her cheek and threw two punches. Then there were more martial arts B-movie pantomimes, followed by her leaning back and holding an arm straight out, her hand wrapped around a tube of some sort. She bobbed her head somewhat rhythmically, then used her other hand to turn a knob. She covered her ears and made a face of comically exaggerated anguish, then pointed up at the trees and held her arms out while making a face and walking really slowly in place. Then she pointed at the fire and raised her hands above her head, followed by sprinting in place, covering her ears and making a pained expression, then punching twice and going to sleep.
Oh, but things were far from over. She punched more than a dozen times after "waking up", then jabbed her thumb at the lean-to nearest to her and gave a thumbs-up. Next she looked up at the night sky and raised her hands as though shielding herself from something, after which she fanned herself with one hand and wiped some invisible sweat away with the other. She punched again and made some more kung fu-type punches and kicks.
The next scene was another odd one. She acted like she was waking up, then looked at her invisible watch and yawned, made a walking motion while pointing down toward the base of the mountain, then held up two hands like she was holding a small box and looked through it. Then she enthusiastically pointed at herself and gave a thumbs-up. Then she mimed walking and pointed at their current location followed by the base of the mountain again. This time, she pointed at the bear pelt she was wearing and made a few punching movements, then held up an invisible microphone while moving her lips exaggeratedly and punched again. After that was over, she threw both hands toward her name on the mountain, shook them enthusiastically, smiled, and gave a thumbs-up.
What followed next was Peace sprawling out on the ground and occasionally looking at her invisible watch for about a minute, then doing some martial arts moves, then repeating the former, then making some more martial arts moves, looking startled and punching someone, puffing herself up to look huge and making some angry faces, then punching again. This time she made a violent twitch as the punch "connected", then repeated the movement again with the twitching at the end, after which she fell over and gave a thumbs-up from the ground.
Next she pointed to her stack of firewood nearby, made a couple of punching motions, then held up a hand and rubbed her thumb against her index and middle fingers. She made a couple more martial arts moves, made a walking motion, pointed at Gil, and bowed while sitting to end the scene.
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Posted: Wed May 31, 2017 4:32 pm
... ... ... Gil must've been far more tired than he'd thought. He gleaned a few things from his friend's silent performance: that she'd also been dealing with interlopers, that she'd killed a deer and a bear (though both of those things were helped to clarity by the meat they had eaten and the clothes she wore), and that she had been keeping up with her martial arts classes, though not without some issues. He even understood at least some of the weather pantomimes. All in all, Gil figured he had complete comprehension of about 50% of Peace's story, and very educated guesses about more, but it was significantly lower than his usual level of understanding.
Gil was extremely appreciative of the food, and the opportunity for conversation, however one sided, and expressed this gratitude. Defenses lowered by exhaustion and a full belly. Gil found himself enveloping his friend in the hug he'd been so focused on, shortly before leaving. He hadn't planned for or thought about it, and in fact he hadn't completely processed that it had happened until he was already halfway back to his own territory. He felt less embarrassed about it than he'd expected; if there was anyone it was understandable for him to express such open familial connection to it was the woman who had saved him a year ago. Besides, even if she saw it for weakness, it wasn't very likely she would want to spread that around, or even be capable of doing so. Gil finally staggered into the tree he considered home, and nearly collapsed he was so tired. He managed to stay awake just long enough to pull his blanket partially over his body, but was firmly asleep when it covered about half of him. It was the best night's sleep he'd had in a long time.
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Ergo War generated a random number between
100 and 200 ...
152!
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Posted: Wed May 31, 2017 8:59 pm
The hug came as a surprise for Peace, especially as it was some of the only non-combative contact she'd had with a human being in quite a while. She reciprocated after realizing what was happening, then watched him retreat sleepily toward his territory. What a strange kid, she thought to herself as she, too, went to bed.
