Ведомый / Follower: 6.
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7. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 07:03 |
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* * * Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 07:03 |
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For some time, Igor sincerely fought the desire to put his loot on the shelf and look at it, from time to time, enjoying his coolness. Alas, in the struggle between common sense and the desire to show off, his brain won, once again proving that Igor is a very base individual. Instead of a shelf, he hid his share for the past massacre under the floorboard: four Tiny Marks and two Small Marks, one Bone Lantern. No one wanted to take them because of the problems with using the ritual Tablets he described. And also his polyhedron. Then, however, it dawned on him that the Shroud actively hid his Vessels only if he carried it, so he had to take out the floorboard again, taking the valuables, and hiding the rest. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 09:55 |
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The next couple of days, he spent mostly recovering from the carnage he had endured. He performed the Frigile Vessel ritual twice more, focusing on his life force, finally getting rid of the bruise and cracks in his ribs. He was afraid that they would heal incorrectly, but they did not. The body, improved by the almost closed Step, seemed to be trying to get back to its best condition, so Igor could only refrain from interfering with the body's recovery. Yes, the body became not just stronger or more resilient, no, it was as if he was improving on some other level. He began to understand and think faster, even though the intelligence characteristic was absent in his status list. Yes, it is difficult to calculate the level of your own ICQ, especially if you throw all sorts of tests out of the equation. In the end, an intelligence test only shows how well you can pass said test. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 10:14 |
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But the result was obvious and undeniable. Reading and information processing speed increased, and memory improved significantly, to the point that one could pass a poem by heart after the first reading. He did not become smarter, no, but he began to use his existing brains, experience, intuition, and erudition much better. Physical characteristics also grew. It was easier to calculate them purely mathematically. Exercises became easier, gymnastics turned out better and better, flexibility, strength, and endurance obviously increased. Changes in appearance also continued, although not in geometric progression, and those changes accumulated. The spots on the skin finally disappeared, the hair became slightly thicker and smoother, despite the long-absent haircut, and facial features sharpened and softened at the same time. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 10:16 |
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No elven beauty, not even the level of a supermodel, but the result was noticeable, as was the increased physical fitness. No, not Superman, not Steve Rogers, and not Lex Luthor, but the same Igor. Only an improved version of him. But this is only the zero Step, almost filled, there are still many, many more steps ahead of those. Fortunately, the increase in "charisma" was best seen not in Igor but in Vasily, simply due to the low base. It is enough to simply change into fresh clothes provided by Zhenya, wash off the dirt, and slightly comb his beard, so that from a scary and smelly homeless person, to becomes a homeless, but charismatic one. And so ... under normal conditions, he could say that he simply began to take better care of himself and went in for sports, no one would doubt it. If they start looking for the Exalted on a large scale and systematically, based on indirect signs, will they may not believe him. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 10:21 |
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Regular training of the Tablet also brought results. The last battle had brought a lot of results. Thanks to the Gift, it was possible to pick out the important from the fleeting moments. The sand-clay attack on Zhenya was the first time the protection had repelled both physical and magical attacks, and a smart one, capable of targeting the target and independently climbing into her airways. And the protection did it, but the way the attack of the freak worked and the way the protection countered it, the thoughts of how to improve the defense, and how the shot maniac could improve his attack.... This alone gave him a trio of ones to his understanding, and that wasn't the most memorable moment of the fight. On the fourth day after the battle, Igor brought his protection almost to its peak, one step away from completing the comprehension scale of his main Tablet. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 11:51 |
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Alas, this little step seemed to require a much stronger investment of labor, brains, and imagination than the two-thirds scale before it. On the one hand, it frustrated him that there wasn't the typical experience filler bar, where each facet was worth exactly the same amount as the previous one. On the other hand, it slightly improved his mood, as for the rest of the Exalted, his problems were ridiculous since it was not an option for them to progress at this rate. Even his companions, who were getting some sort of increase from being in the same squad as him, boasted to Igor that they would soon reach fifty units of understanding on the main Tablets. Soon. If they kept up the pace. At that moment, Igor clearly felt that he didn't want to share his problems with either Zhenya or Vas-Vas, or they might punch him in the face. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 11:53 |
