Keansi
Accepted Character
Kusangi's gone and there's this stranger who says a lot of bad words and a changeling is dying.
Posts: 37
Full Name: Keansi Lea Teritora
Species: Human
Gender: Female
Homeworld: Earth-like, possibly Earth in an alternative future of some sort.
Height: 3'11"
Weight: 67 pounds
OOC Name: Kunabee
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Post by Keansi on Mar 2, 2014 0:27:06 GMT
Keansi was realizing just how much she hated walking.
The child was more familiar with hiding and crouching; not the sort of walking that made your feet get blisters on them, not the kind of movement that went on for a while. Okay, maybe it wasn't as bad as she thought, but it was certainly bad enough to be exhausting.
She held Kusangi's hand in one of hers, Jarod dangling down beside her, only connected by her fist around his arm. She would occasionally glance over at Kusangi, checking on the wound.
It still looked really, really bad - but Keansi wouldn't know. She was just a child.
Watching the city come closer was tedious, so she had stopped not long after they had broke through the trees; it wasn't until when they reached the city she had realized it.
Keansi brightened instantly. "Kusangi! Kusangi! We're here!" she squealed, grinning at the elder person. She hugged Jarod to her. And then she frowned.
"Do you know where there's a clinic?" she asked earnestly, somewhat worried. "Like, with someone who can use the little first-aid kit thingies and where they store all that stuff?" As if she needed to clarify. But she clarified anyway.
She let go of Kusangi's hand to hug Jarod tightly, slightly twisting the poor stuffed squirrel's body.
"She'll be fine, I'm sure of it. There will be a clinic really close by!" Jarod reassured the girl. She looked at him. "Plus, we're not lost anymore! We're lost no more!" Keansi smiled slightly, then looked up at Kusangi again.
Everything should be okay. She hoped.
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Kusanagi
Accepted Character
(...perhaps...I can live longer this time...should I even bother?...so tired...)
Posts: 35
Full Name: "Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi"
Species: Shinto Yokai (Avatar class): Kitsune
Gender: Female
Homeworld: Alternate universe of Earth. "Yggdrasil"
Height: 144cm (4'8.7'')
Weight: 35kg (77.2 lbs)
OOC Name: Schro
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Post by Kusanagi on Mar 2, 2014 3:28:17 GMT
Kusanagi was starting to realize it was becoming more difficult to continue walking.
It wasn't so much that the act of walking through this terrain for long periods of time was bothering her however. After all, she wore no shoes, and yet her steps were usually quite graceful, and seldom hindered. She had long since adapted to traveling through every type of environment in the many thousands of years her incarnate form had walked upon the Earth. The soles of her feet were smooth, but tough. She would daresay she even enjoyed walking half as much as flying, as it gave her time to think to the pace of each fluid step. However, as she walked now, her thoughts were gradually becoming clouded and distracted as she focused now on the sole act of walking as straight as possible.
To prevent herself from festering with the wound on the side of her torso, a cut from one of the airborne beasts of the forests which was now roughly bandaged by her scarf, Kusanagi preoccupied the hand on the corresponding side of her torso by holding Keansi's hand. To further this effort, her free hand hung stiffly on her opposite side.
She kept her head level and still as she stared forward, despite the slight pain and spells of dizziness that were sweeping over her as they walked. She was stronger than this injury, she told herself. Her pride would not allow her to falter or slow her pace, even though her otherwise very intelligent mind told her otherwise.
She was becoming dizzier with each step, and she could feel her makeshift bandage coming loose, but at last, they reached the border of the City. She heard Keansi squeal with excitement beside her, clearly relieved that their tedious journey was coming to a close. Kusanagi had to wonder though, was this the first time Keansi had seen such a place, considering the world she originated from?
Clinic? Clinic...Did she know of a clinic? If she did, she couldn't think hard enough to remember. The buildings were blank of any signs to indicate such a facility as well. "The trouble with this city...is that there are no signs for any of the buildings... One must rely on luck and memory to navigate it," she explained.
