[ Shaking his hand out still and staying near the sword, because, well. If the world falls apart, he'll try to rip the damn thing off the wall if he has to.
... but maybe the realization that made him leave will work on her. ]
No matter how happy you are here, it isn't real - if it all falls apart, then you'll lose it all for good.
And you won't be able to return to the real Alphinaud. What was the last thing you said to him, in the Realm? Do you want it to truly be the last thing?
[ TIME TO DI—no, izumo will hear what they're all saying and she can't ignore any of this anymore. the fox is about to chime in again, but this time izumo cuts him off as she very slowly removes herself from alphinaud—one version of him—and gives a kiss on the cheek. ]
Mike—! ...it's okay.
[ she'll carefully get off of the floor with a sniffle. ]
No, I have so much more I want to tell him. Years worth of things.
[ she'll wipe her eyes with the back of her good hand before marching over towards the sword and grabbing at the handle without any more hesitation with every intention to rip it off of the wall. did you know how much more she hates the realm now?
[ Izumo rips the sword out of the wall, and everything changes once again. Right in time, too, as the rip on the floor suddenly grew and probably one of them would have fallen in and it would've been bad. Boo.
Sword in hand, when they next blink, the group now find themselves... in a castle. This is just the WEEK of castles, isn't it? The aesthetic of this one seems to match a little the worm chamber they found in the cavern, with gold lined doors, colorful marble floors and purple tinted walls. There, at the end of the hallway is the angelic looking lady. She stands at the end of the hallway, facing nothingness before turning to them. She's got a full face now! Her eyes are pink like her hair and her skin is tinted purple. She's also very tall. ]
This has all happened before, and yet it hasn't. [ she's said this line before, wow. repetitive npc much? ] But it won't happen again. I'm afraid you're running out of time. [ she touches the walls of the hall, looking almost nostalgic? ] Take care of—
[ And before she can finish that, they'll find themselves back in the forest where they found the sword which Izumo is still holding. Now that that's done, she'll feel also that this sword could let her... heal? That's a weird sentiment. Also Mob is no longer jacked, we're free. He does have something in his pocket, though!
Of course, when they found the sword, it wasn't also in direct path with what looks like an industrial complex, and yet here they are. To be fair, the sky is also still falling apart with a storm around and the ground is shaking in earthquakes, so, uh.
Looks like they didn't leave trouble behind, just their dreams.
Careful about those fissures, because they are sudden and massive and completely in the way of them going anywhere safely! Wuh-woh. ]
Well, [ a pause, as he stares ahead at the industrial complex, then slowly looks at the storm while the earth shakes ] Whether we are or not, we need to get moving. Before the ground falls out from under us.
[ It'd be great if the mobmap told them they could actually just take a left and suddenly be back in the Realm, but he knows that's not happening.
[ yeah, they definitely need to get going because if they were just going to fall through these cracks now then at least she should have done so back when she was inside of the dream and now outside of it. though there's something to what that lady said that izumo will definitely not forget. ]
I'm in no mood to stick around here any longer than we need to.
[ The tablet map is working! And it is pointing directly at the sword still. So that's useful. There is a notification for a message on it now, though...
Of course, that doesn't quite matter, because the ground is getting destroyed and there are still burning balls of fake snow falling from the sky, so like, yikes? Let's go with yikes. They will have to parkour a lot on the way to the creepy industrial complex with odd looking buildings. They'll also notice there seems to be round robots with spindly legs patrolling the streets as they do so, so they can feel free to try and dodge those, too. It is dodging city all up in here.
Most building doors are locked when they walk around, and the storm rages on. Lightning strikes at random. This is a terrible day for a walk. ]
Anyway, Mob is parkouring along, but I rolled a 2 so he just trips over a crevice right into a robot while being pelted by burning snowballs. Someone help him?]
