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Post by CJ on Oct 11, 2014 0:46:45 GMT -5
"Oh," Achlys said as he looked blank faced at Maisie. "Well, I still got to kill yoou! Jou're apparently too stoopid to realize that attack wouldn't work on a Vir! Stoopid!"
He pressed his hands against the side of Dofun's mask in distress. First, the son who he thought had betrayed him was calling him, "Dad." Then, the strange depressed man was telling him that he was a terrible father. How could he kill them all now when this new development was afoot? Could he honestly kill his own demon son after such a moment?
"I care for my son! Watch! I will show yoou! Son, what do yoou want to say?"
The chimera stood slowly. He had no irises or pupils to be seen in his bright, white glowing eyes, but it was clear that Briar was extremely nervous. He spoke slowly at first. His voice echoed throughout the void of the dream.
"I wasn't lying before when I said I wanted to give up my life for my guild Here, it doesn't matter if I'm a human or demon. I'm an important part of this guild. Elrond, Maisie, Beauty and so many others were fighting to keep me alive, even at a terrible risk to their own lives. For that, they mean more to me than if they were the highest class of demon. I don't like all of my guild mates. not anymore. But even if I only liked one of them, they'd all be worth saving. That's how I feel, Lord Achlys."
"Don't call me that, son."
"What?" Briar asked in fear.
"Don't call me Lord Ackleez anymore. I am jour Papa, not your Lord. Yoou and my followers have always known it but have been too scared to say it in my presence. I'm hooman. I'm more powerful than any deemon I've created, but I'm hooman all the same. I was foolish to assume yoou'd never love hoomans. It's obvious now that yoou love them because I am one. Yoou love hoomans because yoou love jour father."
"Oh, yeah, totally. That's why."
Briar was obviously lying. There was no way he'd say the truth, that he just liked the Renascence members for who they were, not because of his "love" for Achlys at all.
There was a moment of silence before the chimera spoke again.
"So... you'll turn me into a human and free my friends?"
"Of course not!" Achlys laughed. "I can't make humans out of nothing and I certainly can't change yoou into one either. I can let yoou and jour friends continue jour pitiful existence though!"
"Oh, well. That's a lot better than I thought was going to happen so that's OK, I guess."
With a cute bark, the dog gently tapped Stanley's head and skipped with the corgi that once attacked Jupiter over to Achlys. Still in Dofun's body, he leaned back onto one of them. He chuckled to himself as he witnessed Stanley's metal kitchen cart explode into flames.
"Before I release you out of this nightmare, I have a riddle for yoou all. Depending on how yoou answer, I will grant yoou wonderful gifts for showing me the truth of my son's wonderful love! Here is it.
"Yoou are a tiny chipmunk with a company of other chipmunks, lost and lonely in a storm. With yoou is jour elderly chipmunk grandfather who is deathly ill with chipmunk fever. The other is your dark chipmunk god who saved jour life and to whom yoou owe jour life. The final is the love of jour chipmunk life, the beau-ti-fool Princessu Chipmunk-desu. If yoou leave her alone, yoou will never see her again.
"A friendly turtle offers to take yoou and another chipmunk away from the storm. Who do yoou choose to go with yoou?"
---
Outside of the dream in the guild hall, Beauty climbed the stairs and looked coldly at Alden. She shook her hair out of her face and knelt near the magic item user.
"Hey," she said. "You awake? We need that sand now. If you don't respond, I'm going to borrow it, OK?"
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Oct 12, 2014 1:30:10 GMT -5
Beauty approached Alden, though he merely looked at her as she addressed him. He responded about as plainly as he ever had.
"Show me what you need it for, and I'll use it for you."
Getting up, he held the jar open and waited for Beauty to lead the way to what it was she needed to do. He wasn't going to hand over the jar of sand, so instead he'd just use it himself as she needed.
---
"What? I've only been in the Guild for a few weeks here, how am I supposed to know what Elrond is weak or immune to, I've never even seen him fight before! If you want my respect as your son, you're going to have to act better as a father."
