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Post by Miosh on Feb 25, 2023 5:05:22 GMT -5
"Mmm.." - she was lying on something soft. "How nice...". The fatigue hit her hard. As if thrown into a gigantic pool full of boiled soggy oatmeals and forced to do kick drills, her whole body felt heavy and much in pain. Or was she transformed into a sand figure built by a kid on a whim? An awkward sandman left on the beach at the mercy of the sea? Oh, well. She didn't mind. Let them. Her whole being was grateful for a much-welcomed break. Each muscle sang with exhaustion. Somebody shook her, but to no avail. Cheche could find neither strength nor the will to open her eyes. "Imma sand dolly... sleepy lolly, lemme sleep some more". The thoughts came and passed like clouds, as she dived into slumber.
In hordes, they came. To the left and to the right, as far as the eye could reach were regiments with auburn banners. The bearded stout warriors in red and orange were fearlessly fighting the enemy clad in iron. The helmets covered the faces. Lifeless eyes burning red. She felt two strong hands dragging her off the horse. Ouch! Come on! It's not like she got the chance to even climb, not to mention sit on the high horse all that often!
"Ah, that was a dream." - she thought with relief. Soon enough it appeared to be short-lived: her body was being pulled somewhere again. Apathetic to the possibility of being eaten or taken hostage, she just wanted to be left alone. She would protest, but her lips wouldn't move, and her words wouldn't come. After some time the pulling stopped. Cheche was placed somewhere wet and cool. However, no matter how unwelcoming her floor bed was, the pixie stubbornly refused to wake up. She felt so tired. In a heartbeat, she was back on the battlefield. Her fiery warriors were chanting her name. Carried on their broad arms she stepped into the sunset, which smelled like pumpkin...
And then reality forced its way in again. Ah, reality! You think you are all that big, huh? Doing whatever pleases you to whoever you wish? Tsk, tsk, SO inconsiderate! You simply barge into someone's safe place, bubbly little heaven, crashing the door, never taking the dirty boots off?
Yes, yes, so it did. This time it took the shape of a huge water drop, slapping Cheche's face from above with a loud wet sound. Cheche gasped, frowned, and opened her eyelids a tidbit to glare at the offender. Yet, rather than a soulless metal can and a torture chamber, she saw a familiar face framed with golden locks. And two blurry blue eyes looking at her with concern.
-w-who... - a faint sigh followed. She made an attempt to sit up. Her body screamed with pain, strangely that made the clogs in her head work: - Veliky? Awfhhh - she coughed. - where are we? Ehm...what happened? - she added looking at her drenched companion in total confusion.
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Post by Veliky on Feb 27, 2023 21:04:28 GMT -5
At last, the pixies eyes flutter open, like the first wingbeats of a waking butterfly. The golden-brown irises they unveil, shining in the morning light, are such a strange sight after what happened. But they're a welcome one. At the sight of them, tension fades from Veliky's shoulders as she closes her eyes and lets out a sigh. And when she opens her eyes again, she doesn't meet Cheche's. She knows she wasn't at fault for what happened, but guilt rarely sees reason.
"I don't know, Cheche." Her voice is grim and exasperated, as if she's delivering news of a passing. "You cast some sort of spell, and then the whole place started... fighting?" She isn't certain of this usage of the word, but it's the most apt Common phrase she can think of. "It was like the house itself just got mad. The floor started bubbling, the walls started reaching... I got you out of there as fast as I could."
Ugh, sorry - she blushed deeply. And added in a voice, barely above a whisper - I was told...I do some strange things when I'm drunk, hehe... - she attempted to smile but couldn't face Veliky, so just looked away. She used to dance on deer and prank bears while they were hibernating. Her friends couldn't stop teasing her, and that made her resolute about drinking strong beverages. Not to mention, unknown drinks. And now what? Spells! - Wait!..Do you say I chanted a spell?... To make the house alive? But...h-h-how?
So she doesn't know either. Not even a clue...
Veliky shakes her head and, in a defeated whisper, "I don't know."
Still holding Cheche, she looks to the south. There, the mouth of the cave is agape, and they rest outside. It looks far; though, in truth, they're likely no more than thirty feet from it. It seems so much more cavernous at this scale. The house's light can no longer be seen...