There was one place, however, that she was familiar with and recalled medical supplies being stationed. "A little farther down these streets...there's a building which has a first aid kit." She started walking ahead, too focussed on stabling her posture to look Keansi's way.
Just a little further, she thought as she led the way...to a Library.
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Keansi
Accepted Character
Kusangi's gone and there's this stranger who says a lot of bad words and a changeling is dying.
Posts: 37
Full Name: Keansi Lea Teritora
Species: Human
Gender: Female
Homeworld: Earth-like, possibly Earth in an alternative future of some sort.
Height: 3'11"
Weight: 67 pounds
OOC Name: Kunabee
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Post by Keansi on Mar 6, 2014 3:14:32 GMT
Keansi trailed a little bit behind Kusangi as they walked to where there was a first aid kit. There should be a clinic. Everyone should know where the clinic is. Her stomach clenched in worry. See, in some of the books, people knew where the hospital or doctor's office or healer was, always. If you didn't know where to get healed, that meant you could die from bad injuries.
But of course she was a bit... overwhelmed. She'd seen pictures of cities, of course - that's how she knew what it was. But it was different from the pictures. Some things just didn't fit or make sense. Now taken by a grip of fear, she ran to catch up with Kusangi and squeezed the eared-person's hand until her knuckles turned white. Her eyes flickered everywhere, noting places to run and hide.
Always know how to get away.
She'd been told that how many times? An uncountable number. In the refugee camp, they lived because they could hide and run and stay safe. So now habit caught up with her, and feeling frightened of this city she did what she was told to do. She'd never been to a city, let alone one that didn't match the pictures.
And it was a ghost town.
Has the war gotten here too?
Did Kusangi just not know it?
It caused Keansi to move closer, practically walking on Kusangi's side as she squeezed the girl's hand. Now it frightened her.
And oh, how good she was at fear.
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Kusanagi
Accepted Character
(...perhaps...I can live longer this time...should I even bother?...so tired...)
Posts: 35
Full Name: "Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi"
Species: Shinto Yokai (Avatar class): Kitsune
Gender: Female
Homeworld: Alternate universe of Earth. "Yggdrasil"
Height: 144cm (4'8.7'')
Weight: 35kg (77.2 lbs)
OOC Name: Schro
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Post by Kusanagi on Mar 12, 2014 3:37:03 GMT
Left foot. Right Foot. Right foot, Left.
Slowly and steadily, Kusanagi managed each step despite the growing pain, determined to stay strong, perhaps for her own pride, or perhaps for Keansi's sake. With a pressure applied to her hand, the kitsune girl became aware that Keansi was squeezing it. She glanced over at her to find that, first, the girl was now very close to her side as they walked, and second, she appeared to be quite uncomfortable with their surroundings. Or perhaps, judging by how she seemed to be looking toward the nooks and crannies in the street, she was uncomfortable being out in the open like this?
She was afraid, Kusanagi could see even as she focussed most of her concentration in her footsteps. As a result, the kitsune felt she needed to try and comfort her once more, but did not know where to start, and wasn't confident she had the energy to delve into it right now. Hopefully, Keansi would be able to relax soon however.
For they had finally reached the building Kusanagi was familiar with: the Library. With a few moments forethought before they reached the entrance, Kusanagi placed a hand over Keansi's arm to steady her, in case the automatic-sliding-doors that served as entry would startle her and continued to lead the way inside.
The floor of the library was carpeted in a material far softer than the pavement outside, and the temperature slightly cooler. Shelves of all sorts of texts, novels, tomes, grimiores, and all of the like filled vast rooms and several floors of the library beyond the lobby they stood in now, which housed an unmaned welcome desk.
Kusanagi had been here once, she remembered, thinking to herself, I wonder if he is still here.
It was then, however, that the kitsune felt her legs begin to buckle underneath her, the pain in her torso felt like fire, and the rest of her long since exhausted from both the walking and having never taken the time to restore her strength from her encounter with the Screechers. She collapsed onto her knees with a groan, impulsively letting go of Keansi's arm and clutching her side once more.
