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Camouflage

Ghost’s persistent ambient glow might make them stick out in the living realm, but in the ghost zone, where everything glows in varying but omnipresent intensity, it in fact helps them blend in.

****

Set just after D-stabilized, Valerie has gone to the far frozen in pursuit of Danni, partly chasing after rumors of a map that can take you anywhere, partly because she's aware that Danni is likely an ice-core ghost, and a habitat that suited her was a logical first place to start: She is met by one of the guard Yetis, and fails to make a good impression, leading to the whole thing turning into a running combat as Valerie tries to accomplish her objective without being overwhelmed.; Valerie is eventually cornered in the treasure chamber, just a few feet away from her goal, but also exhausted and cornered.; The treasure chamber the map is kept in dates back to the era where Halfas ruled this section of the ghost zone, of which the far frozen was the farthest periphery. As such, the entire chamber is warded against ghosts, humans, and Halfas all.; Valerie engages in a brief exchange with one of the yetis, who points out that she is well known servant of plasmius, and that even if they did have Danni, would a ghost truly be safe with a killer like herself?; Val is forced to view herself from the perspective of the ghosts she hunts: An unknown danger, a menace, another species entirely, hunting their kind for a wrong they were not involved in out of a hate they don't understand.; Val makes her decision, feinting towards the infinimap, only to turn around to catch one of the smaller yetis, which she had noticed was obviously favored by the head captain.; Valerie attempts to escape by holding the smaller yeti hostage, but in doing so, makes a cultural error: For a member of the far frozen, it is the highest dishonor to allow oneself to be used for the sake of harming one's comrades. Those comrades, in turn, would be under obligation to remove that dishonor by refusing to allow the victim's captured state impede their duty to protect.; When the captain, who is in fact the younger yeti's father, decides to let Valerie go in exchange for the younger yeti's life, the younger yeti attacks Valerie in attempt to save his father's honor, grievously wounding valerie in the shoulder and shattering her armor at the cost of his own life.; Valerie is able to escape due to the distraction of the captains terrible grief.; As she flees, Valerie considers how everything in the ghost zone seemed right and natural, how Valerie herself was the obvious anomaly, a deep red shadow in a world of otherwise infinite lights.; Valerie considers how, unlike the ghosts here and the humans back home, she didn't fit in either realm, and how she had thought that if she could just find Danni, a human-ghost hybrid who also didn't quite fit in either realm, she had hoped they could at least not fit in together.; In the aftermath of the events in the far frozen, covered in ghost and human blood, Valerie considers if perhaps she shouldn't find Danni after all, if perhaps they were both better off where they could at least pretend to belong.

Arrival

It is a week after the events of D-stabilized, and Valerie, after ruminating for a while, decides to track down Danni, partly out of guilt for nearly getting her killed, and partly because Danni is the only one who might be able to answer her questions on what makes a human VS what makes a ghost.
She is at the tail end of her journey to the Far Frozen, something Vlad commissioned her to do as part of his scheme to attain the infini-map once again, as well as to cause trouble to Danny’s allies, of course. Val accepted this request because:
1. She has guessed that Danni is an Ice ghost, and thus very likely to be found in a realm of ice
2. While Val was not informed on the full extent of the infini-map’s powers by an overcautious Vlad, she is still able to figure how useful a magical map could be in finding Danni, making it worth the trip one way or the other.
3. It is a chance to put some distance between herself, Plasmius, Phantom, and her dad: Plasmius because Val desperately wants to attack him and free herself, even knowing that she can’t; Phantom because she’s still angry with him, partly out of sheer habit, but for not even bothering to tell her about human-ghost hybrids until it was almost too late, in spite of presumably being familiar with them + a sense of trepidation that she doesn’t want to deal with about how much of an enemy is he really; Her dad because he’s more sad and disappointed in her than ever, as her grades slip and her social life is in obvious shambles. She and her dad had a row, in fact, not long before the start of this story.
Val is also angry at her position in life: Stuck working for the very creature she hates (Plasmius,) but unable to escape or think of a way out. Val won’t admit it to herself, but the revelations of D-stabilized have left her feeling isolated without the comfort of knowing what she’s doing is right. Val isn’t just looking for Danni, but a companion. Valerie is unwilling to admit this to herself.
Knowing she is close by the change in environment, Valerie lands to rest a bit and take one last stock of her plans, placement, and supplies. She has a 3D map, provided by Vlad, that is becoming less accurate by the hour (The GZ plays fast and loose with time and space,) just enough supplies to last her to and from Vlad’s ghost portal, presuming she stays here less than a day and the warp/drift calculations of the GZ remain w/i parameters, and a sleeping bag designed to blend in with the environment (read, it glows.)
Valerie eats, reflects on how in the GZ, everything glows, with the ambient aura being roughly a match to the luminosity of the average’s ghosts own glow. It is Val herself, by contrast, who sticks out. She also notes that the environment in the far frozen mostly glows white, a match for Phantom and Danni’s own auras. The sleeping bag needs to be calibrated for color.
Val attempts to calibrate her own armor to put off a ghost like glow in an effort to delay being identified as a non-ghost, something which has already gotten her attacked more than once on her way to her destination, delaying her further.
Val trudges through the far frozen, trying not to draw the attention flying on her hoverboard would get her, trying to sneak past both civilians and patrols, which become more and more frequent the nearer she comes to her destination. None of this is Valerie’s style, and it grates her nerves, leading to a buildup of frustration. When she’s finally caught by Icecrest, she’s almost relieved.

