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Jossar
Apr 2, 2018

Current status: Angry about subs :argh:
Recollection

You feel really awful for your brother. You and Raisa dragged him into this project of yours, and by the time he finally turned around and wanted it for himself, the spirits slammed his hopes into the dirt. You clench your fist in anger just thinking about it.

“I won’t give up on you, Ruvim. We just have to figure out how to get past this block.”

“Well...” Raisa comments, “everybody’s constantly getting a little bit of spiritual energy from their food, but that isn’t enough to start the process. We had to inject ourselves with a lot of energy all at once. So maybe if Ruvim has a higher starting threshold, we just need to find something really big.”

The problem, of course, is where you're going to find such a thing. Everything you've found so far is at about the same level of power, you haven't come across anything really stunning as of yet. You reexamine your options.

“I still don’t think we can take on a Revered Ancestor. We’re not that much better than when I told Osip off. But we shouldn't have to, right?"

You turn to your brother.

“Ruvim, didn't you say that our animals and plants are weaker than the tribe's minerals? Why haven't we seen anything like that yet?"

Ruvim shakes his head.

“Nah, same principle as the food. Animals and plants don't even measure on the scale, while ochre and other minerals bring you up to... half a step. Besides, we have sort of seen something like that. Apart from the first few trips, most of what we've been finding that meets the basic power goal are rocks. It's just that anything beyond that is as rare as it initially seemed that any material involved in the process should be."

An idea pops up in your head.

“Okay, I think I might know one place that might be worth investigating to see if there's a really good power source. Has an even shot of being a waste of time, but if so it's just one wasted day, then we're back where we started anyway.”
________________________________________

It’s been nearly a cycle since you first investigated the forested hill, which as you have discovered is a good deal more west from the ochre mines than you originally thought. But eventually your group manages to make it to the spot where you and Raisa originally found the mushrooms. The cave is a bit more open to the air, since the tree has long since rotted away. This also means that there’s nothing to stop you from dropping straight to the bottom, apart from a careful climb down the cave walls. However, you're fairly certain that you're now tough enough to make it to the bottom without breaking your bones even if you fall. For that reason, it's just you climbing down, Raisa and Ruvim will have to stay topside. It's kind of a waste, although you needed Raisa's help to get back here in the first place. But at least they can do some gathering so that you can get something even if today turns out to be a complete bust.

Your reward for making it to the bottom of the cave is the entrance to a tight tunnel. Fortunately, you were well prepared enough to bring some flint and a few sticks this time, so you aren’t blindly stumbling around in the dark. But you have to be very careful to not set yourself on fire, especially considering that the tunnel's not naturally conducive to easy navigation.

If there’s anything useful in the tunnel, it isn’t immediately screaming its presence to the world, although you won’t rule out the possibility of finding something valuable if a team of people came and mined the place out in full. But eventually the tunnel turns and then widens, opening up into a very small cavern which is littered with minerals. The minerals have their own mundane, decorative uses, but the real prize is at the back of the central wall: a large set of dimly glowing blue-green stalagmites and stalactites of the variety that you’ve gotten used to seeing, surrounding a black-gold fist sized stone that you’re fairly confident is what you’re looking for despite the fact that it isn’t glowing at all.

You carefully mine the big stone out of the wall with a handaxe, at which point the cavern shakes angrily for a few heartbeats, sending you flying to the floor. Eventually, it returns to its previous calm state. At this point, you decide that you’re probably better off not trying to strip mine the place, at least for now. So after a quick prayer to propitiate the spirit of the rock, you head out from the cave.
________________________________________

The more powerful material proves to do the trick and Ruvim manages to break through. Like Raisa, his power didn't explode out with the fury of a thousand suns, but otherwise he mostly got what you did - general bodily enhancement, though focused on bodily toughness and endurance rather than strength. Either the nature of the black-gold stone or his unique situation is enough for him to immediately shoot up to what you think is roughly yours and Raisa’s level with no additional energy needed.
________________________________________

Ruvim wants a bit of time off to try and formally categorize some of how the energy cycling process works and put his medicine theorizing to the test. Which sounds like a good idea, since right now your group has just been working completely blind on this whole thing. But at the same time you're kind of worried that you've given your brother a new avenue for his creativity that isn't constrained to making bird bone sculptures. You try to talk to Raisa about this, and she sees nothing wrong with what Ruvim's saying, and in fact wants to help.

