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#FreedomFalls – December 8, 2016
"I know right?!" Sioria shouts as she runs. "I'll show you some stuff about it later!" She looks back as she runs, hearing about biotics. "Hey hey! No cheating!" She yells. Even with the heavy winter gear the athletic Turian is speedy on her feet. She can spy the ladder dead ahead, victory was within her grasp!
Ehanis is hot on her heels, but the asari is unable to catch up with the turian. "An early start is cheating too!" she calls back. The turian might notice the sound of a biotic field dissipating onto the snowy path beside her, but it has no physical effect on the turian. Was it a failed cheat? A deliberate taunt? Only Ehanis knows.
Sioria continues to run, laughing all the way. "My evil plan worked! Muahaha!" she shouts back. She looks to her side with a sense of alarm when she hears the biotic field, stopping for just a moment to shield herself. As soon as she realises nothing happened, she zips off again. "Hey! I said no biotics!" Now she was very slightly behind.
Ehanis manages to catch up with the turian, now running on her right. "Wasn't me," she snaps, sounding very unconvincing. When they get close to the ladder, she makes another attempt at using unconventional tactics by quickly shoving the turian's side with her shoulder. The lightweight asari is probably out of luck, but she wasn't going to accept the loss yet.
Sioria is caught in just the right spot, knocking Sioria off balance at the right moment to send her tumbling, but not without catching Ehanis' foot by accident. She rolls in the snow, until she comes to a stop, face white with snow that clings to her facial plates. "Fleh." She says as she blows loose snow from the corners of her mouth.
Ehanis stumbles when her foot is kicked out from under her, the turian's accidental retribution proving a success. She lands on her ass, which evokes a low pained groan. The asari looks around and narrows her eyes at the turian while getting to her feet. There's a grin on her face, though, as the odds seems to be tipped in her favor.
Sioria looks up for just a moment, catching Ehanis' eyes. A grin spreads through the snow, shaking some more loose before she scrambles on all fours for a step or two and climbs up to her feet. "That was dirty!" she shouts as she runs, kicking up snow with each step.
Ehanis starts running, as well, and manages to grip onto the first rungs of the ladder before the turian can catch up. She was pushed further away than the asari after all. "You knocked me on the ass, too," she defends herself, "so we're even!"
"Hey, that was accidental." Sioria says with a pout... or as close to a pout as a Turian can get. "You purposely shoved me. And used your biotics to do... something?" she tilts her head. "Ergo... you're a rotten egg." She gives a confident nod and puts her hands on her hips, then begins giggling. "Shall we just say it was a draw?"
Ehanis lets go of the ladder. Accident.... Very likely. "Excuses, excuses," she says, followed by a shrug. "Yes, let's settle on draw, that we're both 'rotten eggs'."
Sioria pinches her nose. "Agreed." she says, then chuckles. "Anyway... I wonder what the view from up there is like..." The Turian looks up at the top of the ladder. "I don't see any warning signs. You wanna take point, or shall I?" she asks, looking back to her blue friend.
Ehanis nods. "I'll check it out," she says and begins climbing the ladder. "We haven't been told to fuck off yet, so I don't think there's anyone up there." When she reaches the top, she walks over to the opposite side, and calls back, "Clear!"
The tower's standing about 10 meters (30ft) above the ground, making the viewports on its side see over most treetops. The house is a small block of wood with a metal frame, that has viewports in all four directions aside from the entrance. There is no electricity in it, however. The room is big enough for about 3-4 people. From it, three other such towers like this can be seen further north. It's difficult to see the
ground further away from their position, however, but the gaps made by cutting down trees for pathways makes it possible to see where the path leads. Someone with a keen eye may see that it forms a circuit further north that goes through a clearing at its northmost point and follows along the side of a small frozen lake to the north-west.
Seconds layer, Sioria's flappy-hatted head pokes up at the top of the ladder. She scrambles inside and glances around, a little non-plussed. "Well this is exciting." she says, a little sarcastically. "Not quite what I expected. How's the view?" The Turian walks over to the nearest view port and peers out, then smiles. "Now this is what I'm talking about. Look at that..." she looks to the
Ehanis nods, not taking her eyes off the frozen lake as she listens to the turian. "The view is great," she says. "Do you think that ice lake will hold my weight? Not that I like slipping and falling on my ass, but at least it won't catch me off-guard!" She sighs. "I can't remember the last time I went anywhere that's got a winter like this. It must be fifty years at least."
