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tushanshu_logs2016-04-15 12:00 pm
ironwood) wrote in tushanshu_logs2016-04-15 12:00 pm
Entry tags:
- %4th wall,
- %event,
- post: aya,
- post: kylo ren,
- thread: adrian fletcher,
- thread: adrien agreste (chat noir),
- thread: anton shudder,
- thread: aya,
- thread: kylo ren,
- thread: midii une,
- thread: raine sage,
- thread: shay cormac,
- thread: tony stark (imaa),
- thread: valdis,
- thread: zatanna zatara,
- † thread: zuko
[EVENT | FOURTH WALL] THE DREAMING'S FLATULENCE | APRIL 15-30
Characters: ALL and plus ones. (Yes, fourth-wall characters, that means you.)
Date: April 15-30 2016 (2017 in-game)
Location: Mod-posted comment starters are for the immediate aftermath of the odd explosion which starts the event, but this log can also be used for anywhere in the setting anytime between April 15-30.
Situation: The College went BOOM. Weird people began appearing randomly in the city. After that, other buildings went BOOM even though nothing actually exploded besides the College. After that, scattered buildings developed spontaneous structural damage overnight. Could these events be related? You be the judge.
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings in subject headers as needed.
The morning of April 15th dawns cold, but clear. There isn't a cloud in the sky, the sun's barely risen, and in general the kedan are going about their daily lives - opening shops, heading to work, leading kirin through the city streets. In particular, there's a small but steady stream of people moving in and out of the College.
Then, without warning, a section of the College implodes.
During the following few days, an influx of strange Foreigners appear, seemingly dropped randomly by the Dreaming throughout Keeliai. Someone might end up in a canal, or on a rooftop. Someone else might find themselves flying through the air to land heavily in a disused alley. Someone might wake up in the corner of a kirin stable. A few might even land in Hatal on the mainland, and feel a curious draw leading them back towards the turtle. They arrive in the same unexpected manner as normal Foreigners; the only differences are the sheer amount of people arriving at once, and that none of the newcomers seem to possess any soul gems.
Also during the next few days, kedan and Foreigner alike might be startled by an exact replica of that thunderous boom from the College explosion echoing around Keeliai. This only occurs for about a week, but it occurs regularly, and the source of these strange echoes is impossible to trace.
Once the explosion echoes stop, investigators might notice that specific and exact sections of structural damage from the College appear on other buildings in Keeliai without any obvious cause. These cases of spontaneous long-term damage continue all the way through until April 30th.
Apart from those disruptions, life on the turtle is generally normal for the next two weeks - or as normal as it's possible for life to be when one lives on the back of a turtle where the most powerful gang makes the rules. No one can say for sure exactly when the strange Foreigners vanish again. Some will swear they all vanished at once; others will be equally sure they disappeared one by one over several days. One thing's for sure, however -- by the time April 30th draws to a close, not one of the strange Foreigners is left in Keeliai.
LINKS
The College | The Echoes | The Structural Damage | OOC Information post | Fourth-Wall Character Check-In
OOC
The top-level comments are for the explosion and its aftermath, but fourth-wall characters should feel free to use the rest of the post for anything within the setting! Just remember to label the top-level comment for location and date. You can also add more fourth-wall characters throughout the event at the character check-in, linked above. Please direct any questions to the OOC post.
Fourth-wall characters are also free to tag into player-posted logs and console/radio posts dated between April 15th and 30th! A quick reminder that fourth-wall characters will not have soul jewelry, and will not be able to create their own network posts or logs.
Date: April 15-30 2016 (2017 in-game)
Location: Mod-posted comment starters are for the immediate aftermath of the odd explosion which starts the event, but this log can also be used for anywhere in the setting anytime between April 15-30.
Situation: The College went BOOM. Weird people began appearing randomly in the city. After that, other buildings went BOOM even though nothing actually exploded besides the College. After that, scattered buildings developed spontaneous structural damage overnight. Could these events be related? You be the judge.
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings in subject headers as needed.