[ tgcf canon: hc rolls dice really really well until things are about to go really badly for him. CYOA d20, finally: 2
Ange goes to kick the robot. Hua Cheng goes to take advantage of that, to grab for Mob, to try and get him out of range of the robot and to make sure he doesn't fall down into a crevice. Not much he can do about the reality eating acid snow. ]
[ it is not dodging over here as izumo is going to attempt to dodge out of the way of the things but clearly she's going to eat it. fake snow? ground being getting destroyed? you know, bad things all around. though it's not like it's all bad... just. casually rolled a 4.
so, forget her being able to help hc or mob. ange it's your turn to save us. ]
[ the notification says he has a new message! But there's no message app on this thing? Hmmm.
And then a comedy of errors happened, which seems about appropriate. First it's Mob tripping on a suddenly forming crevice as he goes along, saved from falling in by the gentle loving arms of a robot. Except they don't have arms, so. The rounded shape? Of a robot? The robot also protects him from the worst of potential snowball burns, so, a net win. Mob bounces off and lays on the ground for a precious few seconds, and the win turns into a problem when the robot aims a laser at mob, going straight for his head. Ange leaps into action and saves Mob from possible certain death by kicking the robot away in a rather impressive move, though not without the robot attempting to steady itself and planting one of its pointed limbs in Mob's left thigh, piercing through it. Ow. Ange may need to think of a follow up plan for when it rights itself.
Less lucky than Ange is HC who follows right after to try and help as well... but he has to leap away when the laser the robot nearly took Mob's head with ends up firing in his and Izumo's direction in Ange's desperation to move it away from Mob, which is right when the ground splits underneath him in a quite frankly unfair move from the universe. It's the crevice Mob tripped on, growing bigger as the floor sinks into an odd abyss. It's hard to pick where to catch yourself when dodging, so HC kind of catches himself in the void with his left arm. He should make sure not to fall the rest of himself in, probably.
Izumo isn't even thinking about the mess in front of her, concentrating on dodging while holding a broad sword in one hand and having a broken arm for the other. Unfortunately no one can tell "timber" at robot lasers when two out of three people eat shit, so Izumo is on her own there. And her own rolled a 4, so, she takes it right in the side. She didn't need all her flesh, right? Right. Rib flesh is overrated.
The sword is glowing and so is a big compound in the distance. I mean. If they make it out of this one encounter and wanna move on. Rip. ]
Okay, I mean, Mob is useless here? He'll let Ange help him, only crying a little when his leg is pierced. He'll get to his feet, even though it's bleeding a lot, because the one D&D stat this kid has is endurance.
I rolled a 14 this time so instead of even trying to deal with that robot, he's going to grab Ange by the arm and try to run towards HC. If both kids reach out and grab his arm, they can probably pull him back up, right? Hopefully in time not to be blasted with lasers.]
[Listen... Ange is deeply lucky that Mob pulled her away from that robot, because her roll to deal with it properly was going to be real shitty. But instead he yanks her away and they stumble towards HC!
She picks up on Mob's plan pretty quickly, reaching for HC to try to help haul him up and out of the crevice of doom.]
Because of the two of them coming for him, Hua Cheng finds himself stopping short before the rest of him goes into the void that's swallowed up his left arm. As he gets his balance and leans back into the two of them, long enough to get stable again, he sees...
His arm is pitch black, his sleeve gone, all the way up to his shoulder. The edges of it at his shoulder are luminescent white, jagged like the fissures around them. But with a nat 20 for tenacity, he's. Going to get up. ]
[ izumo sure isn't going to be thinking about the mess in front of her! nor is she going to be doing a lot of thinking for the moment other than getting to move after being blasted by the lazer. honestly, who needs skin to cover their ribs? rufus was just fine without skin on his arm. yeah?
(though are we talking like instantly cauterized or will she be bleeding from this wound?)
either way, dice gave me a 12 in terms of her tenacity, so she's going to lean heavily on the sword for stability before getting back up and getting a move on out of this place. ]
I, I'm fine. [ she'll look over the others and...well. ange looks great. mob though...hmm. though more "hmm" is how the sword is glowing. is it...also hot when it glows or just blinky glowy? ] We need to keep going and get a move on.
