1.26 The Eater of Itself

It was such a strange feeling, like being a puppet on a string. Once the strings were cut, and the weight of the ground gripped his feet again, Dustin began to feel that adolescent pull of adventure. See the world, experience life through the lives of other sims, those who had built cities, shaped nations, and upheld custom and the spirit of the future.

As much as Starlight Shores catered to and even demanded that it's population worked hard until they 'made it', and after making it, that they kick back and do no further work again and coast on fame, he actually found that what this place gained in intensity it was lacking in authenticity.

For the briefest flash of seconds he had experienced something else, that bittersweet longing to live without the kite strings and fly free, and he had nearly chosen to drift away. Was there something in the sim spirit that would always embrace the cold and clammy swaddling of death?

In any case, there was no doubt about the next conclusion. He could never go back. These new tricks were going to be in every act from now on, so he'd better get them done right.

Hugs.

“Goodnight sweetie. Sorry Dad's late, I'll ask him to give you double hugs tomorrow when you get home from school.”

“'Kay.” Jet agrees. He didn't mind being the man of the house for a little while.

Still on a high from his most successful performance ever (and not about to admit to himself what he almost let happen to his family) Dustin stops at a nearby club to ace a quick audition. It stings a bit that dying on stage only earned him 3,700 simoleans, so the next goal for his career is to make the money worth risking his life, and then invest it. It has renewed his resolve to be the best.

Meghan takes an active role in child rearing for the evening and spends time with Jet. He loves all things bookish so she tries her best to get through one of these ridiculously simple books with him.

Jyoti had friends over for a sleepover that night, and last Meghan knew they were all off telling ghost stories somewhere. She probably should wrangle the kids and make sure they're all in the same place, or whatever parents do with other people's children, but it's kind of a passing thought.

That, and she spent an hour or two as Malcolm or Drea, and can't really remember the in-betweens of it.

But Jet gets his story, so it's all good. This one is about the sad cupcake who wanted to bake himself a family because he felt alone, or something. No wait, this was the cupcake book about societal pressures and acceptance, something about the flavor of the sprinkles. “And that's when Crimson the Cupcake discovered that it was better to be the only red velvet in a sea of vanilla than try to be a vanilla when he is not.”

And she closes the book. Meghan has no idea if this sort of story is good for children (or her children or whatever) she can't tell the preachy life-moral children's books from the ones that are actually only about talking food who accomplish nothing, she just knows that when she was a girl she often wanted somebody to read to her. So now she's reading to her kids.

Flash back to Jyoti, who is old enough to know this isn't a good idea, but wanted to look macho in front of her friends...

...What was Meghan supposed to be doing?

Eventually it's late enough that Dustin's driver is confused he wants to go home next. “Only two establishments?” The man protests in a heavy Lucky Palms accent.

“It's not a pub crawl, Lo'.” He tells the man. “I figured it was already this late and I was wired so I'd take advantage of it and book some larger shows while I was on top of my game.”

Lorenzo doesn't protest any further or mention Mr. Sparrow's criteria for being 'on top of his game'. He just does his job and accepts that he'll have more free time that he thought he would soon.

After being dropped off, and the limo has crawled across the horizon and back out of sight, Dustin still stands outside long enough for his nose to start freezing over.

He's ready to sleep right now, but is he ready to tell anyone about his day? It's not like him to hesitate, but he's having trouble coming to terms with how badly he'd messed up. It's one thing for him to risk his life, and another entirely for him to risk his family's well being.

(Un?)fortunately his wife is still awake and waiting up for him, so all hope of slipping into bed without having to explain himself is lost.

She can tell immediately that something's wrong, usually he comes home smiling like a goofball after a show, money happily in hand. Today, there's money in his hand, but he looks anxious and isn't making eye contact.

He merely stands there for much longer than necessary if he was trying to be dramatic, and pinches the bridge of his nose tightly in his fingers.

“Are you messing with me right now?” She finally asks after he couldn't answer the simple question 'How was your show?'

He stands straight for a moment and faces her, thinking about all that he's expected this job might be. The fame, the happiness, the hard work paying off, getting to make an entire room full of people laugh and enjoy themselves. He'd never imagined it would go this far, that his passion for it would blind him to what was important, keep him from the things that he needed to be doing. From being an active father, a better husband. He resists the urge to wring his hands together in frustration and settles instead on the more conventional option of grinding his teeth. He thought he'd know what to say to her about this. How can he ever explain himself?