Welcome

Icecrest orders her to halt, initially mistaking her for a forign ghost, leveling his weapon at her and demanding proof of welcome to the area (permits.) Valerie’s solution to this dilemma is to shoot him and run. Her aim, instinctively, was to kill, but in her haste, she missed his core.
1. This is where Icecrest tries to explain his name/Yeti naming conventions and expected manners?
This scuffle (and Icecrest’s yelling) alerts those around them, which includes civilians, as Valerie has not yet managed to breach into the imperial holdings, where the infinimap is kept as part of a vaster hoard. Valerie goes on the offensive as she races towards her goal, figuring her cover’s been blown.
After making her way through (and occasionally shields out of) a crowd of civilians, Valerie is halted by a gate, which is not only closed, but guarded by senior members of the treasure guard, at the head of which is Icefall.
Valerie is pinned between Icefall in front and Icecrest in the back. Icecrest wants to fight immediately, but Icecrest, recognizing her as the red huntress, wants to first know what a human servant of Plasmius is even doing here, and why she is picking a fight. Icecrest is also considering Vlad may have sent his minion here deliberately, as a means of weakening Yeti morale while flaunting the ability of his servants to breach an enemy stronghold.
1. Icecrest is shocked and appalled to learn she is not a ghost, but one of the living monsters known as human. In his mind, Humanity is the dangerous, alien force that Danny Phantom, Great one managed to rise above to achieve his heroism.
Valerie attempts to protest, unsuccessfully, that she is neither a servant of Plasmius, nor a threat. Finally cornered, she finally asks about Danni. Icecrest informs her he doesn’t know of a female ghost by that name, but says he is willing to look if she leaves now.
1. Valerie is upset by this partly because it isn’t that she wants to know Danni’s safe, but to find her, personally. In her heart of hearts, she also wants to take her back to the realm of the living, which she still feels was the “real” world, where the living and half-living properly belonged.
2. Icecrest is upset because a) He confused Danni for Danny. Using someone’s given name without being friends is rude on a good day, and for an enemy to casually refer to an exalted personage like that is a grievous insult. He is also angry his father is disregarding him in favor of a disrespectful, greedy monster.
Valerie refuses to leave, demanding the infini-map so that she might find Danni for herself. Icefall refuses, Icecrest is even more insulted, things devolve back into a fight.
Valerie is able to escape through a combination of a flashbang and utilizing the human ability to become intangible in the ghost zone, flying underneath both the guards and the gate.
1. Val is only somewhat disturbed when she looks back to find Icefall looking back at her not with foiled anger, but grim satisfaction, as though he knows something she does not.

