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Yvette finds herself in the unenviable position of coming into existence in free fall at almost terminal velocity
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Her first conscious experience is a weightless feeling, the muffled sound of wind, and the gnawing feeling that she's forgotten something terribly important. It's like waking up from deep sleep with all the world around her ablaze, except worse. Was she asleep? She feels like she'd been dreaming, but that's not right. It's sort of right, but it isn't, and she can't put any words to why. There's no before the not-dreaming, she doesn't know her name or who she is or what she even looks like. This... does not seem normal. Wait, that doesn't make sense, either. How does she have any idea what normal is when she doesn't remember anything at all? She doesn't understand. What is this thing she's in, why is there the sound of wind, why does her weight seem weird, why does she have a concept of what weight is and isn't weird, isn't that more strange than anything else?

And then the protective cocoon around her tears, and is ripped away, and many of her questions are answered. The ones that aren't are tabled for later, because she has bigger problems right now. Like falling out of the sky. Like that. Quite reasonably, her second conscious experience is panic. This does not seem like a problem she is equipped to solve. Knowledge from... somewhere... notes that this fall is not from the kind of height people survive, especially not someone completely unprepared. A confused amnesiac is probably even less equipped to handle it than the average person. This is so incredibly unfair.

She has enough practicality to flatten herself out to catch the wind. This buys her enough time to figure out that she has no kind of device, some parachute or propulsion system or something, to slow her own fall or catch enough wind to slow herself down enough. And then also to curse, or at least try to, because the ground is very close and she is out of time.

"Oh, fuc—" she begins, and then is cut off by crashing (painfully) into some kind of large glass dome. Ha, she thinks, through the pain and the confusion as she crashes through it, at least I beat the dome in resilience! This is an outrageously petty victory, but it's all she has.

Then she crashes into something else, and all she knows is pain and darkness.

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Fulsome raises an eyebrow, then looks at Aleks.

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wayward star? SHE IS THE FALLING STAR FROM YESTERDAY that makes no sense NOTHING DOES many things do

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"I trust her," Aleks says, simply.

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"Then come take a look. Watch your step."

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You know, it's funny, that's worded like a request, but everybody here knows it isn't! But. Okay, yes. She'll get a closer look at the foreboding symbol on the wall that makes her want to flee back to Aleks's apartment and hide under the covers.

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She stands before a blank wall. Sickening purple-black light spills from around the corner behind her. It's her temple, hers, and she's been driven into a dead end by that woman.

Blood seeps through the wall from the other side, soaking through in a familiar shape. Frightened, confused, she traces the line...

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Oh no. Oh no. Oh fuck no—

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... a gate opens with a wet crunch. Fresh blood streams from the edges of the symbol, and she's yanked through the hollow of its center, and into the horrible world beyond.

A strip of blistered land coils through a black, writhing void. The air is thick and foul, textured with the slickness of maggots. Nausea slams into her, filling her head. Infecting her thoughts. This place is wrong. It should not be. An ordinary mind would break, but hers is held aloft on a tidal scaffold, untouchable by the creeping fingers attempting to wriggle their way into it.

But she can still feel them. She can still sense something, some sort of mind in that fathomless darkness. Seeking, tasting. Joyful. Hungry.

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The castoff flinches away from the wall with a strangled shriek.

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And Aleks is already there, faster than the blink of an eye, keeping her from falling.

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THAT WAS VERY DASHING AND HEROIC he is too fast HE MUST GET INTO GREAT ADVENTURES he looks very sad MAYBE FROM A LACK OF ADVENTURES maybe from too many

Tahir himself looks like he aborted the movement of trying to stop her from falling; he doesn't have permission to help, after all, and it would not be very heroic to break rules like that with no reason.

RULES ARE BAD FOR ADVENTURING rules are for breaking

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“I’m fine,” she says, entirely for Aleks’s benefit. Even as she absolutely clings to him and can’t seem to stop shivering.

“You need to clean this off of the wall. Without touching it.” Fulsome looks unimpressed, but she continues. “Copy down the symbol in another medium but there is something and it is watching for that symbol in blood specifically and. And we don’t want it to look at us.”

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“… Anything else?” Fulsome is really unamused by someone playing knowing seer without actually giving anything substantial.

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“Um. This is to try to get something to open a door to a, I think another dimension.” Shiver. “And not a nice one. lt breaks people. Mentally. I don’t think anyone that wants to go there is okay.”

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“A door to another dimension,” sighs Fulsome. “Made by someone who’s carked. And it’s bloody castoff business.”

This does make the next person to question very obvious, doesn’t it.

“Aleks, would you be willing to pay Matkina a visit?” He motions to the wall. “Maybe see if she can weigh in.”

He’d send one of his more loyal followers, but Aleks is the only one in the Underbelly that could plausibly beat her in a direct fight by himself. For ordinary people to stand a chance against a jumpy, half crazy, paranoid castoff, it’d need to be a whole squad. And they’d probably come back with casualties.

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He teleports himself and the castoff away from the symbol and nods to Fulsome at his request.

"Don't suppose you'd know where she is."

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"Mapper will know!" pipes in Tahir.

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Aleks's gaze snaps directly at him. "...yes, he would. How do you know Mapper."

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"We're friends!"

HE KNOWS MANY PLACES FOR ADVENTURE and pain WE'LL NEVER GET BORED IF WE ASK HIM WHERE TO GO NEXT

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“Of course you are,” sighs Fulsome. “I’ll double your usual fee.” Just for dealing with these people. “Need someone to watch over your little star?”

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He looks down at his clinging castoff.

"What do you say? I think it will go easier with your help, but..."

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She lets out a breath.

“No, I’ll. I’ll help. This is important. And if it’s castoff nonsense there’s even odds that something involved is locked for castoffs only.”

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A FINE START TO A QUEST there will be blood

But despite the voices in his head it seems the golden man has enough sense to not say anything right this moment.

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"To Mapper, then." And to Fulsome: "I am truly sorry. Wheedle was a good man."

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"He was," says Fulsome, with a grave nod. This is all he wants to say on the subject. "Let me know if Mapper gives you any trouble."

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