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[npc-excolo.livejournal.com]

Dream.

There is a great sea. The sky is grey, the water green, and the seafoam is the flecked white of milk on the turn. The shore is stone and shingle, and the cliffs are bone-shades. Will you wake on the little fishing boat that rides the waves, wary of great beasts that lurk beneath the surface, or on the cold and stony shore? Or perhaps as some watery thing yourself, breathing in water as cold as ice and with a salt-iron taste like blood?

[OPEN TO ALL]

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[tess-thiess.livejournal.com]

I am Amergin, sharp-tongued, fire-speaking.

I am a minnow, small-bodied, quick-darting.

I am an apprentice, unknowing, learning.

I am a wife, serving and served.

I am Tess, self-heeding, true-loving.

[syl-thorn.livejournal.com]

Th'serpent takes m'answer, an' fin'lly vomits th'woman back up. I help pull'er up, since't seems like th'thin' t'do, an' she holds up a toothed wheel made'a gold. "Pulled this I must from its stomach. I don't think it's meant for me."

Nod. C'n see'at. As we's talkin', I hear th'crunch'a wood on sand an's th'rapid crunch'a runnin' footsteps. Excuse me!" Calls a girl, short-haired 'n bright-eyed's'n otter. "Are you alright, what happened, what did it want?"

S'another'a those weird moments, like when I saw th'snake-girl, an'I press m'hand t'm'head. "I know you too," I says t'er. Wish t'fuck I knew from where, but I do. 'nother comes wit'er, blonde, askin' silly questions. "Th'why don't matter sometimes." I says. "What counts's'at allovus're still alive." I shake m'head, "Anyone got any idea what th'fuck's goin'on 'ere?"

[marbasthefallen.livejournal.com]

I can honestly say I know what fear tastes like for the first time in an age when my CeeCee speaks as only children can and angers the serpent. This may have started out as a mere shared dream, but there is real danger in this. My lips pull back into a snarl as my arm encircles my daughter. Thankfully, she remembers one of the riddles I shared with her and manages to appease the beast. As do the others, and the Selkie woman answer the monster's riddle in kind.

The fisher-woman is spat back up, and the serpent retreats back into the sea. Releasing a breath I did not realize I was holding, I transform back into Arik, hoisting Cee Cee to my hip and resolving not to leave her side again. There are now more people, the ebb and flow of voices about us, and I don't care, I need to get---

"But why? Why would it want riddles?"

"Ask the fair man, He likes giving answers to that sort of question."

Look about to see some of the assembled looking towards me. "It was the way of things, ages ago." Look to the sea. "Riddles talk in circles, as many ancient things are wont to do. Also, it makes one think in new ways and directions, opening one's mind. I could say more, but I believe Aristotle covered it already in Rhetoric." I say with a shrug.

The Selkie woman gets more to the point, that it doesn't matter now because we are all still alive.

"Anyone got any idea what th'fuck's goin'on 'ere?"

Arch an eyebrow at that. Am I the only one that realizes what's going on? Should I tell them? "Let me as all of you a question; Does the word Excolo mean anything to anyone here?" Hopefully that will help.

[kateohara.livejournal.com]

Tess. The feel of her shoulder is a comfort to me. I've known her all my life, I think; all the life I know, even though I didn't remember her until I found her again. There's a great babble of voices, and then the man who turned into a lion and then back again returns to his lion form.

"Is everyone here part animal?" I say faintly. "I wonder if I should check for a tail."

"Let me as all of you a question; Does the word Excolo mean anything to anyone here?"

"All roads lead," I say promptly, and then frown. "I don't know where I heard that."

[pollyladon.livejournal.com]

Ignore I do people's chatter. I have been inside the belly of a serpent, and I live. I have been inside godkin, and that is something. I look at the shorthaired girl, and something about her makes me think of cogs turning.

"You," I say, and I take her hand, press the cog into it. "You'll know what to do with this, when the time comes."

[tereixa-zann.livejournal.com]

"I know you too," the selkie says, and I reach up and touch her face, smiling, and then the blonde woman says "Is everyone here part animal?" and I laugh.

"I'm not," I say brightly. "I'm all me and gears, and Leah runs like the river." I step back from the selkie, smiling. "And I know you too, pattern and work, though I've never seen you. You're solid, I think."

And the blond man is saying something I don't listen to particularly, but one of the words chimes in my mind when I take the gear and hold it up to the light (http://community.livejournal.com/estdeus_innobis/405311.html?view=10309951#t10309951).