Sioria blinks as she stands beside Ehanis. "I keep forgetting you Asari pretty much live forever." she says, watching the trees gently sway in the light wind. "Fifty years... My parents were kids back then. Almost babies, even." the Turian shakes her head and chuckles a little. "The universe, ladies and gentlemen. Anyway! The lake!" She opens her omnitool and looks it over. "Well, its
minus fifteen, apparently. That should be enough to freeze at least a few inches beneath the surface, right?"
Ehanis smirks at the turian's good news about the lake. Maybe they'll get time to test it later.... "The humans have the best reactions," she says. "Especially the newcomers." She laughs and shakes her head. "Fifty years is no joke, though," she continues. "I was a little kit that long ago."
Sioria gives a small nod of understanding. "Yeah, but don't you gals live to be a thousand?" she asks, taking her eyes from the view and looking at Ehanis. "I guess my fifty would be like your five-hundred. Middle aged." She shakes her head and huffs with amusement. "Not sure who has it better. Probably you." she gives Ehanis a small nudge. "Is that what Asari kids are called? Kits? Like
Ehanis shrugs. "Not that simple," she says. "I'm lucky if I live another decade as a merc. We learn the hard way to not take things for granted, enjoying what's there while it's there instead of worrying too much about when it's gone."
Sioria chuckles slightly. "Not all of us learn it the hard way. My parents taught me that exact lesson, live in the now, don't take things for granted. Focus on the good and find the beauty in things and you'll be happy." She gives the ol' double thumbs up again. "Worked so far! Hell, its why I had a thing for you. You're a positive thing in my life, that's why I like hanging out with
Ehanis scoffs. "You must have a lot of negative crap going on, then," she says with a smirk. "I'm not a very positive-..."
The calm ambience is broken by the sound of a short gunfire burst in the distance, from the north. There are no sounds immediately following it, and whatever made it can't be seen from their position.
Sioria blinks as she hears the gunshot ring out. "... damn hunters..." she mutters. "Gunshots like that always put me on edge, no matter the context." Her she rubs at her upper arms for a few moments. "And no, you're not very positive, but we still have fun together. That fun is what I focus on, that and trying to make you think positive." She gives Ehanis a side-long glance with a smirk.
Ehanis laughs. "You turians never back down from impossible missions, do you?" she says. "Maybe that's why I like them so much...." Her tone is light-hearted, making it unclear whether she's admitting to something there. The gunshot was already out of her mind as she focused on the conversation with the turian.
Sioria smiles warmly. "Hey, if there's a reward I think is worth doing the mission for? Hell yeah I'll do it." she says with a chuckle. She does give her a small eyebrow quirk at her response though, trying to read into it... but she decides to stop. She didn't want to get all worked up about it. "Yeah, you Asari ain't half bad either." She smiles happily. "You wanna go check out that
lake?" Her eyes were still locked on Ehanis'. "You could watch me fall on my ass a few times, it'll be fun!"
Ehanis nods. "Yeah, let's go," she says. "We might as well walk all the way around while we're here." She walks over to the ladder and quickly descends it down to the ground and out of the way.
Sioria takes a moment to savour that little moment before following suit, grabbing the ladder railings by either side and sliding down the length of it. She lands with a dull 'whump' and steps back from the ladder, shaking each boot in turn. "Always forget how fun that is." she says with a warm smile. "Sliding down a ladder. Gets the adrenaline going a little bit." She turns to Ehanis
Ehanis smirks. "I tried doing that once, it... didn't go well," she says. "I think we just follow the path and take a left at the next fork." Her eyes dart towards her right (north) upon hearing something, however.
There is someone running through the forest towards the tower they just climbed down from, but the running person's dark blue hooded winter coat makes them hard to identify, but their height seems to be below five feet. There's no sign of a gun on them, but not much of their back is visible from their angle.