The morning of April 15th dawns cold, but clear. There isn't a cloud in the sky, the sun's barely risen, and in general the kedan are going about their daily lives - opening shops, heading to work, leading kirin through the city streets. In particular, there's a small but steady stream of people moving in and out of the College.
Then, without warning, a section of the College implodes.
During the following few days, an influx of strange Foreigners appear, seemingly dropped randomly by the Dreaming throughout Keeliai. Someone might end up in a canal, or on a rooftop. Someone else might find themselves flying through the air to land heavily in a disused alley. Someone might wake up in the corner of a kirin stable. A few might even land in Hatal on the mainland, and feel a curious draw leading them back towards the turtle. They arrive in the same unexpected manner as normal Foreigners; the only differences are the sheer amount of people arriving at once, and that none of the newcomers seem to possess any soul gems.
Also during the next few days, kedan and Foreigner alike might be startled by an exact replica of that thunderous boom from the College explosion echoing around Keeliai. This only occurs for about a week, but it occurs regularly, and the source of these strange echoes is impossible to trace.
Once the explosion echoes stop, investigators might notice that specific and exact sections of structural damage from the College appear on other buildings in Keeliai without any obvious cause. These cases of spontaneous long-term damage continue all the way through until April 30th.
Apart from those disruptions, life on the turtle is generally normal for the next two weeks - or as normal as it's possible for life to be when one lives on the back of a turtle where the most powerful gang makes the rules. No one can say for sure exactly when the strange Foreigners vanish again. Some will swear they all vanished at once; others will be equally sure they disappeared one by one over several days. One thing's for sure, however -- by the time April 30th draws to a close, not one of the strange Foreigners is left in Keeliai.
LINKS
The College | The Echoes | The Structural Damage | OOC Information post | Fourth-Wall Character Check-In
OOC
The top-level comments are for the explosion and its aftermath, but fourth-wall characters should feel free to use the rest of the post for anything within the setting! Just remember to label the top-level comment for location and date. You can also add more fourth-wall characters throughout the event at the character check-in, linked above. Please direct any questions to the OOC post.
Fourth-wall characters are also free to tag into player-posted logs and console/radio posts dated between April 15th and 30th! A quick reminder that fourth-wall characters will not have soul jewelry, and will not be able to create their own network posts or logs.
hope this works c:
Well. She hadn't seen anyone from her world for nearly a year, now, and hope, unlikely as it was, leapt to attention. It was worth checking. Raine backtracked when she processed what she had seen, and she peered down the alley.
She inhaled sharply when she recognized the person there. Older, perhaps, but there were stranger things, and sight and mana both told her the same thing. "Sheena?"
:D (This will be beautifully horrible at one point...LOL)
There was a mix of surprise and hope in the ninja's voice. It had been a year for Raine, but possibly a day from Sheena's point of view since the two women had seen each other. The mage had been trapped on the same island as Sheena for a while, had both been sent to this world instead of home by accident?
And did it really matter?
[ ooc: Her hair is about 18 inches longer than it was before. :D ]
oh boy oh boy
She herself looked some little bit older, as well, though it was more in the shape of her face, the way she carried herself. A little more sure of her authority and where she stood; a little tireder, though the joy of seeing someone she knew from the journey lit up her face.
"You look different," she said in a moment, carefully. "How long has it been? What's the last thing you remember?"
It wouldn't be the first time different versions of people had made themselves known here.
rubs hands together eagerly.
Whose to say that the two of them hadn't been brought to different times as well?
Because as she took in the mage's appearance, she could see that yes, she did look different than she had only twenty-four hours before. And seeing that smile on Raine's face did wonders for the ninja as well, and thinking the Professor's question was a test to see if Sheena remembered everything, her lips parted into an impish grin.
"Remember from where? Home? Or Atia?"
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The impish grin combined with the unfamiliar place name did perhaps the opposite of what Sheena had hoped, drawing Raine's expression down into a frown. "Atia?" she repeated, troubled. "Is that the name of the world where you were last?" And Raine shook her head. "After the Great Seed had been germinated, I found myself here, in Keeliai. That's the extent of my travels."