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The other two Tablets also grew, and the ritual grew even faster than the last two. It was a result of the already existing experience, which allowed one to notice regularities and similarities of separate arcane knowledge, to connect revelations, using the already known like fuel for a fire, which would light up the unknown. The mosaic structure of the Tablet also had an effect, which gave more freedom and allowed experimentation with different forms of application. Igor came to the conclusion that spirit Tablets should be developed more in direct combat or active use, while bone rituals increased self-awareness, even from trivial thinking about new forms and tricks. Igor was sure that he could try to develop the bowl, if not to a hundred, then to a new effect, without ever using the ritual itself, solely analyzing the structure of the mosaic and its possibilities in his head and soul. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 11:56 |
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Minor Protective Charm: 99/100 Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 09:46 |
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Minor Combat Shine: 96/100 Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 09:46 |
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Light Touch of Primordial Powers: Grant Fragile Chalice and Bodily Might: 37/100 Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 09:47 |
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He would have to finish with the Protective Cham, and then the Combat Shine would not be far from complete closure, which may well be followed by the evolution of the Tablet, its gaining new heights. Well, so suggests intuition and images-descriptions of one of Igor's gifts. That's what he thinks, lazily looking out the dark window, where even the lampposts are not visible behind the blizzard that lasts and lasts. The snowfall of the last few days is not just stormy. It's breaking all kinds of records, and utilities are scrambling to even clear downtown roads and fix power lines. The light outages have not occurred by miracle, and the profound swearing of utility workers. In a city panicked and flooded by a growing number of critters, only the power outages and the supply of basic necessities were not enough for complete happiness. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 14:12 |
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In general, in this winter cold, there was no time for walks and searching for the truth, so Igor wouldn't have been surprised if their recent raid on the Sculptor had remained completely unknown to anyone. Snow had piled up in some places as high as a man's height, roofs were broken in many places, pipes and other infrastructure were failing, and here were some missing men at their dacha. Eugene also temporarily quieted down. According to him, he hadn't even met Vasily. He just couldn't find him in such a blizzard. The homeless one was probably sleeping in some snowdrift again, taking advantage of his complete invulnerability to weather conditions and drinking vodka by the bucketful. So all Igor could do was to train and follow the news, which was not only interesting in his hometown. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 14:18 |
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For starters, for example, the weather anomaly was exactly around his small homeland. At a distance of fifty kilometers from the borders of the city, the weather is winter, but completely normal. And within this radius, the most insane weather conditions are only within the building, and even in the nearest kilometers from it. The whole world would have already trumpeted about the weather anomaly and the coming end of the world, although it would have trumpeted, if not for the fact that this was not the only place of special weather nastiness. A town in Norway, which had recently made the news, was also suffering from a cold and snowy winter, so cold and snowy that it was exactly the same as the one Igor was experiencing outside his window. However, the inhabitants there did not whine about it, as they had been forcibly and in a very organized manner evacuated due to the extreme weather and crime situation. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 11:58 |
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The army occupied that town, and not only the Norwegian army. Half of NATO had units there, and the U.S. contingent was growing, bringing in heavy vehicles and aircraft. Of course, the official version referred to sudden exercises and all that, but it was hard to believe. They were shooting there, as it seemed, really often, and also pictures of an armored personnel carrier M117, opened and almost turned inside out by an unknown shell, leaked into the network. It looked as if the armor had been torn by huge claws, but there are no such animals, despite the attempts of network bots to prove that it was just a big grizzly bear that escaped from the zoo, and defective steel, no other way. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 12:05 |
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There was also a town in Mexico, not too big either, a hundred thousand population, not quite a hundred thousand. The weather there also went crazy, bringing increasing heat and regular dust storms. Cartel warfare was going on in those storms, and corpses were found regularly. Who else but the cartels would mutilate those corpses like that, huh? Rumors that all the drug dealers had either laid low long ago or had decided to leave the city while it was being abandoned were probably an exaggeration. Just like the increased swampiness of another city in the United States, the one in Maine. The fogs there were particularly persistent, cold, and wicked, albeit without snow. Complete doldrums, growing water level, and huge problems with water supply, as well as missing people and uncovered cell of some terrorists, which were blamed for the casualties. And yes, also troops and still only planned evacuation, American citizens were too used to having their rights respected, and they couldn't keep quiet. And there were more of them than Norwegians. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 12:08 |
