Быть Гладу и Хладу / There will be Hunger and Cold: 2.

2. Double standards and hypocrisy are rightly considered the cornerstone of earthly civilisation.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 10:51

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Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 07:58

The cold struck him like a hundred icy needles all over his body, which is why Ilya did not immediately realise that this was the sensation of his real body lying on a cold, icy rock, his head resting against someone's leg, which was even colder than the rock. Jerking sharply and cursing under his breath, he looked around and realised that his Twin's birth had taken place in a very atmospheric setting, so atmospheric that a newcomer would immediately feel like a guest and understand how much he wanted to go home. The Twin's body lay at the bottom of a steep ravine, surrounded by solid rock and sparse grass and bushes, and it wasn't just lying there, but had fallen from above, and in company. The company lay nearby, more than three dozen relatively fresh and visible bodies, all dead and badly broken, some dying from their wounds or torture, and some simply from the fall. It was at least thirty metres from the top of the ravine, although it was difficult to see.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 10:54

The weather is also terrible, because even though there is no rain or snow, the temperature has dropped significantly below zero, to twenty or even thirty degrees, if not lower. Actually, Ilya shouldn't be feeling cold right now, even though he's only wearing some kind of torn shirt and something that used to be either trousers or shorts. But he's still cold, which means the temperature is very low, meaning death from hypothermia within an hour or two for an ordinary person, or even much sooner. And it would be fine to be at the bottom of the gorge in the company of corpses, fortunately, ordinary ones for now, and not those actively seeking to increase the number of corpses through their efforts, but this is still within the norm. In the sense that Divers in Broken have more insane, complex scenarios that put them at a disadvantage from the start.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 10:57

For example, like the ones he has now, yes.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 14:16

Actually, spending a talent point on ‘Twin Memory’ is considered among Earthlings to be a test of greed and intelligence. Because envy, greed, and stinginess do not allow such a valuable thing to be spent on something so useless. Yes, this talent will allow you to absorb some of the memory and knowledge of your twin clone. It's not enough to change your personality, especially given the complete, ha ha, impersonality of this knowledge, but it's enough to understand where you are, who you are, where you can go and where you can't, what's normal and what's not. In the event that you initially agreed to be drawn to one of the communities, you can indeed do without the ‘memo.’ However, even such divers are advised not to be greedy and to invest.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 10:59

Why?

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 14:16

Because the Broken World is completely different and utterly insane, that's putting it mildly, excessively so, in Ilya's opinion, politely. And it's also unimaginably vast. Even someone as savvy as Ilya, with his degree and a pile of studied LORe about a boundless world in which even the gods have died, can easily find himself in a location whose cultural code is completely unfamiliar. And then a wrong decision, not knowing who to bow to and where it is better to run away immediately, banal rudeness from the point of view of the locals, and that's it, a hunt for a stranger. Or a dungeon with surprisingly experienced torture masters. Or a cage at the slave market. Or something else. It is worth knowing that the first death of more than three-quarters of the Divers, who were not killed by creatures, was provoked precisely by a conflict with the locals on religious, class, social, or cultural grounds. And in general, it is difficult to say who kills more newcomers — the creatures of the Broken or its natives.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 11:03

Do you consider yourself a smartass? Are you sure you can handle it and get away with it? A silver tongue and brazen audacity are your second fortune? Well, well. On the eternal Forum, there are countless threads created by such idiots who thought they were smarter than everyone else, but ended up joining the ranks of either deer deceived or taken advantage of while trying to pick up a local beauty, or mammoths, scummed out of their money, or lemmings, who simply died in completely stupid circumstances, where death could have been easily avoided if they had thought a little and known the basic aspects of life in the region where the Twin diver was incarnated. So it was believed among earthlings that if you don't aim at lemmings, it's better to take care of your orientation in a foreign society. Thanks to this, Ilya not only knew the basic rules of social mimicry in the region but also received a summary of how exactly his current body ended up where it was now freezing its gluteal muscles.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 11:10

A large caravan of migrants travels from one city to another, accompanied by a number of merchants and guards assigned by the mayor. Narrow mountain paths, a pass, the icy wind of the beginning of winter, which promises to be particularly cold, as both astrologers and fortune tellers predict. An ambush by a band of fierce robbers, who surprisingly quickly overwhelmed the guards and killed most of the people, taking the rest to one of the many secret and inconspicuous rock shelters. In these very rocks, which were not mountains, but rather rocky, hilly wastelands with a bunch of crevices and rare patches of greenery, called the Dead Man's Ridge, an army could be hidden. This had been done many times before. There were many such shelters left here after the great war between the rebellious Duchy of Clumpertorm and the Crown's troops. The war lasted a couple of generations, but the duchy lost and was burned to the ground, and the land is still not very populated.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 11:11

