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[ladyistcrap]

Night blankets the villages south of the wall. While the pacifistic Gagarians are huddling around what may be the last bowls they'll ever smoke, the Hildnr are preparing to march and ride out in force come the dawn. Thankfully, you're far enough north that the nights are a hell of a lot longer than normal. Looks like you have about fourteen hours to kill.

You'll probably want to make a stop at the armory to get equipped, at some point, but there's also a fair amount of feasting happening where a bard is telling tales of the Hildnr's victorious history. The Blood Queen is in attendance, accepting oaths and blessing the warriors.

Of course, if what you'd rather do is train, the training yards are open, and there's a small barracks hall that's been outfittedwith clean furs and a roaring fire so you can rest before unleashing your bloodlust. Thoughtful!

Just don't forget: you still gotta find the blood champion, save the helpless stoner fratboys, and make it over that fuckhuge wall before lunchtime tomorrow.

Comments

[inenochian]

[ MEANWHILE, IN THE FORESTS BEYOND THE GAGARIAN VILLAGE ]

[ it's nothing but snow out there, snow and skeleton trees and their roots.

and root cellars. turns out, the gagarians have an extensive network of underground root cellars in the rootwork of the forests. perfect place for evacuees to hide, since they're warm enough without fires and can't be seen from the air like a campsite. they're stocked with jams and jars of all kinds of preserved foods, which the stoners have tucked into with gusto. ]

[ examining what looks to be a jar of pickled pigs feet. ]

[sawedoff]

[watching him fondle a jar from his place leaning against the side of a shelf]

Guess he couldn't handle the excitement.

[glances at constantine who we have conveniently knocked out for your cardboarding pleasure]

You ever seen a tracking spell like that?

[inenochian]

[ that's what happens when you do drugs, kids. ]

Not that exact spell, but the theory behind it is common. It's imprecise because it uses traces of the aura embedded into inanimate objects. Using her name would strengthen it.

[sawedoff]

Yeah, I guess blood princess or whatever doesn't cut it.

[his answer is mostly flippant because it's not what he meant to ask, more concerned about the fact that constantine can cast magic like that with only a belonging and an incantation. and the way it took him out of himself, going all creepy prophet. don't you hate it when good men go witch.]

Well we're still short a short royalty, but at least we got these poor bastards out of the warpath.

[ladyjohannaii]

Eaayaurgh.

[is he knocked-out? maybe. he definitely wishes he was dead, though.]

[inenochian]

[ shhh, shh. just sleep it off. ]

[ nods in total agreement with dean's summation. ]

Temporary, but it could mean the difference between survival and annihilation.

[ sets the jar of goods back on the shelf and turns to look at dean. it is, as ever, right in the eye. ]

The fact that his spell failed to locate the girl most likely means he was missing the proper conduit. [ so i'm not sure how big of a threat he might be. ]

[sawedoff]

Conduit? So what, you're saying look on the bright side cus he couldn't insta-witch a location with a shoe?

[i mean i guess, yeah, if you want to look at the glass half full. he's more of a be really suspicious of the glass until it does something that proved him right this whole time kind of guy]

[looks down at him groaning on the floor. yeah, why don't you stay passed out while we're gossiping about you. actually, he's gonna unfold his arms and take to the stairs. he can chill out down there with the stoners for a while.]

[ladyjohannaii]

Diwinnagda? Aysawergel. Aysawer.

[it doesn't seem to be any known human language.]

Isshikei?

[inenochian]

[ gently rolls sleeping-john onto his side (don't want you choking on your own puke, even if you do reek of demon blood, because i have learned mercy and tolerance) before following dean up the steps and out of the cellars. ]

[ whole lotta snow out here. ]

Not cause enough to rejoice, I know.

[sawedoff]

Sure the dude's feeling the pain enough as it is.

[if his gibberish is any indication. sleep it off man. he'll bust your balls for dabbling in the dark arts later]

[doesn't make a move to pull his jacket tighter or huddle or anything when they get into the cold but the way he goes kinda rigid is sign enough that it gets to him]

[ladyjohannaii]

N... Cas... Din...