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Africa was marked by a large-scale dust storm around a town. There were similar cases in India and China, and in one of the prefectures of Japan, a weekly large-scale fog was observed, even thicker than in the United States, but without swamps. Everywhere were towns, small and relatively remote from other populated areas. Everywhere there were weather anomalies of different kinds, which struck almost synchronously, although the Norwegians were ahead of the world here, ahead of the rest of the world for a week at least. However, as Igor had noted before, his small homeland was ahead of the rest of the world by a huge margin. Half a million inhabitants, and all in one huge ice pit with predatory creatures. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 12:11 |
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The more Igor reads, the more he realizes that his city was very unlucky. Or Igor was lucky. His city seemed to be the largest among all the dispersal points of those glowing orbs that initiated the newly minted Exalted. That's why there's no reaction. Two or three dozen corpses in a town of thirty thousand people, and in a country with one of the lowest crime rates, to put it mildly, cause a stir. In a large city of five hundred thousand people, too, but not so active, not so instantaneous. On the other hand, patrols with machine guns are already roaming around, even in this weather, and their uniforms are no longer police uniforms, but green. And the mandatory evacuation is also coming. Igor is sure of it. They are making very characteristic speeches on TV. The only difference is that the reason for the evacuation is not the packs of dogs that are naturally eating up the outskirts of the city and tore even soldiers who tried to shoot at them into meat, not the piles of corpses, incomprehensible bullshit and frankly mystical incidents. No, it's just bad weather in the city. That's why they're taking you citizens out. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 12:19 |
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Jokes aside, Igor was more for the removal of all living things than against, because pumping is pumping, but even with his increased spiritual fortitude he couldn't think about those people who were chewed up by the mouth of the Other Side, either killed, or worse than killed, or turned into those who kill and arrange a fate worse than death. The size of the city was more upsetting than pleasing. It was much easier to remove thirty thousand Norwegians accustomed to following the government's orders than half a million people taught not to trust their authorities, who sincerely believed that the state was going to fuck them one more time. Yes, not without reason, yes, it would probably screw them with payments and the provision of new housing, but it was better this way than to become a candy cocoon or a fucking concrete-brick statue. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 14:49 |
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The guy, pondering his prospects, was suddenly attracted by movement outside the window. A shadow flashed in the almost complete darkness, clearly not a trick of the mind, but something clothed in flesh. He pressed his face to the glass, sincerely regretting that the lights had been cut off. Or that the lamps had burst from the cold, who knows? The shadow moved again, again, again, and again, as if wandering in circles around the yard, throwing up snow. The car alarm started screaming. Such a nasty, standard melody, penetrating to the very bones and deeper. And as soon as the alarm went silent, it screamed again, and then again, and again. The shadow was no longer distinguishable, as if it were hiding, and Igor clearly understood that it really was hiding. Under or next to the very car that was now screaming, calling on the owner to drive away the thieves-carjackers. So that he would come out of his warm, concrete-protected shell, come closer, and become vulnerable. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 14:51 |
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Igor himself did not know what he was going to do. Shout out the window so that no one would dare come down, or go out himself, armed with a crowbar, a protection, the first layer of which was converted to resist the cold and also the shine, and then try to personally shut up the cunning creature. Fortunately, he did not have to decide, just as he did not have to reproach himself for indecision. The owner of the car turned out to be either lazy, or the owner of good intuition, or also did not sleep and saw something strange. He did not go out, just turned on the light in the window of the house opposite, and then leaned out of it, swearing to everyone around where he would stick the prankster's legs, having previously torn them off up to the ears. His threats were supplemented by the fact that the man turned on not only the light in the window, but also a powerful portable flashlight, pointing a beam right at his Precious. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 15:07 |
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At first, Igor, trying to blink his teary eyes, thought there was nothing there, that he had simply imagined that shadow. But it only seemed that way. The flashlight beam shone for about five seconds, showing a car covered in snow up to the windows, from the roof of which someone or something had shaken off the snow cap. And then the huge snowdrift next to the car moved slightly and stopped. The figure vaguely resembled a human, but its height was such that it would definitely not have fit into the car, about three meters, no less, maybe no more. Dressed in dirty rags, covering its entire long body with a thick layer, this something looked straight at the man who had swallowed his curses, and there was no malice or hatred in its behavior, just mild irritation. Like a predator who has missed this particular prey, but is confident that he will be lucky next time, that he will be lucky more than once. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 15:17 |