[ cue her pressing forward towards the compound because where else are they going to go at this point? ]
[ Izumo's wound is pretty much instantly cauterized, though that does not make it feel any better? It may, in fact, feel worse. The sword is glowing in a "the blade is glowing and only the blade" fashion, so the handle feels fine to her. Mob and Ange successfully dodge more robots and stuff to help HC and his completely normal arm up, though for the sake of remembering ange's one terrible roll, she can have that one next time something happens.
Everyone's fine enough to keep going and, while the robot is, uh, still attempting to lazer them, it does have to take aim and fire, so they have time to dodge. If they go fast enough, they'll reach the compound, a large metal building with many hallways with twists and turns. There's people on patrol here? Or, well, at least their armored suits. They don't immediately notice the foursome as an intruder alert alarm is already ringing, lights flashing red as they seem to be running around like headless chickens. The bots are the same as those outside, though, and will be harder to dodge in hallways. There's fewer of them, however, maybe one every other time.
The sword at least seems to be playing a game of hot and cold with how much it glows in a certain direction, and they're free from the burning snowballs when they're inside. All they have to do is somehow fight their way forward while not lingering because the world is breaking and vanishing behind them!
[Okay, well, fighting his way through a compound is something he's done before, though usually with telekinesis. But there's a better way to do this, right? They're all kids.
(I know the H**** doesn't care about that but it's still not a terrible idea, right?)]
Hua Cheng-san. . . stay behind us. If we seem lost, they might not bother us too much or attack right away.
[At least not the humans. So that's his plan - try to sneak through and if caught, distract with the cute kids?
In the meantime he'll also keep trying to load that message on the tablet, messing with the tablet to see if there's anywhere it could be.]
Ange doesn't know if she's so sure about this plan, and that 10 roll is waiting in the wings, but for now!! For now they are going to try to sneak through and pretend they are lost??
This is the plan. It's fine. She's ready. How far do they get before they run into an angry armored suit or a robot?]
[ I also love Mob. Hua Cheng is so tired of this. Also, the static is still annoying, but enough people have forgotten their names around him that he's not dumb. ]
Fine. Go quickly, and stick together. They have to prepare their attacks, so don't give them the time to aim at you if they see you. I'll hit them if they get too close.
[ So he just reaches out to herd Izumo into the group in front of him with Mob and Ange, not touching her with his left hand as he does. He can move his arm and fingers and everything, but he's just going to avoid touching anything with it as a precaution. Also, the sword is glowy. Guide us, sword.
Preemptively, a 16 and a 5 have been rolled for attack/dodge success. Take your pick on how that works out if we get found out. ]
[ izumo has a lot of doubt in mob's plan but she also isn't paying too much attention to is since she's playing hot and cold with a sword right now. she's aware enough to acknowledge that she's being herded but that's about it. ...which is funny because she has noodles for arms and one of them is broken. (and if this is the sword of [redacted] then it's extra funny.)
either way, she'll raise it to the right for a moment then to the left.... kind of gauging where they need to be shuffling towards. and just to make things easier for rolls of dodging or whatever in the future, the dice has spoken that her next dodge is to be weighed against a 12 (for disadvantage tch)....
i sincerely hope someone is keeping tabs on izumo because she really will be just focusing all of her attention onto the sword because everything else hurts. ]
[ Luckily, it's not too impossible to locate themselves with Izumo's sword guiding them, though they may have to backtrack once or twice because whoever designed this place had absolutely zero sense of logical architecture. What an idiot, whoever that is. I am also rolling for encounters so they manage to get quite a few hallways before someone realizes they don't belong here when they quite literally run straight into two armored guards who look at each other in a clear pause of alarm before they raise an electrified baton. Because that's what you guys needed. Electricity.
