ellie and villanelle in spelljammer
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She grins back, running her hand through her hair.

"I'm glad I picked you up."

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"I am too."

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She grins and turns back to the navigation interface as they break into reality proper. "I'll wanna hang back a bit, gather some data..."

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- And then she frowns.

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"Something wrong?"

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"Not sure... The readings are weird..."

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"Weird like there's people there already or weird like the sun's blowing up?"

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"Weird energy signatures, so probably 'people already there.'"

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"Unfortunate."

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"I don't recognize the make, though..."

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"How exotic is it, then?"

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"It's kind of elven? Similar design philosophy - biological ships and all that. But nothing used by any current elven army, so there's a decent chance we're looking at pirates, possibly something exceptionally old or modified..."

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"Nothing's ever simple..."

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"That's the fun of it."

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"So long as we live to tell about it."

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"I'd rather say live to celebrate... Ghosts can be chatty, after all."

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"Right. That's a better expression anyway."

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Laugh. "Well, let's investigate our competition, then..."

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"All right."

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She talks Ellie through putting the ship into 'stealth mode' (something Ellie can't do yet; it requires one of Villanelle's higher level spells). And then they can creep closer to the ancient wreckage and the odd energy signatures. Villanelle has Ellie activate the crystal ball's view screen, displaying what they'd see from assorted vantage points in the system. (The range is a bit limited, and it doesn't have any fancy detection spells built into it other than 'see invisibility', but it's workable.)

The energy signature is in fact a ship, a hulking monstrosity that looks like someone had a nightmare after they saw an octopus for the first time and decided that'd be a great ship design. It's dark, and the crystal ball doesn't illuminate it well, but its shape can be outlined against the stars. It's exploring an even larger wreck, twisted metal covered in crystal growths.

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"That uh. Doesn't look friendly."

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"Abyssal elves," she says, squinting. "Pretty unfriendly, yeah, to everyone not them. Or, at least that's who bred the ship..."

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"So what's the plan?"

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"I'd like to gather more information... And avoid a confrontation, that thing's probably nastier in a fight than we are. If it does come to a fight, though, we should be a lot more agile."

"They haven't noticed us yet, and might not - I want to hang back some, scry, and try and dart in ahead of them then take off. They're not searching like a group equipped with magic useful for finding things."

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"Makes sense."

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