[goddammit he asked you bitches questions. pushes himself to his knees and waits a minute for the world to stop spinning.]

Nn... Awgd.

[was he... really rude to a very pretty girl last night? was it still last night?]

[inenochian]

[ maybe he'll feel better once he eats some pickled pigs feet and vinegared beets. ]

[ at least the gagarians will mop up after him should he be sick. ]

I do regret not having any aspirin to offer him. [ you saved my life with that bottle of aspirin, dean. ]

[sawedoff]

[crossing arms is such a problem now that he has tits. it's like, where do you put arms, do they go over? or under? he has to cross and uncross his arms like three times before he finds a comfortable way to do it.]

He'll live. So what now? The princess wasn't in the castle.

[inenochian]

[ eye drawn by dean's weird arm-cross-comfort macarena. ]

[ is it really that difficult? ]

[ tries, hesitantly, to mirror the pose dean settled on. ]

Now we count on the others to create an adequate distraction to buy us enough time for a "Plan B." [ maybe i could dreamninja in and threaten the blood queen in her sleep. ]

[sawedoff]

Plan b would be, I don't know, finding the girl. It would help if we knew a damn thing about her.

[nope this one didn't stick either he's already uncrossing his arms, but that's also because he's frustrated and he gesticulates a lot when uppity]

[inenochian]

Well.

[ flaps arms down to her sides as well. doesn't gesticulate, just huffy-flapping. ]

We don't know anything, aside from her shoe size. We've done all we can without having more resources, Dean, so we need to have faith in the others to succeed in finding a missing link.

[sawedoff]

Fine, yeah. I'm getting kinda tired of people telling me to have faith lately.

[hands come to rest at his hips. he feels kind of jo doing it, so he tries to play it off like he's just going for the pockets.]

[inenochian]

Lately?...have you ever been receptive to someone telling you to have faith?

[ slight touch of that dry angelic sass. ]

[sawedoff]

Maybe I'd have some if god would ship down a blanket or something. I'd freeze them off if I had any.

[insert crude crotch gesturing]

[if he hadn't been constantly shuttlebused from one location to the next for the duration of his stay in the viking village he would have picked himself up some badass furs and gone cruella de vil in this bitch]

[inenochian]

[ follows the gesturing with gaze before abruptly looking away, at. at uh, shit, whatever happens to be handy. trees? an owl. ]

[ unbelts coat and shrugs out of it to hand it over to him. ]

[ through the marvels of angelic mojo, whatever clothes she'd had on the jimmy-shaped vessel under that coat are now a stereotypically appropriate dress. too bad it would look out of place in the hildnr camp. you tried star. ]

[sawedoff]

[holds..jacket? what is he supposed to. you want him to wear this?]

What do I look like, a high school cheerleader? You can keep the varsity jacket, champ.

[tosses it back to him and just tucks his arms in tighter against himself. too stubborn 2 live. eyes his getup]

That really what you're going with?

[inenochian]

[ what part of my "you tried" star can you not respect, dean. ]

[ holds coat and blinks at it for a second. what the hell is a varsity jacket. ]

Apologies if my "fashion sense" [ physical airquotes happening here ] isn't exactly "making it work."

[sawedoff]

[tilts head to look the outfit over. i mean, it doesn't look bad. for a lady. but it's too weird thinking about his buddy cas in those kind of terms]

You look like the chick in the beginning of a CSI episode that gets murdered before the credits.

[inenochian]

...Is that the television program with the detective who suffers from some form of photophobia?

[ might, might just get that reference. ]

[sawedoff]

Look at you, branching out from porn.

[good on you. doing that awkward bounce from foot to foot that you do to try to keep warm. can tell he's getting increasingly more antsy, he sucks at the waiting game]

Ok, this is gonna take too long. Let's at least go back to the village and see if we missed anything.