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[Dusk is a glutton for punishment sometimes. Namely after the horrific memory of yesterday, he wants to KNOW WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED.]

[Or at least get enough distance from it that he can sleep because he really didn't do much of that last night. So he's putting in memory tokens and not even giving pause between them. As soon as one ends, the next token is IN.]

[The first is meeting someone new. It's all very weird, to do with a place called Kyriakos and somehow her interacting with Puma is important or she might die???? She also runs games for others??? She's also an AI in a human body where the human is vacant and Puma is obviously having A Whole Time Of It. Also Epsilon is around this place too maybe???]

[Nope, next one in. GOING ON THE EPSILON AND AI TRAIN, here's the time the Meta and Wash fought Tex. Wash fights in an rockslide/avalanche scenario because Freelancers have no chill. Is Doc an ally? An enemy? WHO CAN SAY. Also a lady gets stabbed in the face, but it's fine, she's an AI, except then Meta Does Something He Shouldn't????]

[But hey, some immediate answers. Apparently the Meta wanted the AI for himself for reasons? Wash goes from trying to capture Epsilon to protecting him. Reds and Blues crash land a ship. Wash knows what Epsilon is struggling to remember and Wash totally emotionally blackmails him. Then Meta is up and more grenades to the face and Wash might be dying, but then he sees the Meta go over the cliff before he passes out.]

[That...gives him a momentary pause, staring at the screen.] ....fuck....fuck, what is wrong-

[NOPE, ANOTHER TOKEN.]

[This time, it's a little more stabilizing. Not so obvious on the screen except for others who have picked up certain things. But the memory is Tucker, Caboose, Grif, and Simmons coming to rescue Wash and the others. They came BACK for Wash. Even if the screen just talks about war being a messy ordeal also alarms stopped for reasons????]

[Dusk breathes after that. A momentary pause, eyes closed, because that helps. That helps....SO much. God.]

[He looks at his last token.] Need answers. There has to be answers.

[And LAST TOKEN IN.]

[And Wash tries to murder an innocent bystander in cold blood and seemed to succeed at the time.]

. . .

[ This was not a good thing to walk in on... He looks at Dusk with a sympathetic frown... He's not sure if he should tap Dusk's shoulder or...

Yeah, he'll tap Dusk's shoulder. ]

[He's been standing there frozen, staring still at the screen.]

[He knew he shot Donut, but he assumed it was a dumb mishap, a mistake, or nothing that bad. He didn't know, he didn't know-he didn't even KNOW him at the time, and he-he had been trying.]

[He jerks at the sudden touch]

[And his knees give out]

Hey! [ Rantaro quickly moves to steady Dusk before he collapses to the ground. ]

[The question is, can he?]

[Because Dusk is a Big Dude, and he's actually Heavier Than he Looks. Thanks stuff added to his bones and muscle mass.]

[...also did he verbalize that hey?]

[ Yep. You heard that right. It came out a bit hoarse, but it's there.

Rantaro isn't that strong, though. Looks like he's going down with him. ]

[Down we go.]

[That is gonna be a thing to ask about later because he's Having A Time, but at least he's got enough awareness to shoot out a hand to soften the landing and also not land ON Rantaro.]

[late day 57 evening, driven by a combination of bravado, bad memories and curiosity, a pair of young men are engaging in the venerable and respected pursuit of Looking For Trouble]

Shall we begin at the river? A teammate of mine expressed curiosity at the composition of the eels.

[ Looking for Trouble has always been one of Crow's favourite pastimes, full stop-- to the great surprise of no one who has known him for more than five minutes. In response to the question, he pulls his twin guns out (where did those come from? Don't worry about it) and grins. ]

Heh. That sounds good to me. Let's do it.

I expect we'll find other opponents once we arrive.

[Tide leads the way, leaving his defenses down for now. no sense in scaring the wildlife away, after all.]

Probably.

[ Crow puts his guns back away for now, tucking his hands behind his head as he walks. ]

Man, though, this place sure is interesting. Wouldn't believe it if I weren't seeing it for myself.

It's an oddly indulgent ecosystem, isn't it?

[despite his light tone, he's keeping an eye on their surroundings; fortunately, the sugar grass isn't tall enough to hide much yet]

No kidding. It feels like something out of a kid's fantasy.... or maybe nightmare.

[ He's also keeping his eye out, carefully noting any slight movement of the grass or sound in the wind. ]

The former when working as intended, perhaps. The latter now.

[it's quiet, for now. the banks of the honey river are close. the sugar-grass doesn't move in the wind quite the same way grass should, but it doesn't seem like there's something disturbing it. yet.]

Not sure I'd want to trust it even when it's working the way it should. Something about eating candy from the ground seems weird.

[ Crow is watching that sugar grass out of the corner of his eye, though it may not be obvious from his seemingly casual body language. ]

I can't say it would be my preference either. Now...

[Tide pauses on the banks of the river and waits, peering into the thick honey.

but Crow may notice that some of the grass is now definitely shifting against the wind...]

[ Crow notices and he's pausing himself. He drops his hands casually from the back of his head to his sides, brushing against his legs. The guns aren't visible, they're stowed away in his inventory, but he can pull them out any time he wants. ]

[the movement seems to subside. maybe it was just an odd breeze?

Tide tilts his head questioningly, then abruptly wrinkles his nose. there's a faint, foul smell in the air -- coming from the opposite direction, upwind.]

[ He's still keeping some of his attention on that area of the grass, but he tilts his head to take in a whiff of that scent. ]

Hmmm...

It seems our guests have arrived early. Shall we?

[ Crow's response is to grin, pulling out his guns with a flourish. ]

[it's not strictly necessary for Tide to gesture for this, but any Exalt soon learns the value of a good dramatic moment.

so he raises his hand and a wide swath of the tall sugargrass is severed at the root, each stem parting in the same instant, a shower of candy fragments revealing the dozen or so gingerbread zombies lying flat beneath their cover]

[ Crow absolutely, 100% respects the need to to be a dramatic shit. There isn't more than an instant's pause between the reveal of the gingerbread zombies and Crow laying down a shower of shots all at once-- a wide spray meant to take advantage of the surprise while they've got the advantage. ]

[the gingerbread zombies are only caught by surprise -- assuming they can even feel surprise -- for a moment, but a moment is enough for the shower of bullets to hammer into them, blowing dozens of neat holes in their overbaked bodies. the foul stench intensifies as icing splatters the ground for yards around.

unfortunately, it barely seems to slow them down.

they're silent as they leap to their feet and break into a run. it's almost worse than a roar or hiss or battlecry would be, their faceless heads intent, their sprint covering far more ground than it has a right to. they don't bother to dodge, even when Tide turns to narrow his eyes and a hurricane of unseen edges blasts through their formation, severing limbs and heads with abandon. it doesn't stop them; even severed legs only force them to hop with eerie grace instead of run, though it slows them.

they've covered half the distance now, and are still coming.]