The next day was a bit livelier than what she'd been getting used to. In particular, it was similar to the ones she'd been getting used to before the period of calm had washed over her life, in that she awoke and had to deal with a couple of young upstarts who thought they could beat her up and claim her mountain. They showed up shortly after breakfast and launched a sneak attack on her that was about as effective as a baby slapping a professional bodyguard, including a wide-area beam attack that just made Peace feel a bit toasty and what appeared to be a normal punch to the back of the head. She chucked a rock at the person who'd shot the beam at her, catching them on the head and sending them reeling, while the other was a bit less satisfying; she didn't so much hit them as she blew away their torso with a punch, but since they appeared to be made of water on closer inspection, she wasn't particularly worried she'd done permanent damage. She just strolled over with the watery person wrapped around her arm trying to slow her down, swung for the laser person and missed twice. That one clearly had some sort of enhanced reflexes, but their lack of experience meant she got them after a third try, knocking them out. The watery person surrendered almost immediately thereafter, and she took them to the police outpost summarily.
The rest of the day went smoothly after that, and eventually she headed to the city for her class.
D-list Bounty x2: Complete.
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Posted: Wed May 31, 2017 11:41 pm
Peace plopped down next to a campfire shortly after returning from her martial arts class. She could hardly believe that she had already gone up a belt, feeling almost as though she hadn't done enough to deserve it. Sure, it was the lowest belt, but wasn't it supposed to take at least several months to go up? It didn't sit right with her, but there wasn't much she could do at this point. The meal in her belly reminded her constantly that she'd already accepted it, that she couldn't give it back, but the warm feelings of accomplishment were already starting to fade, leaving behind a sense of hollowness. As she drifted off to sleep, she took with her thoughts of how she wanted to be stronger, faster, more agile, tougher, and more experienced. She wanted to be the best, bar none. She wanted to temper her body and will in the world of martial arts, to come out on top in a clash between her and that highly esteemed group, and--
She needed a hobby. That realization struck her immediately after she woke up, followed shortly by the realization that it was hailing rather fiercely. laid out under one of the lean-tos as she was, she hadn't initially recognized that it was hail and not rain falling from the sky, especially with the cracks of thunder in the distance. As the cold started to cast out the fog of sleep, she quickly set about creating a roaring fire and then sat under her shelter to warm up. The hail continued for several minutes, then gave way to heavy rains and thunder that shook the mountain. In short, it was miserable out and she had nothing to do but stoke a fire. After her shelter started leaking water from the fierce downpour, she also donned her poncho.
The afternoon brought with it heavy winds, though thankfully at that point the rain had stopped. Still wearing her poncho to provide another layer of protection from the wind, she set out into the forest to scavenge up some more branches and foliage that she could reinforce her shelter with. It took her a solid two hours, but she managed to build up a thick layer of grass and leaves on the outside of the lean-to arc, which she pinned down with another layer of sticks. Just to make sure the whole thing stayed upright, she also added some more support posts and lashed together everything she could using vines and the pliable branches of saplings, the latter of which she soaked in water for a while down at the river just to make sure they were properly workable. The final result was a fair bit sturdier than she would have expected of a shelter made from twigs, though it was certainly no cave.
A while after she finished her shelter upgrades, she decided to head into town for her extra class and see what, exactly, had changed about her training regimen since her advancement.
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Ergo War generated a random number between
100 and 200 ...
166!
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Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2017 5:23 pm
Tired and sore from her training, Peace slowly walked back up the mountain toward her campsite in the cold weather, each gust of wind sapping more energy from her than the last. She was all too glad to start up a fire and settle down in a halo of warmth when she could. It felt surprisingly comfortable to just curl up next to the fire, and Peace quickly drifted off to sleep.
The next day was full of suffering as Peace woke up sore and stayed that way throughout the day. She spent the morning stretching just to try and alleviate some of the aching and succeeded to a degree, but she really wished she could soak in a hot tub for a while. The weather had warmed slightly, but not enough that she particularly wanted to go for a swim, so she mostly just worked on things within the area around her campsite to pass the time before her dreaded daily martial arts class.
