The Marrow Man tapped his nose. "Good smelling, find you when I ready. Then I go away again, and maybe we meet a week from now, two month, ten year, maybe never."
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
Ky nodded, a strange prick of nostalgia running through her at that. It wasn't anything close to when she'd accepted never seeing Tomhas and Anneke again -- but it was still unsettling to think this might be the very last time she'd see Marrow Man again. As weird of a thought as that was. "How will I know when you come? Should I stay awake that night, too? Wander away from the camp a bit?"
That seemed dangerous. Maybe she shouldn't have offered it.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
"I leave skin for you near tent," he told her. "No need to wake. Best not to wake." He smiled, if a goat's face could make a smile. "You go now, quick. Five days and you have skin, then I gone. I tell you my name if I remember."
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
"Okay," she said with a little smile. She didn't know how he was going to tell her his name if she wasn't awake when he brought the skin. But, then, she certainly wasn't going to be the person to go be out of the tent if he said it was 'best' that she wasn't. She didn't want him to kill her anymore. "It's been nice talking."
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
"Yes," he agreed. "Nice to talk to someone. And remember, Ky Ruiarc: Live."
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
"I'll try." She dipped her head and turned back towards the direction he'd pointed at for their camp. It was still a long time until daybreak proper, but the sky was already starting to lighten from the pitch blackness that it had been when she left. Closer to the morning than it was the dead of night.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
The Marrow Man watched her for a moment, then slid the skin off the bear and tore into the beast's body with a fervor that hadn't been present earlier.
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
Ky cringed at the sound but didn't turn back around. She didn't want to see it. Didn't want that to be the last mental image she had of him.
Instead, she kept walking, trying to process what the hell had just happened. The fact that she'd met the Marrow Man himself. That he existed. That she'd survived coming face to face with him. That'd talked to him as if he was an old friend or a therapist, talking her out of suicide.
Was this a dream? She reached down and pinched herself and it hurt, but even that wasn't guaranteed. She could often feel pain in her dreams, so she couldn't be sure. She took the knife out and made a tiny cut on the inside of her pinky finger, where it wouldn't be very visible. It strung, and she reached down for a fistful of snow to stop the blood, still not sure if this was truth or fiction. But, she figured, at the very least if she had a cut when she woke up, then she'd know this was real rather than just a dream. It was good to have guarantees like this built in to be sure it wasn't a dream.
(I, too, can feel pain in my dreams, and let me tell you it makes things confusing when you're dreaming and want to be sure whether you are or not haha gaslight yourself)
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
(Hot dog that sounds super not fun! I'm glad I don't have full awareness in my dreams)
(And with that I'm off to bed, but would you like to skip to the next morning or to the morning after five days later?)
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
(Night! Uhh, I don't have a strong preference either way. If we did next morning we could have her making up to the others/Gaius maybe? apologizing lol idk if Gaius would wake early but I have the feeling that Ky may or may not go to bed once she gets back so she’d likely be sitting up by the fire if you want one of your characters to also be up to interact with her but also if you're not feeling it then I'm fine to skip ahead!)
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
(Gaius is definitely an early riser but there's a blizzard so he'd have to make an effort to dig himself out of the little burrow the tent is in. He will apologize so we could very quickly play through the next morning.)
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
(Cool! Hmm yeah guess I forgot about the blizzard. Guess there wouldn’t be much of a fire lolol)
Ky made it back as the sky was just beginning to change colors with the threat of dawn on the horizon. It took her a bit of wandering to find the camp since it was half-buried in the snow and harder to find than she left it. Which meant it wasn’t worth it to try to dig her way into the tent. Best case scenario she’d let in a gust of cold air and most definitely wake up Tadaaki; worst case she may wake up all three. There was no point in that, given how little time there was left for her to sleep even if she wanted to. No, she’d made the choice to stay up all night, and it was time to follow all the way through. Maybe she’d switch to the carriage mid-morning as they made a pee-stop, so she could pass out then.
She’d had a fair bit of time to process what had happened and convince herself that it was, in fact, real. But she didn’t know what to do with that information. She’d get locked in a looney bin if she tried telling people she’d spent the night swapping stories with the Marrow Man as he talked her out of suicide yet again. She supposed she wouldn’t believe that story either. So she’d either be coined a liar or insane and she wasn’t sure which was worse so she’d have to just keep this to herself and think of how in the world she was going to explain the bear fur if the Marrow Man kept his half of the bargain. She didn’t know. So she sat down by where the fire used to be and was grateful when a guard spotted her up and quickly rebuild the fire for her.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
Gaius awoke early, around the same time she returned, so he heard the crunch of boots in the snow. He tensed, listening intently to try and figure out who it might be. Then he heard one of his guards' voices greeting Ky. Had she left the tent in the middle of the night? If so, why? Had she tried again? Or was it something as simple as a bush-visit? Gaius propped himself up on his elbows, careful to avoid jostling his children, and listened.
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
(Omgggg I can’t wait to listen to it! Am intrigued haha)
Ky sat by the new flames and was glad when it finally took to the wood fully and made a large fire with radiating actual warmth. She sat down close to it and pulled her knees to her chest and stared directly into the fire as she continued thinking through her bizarre night.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
He ought to check on her. But she probably didn't want to talk to him right now, and digging himself out through the blizzard hatch in the tent roof didn't appeal to him at all. He glanced back at his family; they were all still out cold.
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that." -Karis Nemik
