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Post by HungryHunter on Dec 30, 2017 20:07:41 GMT
"What!? No! What are you doing!?" Gianni dove fruitlessly towards Aaron and the spear flew on. The crow didn't move and it hit true. With a clunk, it bounced off, not even rustling its feathers, and fell to the ground. "I was going to offer you my help and my love, hero." The crow's eyes changed color, becoming a deep red like they were little pools of blood. With a flutter of wings, the bird fell to the ground and was a bird no more.
She towered over them, human but more than human. Her hair and dress were the same burning red and where they met they were difficult to distinguish. Her eyes were like ink blots dropped onto white paper, around them spots orange as fire. She carried a spear of her own, topped with a blade shaped like a crow's beak and ringed with black feathers. "Tell me, hero. Should I tell you which spearhead is the correct one? Or should I impale you on my own and eat your eyes from your skull?" The woman was so massive that Gianni barely had room to stand on the first floor of the amphitheater, but her voice was soft and chilling.
"Aaron... this is the Morrigan... I was going to tell you before you threw the spear, but you're a murderous, impetuous moron." Gianni barely opened his mouth of speak, scrabbling backwards away from the goddess before him. She barely gave him a passing glance, just nodding in agreement. "Like a true hero, really. Cu Chullain would have lived such a longer life were he to accept me. I guess they are all destined to die young. I suppose I will eat your eyes when you choose wrongly, Aaron Dike and Gianni Arachne. Victory will not be with you." The goddess vanished bit by bit, dissolving into black feathers that faded away in the air.
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Post by TimePuppy on Dec 31, 2017 22:02:13 GMT
Aaron threw the spear head and a series of events happened really quickly. In the end, Aaron clicked his tongue and said, "I guess that's not it," before turning back to the spear heads. He could almost feel Gianni's frustration.
"I wouldn't let her help anyway. She's a fairy. A fairy goddess. Her help wouldn't come cheap. Now start thinking about our problem, braniac. Unless you wanna be the next test dummy." Aaron shot Gianni a glance, then turned away with a smirk.
Thinking about their problem, he didn't have any ideas. Finally, after thinking about it for a while, he had an (admittedly poor) idea. "What if we toss all the spear heads outside? We wouldn't walk out with any, so we're not failing the task."
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Post by HungryHunter on Jan 1, 2018 0:17:48 GMT
"That... might work. But then we still wouldn't know which is the right one." Gianni was twitching all over, but his voice was level. Bizarrely, three three bangs falling over his face twitched with the rest of him. "...okay, I have an idea." Gianni meticulously ducked and attached something to every single spearhead in the room. It took several minutes, but eventually, it was done. Several strings attached each spearhead to the stony steps but one, held in Gianni's hands. "Alright... this'll work. It has to."
Gianni jumped off the steps and walked for the exit. The instant his foot breached an invisible line, the spears leaped off the ground and strained at the ends of the strings like dogs on leashes. Only a single head didn't budge, a mid-sized bone thing with curved barbs on the sides. "It... it worked!" Quivering, Gianni stood on his tip toes to look at the unmoved object. "He said all the fakes would attack... so the real one is the one that didn't!" He teetered about before the spearheads, all of them doggedly following his movements. "Uh... could you grab it? I can't reach."
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Post by TimePuppy on Jan 1, 2018 9:31:59 GMT
Aaron watched Gianni spinning his web and realized what the arachnid archaeologist was doing. "Good thinking, rawny," he said.
After a few minutes, when Aaron's patience was already running thin, Gianni finished what he was doing and walk out with one of the spear. Aaron stepped back to avoid getting skewered by the angry spearheads. Then he ducked under and around them to get to the real one. Snapping it off the string, he went outside to join Gianni.
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Post by HungryHunter on Jan 1, 2018 20:04:44 GMT
Gianni gently set the fake head down and backed out of the room. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised." The gnome was waiting. "I suppose you saw the Morrigan? That's the only way to get the head without being sent by the gods yourself." "Actually, he threw one of them at her." Gianni shot another glare at Aaron, and the gnome nearly toppled in shock. "You did WHAT!? Leave! Get out of here! I don't want to be near you!" The gnome dove underground and popped up on the far side of the room. "That's encouraging." Gianni turned and walked back towards the exit, staying a good distance from Aaron. If he got smote, Gianni didn't want to be next to him.
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Post by TimePuppy on Jan 2, 2018 20:42:59 GMT
When they joined the gnome again and Gianni told him what happened, the gnome showed an incredibly amount of cowardice, as if he was the one to fend a goddess. It was completely different from what he was like before. But Aaron wasn't scared. If the Morrigan was going to use her godly power to smite him, he would've been smote minutes ago.
"Maybe the reason no one listens to you is because you're a coward," Aaron said and set off for the exit. He ignored Gianni fearfully keeping his distance. The goddess's threat was already rendered moot since they didn't fail to locate the spearhead, all thanks to Gianni's ingenuity which earned him a short reprieve from mockery.