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Her movements stopped and her own frown appeared when Raine apparently had no idea what she was talking about, and Sheena found herself both confused and filled with mixed feelings. The confusion was understandable, since it appeared Raine was relatively unscathed--even though Sheena remembered otherwise. The two women had grown closer than ever because of what they both had been put through, and while it hurt that the mage didn't remember that, Sheena was glad that it had never happened to her to begin with.
"Atia," she confirmed, taking a deep breath and looking away before continuing. "I was there for four years." Which would make her twenty-three. She could tell her all of it, but decided against it. Raine didn't need to know about that. She finally looked up. "Before that, I was on my mission for the King as the Emissary of Peace."
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"Then it was some months after the reunification of the worlds?" Raine asked, with interest. She wouldn't get to see the new world without losing her memories of this one, as things stood, so anything Sheena might say was of particular interest to her, but--
Four years, and Sheena seemed to have expected Raine to remember something. Raine pressed her lips together and chose her next words carefully. "I... am likely not the Raine you remember, in that case," she said, somewhat more quietly than her initial interest. "That's... not uncommon, here."
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"A few months," the ninja confirmed with a nod. "Zelos convinced the King to give me the job." No, she wasn't exactly thrilled about it, since she had work to do as Chief, but even she could see the necessity behind it.
Feeling a pat to her leg, Sheena looked down and held her arms open for Tomoya to jump into them. She waited until he settled on to her shoulder before answering Raine. "I'm beginning to realize that," she said just as quietly. Which was probably a good thing, and as long as Raine didn't ask her about Atia, Sheena would keep it that way.
"But what do you mean--'not uncommon'?"
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Sheena had the rest of Mizuho among her responsibilities as well, of course, but still.
The movement caught Raine's attention, and reminded her what had drawn her to this alley in the first place. Her eyes went briefly wide as she focused on the small creature. "Corrine?" she said, which-- couldn't be right. She'd been at the Temple of Lightning.
(Then again, the dead did walk in Keeliai, sometimes.)
"Different versions of the same person," Raine explained. "For instance, there was a man named Dante who I fought beside. He returned to his home over a year ago, now, but in recent months the same man has reappeared. They share the same fundamental lives, as far as I've been able to establish, but the Dante who is here now doesn't remember the first time. Effectively, he's a different person with the same circumstances. To say nothing of Tony Stark-- this city has seen both adult and teenaged versions of the same man. Time is... somewhat more flexible, here."
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Reaching up to scratch the small animal behind the ear, Sheena shook her head. "No. He looks like Corrine, but he isn't. He doesn't speak, but he can be a smart-aleck at times. His name's Tomoya." She glances at him and her brows knit in thought. "I think he knew you weren't the other Raine before I did. It's okay, Tomoya, this is Raine, too." Tomoya made a small sound in greeting, before nuzzling against Sheena's hand as the ninja nodded.
"Yeah, that happened a couple of times on Atia, too. Although, not too many teenagers were there--unless they were eighteen." Four years, and she had seen it only twice. "In fact, I had been there before, but I didn't remember it all. How often does something like that happen here?"
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"Tomoya. All right." This of all things drew Raine closer, offering her free hand to him with some curiosity of her own. The similarity to Corrine was uncanny.
"It doesn't happen often, to the best of my knowledge," she answered, a little absently, bemused by the limitation Sheena pointed out. "There's no such age standardization here, either-- Genis was here for a few months, about a year ago now, and there have been other young Foreigners. Atia required adults specifically?"
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"Yeah. He was a gift from the," a slight hesitation, "Goddess who 'ran' the island for some holiday known as Christmas." She looked at the little animal, who was busy sniffing Raine's hand before nuzzling it slightly. Different, but the same, so she was accepted. "I know, weird, right?" She was, of course, referring to the similarities.
"So, not an everyday occurrence." She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing--here. She looked up in surprise at the mention of Genis, her mind still stuck in what was done on Atia. And because of her slip up in mentioning the age thing, she was now faced with lying to Raine or telling the truth. Or even holding back.
And if Raine were true to form, she'd probably know Sheena was keeping something from her. If she didn't already. Still, the ninja had to try.