"Carrying you out here was hell. The sounds didn't stop until just a few minutes ago, and those constructs still haven't come out."
Safe again... This is the second time they've had to get themselves out of danger, third if you include that Cheche rescued Veliky from the pit, and it's barely been an hour. They need a more permanent solution.
But first, they've got two issues: the fact that they're still as small as mice, and whatever happened to Cheche in there. It seems to have subsided but...
'I don't know that.' Veliky comes to a grim realization as her eyes become downcast. 'She could still be under whatever influence that was. Powerful domination magic could go completely unnoticed, and could even seamlessly replicate her personality if it took her memories. Can't take that risk.'
Now, suddenly endowed with a deathly seriousness, she stares directly at Cheche.
"Cheche, I need you to close your eyes for a moment. Can you do that for me?"
Cheche couldn't help but stare. Veliky's face was too near. "She asks to close my eyes. Wait, my eyes? Wait, to close them? Wait, she Asks? What can it be, what can it be, what is it? Oh, I don't know anymore! No, wait...I ruined the house, well, technically it wasn't me, or was it? What if she wants to make me close my eyes and run away? Or is it a trick? Can she do magic? Wait, why would she?!? Does she want to punish me...BY NEVER LETTING ME SEE HER FACE AGAIN?" - as expected, being in a state of severe confusion after all that had happened, Cheche's thoughts were a mess. The latest conclusions she'd come to made her face as red as a beet and her eyes wide with fear. The next second she squeezed them tight. All in all, she assumed that it was all her fault. And well, she felt shy and curious: what if Veliky actually wants to perform some tiny miny magic trick?
Veliky isn't sure how to interpret the emotions that play across Cheche's face. The pixie is ever-mystifying to her. And if she is under some influence, then... well, it'd hardly matter at that point. She can think about it after; for now, there's something that must be done.
And it will bring her no joy.
She, too, closes her eyes and reaches out with her thoughts, just as He taught her. It's strange; to do something with a thought sound like such a simple task. But truly having the focus to turn will into reality, without the catalyst of physical form, is no easy task. A stray thought, a sudden idea or even a bit of anxiety could become a wrench in the machine, grinding it to a halt - or, worse, changing the outcome altogether. She can do it; she's done it before, but only in the way that an infant has walked before. She's inexperienced, clumsy, like she's flexing a muscle that hasn't ever been exercised.
The fact that she's holding Cheche does help. The feeling of Cheche's cloth and warmth in her arms gives her an anchoring, something to focus on that's so much more tangible than an idea. Beneath that cloth, and then beneath skin and tissue, she can feel feel it in the periphery of a sense that she still doesn't understand. She can feel the pixie's sylvan soul; it glows in such a strange, childlike and mystical way that Veliky's never known before.
And Cheche feels things, too; a disturbance that no Common word could describe. It's like a caress, firm but gentle...
'There.' She has it.
Veliky opens her eyes, but they aren't the same. Those irises that had been so frigid and piercing are now full of blazing brass.
'No more weakness. No more fear.'
That gentle caress, is gentle no longer. It does not strike, nor pierce nor gouge, but burn! It's as if a fire has been lit in Cheche's heart, scorching in ways that the body can't feel. There is terror: such fathomless terror like the crushing of bones beneath the weight of the demands of heaven itself, burning like the mind is fuel. But then there is fervour: a righteous, overpowering drive that pushes pain and fear aside, of the sort that's begotten by desire for vengeance.
It rises, and rises further until it becomes near-unbearable... But then, when it reaches that peak of pain and óðr, it begins to fall. Little by little, ebbing by ebbing, fleeting by fleeting; it fades. And a minute thereafter, it's just the strangest of memories[1].
Veliky blinks. Her eyes shine blue again, and look down at Cheche.
"Are you okay?"
1. Calming Aura
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Post by Miosh on Mar 8, 2023 6:27:13 GMT -5
She gasps and tries to sit up, her vision is blurry. It hurts... it hurt... The sensation is dull now, but the terrifying memory of fire scorching the very soul still lingers. She blinks and the streams of accumulated tears finally run down her dirty cheeks. The world around her regains its distinct features and she can see a familiar face leaning toward her from above. "Are you okay?" - the voice sounds genuinely compassionate, is that worry she hears? She opens her mouth and tries to speak, but her voice doesn't go out. She's scared. Waves of intense color run through her wings, frenzied and alarmed. The breathing is rough and hurried.