And then came the insipid taunting of a couple of young idiots bent on making her day just a little bit worse. Why they always came in twos, Peace couldn't fathom, but these twerps were getting on her nerves. She started walking slowly toward them before her progress was abruptly halted by the ground liquefying under her. As she sank, she wondered if this was how she was meant to go, drowned by mud on a mountain, but then she stopped thinking once she was ankle-deep. The ground solidified around her feet, and while it was quite effective at stopping her, she wasn't exactly impressed. The second member of the duo then did what looked like a push-up, only he launched himself through the air and brought his hands together and slammed them down on Peace. It stung, for sure, but she had better things to do than play around with kids all day. She had to sit back and relax. She felt like a grandma when she thought that way, but she'd earned it, dammit. Her first punch back barely glanced off of the lad's shoulder, the second found nothing but air, and the third caught him square in the chest and sent him to the ground.
Peace popped her feet out of the mud and strolled over toward the other one while dragging the first. She kept finding both herself and her baggage weighed down in mud pits, though, so eventually she just left the unconscious fellow behind and sprinted toward the only remaining combatant. Her familiarity with and acclimation to the mountain won the day as her opponent stumbled and fell, allowing her to gain ground easily even as they both ran. She eventually pinned him to the ground and socked him a good one for his trouble, then dragged both of the ne'er-do-wells to the police station before heading off to class.
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Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 7:01 pm
Deep, restful sleep awaited Peace as she returned to her camp. She awoke early to the sound of heavy winds colder than anything she had experienced since the winter months whistling over her shelter. She wrapped her furs tighter around herself and stoked a campfire before the temperature fell too far, but knew all too well that her life would be difficult until it warmed up again, even with furs. If this was how the weather was going to be, she'd need a better-insulated shelter than the one she was currently using.
As soon as the sun came up she went out to find plant material that would let her make a roof stretching from her lean-to arc to the fallen trees on the other side. Luckily, the recent winds had knocked down a few trees that yielded branches large enough to be useful for her purposes, and after a few trips between her camp and the fallen trees, she made a latticework of sticks and leaves and fern fronds with a square opening over her fire pit. She tied the roof down using some vines and willow branches and weighted it down by placing large, thin rocks near the corners. To finish things off, she tied together a stick door. It wasn't impressively sturdy, but she was fairly confident she could recreate the roof without too much trouble if it got damaged by wind or other weather.
It was nice and comfortable in the relative warmth of her shelter, and despite the slight swaying of her shelter, she soon drifted off to sleep again.
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Ergo War generated a random number between
100 and 200 ...
110!
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Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 8:55 pm
After awakening again closer to lunch time, Peace finished off the last of her unspoiled meat and set out into the cold wilderness to hunt. She managed to wrangle a couple of geese and a duck, easily tenderizing them each with a solid punch before they could fly away. It was while she was plucking them that the trespassers that seemed to have made a sport out of pestering her made their debut. They were dressed like something out of Norse myth, clad in heavy furs and thick, dull-colored clothing, one of them wielding a hammer and the other wearing an eyepatch.
Peace chucked a half-plucked bird at the one with the eyepatch, flustering him and sending him for a short tumble as he tried to recover from having a dead bird in his face. The one with the hammer struck the ground with it, sending out an electric wave toward Peace that merely stunned her momentarily and made her feel a bit tingly afterward. The two were clearly taken aback by this turn of events, but they were reduced to effectively one when Peace ran over and shoved the hammer wielder back while stepping on the hammer, pretty effectively disarming him, at which point the one with the eyepatch tackled her. The wrestled with each other for what seemed like an eternity, but slowly he managed to twist himself around her to look into her eyes. He said something about her dealing with the ghosts of her victims, the world was enveloped by a fog, and then nothing happened as the fog faded. She looked at him like he was an idiot, headbutted him, and then gradually wrestled him to the ground, whereupon she knocked him out.
The hammer-user at this point had retrieved his weapon, but was hesitant to use it and get his partner in the field of electricity. Peace didn't so much as sense this weakness as inadvertently exploit it by dragging the Odin-looking idiot along with her while she ran over and socked the Thor-dude in the gut. Underneath all the furs and impressive costume design she found two skinny nerds, so she opted to leave the furs on them while dropping them off at the police outpost. They hardly seemed a threat without them anyway. It turned out that those two cosplayers were wanted for injuring some innocent bystanders with their vigilante work, so Peace spent the walk back to camp thumbing through a wad of bills.