Finally his wife inclines her head to get a better look at him from under her curtain of hair. “Dustin, what's wrong?”

And gets a response she was not expecting. He launches his lips at her and she freezes, not expecting the passion or the element of surprise.

It takes a long time for him to release her, it's as if he's pouring every feeling he has into the kiss because words were going to fail him.

When they finally break gently apart and take a few deep breaths, eyes clouded over with affection, he whispers it at her guiltily, in shame. 

“I died tonight.”

And- predictably she has nothing to say to this, so he's forced to give her more information about it. “The flower- it worked. I died on stage tonight. And the thing I saw...” 

She knew the way he shuddered then was real and not an act. “What? What do you mean, you died?”

He just shakes his head for a second, unable to speak. He stops meeting her gaze again and moves to sit quietly at the edge of the bed. He lets out a rough, deep breath and it's as if all of his nervous energy escapes him at once.

After several moments she sits down next to him, and rests her head on his shoulder. “Tell me everything.” She demands quietly.

So he tries.

And she listens. And in the end, she still can't tell him to stop being a magician, to soften his act. Nothing makes him as happy as this does. But, she asks for a few little things, that he research others who have performed similar tricks and increases his practice time exponentially, and that he waits to try it again until she can research the damn flower. It may very well be damned, and a foolish errand to find another one but she will have to try. And there is a new apothecary that opened up across town, maybe she'll try there?

It comes out too, that Moira visited again. She's not happy to hear that after their last discussion. But, what can she say? She's just happy he was able, against all odds and his own 'training', to come back home to her.

He decides to start a scrapbook of his 'life after death', so he can count the many things he's thankful for. This is the first picture in it.

They also decide to plan an awesome vacation, as soon as they can afford it. That still looks to be pretty far away, so at first the effort will be to spend more time together as a family.

To show his commitment to her and the kids in this, he immediately ignores a frantic phone call from his agent.

This baboon-looking creature shows up on their doorstep that night, hopefully it's not a hound from Hell or something.

This gnome keeps Malcom company during the sleepover.

And Jyoti's ruse for attention nearly pays off when Meghan stomps by the sleeping party on her way to the lab and yells that the kids shouldn't all be so 'underfoot'. It's like she doesn't care that they were all going to freeze to death or something.

Jyo was warm though, she was also in her Dino suit.

Meghan wastes no time comparing samples of plants that have unexplained restorative properties, is there a common location or a starting point to this search?

Jet heads off to school the next morning forgetting to eat breakfast and without much fanfair. He seems a bit grumpy about the lack of attention too, although he did get stories read to him last night, which is something.

Jyo rebels by talking to some kid from class instead of getting on the bus. Maybe she'll jog to school or something. Plus, she overheard her parents talking about a romantic trip just for them. It wasn't fair. She wants to have adventures, too!

Even though there are some protests, the kids indeed get a sitter for a week and Dustin and Meghan fly halfway across the loading screen and into another world entirely. Al Simhara is every bit as hot as they wished they could be in the short but horribly cold Starlight Shores winter.

Meghan wonders if the science center here got her email about her official request to the study their collection during this visit? But she tries to focus on her husband for a few seconds first. She's so easily distracted!

But a few moments later she sees something she's never encountered before and literally dives into the bushes to catch it.

Dustin shrugs and says he's going to go meet a bunch of locals.

The real question is, can he take his show on the road one day? If the tips are better here than at home, maybe a tour will be in order?

He quickly discovers that unless he starts kissing snakes, the locals won't care very much for his 'performance art'. He buys a snake charming basket and vows to practice every day (he will use it one time for the rest of his life).

Meanwhile, Meghan discovers that there are several unique species not in her collection, and decides to also get some work done on this trip.

All ideas of being romantic are forgotten for the day in excitement of the possibility of exploration and discovery.

Dustin can't find her anywhere after she jogs off.

He decides to buy a bunch of things he doesn't need from the shops, then ends up performing again. He just has to know what's popular out here!

But most of the locals are just confused. There's no sundial on that device, how can it tell time?

(hilarious joke is mildly amusing)

Eventually some minister of tourism discovers that The Element the Suspicious is visiting and forces him to travel around the dunes in style.

Which feels a bit less like a vacation, and more like a made-for TV Hallmark romance film, complete with the family drama where the husband and wife just wanted to simply reconnect on vacation and both of them end up working because they have no idea how to be alone together anymore.