"Yeah, it was a rule of Atia's. The Goddess was named that, too." Talk about an ego. "No one under eighteen was allowed there. Well, that's not entirely true. Those she brought in had to be eighteen, but any children were sent to another island when they turned a certain age."
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It might have been a few years, certainly, but some things didn't change, and in any case Raine had gotten no small amount of practice at reading reticent friends while she was here. Sheena was hiding something, or talking around it, and the stipulation on age did not, somehow, paint a pretty picture.
Raine frowned. She did not want to draw the conclusion that Sheena's reticence and the apparent requirement for adults was leading her to. "Why?" she wanted to know, blunt. "What happened to you in those years? You say 'goddess' with no small amount of doubt, and you're skirting the matter of Atia." Come to think of it, she didn't think Sheena would have mentioned the age restriction if she had not brought up Tony Stark first. Not promising.
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Any distraction in a storm right now, and Santa was probably one of the best as far as Sheena was concerned.
But probably not good enough, judging from that frown on Raine's face. The ninja just knew she'd figure something was up. Sighing, she gave in--sort of. But not until she stared ahead and absently stroked Tomoya's fur for several moments.
"A lot happened, Raine, but almost from the very day I appeared on Atia, I have been unable to go up to an unicorn." In other words, she was no longer a maiden--physically. "Before you ask, no, that first day wasn't the only time. Everyone who wasn't a native to the island wore a collar that tightened over the course of two weeks, and there was really only one way to stop it from getting too tight." Finally, she looked at her friend.
"Choking is such a stupid way to die," she said with some heat. After all, that wasn't how she was trained.
cw; probable continuing discussion of consent pressuring/etc
Now was definitely not the time to get into the analysis of the cultural evolution of a planet she'd never personally been to, as fascinating as it was. Raine lapsed into a silence, watching Sheena intently as she pet Tomoya and steeled herself-- for surely that was what that was.
The mention of the unicorn should have been humourous callback to misunderstanding. It was anything but. Raine stiffened -- there was no real way to misinterpret what Sheena meant -- and she drew her breath in sharply, her free hand curling into the fabric of her jacket over her heart. "That's horrible," she said, open, too startled to hide it under her usual coolness. "Sheena, you-- four years? What possible reason could they have had for--"
It seemed too harsh to put into open words. Raine took a step toward Sheena almost on instinct before recalling herself, recalling that she was no longer quite certain where each of them stood with each other.
cw: Also mentions of violent death...
Sheena, on the other hand, wouldn't mind talking about another world's customs. Anything to avoid what she was telling her friend, forcing her to experience what Sheena had second-hand.
Her gaze hadn't left her friend, and she felt a pang of guilt over her friend's reaction. She hadn't meant to hurt Raine, and had tried to avoid it all costs. Of course, her penchant for saying things without thinking ruined that effort. She answered Raine's question with a slow nod.
"Yeah. Four years. According to Atia, she gained power from the act. And what better way to ensure power than by forcing people into it?" She shook her head. "Don't get me wrong, I didn't die by choking--there was no honor in it." However, she had died in other ways. Hopefully, Raine wouldn't ask about that.
Seeing that step towards her, the ninja reacted with one of her own, stopping when she had, the hope in her eyes quickly becoming confusion when her friend pulled away from her. Although the Raine on Atia had become more than a friend to Sheena, she was--and always will be--just that. Her friend. Had something happened between this Raine and another Sheena to cause that to change?
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She'd thought-- she didn't even know what precisely she'd thought, only that it would be a bad move to startle Sheena, and they could not act as if nothing had changed-- but seeing that confusion clinched her decision. Raine reaffirmed her intent, closed the distance, and pulled Sheena into a careful embrace, mindful of Tomoya on her shoulder.
"That's despicable," Raine said, with feeling, of Atia. "I'm sorry-- you should never have had to go through something like that." It couldn't be changed now, she supposed, but the sheer injustice of it burned somewhat, when she herself had found such a good place to call a second home.
A beat, and then, deliberately light, offering Sheena the way out of talking about Atia further if she preferred, "I haven't heard of White Day. Perhaps it's regional? The majority of my friends here are from Ireland, or America."
