[center][h3][color=f49ac2]Smudge Pixelby[/color][/h3][/center]

Nebulius spoke and IA-920 replied. [color=f49ac2]"A journal,"[/color] said the girl, very softly, from somewhere between the fears of saying too much and too little. [color=f49ac2]"A-a-a warlock's travel journal, from Qi Tiān to-"[/color] Boot, chest, breaking point.

Smudge shrieked and her volume glitched out, exploded in a stunning blast of feedback. A dozen arms of dazzling snow leapt from her face to Mergoux's, tangling, dissolving and reforming without depth or distance, as if they were all part of the same flickering hole in space.

It took less than a moment. IA-920 had a second's worth of Mergoux's shock and used it to grab her sword by the blade, burying it in writhing snow from tip to pommel and up past her wrist. Something inside the static left cuts through Mergoux's glove as it moved.

[color=f49ac2]"I'm a [i]kid![/i]"[/color] yelled the voice from the crackling speakers. [color=f49ac2]"Leave me [i]alone![/i]"[/color]