This view would have been awesome to share with Meghan, who brought her sleeping bag and so could be anywhere. Do jackals hunt humans who camp under the stars at night? Because that totally seems like something she would be doing right now.

Eventually he leaves his driver behind too. There's got to be a limitation to useless celebrity, and the cool night air feels amazing on his face.

But he can't stay away for long, and determined to earn some money on this trip, he is happy to discover that the tourists pay about three times what the locals do in tips. He racks up a few hundred simoleans and starts to feel better about everything. Meghan didn't come back last night, but he trusts her. She hasn't had an episode that he knows of in a very long time, so she was probably off an adventure somewhere, and would come back to the tent tonight with a pile of samples clinking together in her knapsack.

Which isn't too far from the truth. She'd spent so much time at home in her lab since Dustin's near-death experience that she was starting to wake up standing at her machine. It was a thrilling thing to experience the full bearing of the high noon sun with no heavy equipment to slave herself to for once. Not that she regretted working so hard, but she didn't realize how much she needed some time to do nothing like this. She loves technology and her studies and her amazing lab she and her husband had financed, but this is the first time in a long time she's felt any kind of peaceful balance.

It was like the green grass and the gentle breeze and the sound of the sparkling brook were bypassing her conscious thought and speaking to her very soul. Refreshing was not a strong enough word. This was heavenly.

Dustin was having his own kind of spiritual experience.

According to the tourism bureau, he wouldn't be able to keep any of this, it was more of a publicity stunt where he agreed they'd pay some of his and Meghan's expenses while they were here in exchange for making a few 'discoveries' of ancient artifacts and cataloging them at the local museum after posing for pictures. They were hoping that an ad campaign would keep people from coming here just to rob tombs, and instead attract people who cared about preserving their culture.

The ads ran with some kind of catchy slogan that Dustin couldn't actually read. But the gist of it all was;

“Don't let our history

...disappear!”

Or something. But it was nice to have some compensation that he didn't have to stick his head in a basket full of bees or whatever to earn for once.

Either way the two of them do spend time together in the evenings after that, watching the sky full of stars swing over their heads like an upset pendulum, or doing what they liked in a new place, refreshing themselves and renewing their resolve to do things that make them happy too, not just for the sake of the family or each other, but also for themselves.

Dustin is glad he is alive to see this, to feel this. His magic communicates with people beyond the language barrier. Some girl from France raves about how he needs to go there someday, he'll make a lot she says.

Meghan enjoys the vastness of the space around her. Weird how she's spend so much of her life cooped up in small 'safe' places, and never let herself truly roam, unless it was for science. This is different, she roams because she wants, no, needs to and science can happen if she finds an opportunity to fit it in. It's a very liberating concept.

But the way home is a bit silent after that. They went somewhere to rediscover their romance (which hadn't been horrible honestly) and instead they each got to reconnect with themselves. Starlight Shores winter has only just begun, and the kids can't stay kids forever. It's a grueling reminder that time will eat away at anything one gives it, and they are going to give more carefully from now on.

Meghan did find something that the tourism department didn't need to know about however, and wastes no time in duplicating it. Moira was at her house when she wasn't aware of it, the flower worked, which means that something in that crazy woman's story was true. Even more troubling was that Meghan had never actually gotten to meet the woman, and now that they knew she had been on their side, it was far too late to accept her kindness with the way Dustin had chased her off!

Which actually doesn't bother Meghan all that much. What kind of mother would she be, what kind of wife, if she didn't make contingency plans?

Whatever Loki could be up to, and even if he still remembered them, he would never be able to do them harm. If he lives to be fourteen thousand years old, and Meghan has long since died, her children and their offspring would be safe from him.

She'll also have to make sure they never lose her notes about this thing.

Still, time, the eater of itself, would only be able to know how greatly this may be needed one day.

The dream of course is that it never has to be sought after again.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Are you all happy, huh?! I basically wrote a children's book series for you! I kind of want to write about sad cupcake now lol. I probably will too, since I told my husband about it and he seems to think we should have some sort of children's book-writing competition... like he could come up with something better than Crimson the cupcake! >:o

Dustin seriously went home and scowled for a while, thinking about his life time wish >_>; He looked pissed about the whole thing.

1.25 One Foot and Four Toes

A nice quiet and romantic afternoon at home.

The kids are home from school and it's already homework time. Jyoti's becoming a pro at this. Jet doesn't complain, he just does however much he feels like of it and doesn't stress out.