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With a leisurely and jerky step, this creature moved beyond the yard, and there was nothing human in its movements, as if there was something completely inhuman hidden under all those layers of rags. And it would have calmly left, but then a red dot, frozen in horror, flashed in the beam of the flashlight. It was Borislav Gennadyevich, who had obviously gone out that night to do his cat business. Neither the snowstorm, the cold, nor common sense frightened the cat, but the creature did. And he even managed to hide from that creature because that abomination was looking for something in the yard, looking, but did not find it. And now, it saw, throwing itself at the cat with one wide step-jump. The cat tried to rush away, to run to the basement window, but the snow was in the way, it restricted his movements, and, at the same time, the length of his stride was very incomparable with that of the three-meter-tall monster. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 15:29 |
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Then, Igor again acted within the framework of habit, a reflex, driven into the subcortex by only four battles on the brink of life and death. The young man casts the protection without thinking, covering the cat running from death with it, causing the hand, long even against the background of the creature's height, wide as a snow shovel, to slide along the force field, missing the animal. The protection sank by a fifth, no less, but it was only a fifth, taking into account the difference in size between the cat and the creature. And then a shine goes, flashing with white light under the paws of Borislav Gennadyevich, granting him courage and a thirst for battle. And the cat accepted that battle, turning around and rushing like a swift torpedo at the creature, which experienced something akin to cognitive dissonance from such a sharp change in status between hunter and victim. Like the bear that a small deer tried to eat. Or, more correctly for comparison, a wolverine. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 15:35 |
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A jump, the claws grab onto the rags, a second and third protection is placed on top of the first, the actively working shine allows the claws to cut that fabric easier than any web. The cat squeals and screams as if a loud growling "Meow!" was his secret weapon or a kind of prayer. The cat tears with his claws, rips out scraps of fabric, and drops of something black in the light of a flashlight trembling in someone else's hands. The owner of the car still hasn't lowered his hands. He hasn't removed the light source. The creature fights silently, only trying to catch the cat that has climbed onto it with a huge hand with too many joints, and the creature seems to have only one hand. In all directions, increasingly large scraps of fabric fly off, drops of an incomprehensible liquid that holds that fabric together, and the creature writhes like a snake, sometimes falling on its back, sometimes rolling on the ground, trying to tear the cat off itself. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 15:37 |
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The car they came across was crushed by a blow from a huge hand, as if an iron pole had fallen on the roof. Another car hidden under the snow was also flattened, and the noise in the yard was such that a lot of people had already come to the windows. And they all shone with something, unable to take their eyes off the battle between the cat shining with white light and the chthonic shit from the depths of the Other Side. The creature managed to knock down the first of the protections, but Igor immediately renewed it, and the constant use of the shine by the nimble and armored cat forced the enemy to spin like a top, trying to protect his throat and head. Igor was already going to activate the flash-explosion of shine when the creature finally achieved success, albeit quite comparatively. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 15:40 |
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With a jerk of its entire body, it fell to the snow covered with rags and spots of incomprehensible abomination, throwing off Borislav Gennadyevich, forcing him to freeze in the air, losing his support for a short moment. And then, straightening up, like a spring compressed to the limit, the creature decided to play baseball, not even knowing the rules. The blow with the flat of the palm-shovel on the hovering cat was performed at the level of the best stars of this sport. The cat flew no worse than a ball, only screaming in flight, all the way to the lamp post at the opposite end of the parking lot. Thirty meters, or even fifty, no less. Well, it's good that the post was not shining anyway. After all, from contact with the one who lost two amulets at once, the first from a blow with a paw, damaging that paw with a splash of force, the second from contact with the pole, the cat bent the pole. It’s also good that it was steel and not concrete; concrete would have been completely broken, but as it was, it just turned the letter “Г” into almost the letter “П”. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 15:44 |
