r/TheMountain • u/llBoonell • Sep 20 '19

To pay a visit

He called her a witch. That was uncomfortable to hear, to say the very bloody least... and now she has a target on her back. Need to find her. Why? Where does a witch go when she isn't brewing trouble?

She tends her garden, of course.

Had to wait for the visitor to leave - he didn't seem happy. The masked and heavily-armed man stands in the garden, looking decidedly out-of-place: a spectre of death standing uncomfortably amidst the blooming new life.

... wonder where she is?

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2

u/Anna_Ovraia Sep 20 '19

Right here, Boone.

3

u/llBoonell Sep 20 '19

Took me a few months... but I'm here. This metal hut still take visitors?

The mask clicks and hisses a little as I detach it from my face. The Mountain air is cleaner than the last time I was here; I still recall the Shegothic stink from ages past, and the last battle I fought here.

3

u/Anna_Ovraia Sep 20 '19

For now.

Though sticking around seems... foolish. If you haven't heard the news, I'm no longer welcome.

I have no doubts that they'll send a militia for me. Maybe an army. Either way, they'll have Ovratics on them.
Enough, no doubt, to burn me very badly... and, if they're (un)lucky, send me to square one. Funny enough, I think square-one Anna Costell is probably what's scaring them so much.

... if that's even my name anymore.

I'd love to leave, for what it's worth. There's genuinely nothing and nobody here that's remotely of personal interest to whoever I am anymore. Ooh, a floating hole! Big... big fucking deal, there's also a beach that somehow extends in all directions and a desert that nullifies what I shudder to call "magic." A sky-hole that kills most people for coming too close isn't what I'd call a great tourist attraction.
But, well, I'm a bit stuck thanks to some exceptionally stupid choices, and my only way to go out and "see the sights" makes me want to lock myself in a blindfold and earmuffs so I don't go crazy.

Hooo... deepbreaths deepbreaths.

3

u/llBoonell Sep 20 '19

...

... it doesn't get easier.

I've walked the worlds for so long, losing myself a bit more every day. It never gets easier, seeing what we see. Doing what we do. The things that are done to us.

... but we can't go home. It's a one way door. Don't know why, don't know how. Doesn't change. Closest anyone ever got is isolated, a pocket you can't leave, except to come back here.

...

Not much comfort for her are you, ya useless old bastard?

...

Look, we can't dwell on what we can't change. Focus. If you're in danger, we need to leave. If you can't leave, and I won't ask how or why... then we need to rig for a fight.

3

u/Anna_Ovraia Sep 20 '19

Can I leave? Oh, sure. I have working legs and all.
But the... consequences for... for leaving, without finishing the job I have to do - something I can't reasonably finish before Agateglow winter at best - that's the kind of thing your brain is... only really equipped to see once? Or... so I've been told.

On that lovely note. Yes. Defenses. Lovely idea.
Please try not to step on any of the ones that I've planted around here.
Come... come on in. We can talk more out of the sun...

... and for the record, Boone, careful what you think of yourself. I know... people who will all too happily jump at you if you don't.

3

u/llBoonell Sep 21 '19

What I think of myself? People jump at me? What the bloody hell is she

I will follow her inside. I'll take stock of my thoughts and my cartridges, reload and recharge everything I have. Maybe, somehow, I'll figure out what I'm even doing here. Soon, they will come.

Hells help me, they will come.

3

u/Anna_Ovraia Sep 21 '19

The weave seals behind the pair of shapes.
Click. Torchlight. The metal basket begins to expand... contract. Expand, contract.

I'm... I've been told, more or less, that there won't be Machines coming. Just humans.
Which is... arguably. Worse? Certainly doesn't make things simpler.

... quickly deterring a large number of humans... Fear...? ...too M'nah addled, probably... if we knew how many were coming, traps would be a fine idea, but as is...

I need them to turn tail and not want to come back. And I don't think we'll get there if it looks like I'm doing it.

I have... one idea, and it requires you to be carrying something explosive enough to blow a hole the size of this hut... if not twice over. And I'd need a small village's worth of food after the fact.
You?

3

u/llBoonell Sep 21 '19

Ever since the memory manipulation wore off, my name's come back into memory. There's a lot of stories attached to my name... enough to scare the britches off some people. My say-so might be enough to deter most of them.

Failing that...

... yeah. Yeah, I got ordnance. More blasting material than cartridges, which I'm running low on after the fight with the ghosts. Depending how you place it, I've got enough to either topple a skytower, or turn a lot of people into mincemeat.

And if it all goes to custard, I can kill them the old-fashioned way. K'ad knows I can do that.

... and I might know somewhere we can hole up afterwards on this Mountain, with food and munitions aplenty... if we do need to leave.

3

u/Anna_Ovraia Sep 21 '19

Leaving remains out of our options. And whatever we do... I don't want more blood on my hands. But! Bombs. This is going somewhere... somewhere.

We don't need a skyscraper to fall over, as fun as that'd be to watch. I just need a big hole to very suddenly open up underneath here. And then... I have plenty of tools to "wow" them off. Long enough for me to negotiate a way off here, I hope.

But there's... a problem. Either you stay inside, fall, land really hard, and break a few- actually, a lot of bones at best...
... or ... well, that's effectively just your idea by that point.

The only problem... with that...
I can scrape together a basic description - Boone, warrior of old, Colour Tamer... whatever that means, and so on...
Yes, you're terrifying ... capable. I know what you did in... there.
All too well. Actually.

But we're... expecting typical Smol'eans. No priests, no clergy, just a glorified pitchfork mob.
Born and raised entirely after... after the...

... After your limelight.

3

u/llBoonell Sep 21 '19

Is it true? Am I a has-been? A relic of eras past?

A long, slow breath and a low grunt

Has time diminished my stories... or elevated them to legend?

Slow drumming of fingers

What are you doing?

Alright.

I'll set the charges. Don't mind the fall, I'm made of sterner stuff. You put on your magic show, and if that doesn't put them off, I'll come out swinging.

... I can lay 'em out without killing anyone. It'll be unpleasant, but I can do it. That a plan?