Day 5: Sandpoint Swallowtail Soirée, Sunday the 23rd Rova, 4707.
Well, that was a fun day. The day started off okay, with a couple of welcome speeches. The Mayor (Deverin as I found out later) was excited and friendly, even made some inside jokes about the town people that most of the people laughed too. Sheriff Hemlock introduced himself and played the part of a dour sheriff that focused on those who had lost their lives in the previous church fire, specifically Father Tobyn and Nualia, his foster child. Apparently, a local Nobleman was supposed to be the next person to give an address to the crowd, but had claimed some kind of illness. Apparently the murmurs were that this nobleman, Lonjiku Kaijitsu, doesn't like to mix with the riff raff. His daughter, Ameiko, is standing on the sidelines with her head slightly down. She certainly isn't dressed like a noblewoman. More like an inn or barkeeper. Maybe there is an out in the family. Who knows? The owner of the Sandpoint Theater stepped up to fill the dead air, delivering a fun recap of the antics that the town went through to get the new cathedral funded and built. He ends it with a bit of shameless self-promotion at the end, is that the first commercial interruption that I've seen since I came to this world? Apparently his Theater is having a new production, "The Harpy's Curse", staring a Magnimarian Diva. Hey, maybe she knows who I would have to talk to try to get home. The final speaker is Father Zantus, the man who previously checked out Jonathan for diseases. Maybe that is why he was curt when he dealt with us before. If he was trying to get ready for all of this yesterday, it would explain a little bit why. His presentation was a bit short and was basically thanking everyone for coming to the Swallowtail Festival.
Well, there was a lot of merchants there, featuring food, clothes, crafts, and souvenirs. Unfortunately, there was no funnel cake or cotton candy. I'll have to check to see if I have recipes for either of those on my tablet. At least they have ice cream and other sweets. We walked through the festival, enjoying the games and the food. I'm certain I saw Dame Rebekah cast some glances over a nice suit of armor and some high quality weapons as we passed by. Maybe we can work to get her something later. I sprung for ice cream for all of us, and I think that might have softened the hardness between the group. After that we decided to start playing some of the games in the festival. I am not ashamed to say that I am not the strongest member of our group. Civilized life has left me soft, and even though I am fairly strong for modern civilization, I can't hold a candle to these people. I'm sure a farmer might be able to have a good showing, but me, I doubt it.
The first game we tried was an archery game being run by Jodar Provolost, a renowned hunter and mediocre carpenter. The goal of the game was you are trying to hit targets that look like winged, demonic horses. That was apparently the Sandpoint Devil, a creature that was supposed to be menacing this area for decades, but basically, it was an archery game. When I went to a renaissance festival, I had done the best of the group that I was with. That was with a larger and closer target. Obviously, Faunra was the best at this individual task, being an elf, and a mystical archer. She won the grand prize, which was a pie. She didn't know what to make of it at first, but after she tried a bite, she was hooked and started scarfing down the whole thing. Rebekah came in second, and won a silver arrowhead necklace. It was just a silver broad arrowhead on a leather thong, but she put it on and wore it like it was a badge of honor. To her, it must have been a symbol of her martial prowess. Jonathan won an obsidian one, and I am fairly sure he used his powers to get that to happen. His first shot went far wider than even mine did. His second shot was lined up and the arrow flew into one of the farther out rings. His bowstring didn't seem to let go at the same time. Of course I'm not going to rat him out, I don't think that carnival barkers have changed from being extremely virtuous to being crooked in the modern era. I of course, didn't win anything because the distances are much farther than the carnival games I am used to. I didn't mind all that much, the games are there to have fun, not so much to win, and for me I want the others to be having fun too.
After the Devil Hunt, we went looking for something a bit easier. One of the games set up had animal races of a sort. I'm sure that PETA would be all over this back home, but here this is mild. It isn't even really that intense. You have to get a lizard to go 30 feet. Oh, and the lizards have little twig and cloth wings. And are painted different colors. And are called Dragons. Well, A for effort in marketing. The game is gun by Gressel Tenniwar, and the races seem to be a bit sided, but I will honestly say that Dame Rebekah won fair and square. Sure, mine was like a lump and Jonathan's was actually going backwards, but Dame Rebekah has a knack for this Saint Steve Erwin of the Thumb. She could probably stop a rampaging rhino with a word. She deserves her 1st Place Swallowtail Festival Dragon Racer Ribbon. Of course the rest of us ensured that she would wear it the rest of the day.