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Borislav Gennadyevich shook himself off and started to run, having lost his belligerence and not wanting to continue the fight, quickly hiding in the basement. The creature, having shaken off the snow and the remains of torn rags, only raised its head, first looking into the window of the man with the lantern, who immediately dropped the lantern out of emotion. And then, in the ensuing darkness, because the light from the windows and smaller lanterns was not comparable to a hand-held spotlight, it turned to Igor, casting such an attentive glance at him. And the guy's protection, automatically placed and updated, for a moment seemed to sense something else. Viscous, slimy, stinking of the Other Side. This shit tried to cling to Igor's body and aura, like a stain, like a hunter's mark, in order to find it later. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 15:46 |
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He wanted to go outside and kill the cat-beaten bastard, but he was already rushing away into the winter darkness. Well, one more reason not to go to dark passages without protection, and not even for him, but for the man who owned the car. What's Igor care? He waited until the deadline for the renewal of the Vessels, just put the amulet on top of the second, and the first, brought to the top layer, and scattered with the mark embedded in it. The new protection was not affected, to the young man's relief and certain peace of mind. In the courtyard, meanwhile, there was a real commotion, people were yelling, crying, someone ordered to call the police, and some aunt yelled about calling the police, because "the cat almost killed a man". Yeah, such a mean cat. But it turned out just like in life. For self-defense, it is much easier to imprison than to look for a criminal used to hiding. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 12:37 |
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Igor went to bed silently, too tired from everything, including thinking about the answers to the obligatory questions of those who would arrive in the morning. No, they could arrive earlier, but the frightened witnesses would hardly open the doors of the apartments, and, most importantly, Igor would not wake up until the morning anyway. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 09:48 |
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* * * Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 09:47 |
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And again, the young man watched the magnificent performance through the window, enjoying the second part of the already familiar blockbuster "To Catch Private Borislav", regretting only that he did not have a bucket of popcorn, only fresh porridge with honey and berries. Just a classic porridge. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 09:48 |
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The men in uniform who arrived early in the morning, almost at night, did not arrive as one lazy patrol or a couple of operatives sent alone with Whiskas. They were accompanied by a small minibus with a dozen armed individuals in uniform, with automatic weapons and in armor with helmets. And they questioned in great detail, and they took that man with the lantern away by the white arms, despite the latter's feeble resistance. The man's resistance was feeble and more symbolic, but Borislav Gennadyevich did not disgrace his native yard, resisting so much that Leonid from under Thermopylae in the afterlife wiped away his tears with a handkerchief. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 16:49 |
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Three men in uniform, a can of food, a cat carrier, a catch net, and, of course, the sounds of the touching "kitty-kitty-kitty" performed by huge foreheads, whose faces had all the thoughts about their occupation written on them. Written in obscenities, of course. The cat did not give up, maneuvered, climbed a tree, successfully carried out a feint, and disappeared into the snow, leaving the yard. He did not climb into the basement, because that is where he was initially found, forcing them to begin running operations. What is characteristic is the caution with which the cat was caught. They did not try to beat him, or hurt him, or shoot him with a gun. In general, a pretty sensible decision, because two (three, if you count that dog, the guys just don’t know about it) of the previous attackers of Borislav Gennadyevich either died or got some serious beatings during the conflict. The KGB agents who were busy catching cats clearly did not want to add to the statistics of those killed by cats, preferring a relatively peaceful approach. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 17:01 |
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Alas for them, but the old woman, who remained nameless for Igor, who turned out to be the official feeder and "sort of owner" of the yard pet, flatly refused to cooperate with the investigation, threatening to go all the way to the General Secretary himself if her cat was not left alone. Judging by her appearance, she really was going to see those General Secretaries soon, so the old woman was not afraid of anything or anyone on this Earth. In short, they did not catch the cat, no matter how hard they tried, which caused a certain touching joy for the freedom-loving cat, who could well be dissected if caught. He would not risk helping him again, certainly not in the presence of such a company. It was not fun. There was even less fun when inspections and surveys began to go around the apartments. People had nothing better to do, despite the workload and the crisis situation in the city. The fun completely disappeared when Igor looked at the questionnaires closely. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 16:54 |
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"Good day, citizen. And we've met before, I remember." It was none other than Fyodor Mamalygin who smiled at him with a kind and inviting smile, only instead of Ivan the Lieutenant, there were a couple of gloomy men in uniform standing behind him, and a sleek, fair-haired young man, only a couple of years older than Igor, looking tiredly in front of him. "You had quite a circus here last night. They say a cat bit a homeless person. So, we're walking around, questioning witnesses. Maybe you saw something?" Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 16:56 |