Damn it...I can't go any farther like this...
"S-sorry," Kusanagi muttered, her head hanging downward so as to hide her wincing face from Keansi as best as she could. "I'm fine, I just...the first aid...could you find it for me? It looks like a white box...a red cross on it...I think there's one nearby, somewhere. I'll wait here..."
Regaining control of her facial features once more, she looked back up at Keansi for a moment, saying, "Don't worry. Everything is safe here."
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Keansi
Accepted Character
Kusangi's gone and there's this stranger who says a lot of bad words and a changeling is dying.
Posts: 37
Full Name: Keansi Lea Teritora
Species: Human
Gender: Female
Homeworld: Earth-like, possibly Earth in an alternative future of some sort.
Height: 3'11"
Weight: 67 pounds
OOC Name: Kunabee
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Post by Keansi on Mar 24, 2014 17:00:31 GMT
The sliding doors did startle Keansi, almost into running, but Kusangi didn't seem bothered so she went in. And didn't even notice, at first, when Kusangi let go of her hand. She stared. So many books. More books than she'd ever seen. It was as if she had gone to heaven. A slow, steady smile began to spread across her face. She wiggled her toes.
The carpet was as soft as her bed, and the air was like a cool fall breeze. She was a bit in shock. But she came to her senses as Kusangi talked. A first aid kit. White with a red cross. Keansi nodded, looking around. Now, the first aid kit would reasonably be near the door, easy to find...
She set Jarod beside Kusangi, in case the eared-person needed comfort, and started to hunt for it. She eventually came across the box behind the desk and ran back over. She set it in front of Kusangi, starting to dig through it as she pulled out guaze, anesthetic, and a bunch of clean wipes (still in their little packages). She opened one wipe and handed it to Kusangi, getting the next one ready.
She'd helped before, back home, in their medical center. So she knew what to do, though she couldn't really tend and dress wounds. Perhaps if there was nobody else to do it, but she knew she was bad at it. So it was better that Kusangi took care of it herself.
Besides, Keansi figured she'd rather tend to it herself. She could tell that Kusangi didn't like being needy. Or so she assumed - belatedly, too late really, she realized Kusangi had been hiding how much she was really in pain.
So she held wipes at the ready, the first aid kit opened, and Jarod waiting to be held once more.
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Kusanagi
Accepted Character
(...perhaps...I can live longer this time...should I even bother?...so tired...)
Posts: 35
Full Name: "Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi"
Species: Shinto Yokai (Avatar class): Kitsune
Gender: Female
Homeworld: Alternate universe of Earth. "Yggdrasil"
Height: 144cm (4'8.7'')
Weight: 35kg (77.2 lbs)
OOC Name: Schro
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Post by Kusanagi on Apr 3, 2014 19:28:30 GMT
As Keansi set off to find the kit in question, Kusanagi carefully undid the scarf that was acting as her makeshift bandage and, set it beside her, making sure not to set it on top of Jarod in the process. A whole section of it was stained red with her blood, after all.
A small, brief grimace, almost identifiable as a smile tugged at the corner of the kitsune girls lips as she glanced over toward the stuffed animal. Keansi must have been worried greatly, to leave her dear, stuffed companion to watch over her while she searched for medical supplies. Kusanagi couldn't help but feel guilty over it, as this could have been avoided if she could just keep standing a little longer. She appreciated the young girls gesture, though.
She had just managed to unzip and remove her coat using her free hand, the other holding pressure on her side, when Keansi returned and set out the supplies she would need.
...That just left one obstacle before she could actually treat the wound. Underneath her coat, she had been wearing a long sundress that reached her knees. The wound as at its center, at the side of her waist. What a bother, she thought to herself. She considered shifting her form to that of a fox to avoid the perhaps somewhat awkward act of disrobing herself further to access her wound, but she would need thumbs to work with the supplies she had, and didn't wish Keansi to have to deal with cleaning and dressing the wound if she didn't have to. Besides that, she couldn't be certain that the young girl was experienced with such things.