They don't seem concerned that Ange and Mob are children, and go straight for them without hesitation. Damn. Rude.
Mob is busy trying to figure out the message on his tablet, and while he can't find the actual place to open it, fiddling enough will give him an option to send to nearby participant device. Hm. That is clearly normal. Anyway, that's about when they run into the previously mentioned duo, so Mob gets stun baton'd for his troubles. The tablet is sturdy and doesn't break when he inevitably drops it because he was just electrocuted.
Ange dodges the initial strike without being able to help shove Mob out of the way at the same time, and gets tackled by the second guard for her trouble. Her head will bounce off the floor and not feel great. Also, she's like, tackled by a guard who's holding a stun baton, that's safe. Izumo, likewise, will manage to get out of the way of the two guards without being able to help too much, but at least she didn't get more damage? -2 hp for the constant pain on half her body.
Hua Cheng can keep his low dodge roll for later because he was last in line and there's only two guards, so, here's a blanket he'll succeed on his attack. He's tired, he's injured, but the three kids are in the line of fire so. Might want to get the guards away before they can call for reinforcements, which they are moving to do. ]
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Ange looks between HC and the sword and Izumo and the crack in the floor aaaand:]
Miss Izumo...! Miss Izumo, I'm certain you can hear us. Please... please grab the sword! We need you!
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... but maybe the realization that made him leave will work on her. ]
No matter how happy you are here, it isn't real - if it all falls apart, then you'll lose it all for good.
And you won't be able to return to the real Alphinaud. What was the last thing you said to him, in the Realm? Do you want it to truly be the last thing?
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Mike—! ...it's okay.
[ she'll carefully get off of the floor with a sniffle. ]
No, I have so much more I want to tell him. Years worth of things.
[ she'll wipe her eyes with the back of her good hand before marching over towards the sword and grabbing at the handle without any more hesitation with every intention to rip it off of the wall. did you know how much more she hates the realm now?
a lot. ]
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Sword in hand, when they next blink, the group now find themselves... in a castle. This is just the WEEK of castles, isn't it? The aesthetic of this one seems to match a little the worm chamber they found in the cavern, with gold lined doors, colorful marble floors and purple tinted walls. There, at the end of the hallway is the angelic looking lady. She stands at the end of the hallway, facing nothingness before turning to them. She's got a full face now! Her eyes are pink like her hair and her skin is tinted purple. She's also very tall. ]
This has all happened before, and yet it hasn't. [ she's said this line before, wow. repetitive npc much? ] But it won't happen again. I'm afraid you're running out of time. [ she touches the walls of the hall, looking almost nostalgic? ] Take care of—
[ And before she can finish that, they'll find themselves back in the forest where they found the sword which Izumo is still holding. Now that that's done, she'll feel also that this sword could let her... heal? That's a weird sentiment. Also Mob is no longer jacked, we're free. He does have something in his pocket, though!
Of course, when they found the sword, it wasn't also in direct path with what looks like an industrial complex, and yet here they are. To be fair, the sky is also still falling apart with a storm around and the ground is shaking in earthquakes, so, uh.
Looks like they didn't leave trouble behind, just their dreams.
Careful about those fissures, because they are sudden and massive and completely in the way of them going anywhere safely! Wuh-woh. ]
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But after doing that, looking towards the industrial complex. Then looking at his map? Is that even still working?]
Is that where we should go?
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She presses her lips together tightly.]
Most likely, if only because it will be the most difficult way to go.
Is everyone ready...?
[She'll of course be thrilled if Mob's map is like "actually don't go that way at all", but like... wouldn't that be too easy?]
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[ It'd be great if the mobmap told them they could actually just take a left and suddenly be back in the Realm, but he knows that's not happening.
Let's go? ]
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I'm in no mood to stick around here any longer than we need to.
