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<div class="bbCodeBlock-content">Ein Kebia[/u]]<br/>
<span class="fixed-color" style="color:#dcdcdc">[Cornelia Plains - SnowBound Castle]</span><br/>
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Neither of the two voiced any objections, and Tifa barely even shifted when Ein's weight depressed the mattress as he crawled in next to her.  The tiredness plaguing him seemed much heavier now that he was comfortable and warm, and almost immediately he felt a wave of drowsiness wash over him.  He was dimly aware of Tifa brushing against his left side, and Rikku's lesser weight on the mattress to his right, but then slumber claimed him and the world was swept away by velvet darkness...<br/>
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When he awakes, he is cocooned in blankets, and dim light is just beginning to filter into the room, filling it with a grey-black gloom.  He can feel two weights against him, Tifa's face buried in his left shoulder and her chest pressing against his biceps where she must have rolled against him sometime in the night, and Rikku curled up against his right side, her back nestled against his side while she uses his arm as part of her pillow...<br/>
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For a while, the silence is unbroken, but then as the light grows stronger a metallic chirruping sound filters in from the window, high pitched enough to disrupt the gentle calm with it's noise.  It comes twice, then pauses for a moment...  Then comes twice again as Rikku begins to stir against him, then crawls out from beneath the blankets, stealing one to wrap around herself as she makes her way over to the window and picks up the device she set on it's sill last night just as it begins to chirrup a third time.  Silencing it with a complex hand motion that Ein can't quite catch before she swishes the blanket off her shoulders, crumples it into a bundle, kicks it away, and gives a langorous stretch in the morning sunlight that turns into a shuddering shiver halfway through as cold air drifts through the crack in the curtains.  Even so, Ein can't help but notice she's wearing little more than would be considered undergarments, bereft of the open vest and boots she'd been wearing the night before.<br/>
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If she catches him staring though, she doesn't seem to mind, or perhaps she simply didn't notice...<br/>
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Meanwhile, Tifa is stirring to Ein's left, and as the hollows left behind by the girls departure begin to cool, Ein is driven from the blankets as well.  Time to face the day, and much walking ahead if they're to make the next gate before the sun sets again...</div>
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<div class="bbCodeBlock-content">Zwei Kebia[/u]]<br/>
<span class="fixed-color" style="color:#800000">[Bahamut Isles - Elayne's Camp]</span><br/>
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Zwei's voice carries a commanding tone, at odds with the tenderness of her caresses, and Elayne looks positively frightened as she speaks, even though the red mage can't seem to help but nod.  "L-Lightning is...  Stronger than you think...  Y-you might..."  She falls silent but for a hissed breath as Zwei pulls her close, and she shivers for a moment, tensing in the lady knight's arms as she feels a sudden darkening of the other woman's spirit.  "I-I...  Y-yes...  I accept m-..."  She holds the word back, despite that it seems to try to leave unbidden, but -perhaps without even meaning to- Zwei's voice cuts through that resistance with the sharp-voiced command.  "I-I'll try Mistress..."  <br/>
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And she does try, leaning into Zwei's arms, meek and pliable, allowing the lady knight to do as she will as Elayne does her absolute best to let the sensations sweep her away.  Despite this, she remains frightened as much by her own response to the woman's aggressive come-on as she is by Zwei herself.  "P-please...  Touch me more M-...  Mistress..?"  She pleads softly.  She would rather feel pleasure, and try to forget that terrifying shift for the moment than feel the darkness take root in Zwei's soul again in her memory.  "Please..."</div>
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<div class="bbCodeBlock-content">Thrice X[/u]]<br/>
<span class="fixed-color" style="color:#696969">[Mirage Sandsea - Southern Peaks]</span><br/>
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For all that he supposes a bird must have brought him, Thrice sees no shapes in the sky, nor hears any cries.  He might for a moment catch a glimpse of a figure watching from a distant peak closer to the darkened lands, but when he refocuses on that spot, the figure is gone as quickly as it appeared, and were he human, he might suppose their presence to be little more than some quirk of his imagination, and in any case th peak quickly vanishes from view as he descends the slope, making his way slowly and with much cursing as he tumbles a few more times before getting the hand of walking once more.<br/>
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It is a long day, pacing down one slope to clamber up the next, skirting around cliffs and larger stones...  Once or twice, thrice does see a shape in the sky from the corner of his eye but it is distant...<br/>
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Up the slope and down again, the mountains continue on, an almost endless-seeming chain if not for that it seems to curve slightly to the left as he walks, and walks, and walks as the sunlight dims and night begins to fall...<br/>
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Until he comes to a different sort of valley, where a winding pass runs along the floor of it while gently-glowing archways rest at either end.  He can also see figures moving down there, a half dozen of them in all, wandering about almost aimlessly, many carrying weapons on their persons...<br/>
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A curious sight to say the least, but following the pass means choosing left or right, for it does not follow the path of the wanderer...  <br/>
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Still, he will need to cross through to carry on his own way at the very least.</div>
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</div><br/><br/><br/>((I realize time is starting to become disjointed now, but frankly, I don't care.  It'll probably work itself out in the end, and if it doesn't, well, this is a chaotic world anyways, time shifting a little is nothing.))