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The drive had been relatively calm for Elara, given that she was able to sit passenger and just snack or read. Not the most exciting, but calm. In the beginning it had been closer to a road trip, but the past few hours once they'd hit that fog wall had been more quiet- Eel hadn't wanted to distract Ingrid while the seamstress had been navigating the debris and detritus of the road, and it was somewhat hard to hold a conversation when one person was partway out the car window, wind blowing past.

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Elara adjusted her hood and put it over her head as Ingrid suddenly stopped and left the car. She fanned at the cloying thick fog rolling into the vehicle itself, but mostly just managed to spread it around a bit. "Mmm." Hopefully Ingrid hadn't seen. Elara gave up and tipped back the last few bits in the stale pretzel bag, then felt something on her lap- a rectangular city sign, damaged by something and rusted from the intense moisture it was constantly experiencing. Elara wondered weather she'd had a tetanus shot recently. The sign read 'Arkhangelsk'.

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"Ah, I think so? Yes." She'd had to think about it, pulling up her system window and re-reading the request. "Now we've just got to figure out where- oh." The weather sought fit to clear a little, finally showing what was (probably) the town they needed to be in. "Yeah. Just gotta find the cannery now." Elara stowed the rusted sign in her inventory, she would keep it as a souvenir from her friend.

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Elara found herself stretching in the passenger seat, sprawling her legs as best as possible and putting arms behind the headrest. Multiple things audibly popped, and Elara groaned in satisfaction. "I need to walk soon. Feeling cooped up." She idly looked at the church and wondered what all that wiring was even for, and couldn't help but imagine the tops as giant onions. Then Elara spent a short moment cleaning up her traveling provisions, packing away her book. All ready to find the golem.

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The earth nearby shook and gave was as the slime came down with it’s full weight. The thing hadn’t even seemed *that* big, but being made of all liquid probably contributed substantially to it’s crushing power. The ground around it was indented, the only thing keeping it from forming a proper cracked-earth crater being how damp the soil was.It was only feet away, and Elara immediately stood and ran.

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“Way too close-” The slime readied another slam, still hindered. The thing trembled and shook like a puddle too close to a stampede before launching itself into the air in a teardrop arc. It was impressive and in a way, beautiful. Elara felt a strong sense of respect for the slime. Which is why it pained her on an emotional level to turn swipe out, casing forth a spectral face resembling her own illusive mask, jagged teeth attached to an exposed cervid skull with sunken eyes. It surged forward and bit, finding purchase on, well slime and taking a little chunk of the stuff.

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If the slime felt pain here, it didn’t show it. Instead it continued it’s wonderful attack, sailing through the air and going farther than Eel had anticipated. It landed just shy of turning her into paste but hit her forearm and hand on the way down, a near-solid mass of liquid in that moment of flight. She felt something break, or snap, or just hurt really bad-

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“Shit!” Whatever was wrong with it, Elara wasn’t going to be using it anymore today. If the slime felt remorse having hurt her, it was probably balanced out by the fact that Eels had sort of hurt it first. Probably. The writer continued to put distance between them, doing her utmost to stay at her maximum effective range. Getting into an actual brawl with this creature likely meant death.

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Elara used Core - Splat Slime takes E Rank Magic Damage and is Guilty, and still [Guilt Ridden] and [Hindered]

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Elara had pondered that one for a bit well after it had been said- was it cannibalism by proxy to eat something that had eaten people? Maybe. It really depended on how much human was left after something had been digested. Did a cow or chicken live on in a person in some way if someone ate the flesh? Elara had gone vegetarian years ago but still had to wonder if she was somehow part fish. Going a step further, did eating all that greenery make her part mushroom, or part carrot? Perhaps Elara’s genetic makeup was slowly shifting more and more close to that of a potato. Either way, they were at the entrance to the sewer and would be fighting the gator, not eating it. At least Eel didn’t plan to eat it.

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She continued to put up with the bad French accent that he had been on the entire time, but had to stifle a giggle at the joke about eating in the sewer. Couldn’t encourage Gleeford, especially if it hadn’t been a joke. Elara readjusted her mask before heading inside with her partner for the day. She’d remarked in relation to her perhaps extreme preparation for sewage adventures. “Well yeah, I didn’t wanna get sewer juice all over me. But…”

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It was quite a bit different than she had initially imagined. Two upper pathways ran along the lower drainage stream, at least ten feet above the slime that rushed along down below. The smell was still a bit rank, even through her mask and ‘perfume’ preparation, but it was tolerable. She leaned over the railing with him and inspected the flow but found her mouth watering and her gag reflex working against her. Elara backed up fairly quickly, not wanting to puke so early into the mission. Or at all, really. “You’re right, I don’t like this.”