[ it's time to mosey. ]
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Of course, that doesn't quite matter, because the ground is getting destroyed and there are still burning balls of fake snow falling from the sky, so like, yikes? Let's go with yikes. They will have to parkour a lot on the way to the creepy industrial complex with odd looking buildings. They'll also notice there seems to be round robots with spindly legs patrolling the streets as they do so, so they can feel free to try and dodge those, too. It is dodging city all up in here.
Most building doors are locked when they walk around, and the storm rages on. Lightning strikes at random. This is a terrible day for a walk. ]
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Anyway, Mob is parkouring along, but I rolled a 2 so he just trips over a crevice right into a robot while being pelted by burning snowballs. Someone help him?]
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I hoped to join the rolled badly crew but Ange continues to somehow not be that with another 15 so instead she's going to... try to kick the robot!
That seems like a bad idea but Mob already has it off balance with his face so now seems like the time.]
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CYOA d20, finally: 2
Ange goes to kick the robot. Hua Cheng goes to take advantage of that, to grab for Mob, to try and get him out of range of the robot and to make sure he doesn't fall down into a crevice. Not much he can do about the reality eating acid snow. ]
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so, forget her being able to help hc or mob. ange it's your turn to save us. ]
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And then a comedy of errors happened, which seems about appropriate. First it's Mob tripping on a suddenly forming crevice as he goes along, saved from falling in by the gentle loving arms of a robot. Except they don't have arms, so. The rounded shape? Of a robot? The robot also protects him from the worst of potential snowball burns, so, a net win. Mob bounces off and lays on the ground for a precious few seconds, and the win turns into a problem when the robot aims a laser at mob, going straight for his head. Ange leaps into action and saves Mob from possible certain death by kicking the robot away in a rather impressive move, though not without the robot attempting to steady itself and planting one of its pointed limbs in Mob's left thigh, piercing through it. Ow. Ange may need to think of a follow up plan for when it rights itself.
Less lucky than Ange is HC who follows right after to try and help as well... but he has to leap away when the laser the robot nearly took Mob's head with ends up firing in his and Izumo's direction in Ange's desperation to move it away from Mob, which is right when the ground splits underneath him in a quite frankly unfair move from the universe. It's the crevice Mob tripped on, growing bigger as the floor sinks into an odd abyss. It's hard to pick where to catch yourself when dodging, so HC kind of catches himself in the void with his left arm. He should make sure not to fall the rest of himself in, probably.
Izumo isn't even thinking about the mess in front of her, concentrating on dodging while holding a broad sword in one hand and having a broken arm for the other. Unfortunately no one can tell "timber" at robot lasers when two out of three people eat shit, so Izumo is on her own there. And her own rolled a 4, so, she takes it right in the side. She didn't need all her flesh, right? Right. Rib flesh is overrated.
The sword is glowing and so is a big compound in the distance. I mean. If they make it out of this one encounter and wanna move on. Rip. ]
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Okay, I mean, Mob is useless here? He'll let Ange help him, only crying a little when his leg is pierced. He'll get to his feet, even though it's bleeding a lot, because the one D&D stat this kid has is endurance.
I rolled a 14 this time so instead of even trying to deal with that robot, he's going to grab Ange by the arm and try to run towards HC. If both kids reach out and grab his arm, they can probably pull him back up, right? Hopefully in time not to be blasted with lasers.]
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She picks up on Mob's plan pretty quickly, reaching for HC to try to help haul him up and out of the crevice of doom.]
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Because of the two of them coming for him, Hua Cheng finds himself stopping short before the rest of him goes into the void that's swallowed up his left arm. As he gets his balance and leans back into the two of them, long enough to get stable again, he sees...
His arm is pitch black, his sleeve gone, all the way up to his shoulder. The edges of it at his shoulder are luminescent white, jagged like the fissures around them. But with a nat 20 for tenacity, he's. Going to get up. ]
Izumo!