In one such refuge, probably completely unknown even to the current authorities, the Clampertorm archives were almost completely burned down, there were simply no normal maps of the rocky areas left, according to Uncle Chum, who was literate and had seen as many as four cities, prisoners were held there for some time. The women were raped, the men were simply put to work doing household chores, and, of course, everyone was tortured, regardless of gender. Among the daring lads, there were as many as three whom the Mechanism had blessed with full-fledged Lot. And the rest, although barely touched by the Mechanism, were all armed and combative. So what if they don't have a Lot, the essence hardly accumulates, and instead of a dozen talents, they only have three or four from birth, with no opportunity to develop the talents they have received? If he spent half his life learning to stab people in the liver, he is still more dangerous than a servant or a farmer who has never held a weapon in his hands. However, such a local is not even fit to be the shoe leather of the trio gifted with the Mechanism, which in this region of the Broken is often called either the Greatest, or the Pre-Existent, or Infinity.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 11:14

Among them was at least one Executioner, who diligently demonstrated his work and developed his skills day and night, while the second, judging by all appearances, was one of the versions of the Warlock. Not a fire warrior, but something related to necromancy and rituals. His material did not linger in the basement where they were taken. The one who was Ilya's image, whose body he had taken, had lived in that hiding place for almost three decades, and for the last ten days, they had simply stopped feeding him and the others. They begged, screamed, pleaded, but received beatings or death, no longer hoping for anything. The cold of the stone dungeon, starvation already gripping their throats. Such was their life. And when the thieves, deciding it was time to move to a new place and get rid of the witnesses, dragged them to the cliff, the man finally and irrevocably lost his mind, dreaming only of eating his fill and warming himself.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 11:19

At least something to satisfy the fierce hunger.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 14:17

To find at least a small drop of warmth.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 14:17

These thoughts consumed him so much that he did not notice how they cut the throats or simply threw down the rest of the prisoners, laughing and having fun. He did not notice how they pushed him towards the cliff, kicking and stabbing his emaciated body with daggers. He didn't even notice the fall and the landing, which broke a good half of his bones and knocked out his guts. Lying there, already dying, he saw before his eyes the still-warm corpse of one of the prisoners, with whom he had even communicated back then, before he had completely lost his mind. And, obeying his madness, his desire for warmth and satiety, obeying the howling of the icy wind laughing in his ears, he dug into the dead man's roe and tasted human flesh.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 11:36

The Pact was made, humanity rejected in favour of hunger, in the name of winter cold and animal cruelty. Evil found its way inside, letting in not a spirit, not a demon, not a beast, not a ghost, but the very idea, the idea of Hunger, the idea of someone who sees his fellow men as nothing more than meat, nothing more than warm, such warm food. The crunch of bones on teeth, the crunch of stone crumbs under broken fingers, the sound of tearing flesh, and the crackling of one's bones as they fell back into place, growing together again, merging into one, gathering into something whole and different. The man at the bottom of the ravine, among the mutilated and desecrated corpses, was no longer there, only another creature, born in the Cold and in the name of Hunger.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 11:38

Fortunately or unfortunately, this creature did not last long, because Ilya's soul and essence burst into his unchanged body, taking the place of the vanished man and grinding the remnants of his madness in the millstones of the enhanced great Will of Fate. It became not just a creature, but a much more dangerous piece of trash, a creature that had come, favoured by the Mechanism, but retained its mind. And this made it only more dangerous, unless, of course, it decided to play lemming and die like another presumptuous idiot.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 12:11

"What a bunch of morons." Ilya's comment was dry and extremely polite towards the bandits; it would have been impossible to put it any more gently. "A pile of corpses. Exhausted and tortured. In one ravine, without burial, without a funeral service, without even being dismembered first! Either they managed to get out of here and had no intention of returning, or another surprise awaited them. If the creature had fed on these corpses and climbed up the cliff, there would have been mince. Karmically fair mince, ahem, khah!"

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 12:27

After clearing his throat and spitting out a piece of bone stuck in his mouth, Ilya suppressed his nausea and stood up, beginning to stretch his limbs, feeling an unprecedented strength and mobility within himself. At the same time, he assessed the rock and figured out the route he would have to climb. The man had never really used virtual pods; he didn't have time for online games, but he respected simulators of various kinds. Although in real life he had only been mountain climbing once in a special hall, he knew the theory, and virtual reality allowed him to practise it. Otherwise, it would be pointless, because you can't learn to climb rocks through simulation alone, but his body, enhanced with attributes, could now compensate for a certain lack of reflexes with knowledge of the technique itself.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 12:33

"It would be better to sleep in a normal bed, not on a mattress in Star." He continued to grumble, flexing his hands, which had been broken several times and were now healing from the remaining cracks in his fingers. "At least I could get a good night's sleep. A more fortunate place of birth for Twin, damn you, you bastards! Where could he have been born that would be worse? Although, okay, that's going too far, because there really is..."