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Post by HungryHunter on Jan 2, 2018 22:16:13 GMT
"Would you stop making enemies!?" Gianni growled back at Aaron. "Is it your plan for every living being to hate you!?" Gianni walked over the root bridge and started climbing back up to the surface. "Okay... the spearhead." Gianni looked down at it and up at Aaron. He thought for a second and bolted when between the root walls. This guy shouldn't be in charge of an artifact like this. And neither should anybody who hired him. Gianni thought as he ran as fast as his legs could carry him. He just had to get out and wake up his crew. Aaron was stronger than him by far, but he had a whole team of diggers and minor mages.
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Post by TimePuppy on Jan 3, 2018 21:30:56 GMT
"They can do whatever the fuck they want. The gnome is still a sniveling coward," Aaron answered. They were getting closer to the exit when Gianni muttered something about the spearhead and suddenly started sprinting. While Aaron wasn't sure why the archaeologist ran, he couldn't say he didn't agree with the idea. The sooner they left, the sooner this could all be wrapped up. He started running after Gianni, eager to go back to his siblings and get some rest.
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Post by HungryHunter on Jan 3, 2018 22:45:43 GMT
Aaron's legs let him quickly catch up to Gianni, who slowed in defeat. Crap. He was faster too. Looked like Gianni would have to talk this out. "Okay. I was hired by MI13 to get this artifact and scope out this site. But you need this for your fairy friends, right?" Gianni skidded to a stop right before their exit. "We can't both have it. We're... going to have to come to some agreement." He clutched the precious artifact to his chest.
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Post by TimePuppy on Jan 6, 2018 20:14:16 GMT
Aaron looked at the spearhead. He hadn't even realized it was with Gianni. "Heh, you're a fucking idiot. You want the thing? Keep it. I was thinking about what to do with it anyway. I can't give it to the seelie or the unseelie, since having it would unbalance them and they bicker like little shits enough as it is. Besides, you figured out how to get it, you earned it. You should lock it up tight though. Your scrawny ass can't protect it against the fairies who try to get it behind my back."
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Post by HungryHunter on Jan 6, 2018 21:32:38 GMT
"Really? Whew... I thought you were going to beat me up for it!" Gianni carefully wrapped the weapon in gauze, defending it from the elements. "Thanks for the help, Aaron. I... well, I probably couldn't have done that without you." Gianni managed to say something nice, and that was all he needed to say. He wasn't going to tell Aaron that he was the most obnoxious boor he had ever had the displeasure to meet, and that included his sister. "Now, you're going to have to get out of here. MI13 doesn't want civilians around."
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Post by TimePuppy on Jan 12, 2018 19:31:20 GMT
Gianni didn't need to tell Aaron twice. He went to the tomb's exit and opened it the same way he did before. After the stuffiness of the tomb, the fresh air of the chilly night was a blessing.
"Well, rawny, try not to die soon. It would probably be a shame."
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Post by HungryHunter on Jan 13, 2018 0:30:00 GMT
Gianni clambered out of the tomb after Aaron. "I'll probably have an easier time surviving without you getting people angry at me." He didn't even smile, just shaking his head. "But... hey, you too. Be a little more careful in the future, okay?" He yawned and rubbed his eyes. He had worn himself out in the burial mound. It was time to sleep and think about how he was going to explain this massive break of protocol to his bosses. He turned with a last brief wave, dragging himself back to his bed to dream of Fomorians and gods.
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Post by TimePuppy on Jan 26, 2018 22:58:15 GMT
Aaron wasn't sure how long all this took. Time was weird inside those ancient tombs. But when he finally got home and saw that it was past midnight, the first thing he did was check on his siblings. First Aaron visited Robert's room. Robert was asleep in his bed, surrounded by stuffed toys and dolls he made on his own. Even if the early ones weren't that good, and were stuffed in the corner of his room because of it, the newer ones showed that the kid had promise with the whole sewing business. Next, he went to Leslie's room. She appeared to be asleep too. Except... "Go to bed, Leslie.""Aw, how'd ya know I was awake?""I can see your phone screen through the covers. Go to bed; it's past midnight. You'll be exhausted in the morning." "Come on, what's wrong with a bit of tiredness? I'm not gonna die from that," she said. Aaron's gaze wasn't shaking though and she eventually relented. "Fine, fine. I'm going to bed." She put away her phone and Aaron left for his own room. It was mostly barren, spartan even. Aaron didn't need many things. He got used to putting his siblings needs ahead of his own and now he didn't have many needs even though the fairies would take care of them. The most attention grabbing thing in the room was a table with a framed picture of three figures on it, clearly a few years old at this point. Aaron undressed and went to bed. It took a while as he went over what he'd have to report tomorrow, but eventually Aaron sank into a deep sleep. --[FIN]--
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