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From this "cat bit" the novice Standard-Bearer was so dumbfounded that he couldn't even find anything to say, so he simply shook his head, intending to blame it all on "it was dark there, and I only showed up at the very end." And only with a superhuman effort, multiplied by complete composure and experience in acting, was he able to keep his face. He sincerely thanked his uncle and aunt, because he was ready for a lot, but not for the fact that his freedom, or even his life, would depend on his ability to keep his face. That same young man, on whom the soldier's uniform with completely ridiculous combat boots looked worse than a tuxedo on a cow, put his hand in his pocket, took out a very old-looking cigarette case, and then opened it a little. And then a very strong feeling of such a familiar, cold abomination wafted, which filled the flight of stairs, but only for a short time, literally for a second. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 20:36 |
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Just enough for Igor to see for a moment a spiral flashing in his inner vision and three Vessels in the chest of this scarecrow. No, he didn’t hold back until the end, but he managed to improvise in time, and his slightly twitching shoulders coincided with almost identical movements of the other guests. They, although people, also felt something wrong in the presence of the Upside Down. Perhaps not so obviously and strongly, but they felt it, and then there was the addition of the fact that they knew about the radiation, which is why they were nervous. The polyhedron in his pocket, sprinkled with Igor’s blood, froze and began to exude a mortal chill, and his colleague, who looked at it attentively, only slightly closed his eyes and shook his head. At this point, Comrade Captain suddenly became bored and quickly ended the conversation, pretending to believe that the young man had seen nothing and completely agreed with the official version. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 17:04 |
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They didn’t even go into the apartment, even though he had specially cleaned up a bit! Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 09:49 |
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As soon as these visitors disappeared up the stairs, Igor crawled to the sofa and let out a tired breath, finally letting go of the tension. He was pretty nervous, pretty nervous. And he managed to get his shroud cube just in time, without which he would have had to quietly and calmly ride to the Big House. Well, or roughly and bloodily try to kill all the assholes who came to him, and then do something with the alarm group on duty in the yard or somewhere nearby. True, he did not see this alarm group, but he understood perfectly well that it had to be there, that those ten guys with machine guns had not gone anywhere, they had just disappeared from sight, because no one would send such a "check" without the slightest cover. And if he still didn't give a damn about the young player, then comrade Mamalygin clearly loved and protected himself. Who knows, maybe they also have some kind of protective amulets or something like that hanging on them? The fact that he didn't feel them yet doesn't mean anything, because he didn't listen to his feelings, he tried to pass for such a normal Normis that he felt sick. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 17:16 |
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Frankly speaking, he doubted that they would have tied him up right there. You never know what he might decide to do. They would have talked, stalled for time, waited for that very cover group to approach, feed him some bullshit, and tried to convince him to leave with them of his own free will. Until they got the bottle, so to speak. Surely an experienced KGB agent wasn't an idiot to provoke a nervous teenager with superpowers into a conflict? Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 17:21 |
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So he sat there for at least a couple of hours, while another rising snowstorm raged outside the window, but the story of these terribly drawn-out days was in no hurry to end. The ringing of glass and the roar of an explosion again forced him to press his face to the window opening, although some part of him felt like an idiot. There was an explosion and gunfire, and he, damn it, was coming to take a closer look, an unafraid deer! Deer or not, but Igor saw quite enough. Several broken windows in one of the apartments in the building opposite, well, it was very difficult to miss. Especially if they were broken along with the window frame and part of the wall, smashing parked cars with bricks and laying one of "Borislav Gennadyevich's catchers" face down in the snow, and laying it so that the snow turned red next to the victim's head. It was three times harder to miss such a scene if, after the glass and the stone, two bodies hugging each other in a tight embrace flew down. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 17:33 |
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And yet Mamalygin turned out to be an idiot, because in one of the falls, Igor recognized the left brute with a gloomy face. The second flyer turned out to be a vaguely familiar guy, often drinking beer on a bench in the yard, remembered for always cleaning up empty cans and wrapping dried fish scraps in a newspaper. Increased perception allowed him to see the scene, although not in FullHD, and even with the effect of slowing down time, he still saw a lot. Igor did not miss the moment when the man seemed to blink, disintegrating into a bunch of sparkling moth-like lights, immediately gathering back from them, but already standing on his feet and losing all the momentum of the fall. Just as he did not miss the fall of the brute, who flew like a candle into the asphalt, clearly smashing his head and breaking his neck. The sight was clearly not something you see every day, but the beer and dry fish lover did not slow down, breaking into a run. Moreover, he was dressed only in worn underpants and one slipper on his right foot, but this did not hinder him from running and did not slow him down too much. Apparently, since the slipper did not fall off, that is why he survived the fall, yes. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 17:44 |