And so, Kusanagi reach up to the straps of her sundress and pushed them off of her shoulders, the top half of her dress falling slack from her upper torso. She was, fortunately, wearing a wrapping around her chest, keeping it covered. However, it wasn't the potential risk in someone seeing her chest that made her hesitant to undo her dress to get to her wound. Rather, it was in revealing the evidence that this sort of injury really was but a scratch, compared to many others.
With her upper torso mostly exposed, one could now see that her torso was covered with several scars. Some resembled clean, straight lines, some were more jagged and rough, some seemed to resemble indents from closed off holes. There were so many, it seemed unthinkable to see them all on a body that seemed so young as hers. Over the course of countless centuries, Kusanagi had been cut, stabbed, and shot from various weapons from numerous battles between man and beast. She had always prevailed over them, and her wounds would always heal with the right treatment. These treatments would never erase the tell-tale scars of those gruesome skirmishes, however.
Her current wound, bleeding a crimson red against her pale, moon-white skin, would be no exception.
~~~
Several minutes later, with Keansi's help in handing her what she needed, and holding a part of the bandaging when neccessary, Kusanagi's wound was finally cleanied and dressed properly, the bandage wrapped around her waist. Kusanagi's face was covered in sweat, as she had fought the urge to give the slightest whimper in pain during the treatment. Pulling up and securing her sundress once more, she gave Keansi a nod of her head.
"Alright," she said, her voice somewhat faint in tone. "I'm finished now. Thank you." She looked down at the middle of her sundress and at her coat beside her. They both still bore a tear where the cut had taken place, but she would be able to mend it as soon as she found some sewing supplies. The scarf she would have to wash, somehow, or perhaps replace it. "...I'm sorry. I didn't mean for you to see all of that."
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Keansi
Accepted Character
Kusangi's gone and there's this stranger who says a lot of bad words and a changeling is dying.
Posts: 37
Full Name: Keansi Lea Teritora
Species: Human
Gender: Female
Homeworld: Earth-like, possibly Earth in an alternative future of some sort.
Height: 3'11"
Weight: 67 pounds
OOC Name: Kunabee
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Post by Keansi on Apr 8, 2014 2:53:53 GMT
Keansi helped, dutifully. After spending a few seconds staring.
Oh, yes. The skin of her guardian covered in scars. Her friend bruised and broken. Tears swelled up at her eyes as she looked down, keeping her eyes to the ground, only handing Kusangi what the eared-person asked for. Finally, when they were down, Keansi tucked everything unused back into the first aid kit and closed it. Once she had set the first aid kit on the desk and grabbed Jarod, she hugged Kusangi tightly. Making sure to avoid the newest accumulation to her scars, of course.
"Did they all hurt?" she asked quietly, curiosity and worry mixing into a quiet question about how Kusangi felt. How they felt to her. All that. She sniffled, still hugging her friend.
"Can I help with anything else?" Keansi didn't let go, needing to hug her, but it seemed she was eager to move on, eager to do something for Kusangi. There was sympathy with her, worry too. Sure, she seemed okay, but now Keansi had learned so much more about this person who promised to protect her, about her friend. This strange, strange person she would have never had met if she didn't come here.
The thought came to her then. Her family thought she was dead. She wasn't there with them. She had disappeared. In their view, she was dead. The revelation shocked her. She leaned back, pulling away, slack-jawed. And then she brightened.
"I bet everyone would like it here," she said with wonder, "We're safer here, even with the monsters. And then we can live in this weird weird city, and..." The girl stood up, spreading her arms wide.
"See, I'm not dead, but they'll think I am because I'm gone. But I'm alive. And then they can come here, too, and all be alive and safer and not as scared... Still scared, cuz of all the monsters, but safer and less scared." She hugged herself, sitting back down. And then looked at Kusangi.
"D'you think that could happen?"