Maisie obviously knew what Elrond was weak or immune to, but it didn't really matter so much, that was the story she was trying to run with. It seemed though it didn't matter much, since things were coming to a head. Briar had somehow stirred a change of heart in Achyls, and it appeared as though he were going to return things to normal. Well except for Stanley, who blew up.
The riddle though, Maisie took a second to think about, before responding.
"I would send my grandfather and the Princess with the turtle. I'd guess the dark god could survive a storm, and I owe them my life, so I'll take my chances and remain by their side."
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Post by Hitotsumami on Oct 16, 2014 23:47:53 GMT -5
Elrond listened to the question.
"I agree with Maisie," he said. "However, your riddle specifically states that I, along with another, must go. That, I can't answer."
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Post by Mise™ on Oct 17, 2014 3:42:24 GMT -5
Atre seemed content when Achlys had a change of heart and he now happily accepted Briar as his son. For a brief moment it almost looked like Atre smiled there. It would seem like everything was fine for now.
Jupiter was still having problems grasping what was happening around him, though he did understand that the situation has improved. The dog he was fighting against had also disappeared.
When met with the riddle Atre would respond in his usual fashion by claiming that that the situation was ”...Horrible.” and not giving an answer beyond that. Jupiter thought of the situation for a second and then responded: ”I'd drag them all outta the storm by myself. Even the turtle if had to.”
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Post by CJ on Dec 3, 2014 22:31:48 GMT -5
"There isn't any time to waste. Give me the damn thing so we can get our friends back!"
Beauty's anger was getting the better of her. She went to lash out at Alden until she noticed the people in the room beginning to stir.
"What? People are waking up? But how?"
---
Achlys leaned back in his chair and hummed to himself as he listened to all of the answers. He tilted Dofun's head and placed his hands on his knees.
"The point of the riddle that I learned from the dumb hooman who I set on FIRE and then promptly fed to my fire hounds is that there is no answer! There is no hooman who has the same friendships. Your silly yield leader might not like his father, but here joo can see that my son does!"
Was it a guess or did Achlys actually know about the relationship between Elrond and his father?
"Although I heard that putting the grandfather and the dark god on the turtle and staying behind the princess is the right answer. But who cares! Jou're free! Praise jour humble existence as the friends of my son! And if he dies, I'll be back to kill joo! Ahaha!"
Achlys's laugh echoed in their minds as the nightmare came crumbling to an end.
---
It might have felt like the Renascence guild members were waking up after a long dream. They couldn't be blamed for questioning if their encounter with Achlys. Various guild members got up from their slumber and stumbled about in confusion.
Just as Achlys had told them, few would find gifts in their laps as they woke.
Maisie would discover a pen engraved with cryptic runes. Writing with this pen would produce writing in a multitude of languages. There were ten different ones in all, which could be accessed by turning the grip around to select the chosen language.
Elrond would find a dark mirror. Looking into it would show him his heart's desire, though it wasn't his deepest. Rather, it was what he thought he truly wanted, nothing more. It would show the desires of others who were to peer into it as well.
Jupiter would find a magical coin purse that was small, but held an infinite amount of money. Inside was the equivilant of $7.13.
Atre would find a half eaten bag of gummy bears, just what Briar had promised him before.
Nearby, Briar walked about. When the spell ended, He looked exhausted, but as always, he couldn't fall asleep due to his curse. He tucked his floppy ears underneath his long, black hair. He saw Dofun, lying among the others.
Not a soul had known what horrible experience Dofun had gone through in the body of Achlys. Who knew who long the clown would remain asleep, for his very spirit was damaged.
"He's not waking up," Briar said solemnly. "He's lucky. Where does he usually sleep? I guess he could sleep in my bed."
He sighed and held his head low.
"Dad..." he whispered. It seemed the ordeal had a great effect on him, though he seemed to try and keep it secret.
Meanwhile, Cinder had also fallen into a deep sleep. Not much attention had been paid to her and the guild members would have no idea what her very soul had been traded with a dog's in one of Achlys's cruel games. Like Dofun, it was unknown if she'd ever wake again.
Meanwhile, Qi smiled in delight to see that every one had suddenly made it back safe. She opened her mouth to speak, but suddenly saw the jar of Achlys's Sand in Alden's hands and grew quiet. She suddenly turned and hobbled out of the room as fast as she could. She nearly fell, but caught herself as she exited through the door.