From there we went to a game run by the Daviren Hosk, proprietor of the Goblin Squash Stables. He seemed to have a passionate hatred of goblins for some reason. Apparently he had a standing bounty on goblin ears. Well, there is a use for them in the future at least. Maybe Rebekah knew about this practice when she had cut the ears off of the previous goblins. Hell, maybe she knew the man, or someone from the Abbey knew him and passed this tidbit on to her. The game he ran was a set up where the target was set up to look like a fireplace, and the beanbags that you throw are shaped like goblins, with little names on them. I guess that none of us was really feeling it when we tried, as out of six tries, we only had two hits in. That was even with Jonathan using his powers on his throws. Both Rebekah and Jonathan got a single hit in, and were rewarded with some small stuffed goblin toys. They were about the size of a mouse, but were at least something to have around. I'm sure that these will turn up later. As a whole, the group decided to wander off and try their luck at another game. I was a little sore from having not won anything yet.
From there we found a Riddle Contest being held by Veznutt Parooh, a gnome with some ability with magic and riddle-craft. I figured that either myself or Faunra would be shoe-ins for winning this, but the winner ended up being Jonathan. When Veznutt asked where he heard the answer for that riddle, Jonathan responded that he didn't know, but that the answer just came to him. His reward was a small book of riddles, another thing for Jonathan to study in his long nights. Jonathan was proud as could be with his riddle book and carried it like a prized trophy. I still had not won anything yet. Leaving the riddle contest, we went to try out the meals.
From here, we decided that we would try the food that was being offered by the three taverns. Although I didn't hate any of the offered dishes, I really wasn't taken in with either the Lobster Chowder from the Hagfish, or the Curry Spiced Salmon from the Rusty Dragon. I was used to eating things similar to either of those back home, and I'm not that much of a fan of seafood. The Peppercorn Venison from The White Stag was outstanding though. I'm glad to know that the place that we were staying had such good food. I'm sure that if we are here for another year, Jonathan would have an award winner.
After we tried the food, we saw one of the staples of a festival, a strongman game where you have a mallet and have to ring a bell. This was being run by the owner of Red Dog Smithy, Das Korvut. Jonathan tried first to ring the bell, to no avail. It only went halfway up. Dame Rebekah was the second to try, and it only went up a little higher. I was really surprised by that. I expected her to go much higher. Both got given a blue ribbon. Faunra came up next. I guess that I should have realized that she probably wouldn't do that well. What surprised me is that when I tried it. I reared back and swung with all my might. The bell rung as the it went higher than any of the others. I was rewarded with a finely crafted stuffed fire-pelt cougar. I was glad that I had won something. Leaving from there, we looked for a few more games.
We came up to a grand display put on by one of the town's best carpenters, a man by the name of Aesrick Battlehorn, an Artist and woodcrafter. There were tiny catapults that you needed to use to knock down some blocks. This was something that I was a bit familiar with, as the frog toss game at some carnivals is kind of like that, so I had the most practice with a game like this. Naturally, I only managed to knock down two of the nine blocks, so I only managed to win a tiny wooden lighthouse model. At least I got a souvenir out of all of this. Now I only need to get it back home with it. In one piece. Both of us. None of the others seemed to really want to have anything more to do with this game, so we started looking for another, the last one.
For a last contest we decided to try a tug of war. We all joined up on one side, with a group of town guardsmen on the other side. Jargie Quinn, owner of the Hagfish, is running this contest and offering a free dinner for the winning group. We paired up well, and ended up winning! We all got to have a free dinner at the Hagfish. We did something of teamwork exercise and managed to pull through! We won! There was only a time left before the sunset ceremony for the consecration of the cathedral, so we spent the time cruising the rows of merchants.
I got a couple of books that will help me make my way through this place easier. Granted, they are not anything too expansive, two of them are more like tour books really. At least they tell me the do's and don'ts for the City of Magnimar and the Town of Sandpoint. I think I'll scan these in and give them to Jonathan when I am done. He seems to like to read a lot. Or maybe Faunra, if she ever ends up learning the language. I can't say too much about her not learning the language, as I am still trying to learn hers from Jonathan. Maybe I'll look to see if they have a Traveler's Dictionary so I can start getting better at this. I also managed to do an impromptu performance and net a whopping 14 gold! If I can get to a big city and pull this in on a daily basis, maybe I can cut the time it will take to get me home by a large amount. I know that the others ended up getting some stuff, but none of them brought it up to me before I have to stop writing. The Consecration is about to start from what the people say. Time to get into the crowd with the rest of the group and listen to the ending of this ceremony. Maybe if I can't make it home I can retire to a village like this and be the town priest, secretly pining for my lost family. Oh, I just saw something nice that I can get for everyone with this gold that I made. I hope they all like them.
