Quoted By:
Your name is <span class="mu-b">MOROOK</span> and you <span class="mu-s">HATE</span> <span class="mu-i">Cities</span>.
You were spared the brunt of it when your new friend Oti teleported you here from Crossroads, but if you had known what you were getting yourself into, well…
You probably would have stayed home.
A gut-wrenching ride through one of those damned <span class="mu-r">TELEFONTS</span> spat you out into a sea of <span class="mu-s">SMITH STREET</span>-goers… the chattering masses dwarfing any crowd you ever braved in Crossroads.
Even with the road slowly conveying your forward, you can’t help but tense up as a constant surge of impatient pedestrians shove and slink past you and the girls like their lives depended on it!
And the noise. The <span class="mu-i">NOISE</span>! You’d learned how to tune out background chatter growing up in <span class="mu-s">CHUUTRA-LEY</span>, but tuning out other Chytree and some magic here and there is one thing…
“<span class="mu-i">JEWELRY! FIIIINE JEWELRY! KIIDO’S CORNER! FOLLOW MY VOICE!</span>”
“<span class="mu-i">KONAAL’S CONSTRUCTS! THEY CLEAN! THEY COLLECT! THEY PROTECT!</span>”
“<span class="mu-i">DON’T BE A SNACK! GO ON THE ATTACK! COME TO REDNA’S FOR THE FINEST POKERS, SLICERS, AND SLINGERS IN TOWN!</span>”
‘<span class="mu-i">The City of the Future</span>’, or so they keep saying… and yet the whole place is standing room only and is louder than a pack of mating Niiski. But while those sounds were natural and, if you’re being honest, somewhat endearing while camping beneath the open sky, the constant cacophony here in Umberal just feels… <span class="mu-i">perverse</span>.
And then there’s the <span class="mu-i">magic</span>. You can almost understand why Lila’s head is always throbbing–the energy had never really bothered you much before, but here? It’s <span class="mu-i">stifling</span>.
Your claw idly wanders to the <span class="mu-b">SLINGER</span> slug across your back as the unyielding advertisements cause you to bristle up with growing anxiety. It wasn’t ole’ reliable–that was taken from you when you were caught by cultists–but your backup could still fell a bull Makaar from across a fenn provided you hit the right spot–
“Butter? Seriously?”
Through some small miracle, the sound of your companions chatting behind you rouses you from your Metropolis Morosity. Glancing over your shoulder, you find Volka exactly where you left her: speaking with her diminutive new friend Tzah-Tzie about, well… who knows?
“Thresher Seed Butter, mhm!” The Spinner nods from atop your sister’s broad shoulder! “See, your hair is so long and thick, Volkie, but–”
Ah. cosmetics. You’d be lying if you said you weren’t happy to see your sister making friends… especially ones outside of The Lamplighters.
“So that’s it, then? Just rub some in after bathing?” The Skog replies with her brow freshly-furrowed in intense concentration! “But I already use hair soap-”
>CONTD.