---
If anyone had followed Qi, they would easily find her in the dorms. She was by herself in her room, speaking softly. Her voice barely echoed into the hall.
"I can't let it go. I want the sand so badly and I don't know how to stop myself from trying to seek it out. What do I do?"
A peek into the room would reveal her small frame sitting on her bed with her back turned toward the door. She was facing the wall with her face concealed.
"I tried, but I couldn't even stay to see if everyone was alright. I'm a horrible friend."
She shook her head, as though there was someone in the room with her.
"No, you don't understand. I let Elrond down. I let everyone down."
She sobbed and began to wipe her face with her sleeve.
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Dec 7, 2014 0:51:59 GMT -5
Beauty went to lash out at him, and Alden reached for his sword. If she didn't think she was about to make a mistake, she would learn. The chance never came though, when it seemed that the fell sorcery which had plagued the guild was finally lifting.
"Well I think that's about as good a case as any, that we should probably learn a bit more about people before we just let them into the Guild."
Moving to his feet, he kept a hand on the jar while he watched the others, but he seemed to have missed Qi's reaction. Instead, he moved over to Cinder, kneeling beside her. He jostled her in an attempt to wake her up, but wasn't hopeful of the success. He pondered using the sand, but decided to wait for now.
---
"Oh wow, I don't think I've ever gotten a gift this nice!"
Maisie came to, rubbing her eyes at first and setting her hat aside. When she sat up though, she noticed the pen nearly fall from her lap but caught it in time. Taking a look at it, she was rather ecstatic, and spoke fairly honestly. Her fans rained praise upon her, but this was a more personal and to be honest, much nicer gift than she was used to receiving. Examining it a bit closer, she spoke a little more quietly to no one in particular, without any assumption as to anyone even hearing it.
"Thanks dad."
---
Fathom traipsed out of the kitchen, moving a cart with the outsides of the cube of water. Laying sprawled across it and muttering various nonsenses about driving was Stanley. It seemed the dream had a greater effect on him than most, and he wasn't entirely lucid yet.
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Post by Mise™ on Dec 8, 2014 16:08:19 GMT -5
After a moment Jupiter found himself back in the Renascence guild house, as if nothing had ever happened. He wasn't quite sure what this all had been about, but felt like he understood enough to not bother his head with it anymore. All that mattered that everything seemed to be okay.
Jupiter was soon reminded of his crazy spending just a couple of hours ago as he discovered the purse that had been given to him. His excitement soon faded away as Jupiter found out exactly how much money there was inside. ”...” Jupiter was very bad with money, and numbers in general, but even he could figure out that this was nowhere near enough to pay for all the luxuries he had purchased. For the moment Jupiter just stood there, staring at his nearly empty purse with a very troubled look on his face.
---
As soon as he had arrived to the guild house Atre disappeared in to thin air, just like he usually does. He did not even take the gummy bears that were given to him and instead left them behind. Sweets were horrible anyway. If anyone wanted to they were free to eat the gummy bears, Atre probably wouldn't even remember them the next time he would return.
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Post by crocoduck on Dec 13, 2014 4:09:56 GMT -5
Pre-arenaDruid had been pretty oblivious to it all at first. He had given up on creating visuals to aid his thought process, after vandalizing every inch of the room with ink. So he sat there, butt naked and cross legged, just thinking. He was using an advanced technique that regular humans were incapable of. He still wasn't quite sure how HE was capable of it, as studying his own mind proved difficult. It was similar to the mind palace technique he used to memorize, but instead of using locations to improve his memory, he used locations and his imagination to help guide multiple thought processes at the same time without losing one. He didn't use it often, as it required that he dedicate only a percentage of his concentration to each "road." The fewer roads he had, the faster he could travel them simultaneously. At the moment, he had 5 main roads that were already beginning to split off and become 12 in total. It was mentally exhausting.
Occasionally, one of the roads would reach a dead end, resulting in an actual physical reaction of relief as a chunk of his mind was temporarily free to rest. Immediately after, however, he had to dedicate it back to the other roads. It was here that he realized something was wrong.