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“As for a plan…” She pulled up her system map and scanned what tunnel she could see from it, but it would probably only serve to keep from getting them horribly lost. Elara shrugged. “I guess we wander until-” She’d already started walking away and immediately spotted a little blotch of a brackish red-brown, forming a trail that made it’s way further into the tunnels. “Huh. Guess we follow the uh, the ominous trail of blood. Yeah.”

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Elara listened with as much sincerity as possible, especially to the absolute degree to which Panya asserted Santa's existence. She had to stop herself from making a face, but who was Eel to deny any of the absurdity happening since Globe-chan had moved in an taken things over? If nothing made sense, then why shouldn't ol Saint Nick be real?



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"Uh yeah, totally." Not that Elara *believed*, but hey, should could at least suspend some disbelief, yeah? She found herself genuinely nodding at Seere's comment, however. Indeed, how could we know any of this was real? For all Elara knew she was actually in a purgatory-construction of a dying mind, the last gasp of her pineal gland or some nonsense. Maybe she had in fact been killed by lightning.



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Regardless, her chest hurt from Hermey's attack, and for now she was living day to day, gathering presents more presently. Eel gathered one last envelope and moved to a more conversational place near the group. She smirked when Kurai clearly destroyed a present. Hells, lots of gifts probably got ruined just falling from the sky. How'd they even get up there, anyways? Did the sleigh's gyroscope malfunction, causing the thing to tilt? Did the present factory where all the stuff was made (or more likely bought at cost from other manufacturers and retailed for free) explode? Elara was getting lost in the sauce, and so diverted.



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"Would be kind of funny if the ones they were sending were those two we fought." She was only half-joking, but continued. "Oh, I'm Elara by the way. Pleasure to meet y'all." Eel would have offered a hand to shake or something, but was full up on Santa's errant gifts. "I think I'd just ask for something practical. Like a hair tie that you don't have to constantly re-do because it gets loose. Or maybe a nice journal to write in." she added, shaking more snow off her.

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She'd taken off at a run in the sand but Elara wasn't the fastest. Regardless, Ingrid was quick enough to catch an olympian, by Eel's untrained standards. She heard the call behind her and continued toward the base of the pathway, still a bit away from the ascent. The smell of the sea-spray now had a strong whiff of something foul, like a chamber pot that had been left in the sun. "Oof-" Elara almost stopped running, almost considered the repercussion of taking her thing's back, but carried onward- the job was to get trinkets, after all. Eel started up the hill, hearing the chiming of an otherworldly vehicle pick up behind her. Ingrid would be close-



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"Oh-ey!" She'd squirmed for a moment before she realized what was happening, the wind suddenly whipped around and an arm wrapped around Elara's waist, pulling her into position behind Ingrid on the bike. Eel's sunglasses barely stayed on her face. She wrapped her own arm back around Ingrid's waist but, rather than hanging on for dear life, hung slightly to the side to survey their climb, fast as it was. Elara's hair felt like it had left her, they were going so fast. Her partner had taken even the turn at a breakneck speed, and Eel could only assume the goblins had stolen something from her designer friend. She took a deep breath as they entered the open-air bathroom with an intense slide, straight out of an action story. Adrenaline helped distract Elara from the smell.



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The goblins held a variety of things, some with jewelry improperly hanging from themselves, one with a snow-globe dangling from their waist like a trailer hitch adornment, and another with- formerly with- Ingrid's pencil. The backpack was set in the middle of the little group, the food already spilled out. Elara's lunch was ruined. Still doing her best to hold her breath, she stepped off the bike, hands raised. The goblins cowered.



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"Not exactly warriors, then." She sounded a bit nasally. Most of the goblins had frozen, fight or flight giving way to terror-stricken paralysis. There were lots of types of goblins in fantasy, and probably in this new Earth as well, but these seemed like the mischievous, weak sort. With one already dead and adorned in a new tire print pattern, just getting the trinkets back would probably be enough...



