what in the longdark spitting-pit is that

[inourhead]

This was a bad idea this was a bad idea this was a bad idea.

Holly runs as fast as she can but the demon's faster. She has no idea where Lightning's gotten to; maybe he found a tree to climb. She on the other hand has been diverted into a treeless hill and she's careening down a slope, trying very hard not to trip.

And the demon's gaining on her.

She's never seen anything like it and neither has Crystal; maybe Book knows what it is but Book's asleep. It's mostly mouth - it looks like a cross between a floorlength mirror of a mouth and a snake to propel the mouth along.

And Holly's not fast enough.

The mouth catches her.





But it doesn't hurt.

Where are we?

----


with Minus (kappa)

with Mark (kappa)

with Max (Benedict)

in Terraria (kappa)

with Emma (Marri)

with Erin (Rockeye)

Comments

[inourhead]

"Holly," says Holly, "now."

[joy_in_laughter]

"Hi Holly!" Jenny says agreeably. "Let's go! You need blessing coins. They're important!"

[cry_me_a]

"So you know, Holly," Alli contributes, "Jenny really likes blessing coins."

[joy_in_laughter]

Jenny simply sticks out her tongue at Alli and dances off. There's enough people on the streets, mostly on their ways home from work, that she collects two strangers without much trouble; one woman who looks like she's probably a shopkeeper's assistant, and an older man who is more well-dressed but also surprisingly intoxicated for the hour. Emma's "bodyguard" is roped into the spot of the third stranger.

And then they are in the temple, and Jenny asks the strangers sweetly to please pull blessings for "two newly arrived girls."

[inourhead]

Holly, puzzled, accepts a talent, a clarity, and a persistence; she pockets them. Crystal emerges and takes a kindness, an intelligence, and a loyalty.

[joy_in_laughter]

"Those are good coins!" Jenny tells them encouragingly. "I guess Holly's pretty sweela?" she asks Emma as an aside, who has more familiarity with the girls to go on.

[follow_the_leader]

"Um..." Emma shrugs. "I can't really tell them apart. I still have to ask who I'm talking to, when I think of it. You saw. But they're sweela sometimes, I guess, yeah."

They have, in fact, been at least slightly of each element at one point or another; there's two of them, and they're not One Element the way a Welchin would be, and Emma did just spend almost twenty four straight hours with them. But since they are, again, not Welchin, Emma hardly imagines it will matter.

[cry_me_a]

Meanwhile, Alli is cheerfully drawing blessings for everyone else. Crystal gets a patience, an endurance, and a time, while Holly gets a hope, an resilience, and a time. Emma is handed a change (no surprise there), a creativity, and a patience. Jenny receives a hope, a kindness and a joy.

"Have you ever not gotten a joy?" Alli asks Jenny with a laugh as she hands her her coins.

[joy_in_laughter]

"Not that I know of!" Jenny replies, unbothered. "I like my joys."

And she draws coins for Alli: a kindness, a persistence, and an honesty.

"And look, see? You get honesty a lot, too."

[cry_me_a]

"I have gotten other things ever," Alli retorts, but accepts the coins with a smile.

[follow_the_leader]

Emma will now be using her prophesied creativity to try to explain these symbols to Holly and Crystal. It's stretching her Holly-Crystal-approved vocabulary quite a bit.

She declines to attempt to interpret them. They're... not encouraging, in her opinion. She would have liked to see a triumph, or a luck, or maybe a surprise. Things like patience and time are rather less optimistic.

[inourhead]

Crystal tries to follow along, but doesn't seem to understand the meanings attached to their coins.

[follow_the_leader]

Emma finally just waves a hand at them. "They say- together, it is- wait, and do not be sad?"

[inourhead]

"Coins know things?" asks Crystal skeptically.

[follow_the_leader]

"A person gave Jenny's mom a coin for baby Jenny," Emma says. "The coin said Jenny would be a very happy person." She does not even bother to continue explaining. She just- waves, speakingly, in Jenny's direction.

[joy_in_laughter]

Muffled giggles!

[inourhead]

Notes, notes, notes - also giggles!

[cry_me_a]

Alli cackles. She doesn't get joy much, but she's pretty pleased about her honesty coin. (She uses it as an excuse sometimes. "But I'm blessed with honesty! I had to say it!")

"So we still doing this?" she asks. "Riverbank?"

[follow_the_leader]

Emma considers Holly and Crystal. They don't seem super hopeful, she doesn't think going to the riverbank to at least look around is going to be... be... unfairly building up hopes, or anything. But it might make them feel better?

"Riverbank," she decides.

Back to the streets it is.

[inourhead]

Holly comes forth to follow along. She seems keenly interested in most of the things that are around.

[follow_the_leader]

Emma notices her fascination, but doesn't really know where to start. The city all seems ordinary to her. Large and bustling and often dirty and the same as ever. "Tell me if you want me to talk about things," she tells Holly.

But then they're passing through the main square, and Emma has an even better idea than the riverbank. "Oh, wait wait wait! We should ask them instead."

Them is three old blind women sitting in the middle of the square.

"They know things," she tells Holly and Crystal. "People pay them to know things, because they know so many things. If someone met your brother, they will know."

[inourhead]

Holly opens her mouth, decides she has no prayer of getting out a coherent version of the sentiment in mind, and shrugs and follows Emma to them.

[follow_the_leader]

"You can pay them coins or pay them by telling them new things," Emma explains. "Things about your brother might cost a lot of coins-" someone appearing via a brand new magic would be expensive- "so I will tell them about you. Is that okay?"

[inourhead]

"...They... see?" ask Holly.

[cry_me_a]

"Nope," Alli says. "People call them the blind sisters. Blind means they can't see. Is no one blind, where you live?"