The rest of the day she spent cleaning and butchering her birds--including retrieving the one she'd thrown--and then cooking a couple of their legs. It was cold enough out that they would be pretty well stored if she just propped one of the coolers open slightly and tossed them inside. She made sure to put some heavy rocks on top to keep critters out, confident that anything small enough to make it through the gap she left open wouldn't be large enough to make a dent in the meat. As the sun set, she threw a few more logs on the fire and settled down to sleep.
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Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2017 4:19 pm
Peace hated it in the mountains. Specifically, she hated the weather and its wild changes day-to-day. The arctic winds of the previous day had somehow brought forth the standard warm temperatures she associated with the summer. She brought her cooler of bird meat into the shade of her shelter before it got too warm out, then closed it fully to lock in some of the cool air from the previous day.
The soreness from her daily training had mostly disappeared, but she still took it easy for most of the day. She bathed in the river, washed her clothes, snacked on some fruit, and baked dry in the sun on some large boulders on the river bank. Later on in the day she descended from her mountain and headed into the city.
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 9:41 am
Gil wouldn't wake up until well into the afternoon of the next day, and even then he wasn't entirely recovered from his exhaustion. Noticing this, he opted for a pretty low-key day. Breakfast of some jerky and other long-lasting foodstuffs from his last trip into town, a bath/clothes washing in the nearby river, and some selecting a likely looking white branch to whittle Peace a new rook made up nearly the entirety of his activity for the day. Over the course of the day, he noticed that his shoulder had not improved at all. It was in fact more painful than it had been since Peace had set it. He'd have to head in to town sometime in the near future so he could use a library computer or something to find out how long he'd be like this. Movies had given him an apparently mistaken impression that he'd be as good as new a few hours after the shoulder was pushed back into position. Apparently this was not to be.
The next day heralded a much more usual waking time, much less exhaustion, but still no relief in his shoulder. After his usual morning rituals, another bath, and polishing off the last of his non-perishable foodstuffs, it was still fairly early by the standards of those who didn't live according to the schedule of the sun. While he waited for it to be a more reasonable hour by civilized standards, he got to work on whittling the new rook. When the sun was a bit higher in the sky, he departed for the city, hoping to get an idea of how long he'd have to use his damn sling for his shoulder.
Rook whittling progress: 13% completed
groceries level: depleted
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Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2017 8:31 pm
As the sounds of civilization faded from her ears, Peace breathed a sigh of relief. The wilderness enveloped her and shielded her from the city with a wall of green. She stopped by a couple of groves of fruit trees and picked some delicious morsels that were mostly serviceable, netting an armload of peaches and apples for her trouble. She munched on one of the latter as she climbed the mountain toward her campsite.
Her jaw dropped. Not only was her campsite still intact, but someone had placed a couple of small cages containing a quail and a chicken near her shelter, along with a note she couldn't read. She tossed the note into her shelter and spent the rest of the day butchering and cooking one of the birds, being sure to feed and bring water for the other so it didn't starve in the meantime.
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Ergo War generated a random number between
50 and 100 ...
99!
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Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2017 11:52 am
Peace awoke to wintry temperatures and immediately realized one of the many reasons people tend to congregate and use technology: to isolate themselves from exactly the sort of random phenomena that Peace was experiencing. She stoked a fire and brought the trapped quail inside so it didn't freeze to death. While she ate her own breakfast--a combination of fruit and chicken that didn't sit too well with her, though it tasted much better than hospital food--she made sure the bird had some seeds and water to consume. She was getting tired of foraging for seeds and resolved herself to kill or free the bird by the end of the next day. It would be one thing if she had a bag of feed for the thing, but she didn't and she had no idea where the nearest farming supply store was, so she wasn't going to.
As the day warmed to just above freezing, Peace wrapped up in her furs, let the fire run down, and headed down toward the river for water and whatever food she could find on the way. She managed to nab a rather bulky fish while she was filling up her canteen and plopped it into a cooler as soon as she made it back to camp. The day was still young, though, so after warming up and drying by a rekindled fire, she headed to the police outpost.
