I'm slightly sad that this isn't another car post, to be honest, but since I realised I never commented on the picture... yes, you do look young in that photograph! You also look like you don't want to have your picture taken ;-)
Outpost “Insurance?” “Yes,” said Pestilence. “War and Famine have figured out that we’re probably not dealing with Mercy, or at least not on her own. Which is a shame because, outside of a couple of odd incarnations she’s mostly a pussy-cat. I mean, she’ll scratch and bite and hiss a lot, but mostly you can pick her up and get her distempered and things are fine. Close your mouth, you look like a goldfish. So they and Hilda are looking for more clues about what’s going on, but I’m pretty certain you’re quite close to the source of the problem here, so you’re insurance. I think I need to keep a close eye on you and we’ll find out more that way.” A couple of bubbles slipped out of Scuff’s mouth as he tried to work out how he should answer that, while his brain kept throwing up an image of Pestilence holding Mercy down on a vet’s table to get a distemper shot. Finally the image won out and he quivered with laughter. “Now you look like a jellyfish,” said Pestilence, but there was no malice in his voice. “Where are we, exactly? I know where we are in the real world, but this is… well, damp.” “What do you mean, in the real world?” Pestilence arched an eyebrow so smoothly it must have been practiced. “I keep forgetting you’re relatively new,” he said. “Your body is still in the caves under Ezcaray. This is just where your mind is. Call it… an outpost, or a secondment.” He winked. Scuff looked around. “Can they see me?” He pointed as discretely as he could, his hand held against his body and his forefinger indicating a direction rather than any of the drowned spirits. “Yes,” said Pestilence. “Me too. Well, not while we’re sat behind this rock, obviously, but if they came over to pee, for example, then we’d definitely be a surprise.” “Is that why I can breathe underwater?” “What, because you’d surprise them if they wanted a discrete pee?” Pestilence waved Scuff into silence. “No, I know what you meant. You’re as bad as Famine sometimes with these nonsequiturs. No, you can breathe underwater because you are the Incarnation of scuffles and aren’t limited by physical abilities. At least, you’re limited in different ways, and some of them can be very odd indeed.” “What do you mean?” “Well,” Pestilence mused for a moment. “Here’s an easy one. If you spilled a bottle of disinfectant on the floor, I couldn’t walk through it. It would burn like lava and really badly damage me. But a human would only have to worry about maybe slipping over because the floor was wet. But you’ve not answered my question and I’ve answered lots of yours. Where are we?” “At the bottom of the reservoir,” said Scuffles. “This is the largest of the drowned villages. Something’s tied all the spirits here together, but I can’t see what. Or who, maybe.” “Rijbka?” “No.” Scuffles sounded definite. “Here, I think I can show you.”
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I'm slightly sad that this isn't another car post, to be honest, but since I realised I never commented on the picture... yes, you do look young in that photograph! You also look like you don't want to have your picture taken ;-)
Outpost
“Insurance?”
“Yes,” said Pestilence. “War and Famine have figured out that we’re probably not dealing with Mercy, or at least not on her own. Which is a shame because, outside of a couple of odd incarnations she’s mostly a pussy-cat. I mean, she’ll scratch and bite and hiss a lot, but mostly you can pick her up and get her distempered and things are fine. Close your mouth, you look like a goldfish. So they and Hilda are looking for more clues about what’s going on, but I’m pretty certain you’re quite close to the source of the problem here, so you’re insurance. I think I need to keep a close eye on you and we’ll find out more that way.”
A couple of bubbles slipped out of Scuff’s mouth as he tried to work out how he should answer that, while his brain kept throwing up an image of Pestilence holding Mercy down on a vet’s table to get a distemper shot. Finally the image won out and he quivered with laughter.
“Now you look like a jellyfish,” said Pestilence, but there was no malice in his voice. “Where are we, exactly? I know where we are in the real world, but this is… well, damp.”
“What do you mean, in the real world?”
Pestilence arched an eyebrow so smoothly it must have been practiced. “I keep forgetting you’re relatively new,” he said. “Your body is still in the caves under Ezcaray. This is just where your mind is. Call it… an outpost, or a secondment.” He winked.
Scuff looked around. “Can they see me?” He pointed as discretely as he could, his hand held against his body and his forefinger indicating a direction rather than any of the drowned spirits.
“Yes,” said Pestilence. “Me too. Well, not while we’re sat behind this rock, obviously, but if they came over to pee, for example, then we’d definitely be a surprise.”
“Is that why I can breathe underwater?”
“What, because you’d surprise them if they wanted a discrete pee?” Pestilence waved Scuff into silence. “No, I know what you meant. You’re as bad as Famine sometimes with these nonsequiturs. No, you can breathe underwater because you are the Incarnation of scuffles and aren’t limited by physical abilities. At least, you’re limited in different ways, and some of them can be very odd indeed.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” Pestilence mused for a moment. “Here’s an easy one. If you spilled a bottle of disinfectant on the floor, I couldn’t walk through it. It would burn like lava and really badly damage me. But a human would only have to worry about maybe slipping over because the floor was wet. But you’ve not answered my question and I’ve answered lots of yours. Where are we?”
“At the bottom of the reservoir,” said Scuffles. “This is the largest of the drowned villages. Something’s tied all the spirits here together, but I can’t see what. Or who, maybe.”
“Rijbka?”
“No.” Scuffles sounded definite. “Here, I think I can show you.”
Greg - that is my general look in almost all pictures taken of me.
I continue to be intrigued. And entertained. And eager for the next installment.
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