"What did you do...to me?" - she asks, the last sounds of the question hanging in the air like raindrops. She sounds like a child, disoriented and hurt.
Veliky looks at Cheche with an understanding - an empathy - that is altogether new.
"It was a cleansing, of sorts. For just a moment, I gave your mind the strength to fight off any influence. It..." She looks away. Her voice holds far too much experience. "It can be intense."
She nods. And helps herself up. They have to leave this place as soon as possible. Although the ruins of the cottage remain still. The very stillness bodes no good.
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Post by Veliky on Apr 14, 2023 3:33:03 GMT -5
The weight that's lifted from Veliky's lap, as Cheche rises, leaves a different burden behind: doubt. Was it necessary? Veliky knows, from experience, how brutal the cleansing can be. Yet she did it anyway. And now, seeing no effect whatsoever, the sheer thought seems like a needless torture.
'No.' she affirms herself. 'I had to know, for sure. Certainty is the standard protocol when dealing with mental influence. I can't make exceptions just because the subject happens to be...'
Happens to be what? In a twist of hubris, Veliky's attempt at self-affirmation has left her with greater uncertainty as she cannot bring herself to finish that thought...
Something snaps beneath Cheche's foot, snapping Veliky back to the present. Yes; they have to go, and Veliky rises in kind. But it's the question of 'where' that stops her. To the North, to the South, to the East and West, there are only the towering mushroom-trees -- made infinitely more towering by their newfound waning. Their mission is clear enough: they have to cure themselves of whatever toxin has reduced them to such runts, but how could they possibly do that at such a size?
Veliky slides her foot along the mossy ground as she ponders their situation. Every follicle is a monument, every tiny fungus is a landmark. Travelling anywhere at all would take ages. Hell, even a meter is a short sprint at this size! Seeing as they're unlikely to be able to hunt (and Cheche's last attempt to feed them led to this predicament), she'd estimate their area of operation to be no more than a kilometre in radius. What places does she even know of within that zone? There's the pond she first splashed into; there's also the pit, but that's at the top of a huge slope. And then there's the cottage, or whatever remains of it. And even if they wanted to return to the cottage, it's likely still occupied by...
'That's it!' an epiphany strikes her. But she can't say it aloud -- not with Cheche listening. Knowing the Blixtbots'™ behaviour like she does, Veliky knows that they're likely investigating the site of the battle (assuming any of them survived), searching for her. And, seeing how the fight appeared to be going when she fled, she'd wager that at least one bot was put out of commission.
"Wait a minute, Cheche. I'm going to scope things out."
In this case, the term 'scope out' is being used very literally. Veliky steps forward to crouch behind the vestige of a fungal root, where she produces and unfolds a platinum-sheen spyglass[1]. With it, she peers into the distance, into the mouth of the cave that they'd emerged from before. It's difficult to see, with light being in short supply, but the traces of the chaos before leap out at her like startled cats. Inordinately huge chunks of orange gore strew the inside of the cave, what's left of the deceased pumpkin.
"Definitely looks like those machines won the fight." That much could be inferred by just about anyone. But Veliky leaves out the real reason she knows: the chunks of gourd-hull sport the telltale burns[2] that are left by the bots' weaponry. What strikes her as strange about this, though she doesn't show it, is that those burns are only left upon undead or otherwise unholy targets, which the bots' weapons are specifically enchanted to combat.
'Undead... Wait. Could that spell Cheche used have been necromancy?' It seems a logical conclusion, after Cheche drank the Blixt™ Kandy Korn. But on a pumpkin? Veliky never would've thought that'd be possible.
But she immediately files away her queries as she spies her real targets: pinpoints of crimson glass, flitting about in the dark. Just as she'd expected, the bots are undergoing a search. And as always, they act as one professional unit, coordinating an examination that leaves no root nor rock unturned. Undoubtedly, if Cheche and Veliky *were* in the cave, they'd be found soon (if not already). She spies the Knight first, then the Rook, then the Bishop. She doesn't see the drakes, however; they were likely sent to search from the skies, which would be another effective method if not for Cheche and Veliky's current size. Stalker and Vampire would be difficult to see from this distance, even if they survived. But where's...
