A.Journal

Checks

1,265 checks

Challenging

The outline of a small alcove with seated patrons shimmers in your mind.

Challenging

You recall the faint clinking of glasses, just a few metres away.

Challenging

'Why twist the knife?', his gaze seems to say.

Challenging

Mind reading level: Tutorial.

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A joint would be quicker. No tobacco.

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Alright, that's got to be the last step.

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If there was any sarcasm in that phrase, it flew way over his head and directly into the Noscorrentes sea.

Challenging

One takes longer as it includes tobacco. This is a bad time to forget which.

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He's gone. Audience, lost.

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We got places to be. Anywhere free from nonsense tech jibberish.

Challenging

Like millions of capillaries feeding a single, bloated vein.

Challenging

Picture a hundred guitars connected to a single amp, strumming all at once.

Challenging

A sudden, bizarre flare of hope.

Challenging

Even you have memorised the names of their cartoon wolves.

Challenging

You feel the weight of your fancy toy sword, suddenly.

Challenging

Symbols, repeated over and over -- a quiet process of attrition.

Challenging

Malignant growths, forever squirming against each other.

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Slick crimson river of parted sinew and cartilage. With the utmost care, two strips of membranous tissue are ripped from the surrounding meat and tensed over a wood tuning peg.

Challenging

Confirmed: fear is in the glands.

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Neither the friend you left behind years ago, nor the quivering wreck you found in his houseboat.

Challenging

None of his weight has been regained, but his movements are firm and his presence light.

Challenging

Awaiting his assignment, as promised, in the old haunt.

Challenging

A spectre in loose fabric, feeling out the contours of his own body -- just in case.

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The slightest vibration, ordinary human unsteadiness.

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Slowly populating itself with your crew members, around you the Fogged Mirror begins to take on the appearance it had five years ago, before your network collapsed.

Challenging

Empty of the other members of your old crew, the Fogged Mirror feels barren, infinitely distant from what it was five years ago, before your network collapsed.

Challenging

His silhouette flickers in the houseboat's dim lights. For a moment, all you see is a man untouched by the weight of your actions.

Challenging

A faint bleep on a sonar gone quiet for too long.

Challenging

A small promise, remade and unkept a thousand times over. 'Tomorrow', he'd tell himself, until the word meant nothing.

Challenging

A woman, scarf framing her face in muted colours, places a basket of lavash and stuffed grapes by the houseboat door. Her husband, a silent sentinel, nods for her to step back. A thin bridge, beckoning Ramses back.

Challenging

NO. THE PLAN IS THE DEATH OF OUR ENEMY. AT ANY COST.

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It's a talisman, not a functional object. It's imbued with whatever Ramses feels towards you.

Challenging

He's not taking a no.

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'It is a good thing yesterday was not the end of history after all.'

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It was too much to hope that you were here without an agenda, but he had hoped.

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He doesn't know Dr. Gonzalo E.S. Gonza.

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Dr. Hugo did seem cagey, not the type to hand out drugs without going through a robust checklist.

Challenging

His eyes are dark, tired, but still sharp.

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A valuable piece lays on its side, unused, next to the board. Put him back into play.

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He dismisses it with that special bitterness reserved for smothering dreams that hurt.

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Easy. Plug them into a phone or terminal box, and they'll listen in. From there, Ramses can record calls, or reroute them.

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Sure. Attach bug to phone line and then it will do a bleep-bloop-blorg to the circuit thing.

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He's asking you to hold back.

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Feels like a gesture that means something. Help? You cannot reliably tell.

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Behind the apparent chaos lies all the trappings of a carefully executed ritual. This isn't the first time. Not for either of them.

Challenging

All vestiges of humanity abandoned. One leg bent wrong.

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A visage corkscrewed with distress.

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That's our boy. Are you seriously going to abandon him again?

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You remember the first batches of number, at least. The right combination must be among what's left.

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Numbers... Blurry... Must try everything again.