The officers on duty were the ones she usually saw around this time of the week, so she waved a friendly hello confident that she didn't have to explain her muteness. They greeted her back and told her they had no work for her, though she had doubts as to the veracity of that statement when one said they'd heard about her fight in the city. She showed them the wound on her arm and the one on her side and they cringed slightly at the bruising and stitches. When asked if she was alright, she nodded and moved to flex and slap her bicep reassuringly, but winced when her wound sent a spike of pain into her arm. After a couple more short exchanges, she went on her way back toward camp.
On her way back to the camp, she spotted someone who seemed to be furtively making their way toward her place of residence as well. It was a boy, no older than his early teenage years, carrying a taser and with what seemed to be malformed hands that looked like they had brass knuckles built in. Peace made up her mind to follow him covertly, but lost her footing on the first step she took and immediately alerted him to her presence. He sprinted toward her as she found her footing and landed a punch square on her jaw, though it lacked the power to do any real damage. She whiffed when batting at him with her good arm and the exchange repeated itself. With his next attack the boy tried to go for her injured arm, only to get knocked back by a fist to the chest. He got up, though, so she had to acknowledge his youthful durability. He was clearly not doing too well, though. While coughing, he primed his taser and stumbled toward her. She just grabbed the hand holding it and made him shock himself, after which she dragged him to the nearby police outpost.
They weren't too unsurprised when she handed the kid over and collected her reward money. Apparently the kid had been getting into some pretty serious schoolyard scraps and had recently mugged some semi-important businessman who was calling for his arrest. Peace wasn't too engaged in the story, but could relate a bit even if she hadn't gotten that far in her schooling. She pondered what would have happened if she'd been enrolled somewhere as a kid, if she still would've ended up a hermit in the wilderness or if she'd have wound up in some organization in the city. She couldn't picture it until she imagined herself in a police uniform like the one the officers at the outpost wore, or the one Officer Cross had worn when getting her story in the hospital. The image was just wrong somehow. Maybe a firefighter, she wondered, or a bodyguard. With the right protection she'd be able to charge straight into burning buildings without much worry, and she was definitely able to take a punch or two. Maybe she would've ended up in the military or as a member of the Wardens. Maybe she'd have become literate and would've ended up somewhere completely different, working on paperwork or some other desk job instead of finishing fights other people started.
Peace finished off her supply of chicken before realizing just how much she was eating, then cooked up the fish she'd caught. She also fed the quail again, thereby reinforcing her determination to get rid of it the next day. After eating half of the fish, she settled down to sleep.
Days of Recovery: 4/17.
Community Outreach: Completed.
D-List Bounty: Completed.
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Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2017 12:03 pm
Peace awoke with a groan. Her arm wound was throbbing and while it was a bit warmer out it was still much too cold for the time of year. She stoked a fire and checked her wounds for infection and found they were both a bit off-color, so she spent her morning cleaning her wounds and dressing them with her first aid kit. She was starting to run low on supplies on that front, but she figured she had at least one use left so she'd put off going to get another one for at least another day. She ate the remainder of her fish for breakfast while eying the quail in the cage she kept on the other side of her shelter. She snapped the bird's neck before lunchtime and spent the rest of the day plucking and preparing it for consumption. She thoroughly enjoyed eating it for dinner.
Days of Recovery: 5/17.
First Aid Kit: -2 uses.
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Ergo War generated a random number between
75 and 175 ...
85!
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Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 8:52 pm
As was typical of the past couple of days, Peace awoke early and started up the fire in her shelter not long after it had extinguished itself. For whatever reason the weather had initially decided to shift wintry, it didn't seem to be letting up any time soon. Her breakfast consisted of her finishing off the remains of the bird she'd prepared the previous day. After the sun rose and brought the temperature above freezing she set out to see what food she could rustle up for the day. After encountering more frostbitten fruit than she'd like to see on any given day, she made her way down to the river, where she espied a middle-aged man in a heavy coat filling up a large jug with water.
The man seemed like a decent enough fellow, if only because he wasn't really disturbing anything unnecessarily, even if he was in her territory. Still, if he wasn't picking a fight, she was content to leave him be for a moment. She crouched on the bank much as he was, albeit a few meters away. The fish were rather sluggish that morning, but she managed to get her hands on a few that were large enough to eat.