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Kusanagi
Accepted Character
(...perhaps...I can live longer this time...should I even bother?...so tired...)
Posts: 35
Full Name: "Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi"
Species: Shinto Yokai (Avatar class): Kitsune
Gender: Female
Homeworld: Alternate universe of Earth. "Yggdrasil"
Height: 144cm (4'8.7'')
Weight: 35kg (77.2 lbs)
OOC Name: Schro
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Post by Kusanagi on Apr 15, 2014 16:35:08 GMT
The kitsune girl blinked, taken aback by Keansi hugging her. Did they all hurt, the girl asked her. Kusanagi could see the tears welling in Keansi's eyes. She wanted to diffuse her concern, but didn't know how. "Only for a while," she tried. Physical wounds were but a trifle to her, something that enough time and treatment could ease. In her lifetime she would have many, many years worth of time to spare for any wound, and treatment could be found and applied with enough diligence, after which a being like her would recover from and become able-bodied again.
It was the wounds that left no bodily mark that were a greater challenge to recover from.
When Keansi offered to help with anything else, Kusanagi stalled in thought. She simply wasn't used to being helped at all, as in any normal situation, her pride would demand she do everything herself. But this was not one of those situations, and she was aware that her body was still weak from the mana exertion of her fighting and the traveling by foot to the city. She wanted to lean against something, to rest for a while, but she herself coudn't will her legs to lift her hardly an inch from the middle of the floor. "If...If you would just help me to a corner to rest against...I should be fine."
It would have been an awkward, half-shuffled-step on the kitsne's part, half drag on Keansi's, but in a few moments, Kusanagi was slumped against the intersection of the two walls in the library lobby. "Thank you," she said following a short grunt, letting her arms lay limp beside her.
Having situated herself, she looked up at Keansi as she commented with wonder of the world she found herself in. She was asking if it was possible that her family could somehow take refuge in this world, away from their own. At this, however, Kusanagi fell silent. Keansi may not have been aware of it yet, but what she was suggesting...would not be so effective as she may have been led to believe.
In truth, Keansi was still in her own world, physically, while her mind was not. It was in a dream-like escape. Supposidly, it would be possible for her family to join her here, but in the end, it would make no difference in their fate. It would only suffice to live a "new life" within a dream. An illusion. A lie.
Frankly, the kitsune could not think of a way to explain this to Keansi yet, and could only be vague in her explanations when they first met in the forest. She could lie herself, she supposed. She could say that it would indeed be possible to leave her world and remain here. But...
"It's..." she started, thinking. "...It's not so simple as that..."
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Keansi
Accepted Character
Kusangi's gone and there's this stranger who says a lot of bad words and a changeling is dying.
Posts: 37
Full Name: Keansi Lea Teritora
Species: Human
Gender: Female
Homeworld: Earth-like, possibly Earth in an alternative future of some sort.
Height: 3'11"
Weight: 67 pounds
OOC Name: Kunabee
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Post by Keansi on Apr 21, 2014 22:30:29 GMT
Keansi struggled with it. But nevertheless she had Kusangi over to a corner, grinning triumphantly. Then she paused. "We need something to sleep in, especially you. Sleep is good for recovery." She looked around, wondering what would make a good bed. Books? Books! Happily she started to set up a small pile of books, arranging them into a large pattern, emptying a shelf nearby (at least the parts she could reach). As she worked on this, she listened and she talked.
"Why isn't it so simple? Shouldn't it be simple?" she demanded. It wasn't angry nor curious, just a straight-forward question coming from a child who figured everything was black and white. It was only recently, only this very same day, that she had begun to think that maybe things were not black and white.
Dead and gone could be two different things; monsters weren't necessarily evil; not-monsters weren't necessarily kind. Of course, all of this was a bit above Keansi's level, so she left the thoughts lying away from her, hidden in the depths of her mind.
"She could be wrong," Jarod pointed out helpfully. Keansi nodded idly, still working on the bed of books. Perhaps she'd absorb the knowledge in the books as she slept. Keansi smiled at that - she'd learn so much, just from sleeping. If only it could be that way.
