In the harbor of Shriekpot...
Scott, feeling that Mother Nature (or Pacitarius, as the case may be) will provide for him, decides to find a rock. But not just any rock, oh no! An abrasive rock! Like that pumice Gary once brought him!
Fortunately, there are plenty of abrasive rocks on the ocean floor! After grinding himself against very rough stones for the better part of a half hour, Scott feels that he is clean once more. It did ruin his clothes a little bit, though. Oh well. Not like he can do anything about that.
At the shrieking ship of Shriekpot...
Morton, upon comprehending the gravity of the situation, tries to mediate to the best of his ability.
"Oh dear, you said good Mage Erin did this? Surly it was just an accident, good Chef Niklas, there's no need to declare vengeance. We can always get more weapons, can't we, good Chef Niklas? If Erin took your weapons and body, can't we just ask her for it back also? Nicely?"
Niklas doesn't seem to be paying much attention to him, though. It's quite awful that in this enlightened age it is the voice of reason that men most often choose to ignore. The fish flops toward Tailor Craig, proposing a deal.
"IF YOU GAVE ME A BODY, I WOULD COOK YOU A GOOD DISH AND NOT HARM YOU IN THE PROCESS."
"I appreciate the offer, but I don't actually eat. Sorry."
Sigmund, not liking Niklas' presence in this conversation, decides to get rid of him. Temporarily.
"Just ignore him, I will see what can I do with him."
[Strength roll: 1-1]
However, the morning has robbed him of his superior strength! He cannot move Niklas by a single unit of distance in any system of measurement without making his sausage arms hurt rather badly and unpleasantly! He opts for a stern remark instead.
"Go kill some fish if you want to murder stuff," he explains to the fish impotently, who immediately assumes a conspiratorial air. Sigmund utilizes the moment of silence on his part to walk over to Mark along with Morton and Craig, who both follow along out of a desire not to be left alone on a pier with Niklas.
"Hello, Mark! I'm new Sigmund. I found a demonologist which could help us, he even made me look like this. On the other hand, Morton is a desk now. Anyway, there is an urgent problem here: Niklas lost his body, apparently due to Erin, and now wants revenge. I just came here to tell you that unless he dissents from that, you should not give him a new body. By the way, and between us, his head attached to that catfish looks hilarious," he explains to the surgeon, rather unaware of Niklas quietly slinking over to him from behind.
"Now Good Sir Sigmund, I'm not sure that doing that will do much but bait Good Chef Niklas, surely we can talk him out of it, no?" Morton proposes, hoping for a more peaceful way of dealing with things like this.
"If he keeps talking about vengeance, I can't allow him to stay here. We will solve things once our master is here to mediate between Erin and Niklas' murderous conduct," Sigmund states matter-of-factly.
"Yes, I suppose you're correct, good Sir Sigmund. Good Chef Niklas isn't in the right state to be given a body I suppose, we must wait until he calms down..."
Oh, right! He forgot to introduce himself!
"Greetings again, Surgeon Mark. I am indeed a desk now, yes, although it isn't that bad really. Besides a tragic lack of arms though, I suppose... But I digress, this is Good Tailor Craig, and this is Surgeon Mark," he says, pointing out Tailor Craig to Mark.
"Pleased to meet you, Mark," Craig notes, shaking Mark's hand with his lobster claw.
Okay, now that that's done with, there's one more matter at hand.
"Good Sir Sigmund, if you don't mind, may I see the book for a moment? I'd like to test something," he turns to Sigmund, but only finds empty air where he once stood. Guess he ran off already.
That is indeed a correct guess - still pursued invisibly by a land-bound catfish, Sigmund looks for the Artiste. A quick look reveals that yeah, that guy's still asleep. Though him waking up is probably not far off now, Sigmund would guess.
Back on deck, Mark heads off in his perpetual search for free body parts. He walks into town a short distance and notices something heading his way - something like a man in shape, but made of colorful pinwheels, three meters in height and quite prone to shifting its form. That's probably no ordinary bystander, he supposes. Though with this town, you never know.
In Karina's room...
Darren introduces himself to the nice lady. It's only polite, isn't it?
"I'm Darren, Karina. Now, as you could have guessed I'm new around here, what's it like?"
Karina looks into the distance wistfully, shrugging after a moment of reflection.
"Don't know how to say it, really. It's still nice here in the upper parts - people around here are still wonderful and all, but... you know, it's not the same as it was. We used to be such good neighbors, all of us. Now most people are scared to go out. Only person I still talk to regularly is Danielle next door, but even she's become a bit distant lately. Oh, and that nice girl that comes down on occasion. She tells me that things deeper inward are even worse. Some days I'm not sure how to keep on living like this, you know? Everybody's getting so secretive, paranoid, even. And I saw one of the deepers one day, one of my old friends, Ritchie, a few weeks - or was it a few years? - well, some time ago. He had changed. He hardly looked human at all, you know."
She looks at Darren sadly.
"If you were hoping to stay here for a while, not sure what to tell you. I suppose you can crash here if you wish - not like I have any other guests. But be careful outside. People are frightened these days, but don't hold it against them. It's like this... presence that's putting them down."
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Topic: Life Begins At Death - Epilogue: We Live And Live Again (Read 565504 times)