There was a splash as the guy lost his footing, a result of his finally noticing her presence. His left leg fell into the water up to the knee, which couldn't have been very pleasant given the temperature. Peace was already feeling prickles in her hands and forearms from punching and grabbing the fish, so she could relate, but she was taken aback when he ran over and tried to shove her in upon extracting himself from the waters. He was successful, and the fish got away, making her royally angry. She hardly noticed the rocks covering his arms when she grabbed his legs and tried to pull him in, but he used his augmented appendages to anchor himself to the shore and kicked her away. He stalled for some time by repeating the exchange, but eventually Peace managed to get hold of both of his legs. She gave a fake-out tug to make him dig his hands into the ground, then punched him twice in each shoulder. He screamed in pain and let go, sending both of them tumbling into the water. Upon extracting themselves, she put up her dukes and approached him, but he surrendered, claiming he knew when he was beat.
Before she took him to the police station, Peace had to do something about their wet clothes. If things went on as they were, they'd both be dead before too long, having frozen to death in the wilderness. She bound his hands with several vines she found crawling along the ground, then took him back to her camp and sat next to the fire with him for a while. She started by drying out her collection of furs, which she then covered herself with while her normal clothes dried. It was a while before she got all the feeling back in her extremities, and a while after that until she was warm enough to contemplate venturing outside again. For the most part, he remained quiet, though not without looking uncomfortable for most of the time. That was at least partly due to her insistence that he dry his clothes while wearing them, but while she suspected there was more, she didn't and couldn't pry.
The delivery of the man to the police--which had at this point become routine enough for her, since most people who intruded on her property seemed to be wanted--went well with his full cooperation, but there was a catch: he had apparently kidnapped someone and the police needed to know where they were. He didn't say, so it was up to her to find the lost person.
She backtracked to the river in search of footsteps. She found them almost immediately and followed them half a mile into the forest at the base of the mountain, at which point she lost them in the underbrush. She walked in the same direction for a while, but wound up with no new information until she smelled the remains of a campfire. She walked upwind, following the scent as it strengthened until she happened upon a small shelter built mostly out of sticks and leaves, much like hers was. The last cinders of a campfire smoldered next to it, and inside was a very tired- and cold-looking boy, completely unbound but visibly terrified. He recoiled as though he had been struck when she waved at him, which confused her, so she set about making friends the only way she thought prudent: she stoked the fire. In no time at all she managed to coax him out with the alluring warmth of the flames, and after about half an hour of relaxing with him like that, he asked who she was. His eyes widened when she wrote "PEACE" in the dirt and he started apologizing, begging her not to hurt him. She waved away his concerns, but stood up and motioned for him to follow.
The police were pleased to see the boy was unhurt, evidently fearing she'd have beaten him unconscious and dragged him back. They thanked her profusely and paid her for her work, at which point she immediately went back to the river and punched a few fish into submission. She devoured them like a starved beast that night, having walked several miles on an empty stomach, then went to bed satisfied.
Days of Recovery: 6/17
D-List Bounty, Private Eye: Complete.
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Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 10:06 pm
The day was actually a comfortable temperature when Peace woke up, which was both a relief and moderately worrying for her. Typically such a nonsensical temperature spike was accompanied by fierce winds, but either she'd slept through it or the wind was being blocked by the mountain somehow, because there wasn't a single leaf so much as twitching on the roof of her shelter. By the time she'd scavenged up breakfast the sun was starting to bake the cold right out of the ground, the intensity of its searing golden rays hearkening back to the criminal she'd taken down a while back who had forced such temperatures using an ability. This heat was slightly less oppressive, though, in that it wasn't actively draining her energy.
First thing after breakfast, she checked her wounds for infection. As expected, the dirt and grime had done a number on the sanitation of her wounds, so she cleaned and bound them, expending the last of the provisions in her first aid kit as a result. As lovely as that was, it meant she had something to do for the day, so she put on her sandals and started down the mountain toward the city.
First Aid Kit: -2 uses, depleted.
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