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Igor's opinion of Mamalygin fell even lower because the couple of guys waiting in the yard did not detain the fugitive, despite the fact that they started shooting immediately, without warning or even indignant cries. Scattering sparks again, the guy, in the form of a cloud of glowing dots, quickly moved straight to the couple of assholes in civilian clothes, regaining his body again and kicking the first corpse to the ground in the center of the chest. For some reason, Igor, who was watching all this action, does not doubt that the shooter died. He died, releasing a whole stream of sparkling sparks from his mouth, which the fugitive wrapped around and also killed the second shooter, after which he made a mistake. He slowed down for a couple of seconds to raise the barrel, well, or pull off the boots and down jacket, who knows. A kid in uniform, leaning out of a broken window and cursing loudly, held out his folded hand in front of him and started to fire not bullets, but combat magic, damn it. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 17:51 |
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The blow was not lightning, but something else, like a ribbon-thread woven from the polar lights, connecting the hand of the Exalted One and the end point. It hit no weaker than a lightning strike, clearly on a full Vessel, but the fugitive spent another charge, scattering into sparks and rushing out of the yard like a cloud of moths, hiding in snow swirls. Swearing and screaming, sounds of an alarm, cries of "Killed, Mom, I was killed!", because the degenerates with guns did not pay attention to where they were shooting at all. Well, the ground is concrete for them. What else can he say?(*) Igor only sighed, looked at how the blond guy, barely standing on his feet, was being scolded by the enraged Mamalygin, prescribing offensive slaps to the back of the head, and, shaking his head, went to lie on the couch and continue, because he finally stopped liking what was happening, but he still had no way to influence it. The sounds of the sirens of the arriving ambulance, someone's commanding shouts threatening to put everyone in jail, demote them, fuck them in the ass, and other bullshit, the guy simply slept through it all. It all tired him out. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 17:54 |
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He woke up from a nervous overstrained sleep towards evening, looking again at the damn blizzard outside the window and resolutely taking out the cash he had from his stash. If this continues, by analogy with other "contact points" around the world, then very soon there will be no food at all anywhere in the city. He needs to stock up while he can, and they are still accepting money. Again, the shelves in the supermarkets have been getting emptier in recent days, but it has not yet reached the point of absolute panic. Even rumors that the city will soon be put under self-isolation, as during some kind of pandemic, did not stop the work of grocery stores. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 17:38 |
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He spent all his money on shopping, filling the cart so tightly that he could barely drag it all to the checkout, and from there to the supermarket exit. He didn’t cry about the money, intuitively feeling that soon there would be nothing to cry about. That's why he called a taxi. The gloomy and unsmiling man of mountain nationality who arrived at the call communicated mainly with gestures, clearly not having had time to brush up on his language, but this did not particularly bother him - glory to the navigators. Having loaded some groceries into the trunk and the rest on the neighboring seat, the young man silently showed the completed payment and the final address. At the same time, he dropped a spam about a “hungry babe five hundred meters away from you” that had somehow gotten through the antivirus and adblock, only casually admiring the stock photo of some not particularly pretty woman. No thanks, he’d better close the door from such a babe, damn it. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 09:45 |
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Igor didn't understand what had alarmed him, and why this message had confused him so much that he kept thinking about it even while sitting in the car. But when the phone beeped with a new message that said “a hungry baby is running after you three hundred meters away,” he wasn't even surprised, just sighed tiredly. Nearby, the driver was no less tiredly cursing at the annoying spam, trying to close the exact same advertisement that prevented him from looking at the map. Igor didn't know what exactly his driver was saying, but he knew for sure that he could only use such intonation to speak in swear. The picture of the “ babe” was different, but it was also stock. And Igor realized only now what he didn't like about her - the lady's smile was very strained, tense, and she had more fangs than normal. Not cinematic vampire teeth, but too few incisors and too many fangs, he could see, but only if he looked at the image very carefully. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 12:40 |
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Ding-ding. Camrad_RIP 17.04.25 в 09:40 |