The big sister twirls her pencil around on her fingertips in an impatient circle. “Are you done doodling all over your science notebook? It's not like your report has anything to do with dragons."

Her brother shrugs. “I'll work it in somewhere. Reptiles are cool.”

“What's so great about reptiles? I mean, Tammy's alright but she doesn't even have any fur and you can't tell how she's feeling...” Jyo says, referencing the painted turtle their mom brought home a while ago.

“But she's going to grow to be the size of our house one day and then she can eat anybody we don't like.” He reasons casually.

“No she's not!”

“Why not? I bet she just hasn't developed a taste for blood yet. If plants can eat people, so can turtles. She's like a tiny dinosaur, and it would be awesome if she outlived everyone.”

“What kind of report are you writing again?” She asks, sure already what his answer is going to be.

“A report on the movie 'Little shop of Horrors'."

“So, how is that real science? You know you could just ask mom.”

He shakes his head, almost violently. Asking mom was out of the question, apparently. “I don't need an entomologist for this. I can do it on my own.”

“Mom knows about more than just bugs. She wouldn't care if you take what she says and write it word for word, either. She loves reporting on her discoveries, just write a report on her, then you can go draw or whatever.”

He mulls this over, getting distracted. “I did get an easel for my birthday... But I kind of like writing reports. Learning what the teachers want to hear, and then telling them something completely different is a lot of fun. I wish we could just do whatever we want to, or learn about things we like, for once.”

Jyoti smiles to herself. Hard to disagree with that. “I just wish I could spend the whole day scouting instead. You should join an after school program, you know?” Then she has it. “There's a journalism club for bigger kids than us, but can't you join the art club? They do painting and writing and basically you don't have to hang out with other kids who annoy you too much...”

Her brother finishes erasing a line on his report and pauses. “That's not what I like about it!”

“Okay okay, whatever....” She gives in. She's finished with her homework anyways.

Meghan spends the rest of the day in her lab. Dead fish can still be used for samples, and then nobody has to remember to feed them. It's kind of a win-win.

Jyo uses the after-homework time wisely. Tammy ain't scared.

As long as there's food at the end of the day.

RAWR.

Now that Jet's older he's allowed into the laboratory, and the first thing he uses his access for is to wash the dishes. He's not a bad kid, not really.

He's not really a loner either, but he never seems to bring anyone home from school, and enjoys most time quietly playing by himself.

Element the Suspicious has his first act at the Fall Festival. He's becoming quite the household name around here.

The family joins him, but mostly to do their own thing.

Some of Element's props need an upgrade. He doesn't want to stab most people.

He could though, and that's what's important.

This guy gets to live.

Jyoti's first catch. She doesn't keep it, she knows what happens to the fish in their house.

New skin trial later that week.. What is this glowiness? Ugh.

Default replacement skin with stupid game chest-hair. No thank you. (The default I usually use has chest hair built in, but the downside is that then every male has it...). I'm going to call this the nice nipples version.

Meghan in default went to purple? I'm confused. Oh well I decide to give it time.

Not that it matters what I do around here very much...

Uhhhh... this one is called Polyester Bride. He looks hilarious. Nice chapped lips, is that supposed to be sexy? XD This is the skin some of the Huanna family has on.

Oh yeah eye defaults happening too here.

Looks great on Meghan though.

Whatever.

Finish your hobby.

Hey nice! He did it! It took him is entire young adulthood, but nice work, Dustin!

To be fair there wasn't a lot of time that wasn't spent in the chasing of the slightly-mighty simolean.

There's nothing to do but take if for a drive in the snow, with the top down (the top on is never actually an option, it just appears during intimate moments which is kind of a disappointment).

Yeah, that is satisfying.

Let's not talk about how Overwatch cleans it up over night after this and I end up having to rebuild the car three times, freezing aging and with speed repair mods. It's an open wound and an on-going issue. The result is I don't let him drive much later on is because he'll lose it. :/

For new defaults replacements I settle on something by Burnt Waffles for the skin and I think the Sahara eyes?

The eyes are too big on Dustin but I don't care any more. My story was delayed for a while with these issues, actually. Let's move on and I can stop being a perfectionist. (I went back to his original default skin for males I think too)

The important thing is that Dustin has out-eccentriced his rock-star neighbors by finishing his decades old, ie “classic” convertible just in time for powdery poofs of fluffy ice crystals to descend upon everything from the heavens.