The group all got together for the final part of the festival, the consecration ceremony. Father Zantus saw that the crowd was a little disruptive. He pulled a rock from his robes and threw it towards the ground. There was an almost deafening crash as he went to speak. Before the first words could escape his lips, there was a horrified scream coming from the north side of the area. A woman had seen something cut a dog's throat and ran back under a wagon. I couldn't see it, but Jonathan tells me that it was licking the blood from the blade.
The Goblins jumped out from various hiding places and began some vile song. I'm not going to write it down, partly because I don't want to give fame to them, and partly because I don't want it to spread if this .doc file is ever found. I could just see some rapper trying to rework those lyrics into something hardcore. Ugh. The first batch of Goblins were all from the North West of the crowd. I could hear another batch to the South East of use that were do the singing. The first one took a pass at me and cut my leg open good. Another one tried to take a swipe at me and missed. A third one tried to hit Jonathan and winged him. Faunra hit one of them with a very well placed arrow, taking them out. Dame Rebekah hit a second one, slaying it with one sideways slash from her master crafted arming sword. The last one was taken down by both me and Jonathan working together.
By the time that we were finished with the first group, a lot of the crowd had either escaped or dropped to be out of the way. That gave some of us clear shots on the other group. Apparently one of the goblins in that group was some kind of bard, performing to make his allies fight better. I now know that we should have tried to take him out first, but at the time, the goblins wielding torches seemed to be the more dangerous to the other people. Faunra, reacting quickly as always, managed to drop one of the goblins with a quick shot from an arrow. As she is wont to do. I'd likely rename her Faunra Goblin-bane but that should always be her choice. Rebekah took off like a shot and easily beheaded a goblin in one swipe. One swipe, and it wasn't just dead, but completed decapitated. FUCK, I don't want to piss her off. I only just noticed that she was still wearing the rabbit skin gloves that I had made for her. Maybe they are lucky? I can only hope so. I couldn't get a good clear shot, so I ran forward and took a swipe with my machete. I managed to greatly wound one of the goblins, but not take it down. Jonathan took it out with a quick hit after he rushed up.
The war-chanter, as the goblin bards are known as, tried to hit one of us with their whip, but the attack was so far off that I couldn't even tell who they were aiming at. Faunra then managed to thread the needle and strike it with a solid hit, which was followed up by Dame Rebekah hitting hard and bringing it low. The war-chanter's song ended with them and the noises of battle and strife were farther away throughout the town. As we were getting ready to look for more fights to help save people, Father Zantus ran up to us and channeled his divine power into healing us.
I have never felt anything like this before. I felt that there was a blessing from above that was recharging me and healing me of the wounds that I had taken. I was back to full health. All of the wounds that I had been dealing with were fully healed. Even the ones that had been mostly healed were fully healed after the pulse of divine power from Father Zantus. I swear that if I ever find out how to do this, I am bringing it back to Earth. Other people need to feel this. It's like mainlining Mega Jolt with a double shot of Pixie Sugar Sticks. It's probably like crack, meth, or some other drug. I can see why people would get addicted to those drugs if this is how it feels. Snapping out of it, we heard some kind of goblin screeching to the north. We rushed out to head there. I am slightly upset for Dame Rebekah that her steed is not here for her. We were all on foot, rushing towards where we heard the scream from. We saw a goblin on the back of some rat-dog looking thing slashing out at another dog while the dog's owner cowered behind a barrel of something.
Faunra launched a mystically empowered arrow at the rat-dog rider and dropped him in one hit. Jonathan fired some item, it may have been a rock or maybe a piece of trash that was just lying next to him. Whatever it was launched out and stuck the rat-dog in the head, knocking it down. Dame Rebekah ran forward and hacked one of the regular goblins down. Before I could do anything, two goblins flanked Rebekah and stabbed her in the thighs. That doesn't look good, I think if she takes another hit that she'll be down. Without a second thought, I rush forward with my machete and try to bring it down on the thing's giant head. I miss its head and just gash it's arm a little. Faunra, being the marksman that she is, she hit a bullseye on the goblin on the other side of Dame Rebekah and dropped it. Just like the Bon Jovi song, straight through the heart. Jonathan came running up and finished off the one that I had slightly cut with a flying kick. I really think I'm going to have to share the Kung Fu: The Legend Continues series that I have with him. I think that he'll enjoy it. Maybe I actually have a Bruce Lee movie or two somewhere in one of the two Hard Drives I have, they are two Terabytes each.
