182nd page

[curseshit]

You broke the curse! Or well, the weird spanish guy doing magic is on that right now, finishing it up, but the group should be fine. Or fine and fine.

The townsfolk is as confused as you are. Some of them have been under the spell for years. The guards are giving up their weapons as they realize they don't want to fight for this guy. It was all for the money. He used them. If you want to question him while he's still alive you better keep him safe inside the church.

[ mission: deal with the post-traumatic stress. ]

Comments

[armedarchaeologist]

Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of.

[from blind marge shooting her foot off to accidentally artificially accelerating the technological advancement of one side of a war...]

Did you manage to track down everything you came in with?

[noshoes]

[ i don't think it matters with all this magic going around here, daniel ]

[ smiles and nods at him, holding up the silver pendant to him. that's all she has, so it wasn't very hard to and the guard that bought the pendant for his ex-wife was glad to give it back anyway ]

I think Killian has the map.

[armedarchaeologist]

[despite ninurta and everything, he's still a big believer in clarke's third law that states any sufficiently advances tech is magic. he just thinks he doesn't understand the tech yet.]

[smiles back at neri and raises his eyebrows at the pendant.]

Oh good I'm glad what now.

[and that's where his ears catch up to his brain.]

Captain Hook has the map? That seems like... Not a good thing.

[i should tell my husband.]

[noshoes]

[ broken english and all, at least she figured out who has the map. because she saw him run out with it just as her tree was destroyed. right place at the right time ]

Is it bad? [ tilts head ]

[armedarchaeologist]

That remains to be seen, but I'm pretty sure it isn't strictly speaking good, since he seems to be... Maybe not the most trustworthy.

[frowns at the ground, considering. really, daniel hasn't known him to be all the backstabby, but. pirate. could be worse, though, daniel's pretty sure killian's never killed any of them like faith has.

pretty sure.]

[noshoes]

[ smiles and pats his arm ] Do not worry, Daniel. I am sure it is fine. [ well she believes that but she believes in the Greater Good inside of everyone. even the duke. ]

We need to find the rest, yes? [ already walking to go for a hunt and gather ]

[armedarchaeologist]

[aw.]

Of our stuff or of, of us? Actually either way you're right, but our people are probably easier and can help us with the other thing, so people first makes the most sense.

[catching up with her. easily. because she is a tiny mermaid person.]

[noshoes]

First people. More important.

[ walking as she talks. also, she may be a tiny mermaid person but she's pretty fast with her alien mermaid legs ]

[armedarchaeologist]

Yeah, way more important.

[not even a little sarcastic. so dean and cas were back in the church... that's two.]

I have a feeling we might see more of them back at the inn.

[where the booze lives and where maybe the cooks are competent now.]

[noshoes]

The inn? Why? [ it makes more sense people are looking for their stuff in other people's houses since it was sold

she doesn't know what alcohol is or do to your body and judgement, will keep it that way probably ]

[armedarchaeologist]

Because they... Might be hungry.

[that is, strictly speaking, also a possibility, even if it wasn't what he meant initially. not sure if this is naivete or enlightenment but daniel would like to not ruin it.]

I don't know, it seemed like a place to start looking.

[squints across the town square at eden having a staring contest with her disembodied eye.]

Did we bring her with us—? No, she's. Hm. We should probably make sure everyone remembers everything, I guess, except I'm not sure I know everyone well enough to test that aside from asking them "Do you remember everything?" and that way definitely lies madness.

[noshoes]

[ looks at eden and then shakes her head, already going off in the direction of the inn since she trusts daniel so why not. might be worth a try if he says so ]

I do not remember her. [ carefully avoid an apple tree branch sadly laying in the middle of the path ] Many people do not seem to be from here. Forgot. Like us.

[armedarchaeologist]

[pushes the branch out of his way with a foot and a disappointed look. poor trees.]

Yeah, the more I see of this place the more I wonder who is from this place. Even the natives look like us, talk like us... Where I come from, I think I, I mentioned this so stop me if it's getting redundant, but where I come from my people were taken from my planet and seeded across the galaxy as a, a slave race, and I can't help but wonder if maybe that's not what's going on here, too, because it all seems very Ta'uri. Very Earth. Everywhere we go.

[shrugs.]

Or not, I mean it's just a theory, and I kind of hope it's wrong to be honest.

[noshoes]

[ she likes hearing him talk. he's like a little talking machine, it's kind of funny. she doesn't understand everything he's saying, in fact, most things make no sense, but she likes to hear him talk ]

Do you think we are there? [ the muppety voice didn't say that ]

[armedarchaeologist]

Do I think we are where, the Earth? My galaxy?

[the inn? because they are at the inn. holds the door open and peers inside to make sure there's no brawls or anything.]

[noshoes]

No, no. The [ points at him vaguely ] Tari?

[armedarchaeologist]

The— No, the Ta'uri are the, the humans from Earth. Like me, and, and Dean, and Hel. As opposed to Morrigan, who's human but not from Earth, or Bo, who's from Earth but isn't human. And you, not from Earth and not human.

[throws her a quick smile over his shoulder to show that this is a fact not an accusation.]

It refers to a people, not a place. Well it can refer to the place too but not, not usually. I meant the people.

[noshoes]

[ she listens to him speak and then nods, understanding what he's saying (she thinks, at least), smiling back at him ]

Have you been to many planets?

[armedarchaeologist]

Yep.

[so many. three movies and nine seasons if you don't count the one where he was dead.]

This, though, this is one of the weirder ones. Possibly the weirdest. Except for Earth, I mean, but that's kind of a given.

[looks around the room and makes a mental tally of the pcs drowning their sorrows and/or affairs in anything not derived from apples.]

[noshoes]

[ tilts her head. earth isn't weirder than this place, she thinks, but then again she spent a lot of her time in there so she probably just got used to it ]

What happens to people? They go?

[armedarchaeologist]

[has a weird mental disconnect for a second where he thinks neri just asked him about the afterlife. no that's probably not what she means.]

What do you mean, what people?

[noshoes]

[ definitely not what she means ]

[ gestures at the sad npcs. their lives were all destroyed. their town. she feels bad for them and wants to help ]

[armedarchaeologist]

Oh. Well that's up to them I guess, as long as their leader stops with the kidnapping and the brainwashing. If they want they could probably come with us, only I'm not so sure that would be a good idea from anybody's point of view.

[oh right the villagers. frowns at guard #4 and guard #9 drinking sadly at a corner table.]

I mean there has to be some kind of industry here aside from cursed apples, or... I don't know, it's not my decision to make.

[noshoes]

[ tilts her head at the guards, watching them. they're so sad, it breaks her disney heart ]

Is it our fault?

[armedarchaeologist]

No.

[that one he's pretty sure of. drapes an arm over neri's shoulders and gives her a quick side-hug. then drops his arm because he's. not actually either her father or that physically demonstrative.]

This is definitely the fault of the guy who thought it was a good idea to brainwash a bunch of borderline psychotic explorers into the bastard brainchild of Normal Rockwell and the Brothers Grimm.