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"Drop all the shit you stole, and leave." Elara did her best to sound authoritative, albeit still quite nasally. She would need to breath soon- but thankfully the goblins, albeit with a bit of chatter, immediately moved into action dropping a collection of baubles and of course trinkets. They were still issuing a torrent of insults and slurs that Eel would happily omit from memory. "Try a metal detector next time." There was maybe one goblin that hadn't run out of the door or climbed through the gap between the makeshift ceiling and wall; the gobbo was wriggling themselves into the hole of a toilet until they disappeared completely, going...somewhere. Elara collected her backpack and gathered up the quest junk into another bag, one she cared less about having a permanent reek, then got back into passenger position on the bike, one arm around Ingrid again.



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"Should be- should be good-" She involuntarily inhaled, and had to hold back what threatened to be a rather bad bout of dry-heaving. Still, 'Mission Complete' she thought, through tears and hacking coughs.

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"Finding the perfect place..." she muttered to herself more than to contribute to conversation. That damned feeling again, crawling back in, insidious in it's own way. One day it might be a place of peace, a gentle reminder of what could be, but right now it was so fresh, it all stung like so much seawater in a gaping wound. The home Elara had with Wendy, the place that had been and furthermore, should have been. It hurt to remember. The perfect place had existed for Eel. Emphasis on 'had'.



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She physically shook herself to clear that cloud that had begun to hang over, and would likely do so again before the day was done. Hells, Elara had to do it every night before bed. She forced her gaze to focus where it had lingered, on Ingrid's art, but was having trouble focusing. Instead she kept her gaze where it was but listened, to Ingrid and the waves beyond them. Elara realized she was squinting, the afternoon sun growing lower and lower and bouncing it's ray across the water. She'd be blinded if not for the sunglasses. Ingrid's genuine attitude shift at having noticed the food- namely the pastry- that Eel had offered was probably the most happy Eel had ever seen the designer. It helped distract. Elara even found the slight smile coming back to her, entirely unbidden but still welcome.



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"I'll grab more next time I take a shift at the café. Quaint little place in Paris, if you ever want to visit." Her peripheral caught some kind of movement, but looking to Ingrid's side she saw nothing standing out. Elara turned back to the median towel leaving the tray on the chair's arm and went to search her pack. "As for fruit... uhhh..."



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The backpack was gone. "The shit?" Elara turned left, right, did a few loops around before spying green movement racing up the pathway away from the beach. The smell of something foul hit her just after, though the wind carried it away rather quickly. Eel was able to follow with her eyes small humanoid footprints in the sand moving away from the picnic space. If she listened carefully, she could hear shrill cackling, and a string of expletives far more coarse than anything Elara would utter herself. "Ingrid, we've got goblins, and they've got my stuff!" She kicked off her sandals and hauled ass toward the pathway without another thought, entirely forgetting that Ingrid's bike would have been way faster, kicking up more than a little bit of sand. Elara had grown really fond of that backpack.

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"We're chilling, maybe literally..." Elara murmured to herself as Kurai got a good hit in, and Hermeys seemed fit to go lick his wounds elsewhere, or maybe he was just repositioning, waiting for all those debuffs to wear off before racing back to ruin Eel's day further and steal the last letters to Santa she'd found. Speaking of, a few letters seemed to flutter in place from where Hermeys had taken off, a cartoon-esque afterimage forming in the shape of the paper. As Elara took a moment to appreciate the absurdity, another large gift plummeted from the sky and hit her square between the shoulder blades, knocking her flat to the ground.



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"Guh-" she sputtered and scrambled, trying to get to her feet before some prick of an elf could come steal her gifts, but the speedster didn't come back. Least, not yet. Whatever, maybe never, hopefully gone forever. Elara felt dizzy. "Friggin'..." She stood and straightened, fully aware the group was still being accosted by former-dentist turned attempted-murderer Hermey. Had to dust this second elf so they could gather these presents in peace.



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Elara hefted the bag at her back and put hands in front of her in her version of a battle stance and pressed forward toward the wayward elf. She skirted the sideline of the skirmish and swiped at Hermey, sending an ephemeral skull similar in appearance to the one her face illumed into straight at him. It would fly and bite at Hermey, teeth like they were filed on rocks and bone clamping down and tearing at flesh, but leaving no physical damage behind, just lingering pain and whatever damage it did to the ego. Hermey would feel intense regret and remorse, probably over talking a client into a root canal they hadn't really needed or fitting someone with recycled crowns.



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Elara used Core - Hermey is Guilty and takes C Rank Magic Damage

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