With the last goblin dropped, Jonathan and I went to check out Dame Rebekah's wounds. We worked diligently together on the wounds and managed to get her into a fairly decent condition. Not to full health, but enough to be able to walk around and not worry about falling out due to blood loss. While we were doing that, the Nobleman whose life we saved gathered his nuts up and came forward. His dog was dead, having been slain by the last hit from the Rat-dog rider's weapon before we managed to take him out. He tried to thank Faunra profusely, but didn't realize that she didn't speak his language. He was thanking her and trying to talk to her, but Faunra was just going back and forth between looking at him questioningly and scanning the area for any further dangers that might be in the area. Jonathan spared a look to him to them him that Faunra doesn't understand Common. He looked at Faunra and then looked at the subject of our ministrations. He moved on to thanking Dame Rebekah, especially after learning that she was a divine warrior and knight. He told her that he'd be staying at the Rusty Dragon to the south in town for a few more days and that he would like to talk to us later and thank us more for this rescue later. He scurried off towards the Inn, likely to change his smallclothes.
The combat was dying down throughout the town, and there were no goblins that I could see anywhere, even with the scope of my rifle. I hope that all of them are dealt with, but I have a sneaking suspicion that we haven't heard the last of them. The good Sheriff Hemlock told them that one of the Goblins that they had downed had lived, likely due to the healing burst of Father Zantus than anything we did to spare them. We went to talk to them, and discovered that Faunra actually spoke the Goblin's foul language. They couldn't answer much about the raid, only that there were several different tribes that were going to raid again soon and that it was a "longshanks" (a Medium sized creature) like one of us that was leading the raids. When asked how many were a part of this raid, the Goblin couldn't say, only that there were this many, holding up three grimy fingers, groups that were attacking different areas in this raid, that the Leader took a group of Goblins on a secret mission to the graveyard. Faunra diligently translated this to her language, which was translated by both Jonathan and Rebekah, when one of them didn't know the word the other did.
Hearing all of this, I made the recommendation that Sheriff Hemlock make a statement to the town that everyone should be cautious about goblins being in hiding areas throughout the town until we are certain that the goblins are all destroyed. He didn't like the thought of keeping people in fear, but I told him that he'd probably feel worse if someone ended up dying because they had not thought to warn everyone of this and they died in their sleep to a goblin attacking them. I suggested to him that he could soften the blow with focusing on the fact that the battle was won, and we just want to be sure that we routed the goblins and that they had not hidden in the town's dark spaces like the rats they are. I told him to tell them that if there is a problem that we would gladly check out the area in question. The rest of the group was a bit taken aback by me volunteering them to hunt down goblins and a bit speechless at first. Oops, I'm going to have to make it up to them somehow. I know they all have things to do with their lives, and I just volunteered them to look in people's closets and basements.
He agreed to this and asked the group's assessment of the threats of a future raid. I looked at the others, and said that I wasn't the tactical specialist in the group and looked to either Faunra or Rebekah. Jonathan had been translating this conversation the whole time for Faunra, thankfully. We really are going to have to get Faunra and I on the same page for communicating. I'm making learning her language a priority. If there are others that only speak her language, I will need to know it before going forth elsewhere. Faunra responded the problem with Goblins is that it is like herding cats. You might be able to get them all to go in one direction if there is enough of a lure, but getting them all to do it at the same time is a lot more difficult. With the routing that this group had, we would have at least a few days or maybe even weeks to figure out how to defend the town. It would be a good thing to ramp up the security, but the first thing that needs to be done is that they need to find out how these goblins got in and to seal up those areas.