'There.' There's always a certain satisfaction that comes from finding exactly what you're looking for. She spies the Pawn unit, but it isn't standing and it isn't searching at all. It's sitting, slumped, in a nook between two stones, as deceased as a machine can be. It was likely outside the house when the thing woke up, and the lacerations on its hull tell a grim story.
Though this day has been far from what Veliky would call 'fortunate,' this sight alone is a small victory. Because there's a chance -- albeit an optimistic one -- that this Pawn might've been carrying their DeTox unit, a tiny machine that's able to remove toxins from the body. Normally, the other Blixtbots™ would recover such a valuable item before they leave the scene; but they're currently searching for Veliky, which is an extremely urgent task by their metric. They won't take the time to loot the Pawn before they leave. So if Veliky and Cheche can just get there after the other bots have left, and if this Pawn was carrying the DeTox...
'That could be our cure.' Veliky lowers the spyglass, and folds it as she resolves. It's a slim hope, but it's something. Now, to tell Cheche without saying too much.
"I think we should investigate the cottage, see what exactly happened there. Maybe we could find out more about what happened to you." Not technically a lie. "But we'll need to wait until those machines leave... which could take a while."
...
'Could take a while.' The words hang in the air for several seconds, until the meaning of 'a while' really begins to sink in and the tension turns to a sort of dry awkwardness. Indeed, the bots tend to be extremely thorough in these sorts of searches. Veliky shifts her gaze about.
"...How're you feeling? You were saying some strange stuff in your sleep." It isn't a bad question to ask of the debilitated pixie, but an awkward one at best.
1. Sailor's Kit 2. Sigil's Blessing [Holy]
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Post by Miosh on Apr 25, 2023 20:22:49 GMT -5
Cheche turns at Veliky's voice and studies her face before replying: she looks tired. And indeed, it turned out to be a very long day. 'Once all it is over, we need to settle down for a good hearthy meal. Baked potatoes or fruits? Neither can be found hereabouts, we probably have to travel to the south.' The train of her thought has departed from the station of genuine concern and rushed into the murky direction of her omnivorous culinary preferences.
"Hungry." - she replies honestly, grave seriousness in her voice. Then she kicks the soil under her feet and watches tiny clouds of dust spreading around. Cheche notices that Veliky is looking at something in the direction of the cottage. Well, where the cottage used to eb ebfore, for now it's just some charcoil ruins. Whimsical gusts of the wind carry the smell of the baked pumpkin, making her stomach churn. She cannot see far from where she's standing, but her eyes register some motion. Does it mean the abominations are still there? 'Lurking around like a pack oh hungry woolves...'. Suddenly, she felt no different from them. Ina way, she feels like a hungry woolf herself and she doesn't mind to go lurk some. Who knows, maybe she can have some of them baked pumkin walls, still lying there steaming. Cheche masters some courage and speaks up:
"Emm, how about we go...investigate a bit? We are so small, maybe they won't notice us? What if we camouflage ourselves somehow?" - she stares at Veliky expectantly. The miraclous girl proved herself to be the brain of their team, surely she knows what to do next!
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Post by Veliky on May 4, 2023 17:18:10 GMT -5
'Hungry.' Spoken as sober as a spy's report. It's funny, even to Veliky (though she doesn't show it); it reminds her that, all considered, a bit of peckishness probably is one of the more dire things that Cheche has to deal with on a day-to-day basis. The wayward pixie probably couldn't imagine the stress of running a company or having to make financial decisions that'll impact thousands. Out here, she lives a simpler life.
Then again, she is searching for something. And now that Veliky considers it, why *is* Cheche out here? She claims to live here, but wouldn't it be more effective to search in the cities, researching possible leads? Could it be that she's shirking her work...?
Not important right now. Veliky yanks her attention back through the lens in which she still peers, to see the bots still marching about in a formation that conforms to the terrain only as much as it must. Veliky narrows her eye; 'camouflage,' Cheche suggested. It's true that they were able to skulk a sizeable distance before being spotted, but Veliky believes they'd run into the same problem.
