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[mightymushroom]

A

((Totally expected that. ))

[crazyabe]

A.

[Rockeater]

A But read the contract first

[Roboson]

A But read the contract first

+1

[Harry Baldman]

"Very good," says Garvel, and brings down the blade on your forearm.

3

And it must be sharpened on morning mist or something like that, because even your bones don't seem to give it any kind of pause as it just goes through and your right hand comes off, just like that. Then there's a considerable amount of blood, and you may have started screaming a little bit when the pain suddenly hit you all at once, your hand squirming in Garvel's graspers as you fall back clutching the stump.

"Need assistance?" she asks. You look at the stump wide-eyed, hyperventilating as you try to squeeze it shut. Once you do, things feel a little bit better.

"Nah," you say after catching your breath, "just a little bit overcome is all."

"Good," Garvel says.

"That did hurt a whole lot though, is it supposed to do that?"

"Anesthesia is recommended."

"Okay, and...?"

"Don't have any."

"Aha."

"Limits applicant pool. Unfortunate. Find own way out?" Garvel asks, already back to work bending steel or something, your hand mounted on one of her graspers. Sometimes a finger twitches, and you get a phantom feeling where your hand used to be.

A) Better head home and see what you can do about this amputation wound.
B) Maybe go look for a professional to consult about this amputation.
C) ... you know, you might be still able to make it to that theater audition.

Queh, Goddess of the Dark

Power: 3
Goodwill: 6
Sanity: 2
Time: 4

Missing right hand.

[Maximum Spin]

C

[Rockeater]

B

[Roboson]

C. I feel like we have some dramatic flare, coupled with our control over darkness, at the worst, we make a good stage hand... There's a pun in there somewhere..

[mightymushroom]

C

[Doomblade187]

C

[Harry Baldman]

You wind your way out of the River of Stones and back into the city proper, and when the wall shuts behind you there is now a perceptible seam, beckoning your soon return. You head out into the streets, running your fingers over your temporary stump. Yeesh, this is gonna be tender for a while. Hopefully the hand fits back on afterward. City living is weird, god.

The Theater of Judgment is a little higher up in the undercity than you've been thus far. You see gods of justice patrolling the glassy roads with their burning, scouring gazes, and you steer well clear of them just like your parents taught you. A directionless white light illuminates the whole of the gray vault stretching above the neighborhood, the center of which is the only place that's zoned for shadows, the Huehuehuacan. You are followed by an ill and chuckling wind as you weave through the trees along spotless, cleared ground that rises all the way up to the peak of the small mountain that holds the Theater itself, an open-air venue of scratched and scuffed obsidian made for some hypothetical race of giants maybe three or four years ago. Graffiti on the sides of the too-tall benches smolders with divine power, daring a custodian to try and remove it.

5

In the arena of the great amphitheater there is a solitary stool upon which there sits a skeleton in a many-layered, spiky cloth outfit that looks equal parts garish and inconvenient. He notices you when you're halfway down, and stares the rest of the way as you make your way in front of him and god does he look a lot taller up close.

"Ho ho ho! Here for the backup dancer audition!" he booms at you while pointing dramatically.

"Uh, yeah," you say, rubbing your stump on the back of your head in an awkward gesture. "I didn't actually apply for it in the classifieds, it just turned out that the other gig I picked was-"

"Say no more, ho ho ho! You get the job!"

"I do only have one hand though. The other one's on loan. Is that a problem?"

"Not at all! Ho ho! There were only two applicants! And the second has not shown yet!"

"Are you gonna, like, wait for them? How many positions are open?"

"Four, ho ho! But two will do just as well, I am sure of it! Ho ho ho!"

"When's the show on?"

"Tomorrow in the evening, ho ho!"

"... is there going to be a rehearsal?"

"Ho ho hoh no! I do not think it will be necessary!"

"So I just... show up?"

"Ho ho! Yes! And then you dance! And everyone has a good time, most assuredly! Have you danced before!"

"Not professionally, no."

"Better make it good then! Ho ho!" He rises from the seat and looms over you. "That concludes our auditions! And with that done, it is time for me to leave! Ho ho! Many drinks will assuredly be had! Fortune and goodwill to all!"

He spreads his outfit into multitudinous, colorful wings as he jumps and unfurls into a skeletal kite of sorts, chuckling along as the wind takes him on his evening business. On one hand you feel like you should be skeptical of all this somehow, but on the other hand, free jobs!

A) As long as you're here, might as well tool around Huehuehuacan for a bit. Between them trees are some mighty fine shadows, perfect for relaxation!
B) Follow the skeleton's chosen course of action and find a local bar.
C) Go home, you've got what looks like a busy day tomorrow!

[mightymushroom]

A

[Maximum Spin]

A

[Leonardo8]

A

[Harry Baldman]

5

Though you might only have one hand to work with, climbing the petrified trees of the Huehuehuacan is easy enough when you can grip the shadows themselves and slide up the grooves in the bark. For a little while you travel along the canopy, drifting from branch to branch with easy leaps in less-than-solid form that scarcely even disturbs the ancient leaves as you range along the area, dodging the occasional law-god looking out for exactly the kind of loiterer you aspire to be.

You see many sorts coming through the park: haggard and gig-worn powers traveling at speed, elderly angels on evening strolls, stoned youth rolling across the landscape gleefully, and finally your favorites, the slightly better-off who have chosen this particular time of day to walk their live-in mortals. You watch the ten-legged warthog of a slender young merchant deity root around in the ground for edible roots with reckless abandon. You catch sight of a heavenly singer and her little flea circus of miniscule humanoids, and not long after that you find a great antlered centaur-god standing atop a credible cross of bear and elephant as it thunders across the woods. This little ecosystem unfolds all around you in small everyday marvels as you devote some hours to just hanging around in the branches godwatching, the eternal right and privilege of all those who call the ancient darkness their home.

As a dull blue night begins to fall over the neighborhood, foot traffic grows simultaneously rarer and shadier, and you take this as the signal that you probably ought to slink back home before you catch sight of something you're not supposed to. When you get back, you find Beth asleep in her bed - her eyes flutter open briefly and she almost waves at you, but passes out again before she can manage much more.

You're just about ready to pack it in yourself, but suddenly your mirror hums.

It's your dad. Crap.

A) Turn it off.
B) Let it hum.
C) Pick it up and pretend he got the wrong number.
D) ...
E) ... okay, maybe just answer and get this over with.

Queh, Goddess of the Dark

Power: 3
Goodwill: 6
Sanity: 3
Time: 4

Missing right hand.