Rebekah concurred with Faunra, and translated all of it back to "Common" for those of us that didn't understand. The Sheriff told us that he'd like us to talk to the Mayor about this, tomorrow morning. For now, he needed to gather his deputies and rest of the town watch to have them pass the word around. Shortly after the Sheriff left, Ameiko Kaijitsu came up to us, the longsword on her hip showed signs of being used recently. She wanted to thank us for defending the townsfolk, and offered us a free week of stay at her Inn, The Rusty Dragon. We thanked her for this and told her much the same as what we had heard from the goblin. She thanked us for the information, and thanked us again for what we did. She walked off to deal with all of the things that a landowner and member of the town's nobility would have to deal with in the wake of an event like this. I'm pretty sure that Jonathan is a bit smitten by her. He was the one who was focusing on taking her up on the offer.
We went on to look into the surrounding areas and make sure that everyone that isn't dying is okay, and that those who were dying were treated as best we could. Between Jonathan and my skills, we managed to save a lot of people who were wounded. The town still lost some people tough, but not nearly as many as we could have had. The Goblins lost a lot more people. Father Zantus came up to us and asked if we were hurt. Dame Rebekah told him that we were fine, and that he should use his blessings with the common folk who might need the help elsewhere. He nodded to that and thanked us for the help that we gave to the town. He told us that the ceremony would be pushed back to tomorrow night, and that we were welcome to come back for the ceremony. Rebekah thanked him for the invite and told him that we would try to make it. We also told Father Zantus what the Goblin had told us about the secret mission. He said that he would look into it.
We gathered up all of our things and went to speak with the Mayor. We were walking around still in an adrenalin high, having been in hard combat and won. While we walked, I had some time to think. I know that one of the things that I am going to focus on is getting Dame Rebekah and everyone else get better armor. We don't need to be in mortal danger from things like a stray goblin strike. Maybe I can figure out to how to make boron or graphene plate armor. I'll have to do a deep time into my books to see if I can find out any good procedures for this. I'm sure that I can figure something out. I remember downloaded a method of making Boron fiber from cotton and boron material. I might have to work with Dame Rebekah and the others to make sure that the armor design is reasonably accommodating to the required maneuverability of combat. Before I can work out how to finish the plan, we had made it to the town hall.
Mayor Deverin and Sheriff Hemlock were both there. Mayor Deverin thanked us profusely, and handed us a bag of coins. Apparently, it was a combination of a standing bounty that the town has on Goblins, an attempt at a fair assessment of the damages we might have suffered, and reward for saving the people that we worked to save. It is certainly nice to be rewarded for doing the right thing. Mayor Deverin was concerned by what we had found out from the captured Goblins and what it could entail for the town. As always, Jonathan was pulling duty as a translator for Faunra and back. After the Mayor went on for a bit, Dame Rebekah and Faunra conversed and came to a conclusion between the two of them. She reiterated my earlier offer to help rout out any Goblins that had taken refuge in the town. They also offered to track down the responsible "Longshanks" if the Mayor and Sheriff Hemlock wanted.
Their main desire, from both Jonathan and Faunra apparently, was to get into contact with Brodert Quink, a local sage with a specialty in Ancient Thassilonian ruins and artifacts. They both wanted to talk to him for different reasons, both apparently related to why they were at Windsong Abbey in the first place. The Mayor was more than happy to arrange a meeting with the sage, but he is currently out of town on a trip to Magnimar to study some ancient Thassilonian ruins. He should be back soon, however. The Mayor and Sheriff Hemlock would tell the guards to pass it along when Brodert Quink was back in town, so that a meeting could be facilitated. If he was travelling back and forth to Magnimar, he might know who I have to talk too to get home. He might also be able to give me a better estimate for what the cost would be to get me home. We all left having been temporarily deputized for this job.
We decided to head to the Rusty Dragon and get ourselves situated. I figured that if we had free rooms for a week, we could probably spend our time helping out the town in other ways, or at least be available for the Goblin removal service we (I) promised. Most of the buildings that we passed were closed down for the day, but I did notice that there were some guards going from door to door, probably both to get a good account of who all we lost and to pass on my words of wisdom about not disregarding reports of hidden goblins. I'm probably just being paranoid, but those gnomes had me thinking that goblins would hide just about anywhere. Getting to the Inn, we found it to be a fairly decent environment, and Ameiko was a very congenial hostess. She was getting an evening meal lined up when we came in through the front door. I swear that this woman has some kind of extra sensory perception, because I could have sworn that she was busy getting things done, but as soon as the first one of us came through the door, Jonathan of course, she leapt from the kitchen announcing that the Saviors of Sandpoint were here.