"Too risky." she puts with blatance. "If either of those smaller machines survived -- or if there were others that we didn't see -- they'd easily spot us." It isn't a lie; with how quickly she had to vacate the zone with Cheche, she isn't certain whether the Stalker or the Vampire survived the conflict. If either did, Veliky and Cheche would be caught in the same trap, but without Cheche's sudden burst of dark magic to save them.
"No." Veliky decides as she collapses the spyglass. "We'll have to draw them out."
Discarding the spyglass onto a patch of red moss beside her, Veliky reaches into another pocket. This time, what she pulls out a single tiny ball of dull metal, formed with irregular grooves. Were it of its normal size, it'd probably be about the size of a chestnut.
"Get into a hiding spot. And close your eyes."
Having spoken that warning, Veliky stands, clutching tightly at the metal ball. She waits: one, two, three -- just enough time for Cheche to find a good spot. And then, she tosses the little ball as far as she possibly can. It lands just at by the corner of the mouth; and when it does, it explodes[1] into a violent flash of light! The sound -- an ear-ringing noise like a teakettle at its highest pitch -- echoes both down the cave and throughout the mushroom forest. It's enough to stir alien avians from their roosts in the caps, and it doesn't take a spyglass to know that it drew the attention of the mechanisms in the cave.
Veliky uncovers her eyes as she hears that shrillness dying down, replaced by the uniform march of clanks that now resounds out of the cave.
"That did it." she whispers. "Stay hidden until I say otherwise." And then she, herself, vanishes from sight. But she doesn't hide behind any foliage or beneath the fungal roots. She was simply there; and then a faint shimmer, almost like a bubble, appeared around her; and then she was gone[2]. The absence she leaves behind is an eerie one, but there is very little time for it to be investigated before the first of the machines steps out of the cave. Amidst fungal trees and natural stone, it stands out like a sin, especially by its singular crimson lens-eye that gleams so menacingly as it scans around itself. It's followed by another, and then by a third, all of their gazes sweeping and filtering between the trees like the lights of lighthouses fuelled by the harvest moon. They look to where the detonation left a scorch on the stone of the cave's walls; they look across at the path that they took before, where taloned footprints are still imprinted in the mud and the moss; and they look to where Veliky left that absence, shining their eyes on nothing at all.
It's nerve-racking. Even Veliky feels the tension in her veins. But in the end, it's hopeless for the machines; for them to find Cheche and Veliky here would be like trying to find an outlaw in the Zeinavian desert. And that's why Veliky doesn't breathe a sigh of relief as she hears those clanking footfalls resume, growing further away, and watches as those machines take their weaponry and funnel down a westward path.
She waits: one, two, three -- long enough for those metallic instrumentals to become distant. And then, out of the same thin air that she vanished from, Veliky appears again. She never even moved from that spot.
"Come on," she says with one eye still on the path, "let's go."
sixteen minutes. It started as that. Since they started their hike into the cave, about three minutes have passed. So, thirteen minutes. Barring any unforeseen complications, that's how much time they have until the bots round back to check the cave again. It's coded into their search protocols; a divergent lead (the explosion that Veliky caused) triggers a tangential investigation. But if that investigation turns up no leads (which it will), then they'll return to the initial area. Thirteen minutes.
'We'll make it work.'
With Cheche, Veliky walks down the exact path that they did when they first entered the cave, before Cheche summoned her pumpkin-house from a tiny gourd. This only makes it more shocking, how much it's transformed in only that time. Firstly it's darker; where the morning light had shone at least somewhat into the cave before, it's now closer to noon, and so the cave's only lit by strange phosphorescence in myriad forms: lichen, moss, mushrooms and even small critters shine an alien light onto the yet more alien landscape. They creep over something akin to a battlefield, with obliterated and light-scorched pumpkin-shell edifices littered about, large enough (from Veliky and Cheche's perspective) to form entire valleys for them to wander through. The smell of pumpkin was already strong, but now it's utterly pervasive; fortunately, it's less pungent, now more reminiscent of a baked good than a raw gourd.
All the same to Veliky.
Pumpkin guts, some charred, are strewn like Winter's Crown decorations and spilt across the ground. It's almost like a jungle; where vines are made of pumpkin guts, where the undergrowth is made from husk, and where seeds are scattered like fallen fruit.
