PixCO

I gave a head's-up about my post yesterday so it doesn't get lost in weekend activity. I'll look for a reply to that on Monday. So where do we go from here...? EDIT: And yes, I finally got payback!

Yopine (Svirfette) Quietclock Yopine had listened to Wyck's apparent rambling with a neutral, patient expression. Her work with the socially disadvantaged had given her plenty of experience with aphasia, and she was hearing a lot of that in his jumble of words. Not everything needed to make immediate sense. What mattered was picking up on the important parts. "Wyck? You keep saying we. We're here to witness. We've been with you..." She was slightly confused, not sure how much he really knew, how much he was really saying, and what his words really meant. "Whatever's going on? Whoever's watching us? You're being watched, too. You're part of this, Wyck. You need to help us figure it out."

Aha! Svirfette's little sister was an aspiring novelist. I think I can use that here... Damn metatrap.

Nobody ever does. I have my own health issues giving me a pass on the return-to-office so far. Not sure if that'd be good luck or bad, but unfortunately they're getting better and I may not be able to justify the sensible solution forever. But then we did just have some big outbreak in the office... Maybe they'll reconsider before I'm actually healthy enough to get sick again.

Oh, that one is rough. Sorry to hear. And just horrible for everyone. Don't get me wrong, I definitely feel the team disconnect working remotely, but it's just such a waste. Time, resources, breathable air. I mean maybe if someone would have told us 50 or 60... 70 years ago? Really? JFC we're dumb. If someone would have told us that's where all of this was leading maybe we'd have done something about it. Ahwell.

Damn. Drizzt is so deadly he even killed our momentum.

Hello fellow insomniacs! 5 hours seems to be my biological limit for some reason. Any more than that and I start hitting sleepless nights. If I keep pushing sleep past that point I end up with sleep paralysis. But what's a little sleep deprivation insanity among fiends?

And is it just me, or does "Truth Stew" sound like the name of a Ska band. But, like, not a good one.

Yopine (Svirfette) Quietclock "Makes perfect sense to me. And some of our burdens might be closer together than you think." Yopine cast a glance towards Rillik. This was something she'd admitted to her friend already. Maybe in some ways her best friend now, despite having only just met. Was she free to now share it with everyone else? She had to. There was no other path to take. "I fell in with a crowd like yours. That Guild I've been hunting? Hating? That I keep Svifring about? It's where I started too." She swallowed hard, though the stew had little to do with that. "They were slick when they recruited me, too. And just like you I found myself in farther than I wanted to be. Except, I didn't stop. Not even when it came time to kill. That was me, going farther than you were willing, and somehow convincing myself it's what I wanted. Not really sure how I managed to do that, but it took my own mother's throat being cut before I stopped. And even then, I'm not sure I could have without Dillworthy's help. So please, don't think you're some bad guy because you roughed up a couple of guards. Not all of us are that noble."

Ah, crap. I just realized I forgot to look at the dog in that last post. She may have just doomed us all

Yopine (Svirfette) Quietclock Svirfette had opened her mouth before even knowing what she could possibly say. The girl sat with her mouth open, silently for a change, and her own spoon drying as it was held in mid-air. Why am I here? She asked herself, yet again. She'd had theories... so many theories. She was here to be this, she was here to do that. None of her deductions or predictions had paid off. At every turn, when she thought there was a glimmer of a clue as to what they were actually doing, the wind suddenly shifted and she was left with cold stew for brains. "I don't know..." She finally had to admit defeat. "I thought I knew. Based on my skills, my training. But apparently not. So far there's been no need for me in this group. Which is really weird because I was invited to join explicitly." She scraped her spoon clean of dried food and dug around the bowl for more. "Not by name, mind you. But by description. Close enough that I'm the only one in the entire city who could have qualified. So as far as I can tell? I'm just here to be here, and not much more. Maybe eat some stew..." Yopine truly did seem lost. Especially after being brought back by D'Ategenon. He'd denied her the comfort of the Underworld, but she still had real shadows to hide within. Being taken from them was another hard loss to her nerves, and to her pride. The half-orc had found her so easily, and she'd been so certain that something big was about to hit. The girl had wanted to watch whatever she thought was coming from a safer distance. That'd been denied her as well. So she sat, and she ate, and she wondered at other things. But there were too many to voice, and so many ways in which she'd been wrong already.

I bless you... I bless you... I bless you twice... You're cool... I bless you...

Yopine (Svirfette) Quietclock Svirfette was still laughing gently to herself as D'artegenon moved away once more after nudging her towards the food. She wasn't sure that even he understood what had been done to Basil with that joke. Dillworthy wasn't his patronym. Staghorne was. Dillworthy was an honorific inherited from some heroic great-great-great-grandfather of his or something. Almost more a title than part of a name, great things were expected of Harengon Dillworthies. Hers was no exception, and she was surprised the old rabbit was even still talking to the maker of that joke. The deep gnome girl listened to Roland while she gathered her own food. Very little thought was put towards what might be in it as far more pressing concerns were, very literally, in the air. At least her story wasn't as unique as she'd feared. Though Roland had managed to stop shy of actual murder, she recalled. He was still the better person in her eyes. She wanted to confess that much to him immediately. That would have stepped on Wyck's reply, though, and it seemed like the boy spoke so rarely it would be crime to stop him from doing so. Fearful that it might interrupt the social progress Roland had already made, she carefully took a seat alongside the two and began cooling her bowl in relative silence. Always, though, there was the stray black dog tugging at her attention. Any time the conversation lagged, or even if it didn't, her eyes would wander to the animal.

Yep, I know all about that. But she only has experience with guard dogs, attack dogs, and dogfighting. She's aware that the concept of a dog as a pet exists, she's just never encountered one before. If a dog makes a move, especially one this big and strange, she will attribute meaning to it.

The dog is more user-friendly.