But it simply wasn't, and as Keansi saw it, you just had to accept that it wasn't. There was no way around it. And if it was simple, it was simple - and her family being here? Well, that would be simple. It should be simple.
Kusangi, she decided, was too old to realize that some things were simple. Either way, she listened to the eared person's answer as she continued to pile books in a bed-like shape.
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Kusanagi
Accepted Character
(...perhaps...I can live longer this time...should I even bother?...so tired...)
Posts: 35
Full Name: "Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi"
Species: Shinto Yokai (Avatar class): Kitsune
Gender: Female
Homeworld: Alternate universe of Earth. "Yggdrasil"
Height: 144cm (4'8.7'')
Weight: 35kg (77.2 lbs)
OOC Name: Schro
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Post by Kusanagi on Apr 27, 2014 4:01:54 GMT
The kitsune was thoughtful for a another moment, weighing the child's questions. A child would think the world simple. It was only when they grew with experience that they would find that the world was much more coplex than that. "There is nothing in any world that is simple Keansi. Not everything is as it seems. It is only by looking closely at what we believe to be what we know and understand that we can find the truth." She could practically sense the perplexed look on Keansi's face following that statement, and followed it up with another. "There's no need to see it, right now." She said with a slight sigh. "I'm sure you will grow, and understand those such things one day. What's important is that you learn to search out the answers for yourself, challenge what is known to be fact, and not to forever rely on the words of old to dictate your life."
What's this? Kusanagi thought to herself with a short huff. Am I placing hope in a human? A child, at that? Have I lost more blood than I thought? Or...
She shook her head, pushing her thoughts aside for now. She figured she might as well change the subject to one Keansi could perhaps relate to. "Tell me Keansi, have you ever once looked upon the clouds? There is a tradition, more of a game of sorts where I am from, where people look to the sky and gaze upon them. They would then declare the shapes of what they see in those clouds, animals, objects, whatever their imaginations eye could see in the clouds shape. Sometimes, two would look upon the same cloud and see two different images in them. Curious, isn't it?
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Keansi
Accepted Character
Kusangi's gone and there's this stranger who says a lot of bad words and a changeling is dying.
Posts: 37
Full Name: Keansi Lea Teritora
Species: Human
Gender: Female
Homeworld: Earth-like, possibly Earth in an alternative future of some sort.
Height: 3'11"
Weight: 67 pounds
OOC Name: Kunabee
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Post by Keansi on Jun 24, 2014 6:19:54 GMT
Look closely at everything, she said. So Keansi rolled the words in her mind, not replying. She let each sentence fill her head up, looked closely at it, studying each word. She almost missed the comment on the clouds. The girl blinked. She'd watched clouds before. Seen shapes. It was hard to get someone else to see it.
Was that Kusangi though things were? She stayed quiet as she at last finished the book-bed. "A blanket," she muttered before she went off to find something soft. She took several minutes, managing to amass a large amount of old rags left in a closet somewhere. When she returned, she started to set them over the books, making two smaller piles that would act as pillows.
At last, she made a reply. "People don't always see the same things," she told Kusangi, "That's why I think most things are simple, and you think most things are complicated. We don't see it the same. When I see books, I see knowledge and stories. At home, when my friends saw books, they saw dusty old things. That's why we see different shapes in the clouds. We're just different, and we have different perspectives." There was a pause as she rolled over the next concept forming in her head. "That's why we have to try and figure things out by looking closely." Proud of herself, she grinned at Kusangi, before lying Jarod on the edge of what was 'her side' of the book-bed.
She came over to Kusangi, offering to help her over to the makeshift bed. "Come on, you need to rest. That's what Ma'am Pierce always says."
Perhaps somewhere in-between her view of simplicity and Kusangi's view of complexity, that was where the truth was. Perhaps every perspective was a little right and a little wrong.
But Keansi's head hurt. And she was tired. ...And hungry.
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