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[cowardly_prince]

My false son seems to have gone missing. At least his incessant pestering about playing baseball is happily and conspicuously absent. Have I simply missed the real person that replaced him? Hm, well, it's certainly nothing to worry about. Just a drone... or NPC.

[Under a box with a rock on it in the backyard of 452 Stone Street, a large frog

Comments

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[fateful_chains]

I suppose that could be one way of looking at it.

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[cowardly_prince]

Knowledge is power, Velvet. Especially when one's enemies are keeping secrets. My priority in Mayfield is and has been gathering information. Tell me everything you know.

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[fateful_chains]

Very well.

The town appeared seemingly overnight. Many of us went there, and at first we could return. However... one evening, the path back vanished, and everyone in Westport was trapped.

Westport was a ruin, with buildings destroyed, and the only food to be found was rotted. At first, we were only concerned with finding shelter, but on the second day men in strange suits appeared. They seemed to be wearing some sort of cloth armor, with helmets. When defeated, they only left the suits behind - and a noxious gas that burned the eyes and lungs and caused painful coughing.

I explored as much as I could, given the danger. In one of the houses, I found a photo... of you. I thought perhaps, you were trapped in Westport as well, so I continued to wander the streets...

[She pauses here for a bit of reflection.One of the places I explored was the school. 'Twas also in ruins, but worse in a way, thinking of the poor children... There were deep gouges in the desks, and such an air of sadness

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[cowardly_prince]

A haunted town... a counterfeit picture, like the ones in all the houses... men that die in clouds of poison...

[Velvet probably knows this face. It's what he looks like when his brain is working a mile a minute, trying to solve the puzzle. Or create one of his own.

It's not a face he often wears when times are good. Eventually it gives way to a look of concern.]

And what then? How were you returned to Mayfield?

[pooka_prince]

You've regained some of your magic, have you not? That is good to hear. [BUT IF YOU USE IT ON ME AGAIN WE WILL HAVE WORDS.]

[cowardly_prince]

Shortly before I became a drone, in fact. I'm just glad it hasn't disappeared.

[pooka_prince]

Indeed! With any luck, we can find a practical use for it. I wonder if it could be used to fool Grady or any of the others keeping us here...

[cowardly_prince]

I've wondered the same, but apparently it's difficult to take him by surprise.

[kol_shevik]

How fortunate for you, comrade.

[cowardly_prince]

'Tis the small blessings that make life worth living.

Comrade.