This leaves you in the awkward position where since trying to make a box to think in isn't really your thing (you prefer breaking them open), you don't have anything useful to do, except ironically enough, being the responsible adult who has to make sure that everybody stays fed. Now you know what it's like to be your Mom... although come to think of it, if you need to go hunting anyway there are worse things in the world than asking for some help from the best hunter you know.

(No vote this time. I pretty much know the direction things are going in for the next little bit, since readers wanted to see more detailed interaction with people outside the group, but explaining the results of the previous vote took long enough that I figured it was worth making it an update.)

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Toughy
Nov 29, 2004

KAVODEL! KAVODEL!

Congratulations, Brosef

Jossar
Apr 2, 2018

Current status: Angry about subs :argh:
Maternal Conversation, Pt. 1

You haven’t been avoiding your mother. You literally can’t, considering that you live in the same hut as her after all. And there were lots of reasons not to spend as much time with her over the last cycle as you used to – you couldn’t go hunting after you got hurt anyway, so you found something else to do to keep productive. And then the breakthrough happened, and you started hanging out more with Raisa and your brother considering you worked really well together…

But the thought still makes it really awkward for you to ask your mother if you could go hunting with her again. If you didn’t feel like there was an obligation to try and help everyone else you’d risk going out by yourself. But some things can’t substitute for experience and Mom remains one of the best hunters that you know. As you approach, she nods, and the two of you head out to face the savanna together.
___________________________________________

The animals are keeping fairly quiet during the early morning, so the two of you have plenty of time to chat. You lead off, with a question that’s been burning in your mind for ages.

“Mom, were you like me when you were my age?”

Your mother's laughter can be heard clearly resounding, in a manner that would send prey fleeing for the trees, if anything else was actually awake.

“Oh, I’m sure my parents would have said so, Vozha. I didn’t have your wanderlust, so it was mostly about my tendency to get into fights. In that respect I was far worse. I’m pretty sure without your father’s help, I would still be feuding with half the tribe over broken bones. Some mine, and some theirs, before you go overestimating me too much.”
__________________________________________

That’s… a lot more violent than you were expecting, really. You tend to stick to the non-physical stuff, since it’s more satisfying to prove that people are idiots, in your opinion.

“You make it sound like it was a much different time when you were growing up. I thought nothing ever changes around here?”

“Well…” Mom takes a deep breath as she scans the savanna for signs of animal life.

“The thing about the tribe is that the shape stays the same, but the people change. Times were harder then, so people used to be a lot less ‘live and let live’. We knew how to cooperate just as well, but did it a lot less too, unless absolutely necessary. I guess that’s why I was so worried about the three of you growing up. Been waiting all of my adult life for a disaster that I’m not sure will ever come.”

She grins at you.

“And I’m so proud of the fact that if it ever did, you’d crush it. You’re probably a better hunter than me in everything that doesn’t require the knowledge to seep into your bones.”
___________________________________________

The actual hunt that comes later is, between both your skills, something of a formality. Gazelle are relatively easy to take down, if you catch them by surprise. And one of the benefits of your newfound strength is that the two of you can take back a lot more of the processed products of the carcass than would have previously been possible.

(Still not feeling up to a full update, but wanted to at least get the start of this conversation up.)

Jossar
Apr 2, 2018

Current status: Angry about subs :argh:
So I realized that since Vozha's asking questions anyway, I might as well see if anybody else has ones to ask your mother that I can incorporate before finishing up the back half of this thing.

Toughy
Nov 29, 2004

KAVODEL! KAVODEL!

What's the biggest kill you ever got?
How far have you dared to travel?

Any interest in getting a tattoo like mine and Raisa's?

KittyEmpress
Dec 30, 2012

Jam Buddies

This is more a question for you since Vohza woild know, but what weapon does our mother use?
And tying it to her: why did she choose that weapon?

Toughy
Nov 29, 2004

KAVODEL! KAVODEL!

Ask about how dad wooed her lol

Outrail
Jan 4, 2009

www.sapphicrobotica.com
:roboluv: :love: :roboluv:
Could we harvest energy from people? There's other tribes about.

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Jossar
Apr 2, 2018

Current status: Angry about subs :argh:
Due to real life concerns, I have found it difficult to continue writing for this thread, and will have to put this on indefinite hiatus for the foreseeable future.

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