With his eyes close and his attention hyperfocused on his thoughts, he had completely missed the fact that the guild had gone dark and that his body was glowing. He even failed to notice that all of his senses had become hyperacute at first. It was only when all of the sensory overload started to cause his roads to blur that he realized something was breaking his concentration. Gently saving his locations in each of the roads, being careful not to open his eyes and return back to the real world with one main mental road too quickly, he slowly brought himself out of his intellectual trance, only to find himself no longer in the guild.
He was sitting fully clothed in the middle of a random arena, across from a person he didn't recognize. There was a massive sensory overload as his body switched from sensing nothing but his thoughts to an entirely new set of sights, smells and sounds very suddenly. After a brief moment, he finally tuned in to the obnoxious narration and realized how interesting the situation was.
ArenaHis intuition told him something was off, but he didn't believe in intuition. Intuition was just your subconscious working off of your experience and sense to inform you of things that your conscious mind couldn't quite comprehend. And his subconscious was pretty skeeved out. He had never felt this way before and it was .... fascinating. He began to focus his magic on his body, preparing for a massive transformation. He could already see that it would be needed
He completely disregarded the person across from him and only mildly paid attention to the narrator. His real focus was on his surroundings. What he could immediately tell was that an amazing magic was at work. Judging from the sounds and voices and the narration, a large portion of the guild had been transported to an entirely new location.
No... It was an entirely new realm! Druid could smell it, or to be more accurate, he could not smell it. He had spent a lifetime studying his world, his dimension. He could tell when something was off. The smell of the air was the exact same as the one in his room, which didn't make sense considering they were in an entirely new location. Which most likely meant that the air been transported here just as he had.
Nerding out and discovering that it's a nightmare thingy, not interacting with anybody.
Listening more to the narration for clues Druid finally started paying a little attention to his arena-mate, as the man across from him did not seem at all hesitant to obey the narrator's voice. Druid was also a little compelled to participate. He had read very little regarding demon magic, in the same cryptic and rare books that described god slayers. Very interesting magic, but also absurdly volatile. He was curious, but he dared not risk wielding something that would prematurely end his search for enlightenment.
As his opponent shot forwards, Druid suddenly activated the green aura that had been coating his body. He had been sitting with it on for at least three minutes, and ever since the incident where he turned into a dinosaur, he could feel that his strength had been growing at an incredible pace. Something else that he would have to attempt to quantify and explain. But in this place especially, he felt even more that his abilities were stronger than ever. Three minutes of preparation was previously already very significant and powerful for him, allowing for complicated hybridizations. Now, however, something told him he could go even wilder.
Very suddenly, his two legs were replaced with that of a cheetah's. His arms were replaced with eight octopus arms around his body and the tips of these arms (tentacles) were replaced with a cassowary claw while the portion below that had the lining of a gecko's hand. His neck was replaced with that of an exceptionally tall giraffe with two sets of mantis shrimp eyes at the top and 7 sets of mantis shrimp sticking out of the neck (one at each vertebra), with one of the eyes actually being a robin's eye. Wherever there was an eye, there was also an owl ear beside it. His nose had once again been replaced by that of a silverback snout. All around his body large arm-sized humming bird wings jutted out from the body and flapped vigerously. And to top it all off, every part of the body was covered in a thick shark-octopus skin hybrid, making him invisible and giving him a natural armor.
This was the most complex and exaggerated, complex and insane transformation he had ever performed. He even did something he had never done before; he generated three new brains to help process and control all of the extra senses he currently had. At the moment, he could smell perfectly, see perfectly in all directions, hear perfectly in all directions, he could be invisible, he could stab people and his arms could stick to any surface, and he was extremely fast at sprinting. Oh and he could see magnetic fields.