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 12:34

He needs to get out of this burial ground.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 14:17

And, if there is time, to hold a ‘funeral service’ for his alt, as they called the dummies used in the selection of ‘Memory of the Twin’. And the funeral service was not supposed to involve crying over the coffin, but rather placing in it those who had laid the alt in that coffin according to the initial scenario. In the end, his current situation, although on average more difficult than the lion's share of other divers' starts, will not make it into the top one per cent of the most awesome births, at most into the top five. The Broken World knew how to welcome its new children; there's no denying that, and it knew how to make a lasting impression on guests from other worlds.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 12:45

Closing his eyes, Ilya focuses his mind on images of himself, checking his own system, status, tablet, chronicle, or other synonyms used by divers. Not that it was necessary, as hardly anything had changed since his birth, but this was, after all, his first few minutes in the Broken World, and he simply couldn't deny himself the pleasure of admiring his own coolness. Again, there was another moment that manifested itself after birth, but against the backdrop of what he had already received, the mandatory Small Random Gift of the Mechanism, received by absolutely every diver in the universe, simply did not matter.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 12:36

Twin: Iliy Khvat

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 14:18

Chosen Lot: Wendigo (Possessed by Evil)

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 14:18

Vessel of Eternity: 0/100

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 14:19

Vessel of Rebirth: 3/3 (100x(Stage) Essence per Rebirth Charge)

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 14:19

Limit of Talent: 14

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 14:19

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Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 15:24

Step: 1 (0/300)

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 15:25

Claws and Bones: 1+2(Lot)+3=6

Blood and Heart: 1+2(Lot)=3

Veil and Mystery: 1+1(Trait)+1(Lot)+1=4

Aurora and Radiance: 1+1(Trait)+1=3

Thirst and Anger: 1+2(Lot)+2=5

Faith and Perdition: 1+1(Lot)=2

Fate and Fortune: 1

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 15:26

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Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 15:26

Skills and Charms:

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 15:29

Hunger Howl: 1/3 (Essence invested: 0/10)

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 15:30

A Wendigo seeking food can be incredibly silent, but its scream, absorbed some of the wild magic of the Hunger-possessed, is all the more terrifying. It instills fear, robbing the power and control over the gift, forcing the hands to tremble and the vision to lose focus. It can paralyze or stun weaker prey.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 16:41

Lurking Evil: 1/3 (Essence invested: 0/10)

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 15:30

Even a commoner deprived of a magical gift or special scanning skills, being near a Wendigo, will experience some nervousness, instinctively fear the one standing in front of him. Hungor and Cald in the body, spirit, and essence of the one who has accepted the curse are too eager to get out, declare themselves. Therefore, those Wendigo who try to live and hunt among their victims, in cities, villages, and settlements, always nearby and always on the side, have learned to hide their nature, to hide Hunger like a beast hiding in ambush. The naked eye of a commoner will not recognize a Wendigo, will not notice anything wrong or sinister. And even someone who can do a little more is quite capable of missing the hidden Evil, especially if he does not wait or look for it intentionally.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 16:44

Ice Breath: 1/5 (Essence invested: 0/10)

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 15:30

Having become related to the Cald, having accepted it into themselves, Wendigo are able to draw strength from it, turning the Cald onto the surrounding world, exhaling a small part of it, becoming for a moment a conductor and a door that the Cald brings into the world. It burns with cold, curses with frost, weakens and marks with Cald, affecting a wide front and passing through the smallest cracks in defense.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 18:33

Hungry Hide: 1/4 (Essence invested: 0/10)

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 15:30

The concept of Hungor is much deeper and more flexible than it might seem at first glance, if one knows how to use it and address it. Few are better at this than the Wendigo, whose will allows Hungor to absorb even steel or magic, devouring the desperate attack of a hunted victim an instant before the blow is struck. Activation requires preparation and reserves a portion of the magical reserve.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 18:34

Shapeshift: 1/5 (Essence invested: 0/10)

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 15:31

Supreme power over his curse allows Wendigo to touch the Evil hidden in it, to pull Hungor and Cald to their place, becoming one with them. Changes the fleshly body, significantly increases physical, magical, and spiritual characteristics for the duration of use, at the cost of unusually strong pressure of the curse. The duration of stay in the converted form of Wendigo is limited by the reserves of strength and his development, but can be renewed or increased by fresh victims, their flesh, their pain, their everything. To activate, the presence of the Wendigo Form among the talents is required.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 18:38

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Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 15:31

Abilities and Tricks:

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 15:31

Twin's Memory: 1/2 (Essence invested: 0/10)

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 15:32

This body was, breathed, loved, and remembered; it lived and longed to live, but now only memories remain of it, impersonal and systematized. The Diver bears the stamp of his Twin's past life, shame, and glory.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 16:46

Hunting Beast: 1/5 (Essence invested: 0/10)

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 15:32

Wendigos do not learn to fight, they do not duel, they do not fence, they do not attack in close formation, but they can, oh, they can kill so good. Their fighting style is extremely savage, more befitting of a beast, but it is fueled by a sophisticated and vicious mind. Nothing superfluous, beautiful, or elegant, only the utmost efficiency, cruelty, and ruthlessness.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 16:48

Bone Carver: 1/4 (Essence invested: 0/10)

Camrad_RIP 12.06.25 в 15:32