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Sheena's eyes never left her friend, almost as if she were trying to read the other woman's thoughts, but was, in reality, trying to determine just where they stood with one another. She wasn't foolish enough to think things hadn't changed between them--the amount of time living in different places had made sure of that. But, she was relying on that friendship that had been solidified thanks to one swordsman in red.
That step towards her sent a flood of relief through the ninja, and she returned the hug, accepting the offer of comfort. "Thanks, Raine. No one should--not even my worst enemy. Luckily, I had friends there who made things a little easier to cope with." She wasn't totally unscathed, but she was definitely better off than some had been.
Hearing her mention America, Sheena pulled away, a smile forming. One day, she was going to strip her gears switching moods like that, but that was Sheena. "I heard of America! One of my friends was from there! But Ireland? I never heard of it." Her smile widened. "Get this, Raine, there's a place on Earth called Japan that in older times was a lot like Mizuho! They celebrate White Day."
no subject
"Ireland's across the ocean to the east from the American continent," she explained. "They still speak English, but it has a different cadence, and some idioms are apparently different." She could likely reproduce the accent if Sheena was curious; she had, after all, had years of exposure. "Japan... ah! Now that you mention it, Ryou was from Japan." Which meant Bakura had familiarity as well, but that bundle of complexity was not something to go into now. "I thought some of what he said sounded familiar. It's simply fascinating, the similarities there are even between entirely different worlds! Tell me about White Day, then. Actually--"
She hesitated, then gestured back to the mouth of the alley, over her shoulder. "You're welcome to come home with me," she offered. "We have a spare room." Solomon likely wouldn't mind; he knew how long it had been since Raine had seen anyone from her home world. "...I should have asked sooner, but do you have a soul gem?"
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She raised one eyebrow questioningly as the mage told her about Ireland, and curious, the ninja did make the request. Sorry, Raine. "Really? How does it sound?" Then her own eyes lit up, when she mentioned knowing someone from that country, too. "A lot of people were from Japan there--that's why I did some checking on it. One of them even built a traditional Tea House." Which she owned. "Another one--Ishida--is the one who told me about White Day." And she was ready to launch into an explanation when Raine stopped her.
Shaking her head, she smiled. "I appreciate the offer, Raine, but I don't want to be any trouble." Typical. Then her smile disappeared as she frowned in confusion.
"What's a soul gem?"
no subject
Instead, she held up her left wrist, pushing her sleeve back so Sheena could see. There was an assortment of jewelry there-- a moonstone charm with its chain tangled up in another, a flat round disc, and most prominently a cuff-type bracelet designed to look like the intertwined branches of a tree. Central in that was a stone the green of new life and growing things. "They're roughly what they sound like," she said, tapping this stone gently. If Sheena happened to look closely, there was a small flaw in the heart of it, as if perhaps it had suffered some damage. "Soul gems serve as an anchor to this plane; they're the evolution of an imperfect system. If you have a piece of jewelry you don't recognize, it's very important that you don't lose it. If you don't..." Raine trailed off, and her shoulders dropped.
It would be disappointing, to say the least, if Sheena were here for such a short time. But it was more than nothing. "If you don't have one, then you're simply passing through," she said, a little more briskly. "A few weeks, perhaps. In either case, it's no trouble. As I said, we have an empty room since Genis is no longer here, and I'm hardly about to make you fend for yourself when you're new in a strange city."
Not that she doubted Sheena could. But she didn't have to, which was the point.
no subject
Anything else she might have said was cut short by Raine showing her the jewelry on her wrist. For a moment, her eyes lingered on the moonstone, appreciating the beauty of it before traveling to the one she needed to see. An eyebrow raised at the design. A tree? The Great Tree, maybe? Pretty fitting in Sheena's opinion--especially with a green stone set in between them. The ninja did take a closer look as Raine explained its purpose, and she did see the flaw in the stone. Looking up sharply, she pointed at it. "Raine, what happened to it? You said don't lose it, but what happens when it's damaged?"
She didn't even live here and she was protective of her friends.