Immediately, this transformation caused two things. One, it made him feel AWFUL. His heart rate was accelerating, there was a disgusting feeling in the pit of his stomach. It was no longer just intuition, his entire body was rejecting this world. It also caused him to realize something was very wrong with this place. Even with his increased magic ability, he shouldn't have been able to do that, much less remain standing after doing it. For him to possibly conceive of doing such a massive transformation in the real world, he would have to concentrate on the magic and the anatomies for an entire day, focusing and molding the chakra. Even then, he'd still be exhausted after doing it. The most likely theory was that this realm that they had entered was rich in something that made magic much easier to perform and much more powerful. The only thing that would do that is if magic had a fuel or a base particle and this place was saturated with it, which was fascinating in and of itself. His nose, his mantis shrimp eyes and his robin eye told him that there was no solar light in this place, no scents that weren't from the guild and no apparent magnetic field from the poles of their planet. They were definitely not in their dimension/realm.
That narrowed it down some, and yet, not at all. Theoretical physics was already frustratingly impossible to understand, mixing in magic made it just downright unfair. He had trouble believing this was another universe or dimension like the celestial spirits dimension, because this was clearly all there was to it. There were no surroundings, which mean this pocket of existence had been made entirely for this purpose. Even with the multiverse theory, that seemed highly unlikely. It was possible that somebody had a magic ability that allowed them to create and/or manipulate dimensions, but even the most powerful and legendary of mages would have to expand an outrageous amount of energy to perform and maintain such a thing, especially with this many mages running rampant.
With each second, his eyes, ears and nose told him of all of the fights occuring around the arena and he was further convinced that this wasn't the case of a mage creating a new dimension. That thing that was pretending to be the interesting clown was manipulating the entire arena to its amusement. Druid could tell it wasn't Dofun because the smell was different, entirely different and entirely unique. He made sure to note it.
That left one category of abilities more probable than any other: illusions. Either he was in his own mind right now, imagining all of this, or they were all in the mage's mind or they were sharing a collective psychic connection. It wouldn't really make sense for it to be his own mind because he was dedicating the entirety of his conscience to the mental exercise earlier and he only felt a distraction when his senses were disturbed. Additionally, all of the information he was taking in right now about his guild-mates and their enemy was far too real He was seeing abilities he had never seen before, nor that he suspected people of having. It could have been his creativity, but even with his intelligence, maintaining this complex an illusion while having this complex a thought process while making up entire stories and abilities for all of these mages was just something he couldn't do so effortlessly.
Hm...
"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. WH..WHA...WHAT IS THIS. AGORUSHAGGAAAAAAAAAAH"
For the first time since he transformed, Druid looekd down at his opponent who was kneeling before him, grabbing his head and screaming with pain. It took Druid to realize that when he went invisible, the man must have used some ability that allowed him to sense everything Druid was sensing. He was clutching his eyes, ears and nose desperately; frantically switching between them. Druid had an ungodly amount of sensory input right now, and even he could barely control it, despite having made 3 additional brains for it. The man at his feet had given himself the biggest headache ever. With a slight interested smile, Druid made a note of his ability and hovered into the air, getting a better view of the battlefield.
He was ready for the man to strike out at him, but it seemed the fact that he appeared to be fighting his opponent was enough to satiate the mysterious and seemingly omnipotent mage. His apparent omnipotence was what was leading Druid to believe they were all in this ma- oh.
That was when he saw Elrond's attack be manipulated by the mage, and then Elrond doing some world manipulation of his own. The manipulation was not relevant to his powers and the mage who was confident up until now seemed shocked that Elrond had done it.
They were in a shared illusion. That explained why the man that they had previously called a companion was making them disappear, doing it with a very weird pattern that wasn't indicative of somebody that was out to murder for power.
FASCINATING. This is why his magical abilities were so augmented and yet it was having such an odd mental and physiological affect on him. Along with the racing heartbeat and the feeling in the pit of his stomach, Druid had felt some raw emotion boiling at the edge of his consciousness, almost like anger or desperation. Two emotions he was unaccustomed to. He was doing pretty well at keeping them at bay, but they were distracting and they were certainly present.
His magic wasn't actually augmented, he just believed it so powerfully that he was changing the rules of his body in this illusion using his own mind. In turn, the more he manipulated this "reality" the more his mind went haywire. It probably also had something to do with the fact that his mind was currently, in some way, connected to all the others, seeing as they were sharing this illusion.
SO. INTERESTING.