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(though are we talking like instantly cauterized or will she be bleeding from this wound?)
either way, dice gave me a 12 in terms of her tenacity, so she's going to lean heavily on the sword for stability before getting back up and getting a move on out of this place. ]
I, I'm fine. [ she'll look over the others and...well. ange looks great. mob though...hmm. though more "hmm" is how the sword is glowing. is it...also hot when it glows or just blinky glowy? ] We need to keep going and get a move on.
[ cue her pressing forward towards the compound because where else are they going to go at this point? ]
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Everyone's fine enough to keep going and, while the robot is, uh, still attempting to lazer them, it does have to take aim and fire, so they have time to dodge. If they go fast enough, they'll reach the compound, a large metal building with many hallways with twists and turns. There's people on patrol here? Or, well, at least their armored suits. They don't immediately notice the foursome as an intruder alert alarm is already ringing, lights flashing red as they seem to be running around like headless chickens. The bots are the same as those outside, though, and will be harder to dodge in hallways. There's fewer of them, however, maybe one every other time.
The sword at least seems to be playing a game of hot and cold with how much it glows in a certain direction, and they're free from the burning snowballs when they're inside. All they have to do is somehow fight their way forward while not lingering because the world is breaking and vanishing behind them!
That's totally doable. ]
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(I know the H**** doesn't care about that but it's still not a terrible idea, right?)]
Hua Cheng-san. . . stay behind us. If we seem lost, they might not bother us too much or attack right away.
[At least not the humans. So that's his plan - try to sneak through and if caught, distract with the cute kids?
In the meantime he'll also keep trying to load that message on the tablet, messing with the tablet to see if there's anywhere it could be.]
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Ange doesn't know if she's so sure about this plan, and that 10 roll is waiting in the wings, but for now!! For now they are going to try to sneak through and pretend they are lost??
This is the plan. It's fine. She's ready. How far do they get before they run into an angry armored suit or a robot?]
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Fine. Go quickly, and stick together. They have to prepare their attacks, so don't give them the time to aim at you if they see you. I'll hit them if they get too close.
[ So he just reaches out to herd Izumo into the group in front of him with Mob and Ange, not touching her with his left hand as he does. He can move his arm and fingers and everything, but he's just going to avoid touching anything with it as a precaution. Also, the sword is glowy. Guide us, sword.
Preemptively, a 16 and a 5 have been rolled for attack/dodge success. Take your pick on how that works out if we get found out. ]
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either way, she'll raise it to the right for a moment then to the left.... kind of gauging where they need to be shuffling towards. and just to make things easier for rolls of dodging or whatever in the future, the dice has spoken that her next dodge is to be weighed against a 12 (for disadvantage tch)....
i sincerely hope someone is keeping tabs on izumo because she really will be just focusing all of her attention onto the sword because everything else hurts. ]
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They don't seem concerned that Ange and Mob are children, and go straight for them without hesitation. Damn. Rude.
Mob is busy trying to figure out the message on his tablet, and while he can't find the actual place to open it, fiddling enough will give him an option to send to nearby participant device. Hm. That is clearly normal. Anyway, that's about when they run into the previously mentioned duo, so Mob gets stun baton'd for his troubles. The tablet is sturdy and doesn't break when he inevitably drops it because he was just electrocuted.
Ange dodges the initial strike without being able to help shove Mob out of the way at the same time, and gets tackled by the second guard for her trouble. Her head will bounce off the floor and not feel great. Also, she's like, tackled by a guard who's holding a stun baton, that's safe. Izumo, likewise, will manage to get out of the way of the two guards without being able to help too much, but at least she didn't get more damage? -2 hp for the constant pain on half her body.
Hua Cheng can keep his low dodge roll for later because he was last in line and there's only two guards, so, here's a blanket he'll succeed on his attack. He's tired, he's injured, but the three kids are in the line of fire so. Might want to get the guards away before they can call for reinforcements, which they are moving to do. ]
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. . . When he's able to, from the ground, he'll try to send out a message as quickly as he can - HELP.]
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