Twelve minutes... Hopefully they're getting close.
...
The smell reminds her of home. It isn't a good reminder, but... it also brings some good memories. Pumpkin pie was one of their delicacies. If they cared enough for business, it could've even been one of their exports. Veliky would be lying if she said she didn't enjoy them. And she'd be lying if she said that she wasn't a little hungry, too, like Cheche...
"Hey, Cheche?" Veliky says as they walk through the gourdish landscape. "Have you ever been to Sol City? There, they have places where you can get as much food as you want -- if you have the money. Pies, fruit, bread, sandwiches, just about anything you could ever want and then some."
What's she saying? For a moment, she doubts herself, but... if it'll encourage Cheche. And it isn't a lie, to be fair.
"Sometime after we get out of here, I'll take you there. And I'll get you a nice lunch."
1. (Exploding Pebbles) Miniature Nova Bombs 2. Invisibility
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Post by Miosh on May 7, 2023 3:36:27 GMT -5
If all the events of that unbelievably long day were beads, Cheche would definitely have handfuls of brightly colored balls. The orange ones for pumpkin; the dreamy purple ones - for the mushroom forest; the bloody-red beads with small silver speckles would be for the machines that invaded their peaceful hideout; the peach-blossom-colored balls for the tender moments of friendship and support they shared with each other; the yellow beads - for their exciting, feverish escape; the obsidian ones - for fear and the white ones - for all those moments Cheche's mind went blank. Whatever would she do with those beads...make a bracelet out of them? Weave them into her braids? Cheche smiles at the thought. After some time, Veliky comes up with the plan. As usual, it seems that she knows just what should be done at any given moment in time. Cheche can't help but marvel at how much dependent she becomes on her new friend. It really does seem to her they've known each other for much longer. She feels like Veliky is someone she can trust. So, when Veliky commands her to find a hiding place and stay there until being told she could leave, Cheche listens and delivers on that plan. Honestly, she can't thank the unknown gods and spirits of this place enough for helping her to stay hidden. She heads away, and not even a minute passes until she's found a little depression in the rock. The little alcove is covered by moss and some dry leaves, carried there from the surface. There Cheche crawls and curls up, trying with all her might to be the one with the place. She focuses on the feeling of the stone below her, she clears her thought so that the only thing that echoes in her mind are the drops of water falling from above. That is a natural ability all pixies had. This ability saved many of them from being seen or chased by any creatures with malicious intent. And so seconds pass. She literally stops breathing when the machines march past her, without sparing her as much as a glance. She feels her palms and feet growing cold. She feels her tiny heart beating as fast as that of a hummingbird. Finally, after a long long while, they pass completely. The hostile sounds they make slowly disappear in the distance. Still, she doesn't dare to move. Only when she hears the light footsteps of Veliky, she slowly opens her eyes, becoming visible all of a sudden. Veliky signals her to move and they start their descent. During the short walk to the remnants of the pumpkin, they do not speak much. It seems that Veliky's thoughts are somewhere else, or rather she is concentrating on something important. Cheche feels hungry and tired and so doesn't have enough energy to speak. The smell of baked vegetables tickles her nose and makes her little stomach do a summersault. She secretly breaks a tiny part of a broken pumpkin table and sneakily nibbles on it, while Veliky isn't looking. It is pretty clear that there's nothing left for them to do here, so they move on. "Hey, Cheche?" Veliky says. "Have you ever been to Sol City? There, they have places where you can get as much food as you want -- if you have the money. Pies, fruit, bread, sandwiches, just about anything you could ever want and then some." - she pauses, seemingly unsure of whether she should continue. That sudden conversation startles Cheche. She looks at Veliky with wide eyes hanging on every word. For some reason, it seems that these words are really important. There's something in Veliky's voice that stirs Cheche. "Sometime after we get out of here, I'll take you there. And I'll get you a nice lunch." - oh? Is that an invitation? does that mean she wants to keep traveling together? Cheche's heart beats even faster than back then in the alcove. She stops for a moment, studying her feet, and then says: "It's a promise, then" - Cheche smiles brightly. "I hope this day comes soon!"
Natural camouflage
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