Somewhere in his mind he knew that this was bad. He knew that he was extremely vulnerable and so were all the interesting test subjects in the guild, but he couldn't stop marveling at it all. He was watching, hearing and smelling every guild member in their fights, absorbing information about all their abilities. He was watching Briar and Achyls performing an extremely foreign and amazing magic. For a moment, he even stopped trying to understand what was happening, he was too enthralled with watching the scenes around him. He occasionally dodged a random projectile and even an attack from his opponent who had apparently recovered, which was surprising and impressive. Now he was shooting large what appeared to be energy arrows. With his eyes, ears and maneuverable wings, he was able to evade them easily. It seemed like the mage was capable for more, but the perception overload from earlier had apparently made him groggy.
It was around this time that Druid realized this was coming to an end.
The anticlimatic climax The powerful mage had discovered what was happening and revealed that this was merely a nightmare, which was a lie, and was beginning to reconcile his deranged relationship with his.... child. Druid just couldn't stop thinking about the fact that this wasn't just some simple shared nightmare, their magic abilities told him it wasn't that simple. He could tell he wouldn't have much time to explore the world more, however. He wouldn't be able to seek all the answers he needed. Instead, he focused on the one thing he could do before this all ended.
The mage spoke of riddles as Druid focused all of his magical power into every cell in his hybrid body. He poured all of the energy he could imagine himself ever having and exerted his stamina and his mind to its very limit. He cancelled all of his transofmations in mid air, returning to his normal senses and body, glowing in green magical energy as he plummeted towards the ground.
Halfway through, his body erupted into an explosion of green energy just as the nightmare began to crumble away. He could see the world around him crumbling, but he desperately clung to the nightmare while all the others gratefully escaped it. In the last few seconds, he witnessed the green pulse of energy be followed by a warm, glowing white light. He felt his body stop plummeting and start soaring, a comforting heat surrounding his entirety and a vitality growing within him that he had never felt before. And then it ended suddenly, the crumbling edge of the nightmare reached him and he suddenly couldn't hold on to the thin reality in his mind any longer, nor could he keep the emotions at bay. All at once, his mind was ripped from the nightmare and simultaneously slammed with the awful feelings he had been repressing while everyone had already experienced and gotten over him.
He woke and jerked up to a sitting position suddenly, arching his back with a loud roar that sounded like an eagle if eagles were more like lions. As he did so, a torrent of flame spewed from his mouth in a powerful, condensed ray that penetrated the roof of his room and through any levels of the guild above him, reaching far into the sky.
With amazement, he closed his mouth and looked down at his body just quickly enough to watch the scales suddenly return to skin, the claws shrink back to nails and the wings wither away into nothingness.
Seems I've been wrong about my abilities. It was the best thought he could conceive and it was a supreme understatement. HE had managed to turn himself into some form of dragon within the nightmare, and a portion of the transformation occurred in real life, even if just for a very short while. Without even trying, he could tell he wouldn't be able to do that again, at least not for a very long time until he could master and understand his abilities.
He was definitely right about that not being a regular nightmare. Shame he couldn't stay conscious for any longer to analyze this more. The transformation seemed to have sucked every last oucne of strength otu of him, after he had just so recently recovered from his last overexertion. He lay there butt naked in his room, face down and out cold.
OOC: SUMMARY: Druid only noticed something was up when he was teleported to the arena. He ignored dude across from him, realized he had much more power than usual, easily did an insane transformation that he couldn't possibly do in real life, at least not that easily. Watched everybody fighting with his, like, 16 eyeballs and ears and bear nose, realized it was something illusion/nightmare-y without anybody saying it. His opponent used an ability to copy Druid's senses, causing an intense sensory overload that kinda crippled him long enough for druid to watch everything without making Achlys annoyed enough to force him back to fighting. Once he realized the nightmare was about to end, he focused all of his energy and power, theorizing that this isn't just a nightmare where his power is gained simply by being imaginative and thinking it happened. Tried to turn himself into a mythical creature (a dragon), something he had always considered as a very far off and improbable use of his powers. Nightmare ended just as he managed to perform the transformation, he wakes up suddenly, breathing a ray of fire that penetrates through the ceiling of his room, the roof of the guild house and going far into the air. Almost immediately ends and his body returns to normal. Now he's laying naked in his room, unconscious.
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