And it looked like she wasn't supposed to stay, either. Lifting her arms, she shook her head. "No, I don't have anything other than my ExSphere." She paused and looked away for a moment. "So, I'm not going to be staying here? Will I go back to where I was? Or will I go home? Or is there a way for me to get one now?" She opened her mouth to refuse the offer--to point out that if she was going to be a "temporary guest", then Raine really didn't need to inconvenience herself (even though she said it wasn't). In a split second, however, she remembered how the mage had gotten her to do things anyway back on Atia, and said instead:
"All right. I promise I won't be any trouble."
Since she'd probably be scarce a lot, learning the city.
no subject
Expounding on her theories was cut temporarily short, however, by Sheena's question. Raine covered the stone for a moment, and sighed as she dropped her hand. "It was stolen for about two days," she said, by way of explanation. "Genis and Bakura recovered it before the loss could kill me, but-- whoever had been masterminding the thefts of soul gems appears to have been experimenting with them. To what end, I'm not sure."
This was not actually what Sheena had asked. Raine considered -- just for a moment -- trying to hide it. After all, she was used to coping by now, and there was no point in making her friends worry about something that was already said and done. In the end, though, the desire not to conceal things won out. "Occasionally it re-fractures," she admitted. "When it does so, it mutes one of my senses until it heals itself. I've learned to manage it. I believe the effects are different for everyone, but many people have been reluctant to share, for perhaps obvious reasons."
She returned to brisk in a moment, not inclined to dwell in that. It had been nearly a year of managing, and things weren't likely to change immediately. "This has happened before. Likely you'll return in a few weeks. I... don't know if it will be to where you were, or to our home." Raine wished there were some way to tell. She turned to indicate the mouth of the alley, gesturing that Sheena should walk with her. "Some of the people from the last instance did return with soul gems, but it didn't appear to be entirely voluntary. Would you want to stay?"
Certainly this place had to be better than Atia, but if given the choice to get home...
no subject
And that was more important than anything else to the ninja right now.
No, her response didn't entirely answer her question, but it was a start. And really Raine? Trying to hide it? Sheena would have basically brow-beat her until she told her the truth anyway. What a group of friends they belong to; not wanting to be burdens, yet taking them on without a word of complaint. Her eyes narrowing, the ninja felt a well of anger building up inside her. Raine might have had time to adjust, but she hadn't. Even after four years, the idea of someone's emotions being taken away in any shape infuriated her.
The person responsible for this was lucky she wasn't here when it happened; although, if she had been... Maybe Raine wouldn't have to suffer.
"Oh, Raine. I am so sorry." Anything else she might have said was halted by the change in the mage's demeanor. Sheena couldn't help a mental chuckle. Her friend knew her too well. The ninja would worry, but Raine wouldn't speak about it anymore. Now.
Besides, time was of the essence. "It's happened before? Sounds a little unstable if you ask me." But even as she said it, there was a look of longing on her face as she once again took in her surroundings. Would she be able to come back here again? It seemed so much better than Atia--even if it wasn't home.
"If I couldn't get home... Yes, I would want to stay."
no subject
Perhaps not now.
"I believe it's something to do with the Dreaming plane," she explained as she led the way back out into the markets proper, into the sunlight and the mix of kedan. "It isn't as stable as it could be, no, but nothing catastrophic has ever occurred as a result. At most, mild inconveniences."
Absurd hope leapt in her heart when Sheena elaborated that she'd want to stay. As much as Raine loved the life she'd made here -- enough to choose to stay, when that lone choice had been given -- her home was her home, and there would always be a spot close to her heart for those friends who had been with them on the journey. "Then-- I would hope to see you again," Raine said, a little more emotion in her voice than she'd intended. "In the mean time, while you're here, I can fill you in on the city, and what's happened. I run the Healers' Guild here, but as some of my coworkers have become insistent that I learn to delegate more often, I have more free time than I did."
There would be plenty of time to catch up, in other words, or so she hoped.
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I had hoped to boomerang yesterday, but had to work. :(
work happens to the best of us, alas ;;
I know, sigh. (Maybe I'll be off tomorrow. Last day for tagging.)
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