The whole tavern cheered, including the noble from before, Aldern Foxglove. He started to look like he wanted to talk to Dame Rebekah, but backed down when he saw that all of the other patrons wanted to get up and slap us on the back, or shake our hands, or buy us a drink, or any number of other actions to thank us for killing those dreadful things. We were the most beloved group in town, at least for the moment. I don't think that it would be right to exploit this too much, but maybe I can use this to find out where I can get a space to work on some things for the group. I fully intend on paying for the work space, but if I can get access to a place without as much difficulty, it would be greatly appreciated. I just want to be able to test my theories and see if I can get my group some better armor. Weaponry will have to wait, as I don't know what would be better for the group than what they already have.
I had kind of zoned out when I realized that someone was talking to me. It was Savah Bevaniky from Savah's Armory. She was looking at my rifle, and asked what it was. I apologized for being a bit out of it, and offered to show her how it worked. She wanted to see it, so we went outside and I told her it was a projectile weapon. She pointed out a target, I sighted it, and shot. A solid hit! Not that difficult to do when I'm not in the thick of combat. I told Savah briefly how it worked, that it was based on pressure. I told her that I help her with the plans and how to make a version of it if she could keep me in pellets. She agreed, and I told her that I'd drop by later in the week. Now I can set up a new version of the Christmas Story. Joy. At least I made a friend here.
I got back into the Rusty Dragon and everyone in the group was already seated and drinking. Jonathan motioned me over, and loudly asked if I was going to tell a story. Dame Rebekah joins him in asking. I guess everyone was celebrating, so it wouldn't be a bad thing if I told a story of triumph over odds. I decided to tell the story of the Robin Hood, at least the Prince of Thieves version. I tried to emphasize how the prisoners were being tortured, and tried to make the Sheriff's men more goblin-like. It was fairly well accepted, and I pulled in a whopping fourteen gold. I slipped it into the reward bag that we received from the Mayor. After the story, Ameiko came out and had some drinks with us. Apparently she liked hearing stories like this from adventurers. I told her that the story wasn't mine, that I had not even started adventuring officially yet. She laughed, and told us that if I had more stories like that, we could get our rooms for half off after the free week. The group loved that, especially Jonathan. I think that he might be truly smitten.
Dame Rebekah asked us why the Friar didn't do something more to help out Robin Hood. I told her that legends of Magic were not exactly rare on my home-world (dimension? World is easier), but the tales of them are from long ago, and magic was mostly supplanted with science. I explained how the theory of science worked, and Jonathan tried to translate as best he could to Faunra. There were a lot of things that did not translate now, and he asked me to give another term for science. I told him to use the phrase "laws of nature" and I would try to use it in the future. There was a brief discussion, and I explained how gravity worked according to my people's theories, and how everything we knew was based on constants, like the temperatures at which pure water freezes or boils at sea level or how in a vacuum things fall at the same rate. They didn't believe me that a feather could fall at the same rate as a rock, but I told them that I would find a way to show them eventually.
The night went on like this for a while. I didn't really feel that much of a desire to defend science, especially in a realm where Magic exists, but I just felt like I was trying to make myself understood. Ultimately we just ended up talking about what we thought about the Goblin Menace™. I figured it was probably some Necromancer trying to get a fresh crop of the dead to raise. I was chastised because I didn't know that there are limits on how many undead a Necromancer can control. That kinds of decreases the fears that I have. Dame Rebekah is certain it's associated with some kind of murder cult. That's even worse in my mind for some reason. With the mystical being a distinct possibility, a more normal reason just brings back the realization that this is real. The conversation wraps up and we all head up to our rooms. I finish up my entry in my file and start to head to sleep and set a timer on my phone for two hours.
Just a few minutes after my alarm goes off, I heard a knock at the door. It was Jonathan of course. He wanted to borrow the phone, of course. I asked him what he wanted to listen to, and he said romantic songs. I pulled up a playlist I had helped create for a wedding that had around six hours of material on it. Before I handed it to him, I asked him how he wasn't tired after today. He told me that he only sleeps two hours a day, no matter what. I was fascinated, but too tired to talk more. I gave him the phone and the headphones, set up the playlist, and bid him good night.
Oh yeah, I also thought that I should note for myself or whomever reads this that the ten dashes indicate that there is a break in time between when I started writing for a day and when I stopped writing in a day and when I started back up again. It's more to keep me honest in writing all of this down and not changing things after the fact to make myself look smarter or that I have precognitive abilities in any way.