Magicians fear no upholstery-related challenges!

Winter, which approached far quicker than anyone expected, has hit hard. A lot of the neighbors move somewhere warmer for a while, yet the Sparrows stay put. The house isn't exactly snowed in, but school is canceled for a few days, so everyone focuses on indoor activities.

Nobody in this coastal and normally warm town wants anything to do with the mess outside.

Meanwhile, something else is finally finished. 

Dustin planned the creation of his new prop, but wisely sent it out to be constructed professionally from incredibly sturdy materials. He could have easily cobbled something together, but at this stage in his career he wanted the kind of expert construction that only comes from Acme. He'd sent out his prototype idea and some drawings, and this finished product was sent back, just before the snow started truly falling.

He now can focus on reinventing his act.

The practice audience is so far nonplussed. But that's fine, he'll be practicing a lot. Every part of the act must be flawless.

He must look confused enough to throw off the audience's confidence in his ability, but still maintain complete control of their focus, and his.

He slinks backwards into the shadow of the box, nearly floating into it, one toe at a time.

Dustin is trying out a new trick.

Ehh.... I'm sure you'll be fine.

aaaandd...... THIS MAKES PERFECT SENSE!

He leaves a little statue of what could have been as an afterimage. It's pretty creepy, but will instill the perfect amount of real terror into his live shows if he can pull it off. Already a household name, Element the Suspicious can now work his way into the history books.

Unfortunately this is a mere mirage and we don't get to keep it as some sort of post-modern kickass statuette.

Audience reaction. Gibbles is impressed.

The iguana totally missed it and was looking the other way.

Tammy is sporting her 'surprised' face.

Do it again!

And again!

The kids are off somewhere, not even noticing. They would have been a great audience for this.

Jet's not sure why Jyoti talks to him about books if she's never going to read any of them, but patiently listens for a while. Until it gets to baking, and he interrupts to discuss more dinosaur extinction theory.

Dad will be fine, anyways.

Practice makes perfect.

Uhhh, awesome...? Your phone would ring right now!

Meghan's been in the lab all week again.

Finally categorizing the fruit & veggie samples for future generations.

Not that she knows if it'll ever be needed, but of course that is every scientist's dream, to be able to save the world with your work, or at the very least, leave a legacy in which that potential exists.

Meanwhile Jet makes the mistake of talking to his sister about the weather, and is promptly invited outside for a game of tag.

In the snow. On a snow day.

By which time mom's moved on to the normal insect sampling that's earned her some scientific acclaim,

and once Jet's had enough of the 'weather',

Jyoti stays out as long as she can before someone yells at her for it. Which probably won't be for a while as adult supervision is nearly non-existent around here.

Dustin heads off to a new kind of show, trying not to feel nervous. 

The owner of Rodeo knows what Dustin has planned, it's been advertised that there will be a new act from a beloved artist, and a limo picks him up to get there. It's all straight forward on paper.

All he has to do is his normal act in the beginning, then add on to it, build on it, pepper the humor with suspense and intrigue. He knows his fans, he knows they will love it. The enthralling fear roiling in his gut is not a feeling that he had expected, but it makes sense. This is the first time his act will have something in it he's created entirely on his own, it's a turning point in his career.

The limo crunches and compacts the snow under it's wheels at they approach the city center, and for a while it's all he can hear. His mind zeros in as he works to prepare it.

He has to be himself, the performance will be flawless, he needs to believe that.

Which is how, moments later, feeling a mixture of terror and excitement himself, he launches the most important show of his career. No pressure.

Effortlessly, he pulls the crowd in, and it begins.

Jyoti bakes some cookies,

Jet picks out a new book for the evening,

And the pivotal trick in the act begins.

He's got this. Heart beating a mile a minute, it feels like he can see straight into the stratosphere with the way he's feeling.

The audience eats it up, watching every second, enraptured.

The after-image appears... Oh, that's a cool one.

Wait... Something's different. The fear is gone with the image. Has he conquered it?

He marches to the center of the stage, feeling a heady sense of light-headedness, yet determined to move forward.

If that isn't the most gorgeous moment he's ever had on stage I will eat my hair clean of split ends. 

Dustin feels lighter than ever, giddy almost. Time slows down and focus is sharpened more than lost. He'd performed the most perfect trick ever and gotten away with it without revealing any secrets.

