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Inner Sanctum Exterior | 2:54 PM | Second Day
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absolute barbarity."
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Blop, blop. Gods, that sound was getting annoying.
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again as a result of what had just happened. As I understood it, the current target was 3:15, but even that seemed tenuous to me.
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miracle that only 23 people died."
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Blop, blop.
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anyone to their side, inspire any response from the average person but disgust?"
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else could it have possibly been? None of the other leftover groups are this violent. Even the Oathbreakers have the basic human decency to not go after civilian targets."
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Blop, blop, it continued. My eyes kept wandering back over to the pond.
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untold thousands of individuals all across the Mimikos - and here in the Atelikos and the Diakos, even - who will have all their hard work go to waste, now that this has ruined the celebration. Not to even speak of the millions of people who were looking forward to it, who might''ve had their business connected to the event, who could have been hoping to use the event to propose--"
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literal murderers who just did it."
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Oh, gods, I thought, my guts recoiling. Please don''t happen again. I don''t have the stamina.
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Blop, blop.
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Argumentum ad personam, I thought, but didn''t say anything.
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want a bunch of Iconists to get in power and piss in the well," Kam said, frowning. "That''s why I hope it''s all dealt with swiftly. Make an example of them."
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any of the issues that instigated the crisis at Ikkaryon," he explained. "But if you''re asking if there were any suggestions of potential terrorism, than no. There has been talk of a coordinated disruption to the parade in multiple cities, but nothing like this."
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Blop, blop.
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weird that they''d be able to do something like that, right at the front of the parade, with arcanists all over the place."
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Blop, blop.
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that too much, I should think," she said sharply.
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aggressively unpleasant person. At best aloof and asocial, and at worst (which was often) outright hostile to any attempt to interact with him.
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wanted it not to work out."
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That''s a surprisingly good point, I thought to myself.
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really easy for me to get preoccupied or distracted by things. I couldn''t keep clocks by the side of my bed because the ticking would keep me awake.
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at first-- Again, telekinesis was probably the easiest thing to use the Power for besides creating heat. But keeping it going for such a long time would normally sap the eris in a scepter dry.
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soul (though some people were eager to spin it that way), but something outside of the confines of classical physics. To simplify it, the brain ''grew'' a small component of itself on a higher plane, taking advantage of the altered state of reality to assist with the most complicated aspects of cognition. When the world was destroyed and mankind''s relationship with other planes altered, the Ironworkers created a new organ to assist with the process, which sat at the base of the cerebrum.
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technically a finite number of indexes, though said number happened to be 1,073,741,824. So functionally, it wasn''t going to happen.
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this? Well, he could keep it up forever.
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going back, depending on how things go with Samium," I said, with a sad smile. "I mean, in a manner of speaking...."
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We will."
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sound standard. It sounds pretty esoteric."
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imagery. Plate armor, big old-fashioned Rhunbardic castles, swords, fantasy creatures... That''s what makes something typical." She yawned. "But anyway, in the actual plot, dragons have almost been hunted to extinction, which is causing a crisis since human civilization uses them for everything. They decide to start farming them instead, but the dragons always tear themselves apart rather than letting themselves be captured, and if they just steal the eggs, they die before hatching without their mother."
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romance novels."
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I hope you don''t mind me intruding, but I overheard some of your conversation, it said. You''re talking about Wrymmother, right?
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I just read it recently, myself. If it''s alright for me to ask, are you a fan of Rashida of Anappur''s work in general?
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fan," Ran said, and subtly shifted into the slightly more intense tone she had whenever talking to someone who actually shared her hobby. "I''ve been reading her stuff ever since I got recommended Glens of the Wraithmist, but I''ve only got really into a few of her books other than that one."
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Which ones? And then, after a short pause: Sorry, I probably shouldn''t be talking with guests like this. I''ve just never met anyone else who''s read the series before, so it kind of took me aback.
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The Blighted Stars, just because it sticks to its tone and theme really well, and a mix of fantasy and horror is hard to pull off to begin with, since the lack of realism makes it really hard to capture the visceral aspect properly. But my favorite in terms of how much I actually enjoyed it was Twystwytch, even though it was kind of pulpy garbage. The main character''s situation just really resonated with me in a way I didn''t expect."
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Oh, I''m a big fan of Twistwytch, too! I know what you mean. I don''t really get into villain protagonists most of the time, but the way she became almost dehumanized by the other characters because they didn''t feel comfortable dealing with what had happened to her really made me empathize a lot with her perspective.
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No, no. I''m sorry, I don''t want to cause any fuss. He turned back to Ran. And Blighted Stars is good, but I think my favorite is probably Siege of the Shattered Pass. I read that when I was still in school, and it had a really big impact on me because it was the first ever fantasy book I read that actually seemed emotionally sincere in terms of the characters inner lives. It felt like the first time I''d really been spoken to on my own terms by an author. It''s probably make me too sentimental about the series, too be honest. He smiled meekly.
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Right! I''ve never seen someone balance telling a story about a hopeless situation with a fundamental message so full of hope.
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more, in every way. More beautiful. More meaningful.
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You have no one to blame but yourself.
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For me, I could never fit in with the culture in our arcology, Yantho replied. I suppose you could say that it''s too energetic. Everyone is either doing some kind of sport, or at least has some faster-paced type of hobby, like music or something to with technology. Sorry, "faster paced" doesn''t feel like quite the right way to put that. My Ysaran can still be a little patchy.
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Oh, they''re talking about how they got started reading novels.
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Well, I did when I was very young, but the literary scene in the Duumvirate isn''t very rich when it comes to more niche works. And I''ve always been good at using a logic engine, and in that context, it''s honestly easier to get stuff from the Mimikos.
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anything, to just be a part of the moment. But I felt paralyzed. My whole body stiffened, as if bound by coils of rope.
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like this?
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doing violence, and the fact that there was a lot of crossover in the skill sets, a culture of occasional dueling remained among healers.
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