The audience is going crazy, but the lights no longer blind him, the heat from the flames no longer find him. He has won against his fear.

He stops to enjoy it a moment, the briefest break in his professionalism. A deep breath he cannot feel passes through him.

Before the show must go on.

He performs flawlessly, a well-rehearsed conjuration. A tank from the other side of simkind's understanding. How does he do this?

He's never gonna tell.

The final routine goes off without a hitch; the anticipation is building to the finale of the show. He nails every. Single. Trick.

Doves. Released.

Cards. Dispersed.

Sims. Vanished.

Returned.

To a sold out crowd.

Fire.

Perfectly summoned.

For the first time he performs as a real frontliner, THE Element the Suspicious, and no one in the room doesn't have shivers running down their spine at the chilling nature of the performance.

It was arguably his best show yet.

He soaks up the applause, this is what he was absolutely MADE FOR.

Until someone's scream erupts after the show's finale when the lights come back on to full brightness, and the crowd gathers in a less than congratulatory way.

Some are upset.

Some merely notice the chill that's crept into the room.

Dustin's no fool, not completely, and the best show of his life is clearly exactly as it sounds. He died in that box, and his spirit alone, for love of the moment, carried him on.

The crowd cannot disperse, they're riveted to the scene, not sure yet if what they witnessed was real or fabrication.

He knows he should have felt pain, more than a few moments where breathing was difficult. It was supposed to feel that way, it was magic. And yet the fear that gripped his core once again jolts through him with the authority of a deep, resonating, yet deathly quiet voice.

“S-sparrow.” It hisses. “DUSTIN.”

By his feet something dreadful appears. An urn, meant for him.

Probably he should say something, but he is compelled to act alone as the hooded spirit tells him. He moves to a place where he can more easily be reaped.

A few thoughts waft by and are lost.. is that his body over there? Will Meghan be strong enough to comfort the children, will they have enough money for a while?

Also, there's no avoiding this.

Except, another compulsion, something his fingers do not pass through, something with barely any weight at all, is in his hand.

The figure takes it from him, a rumble escapes from it. Something like a gruff chuckle, the sound of laughter.

“YOU BELIEVE... A FLOWER IS ENOUGH?”

And from somewhere ethereal, Dustin finds his voice. When he uses it, it doesn't carry far. “I believe... that it depends on whether or not you consider yourself to be the boatman.”

The figure laughs, not deeply but silently with the shaking of shoulders, giving the impression that it's really there, breathing in air and breathing it out again. “IT WILL DO FOR NOW.” It says, a hint of mirth in the lilt of it's voice.

“You will remain... for a while.” It remarks.

Dustin's fear dulls, and his hearing begins to return. Slowly the din of voices talking in hushed tones or calling out for help come back, accompanied by a ringing in his ears.

And just like that, he's back. Fingers, toes, everything seems to be working. He can feel the dirt on his skin from the trick that buried him, ended him.

Except it wasn't going to be the end.

“You're not a bad guy at all, are you?” He is compelled to ask the figure.

That figure, hooded, and sober, does not respond.

And that is how Element the Suspicious grew into a national phenomenon. The man who came back from the door of death itself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One foot and four toes into the grave is something my brother used to say about people that were ready to die any minute.

Also, this is of course why the Loki storyline is now essentially derailed completely. A woman like Meghan, who can clone plants and animals and even sims, knowing what the death flower can do, will do everything in her power to obtain another one, to make sure that Dustin never leaves home without one again. So I concluded that no matter what Loki has in store for the Sparrows, Meghan will make sure they all just come back to life again. I'm sure I could write around it, but I just don't want to as Loki's not all that vindictive in my mind in the first place. So this is where things pivot away a bit.

Still, some of my favorite game shots ever are in this update, so I hope you all enjoyed it. I'd forgotten Dustin still had that thing on him honestly, I was debating whether he would carry it based on what Moira had said, and when the pivotal moment of conflict came I was going to roll a die to find out (he has something  like a 50/50 chance to carry it, and he'd have a 40/60 or even 35/65 chance or survival against Loki, the vampire (being that he is brave and fit and all that, but still vamps are probably stronger). I was going to leave his survival in the conflict up to chance, but now I can't do that, so I'm going to try to write Loki as true to his game character as I can at the end. He's still going to be around for a bit.

Even with a mud-pixel chest his strut doesn't change much.

xD Inside the water

The most bitchin show ever. Seriously, he played the whole show as dead.