Visitation

The inside of the treasure chamber turns out to be both a trap and a maze, filled with twisting corridors and dangerous artifacts. Valerie discovers both of these the hard way when she ends up cornered by one of the yeti patrols. She also discovers here that the entire place is warded against both humans and ghosts, a precaution set up by its creators, who were in the employ of the emperors of the “third age,” which was an entire dynasty of halfas.
1. Valerie is able to escape by massacring the entire group that cornered her, partly using one of the traps.
Her success comes with damage to her board, slowing her down enough that avoiding her pursuers becomes more difficult.
At one point she is forced to hide (using her camo sleeping bag as well as some well placed rubble) as Icecrest and Icefall have a conversation. This is where the audience learns they are father/son, as well as Icefall’s suspicion that Valerie is here partly to make a political statement, and that’s why he’s playing the defensive, more focused on ensuring Valerie does minimum damage and is prevented from taking anything valuable than he is on killing or capturing her.
1. Icecrest, however, wants to take the direct route, cutting off the source of the threat at the roots, pulling troops from their defensive positions and putting everything into putting down the threat.
2. Icecrest is not only overruled, but assigned to a guard station that they both know is well out of the way of Valerie’s goal and intended path, keeping him safe at the cost of keeping him out of the action. Icecrest storms off, offended, while Icefall, resigned, heads back to manage the task.
Valerie is left to wait for her suit to repair, which is slower than usual, due to the odd effects of the treasure chamber. Forced to wait, and unwilling to dwell on more personal topics, Valerie uses the breather to consider her circumstances: Effectively cornered, her only way out covered in warrior yetis, all of whom are anticipating her arrival, and even had she been willing to escape (which she is not,) the way out is still through yeti country, which has likewise been alerted to her presence.
1. To achieve her goals, Valerie concocts a plan: 1) continue to use her sleeping bag to hide in plain sight 2) veer around patrols, and 3) rather than head straight for what she knows is a trap, find a wall adjacent to where she wants to be, and blow a hole (she knows this is possible thanks to the prior scuffle in the treasure room) in it, taking her enemies by surprise, then flee as she layers flashbangs and bombs to keep them distracted.
Valerie manages this, but once in the treasure room, things don’t go as planned. While most of the other Yetis are taken out, Icefall proves to be unexpectedly skilled, and he and Valerie fall into combat. Icefall is winning, by virtue of his excess of experience, until Val is tackled by Icecrest (who disobeyed orders when he heard the sound of explosions), which does impair Valerie, but distracts Icefall enough that he pauses just long enough for Val to seize the initiative, using a close range laser to impair Icecrest and take him hostage, demanding the infinimap in return for his freedom.

Parting

Icecrest is initially smug, explaining to a confused Valerie that a true yeti would never allow a hostage to impair his duty. Icecrest is silenced by Icefall, however, who initiates conversation with Valerie rather than continuing to attack, as expected.
1. During this time, the other, incapacitated Yetis are getting back up, surrounding Valerie, but unsure what to do in the face of their leader’s restraint, paired with their own lack of desire to kill one of their own.
Icefall tries one last time to convince Valerie to leave, let Icecrest go, not pursue the infinimap, and leave. Valerie states that she has no reason to trust him, but is silenced by Icefall, who points out she is the one that murders, kidnaps, and steals. He also brings up the notion even if she did find Danni, Danni may not want to be with her (he says this while gazing sadly at Icecrest.)
1. Icefall reminds Val of her own father and some of the conversations they had, here.
This, the incredible, pointless destruction, and the burgeoning notion that she really was the bad guy in this scenario, finally drives Valerie to let go, agreeing to rtopase Icecrest in exchange for being allowed to leave (Icefall stipulates that she be escorted rather than simply being let go.)
1. During this entire exchange, Icecrest is increasingly aghast, deeply upset that his father is not only violating every concept of heroism that he knows, shaming himself in the process, but also listening to a creature that knows neither honor nor mercy. He is certain that this is just a trap of Valerie’s
However, just as Val pulls back her gun, Icecrest turns on her, point blank attack ripping a hole through her armour. Valerie, meanwhile, shoots on reflex, boring a hole through Icecrest’s core. The other Yeti’s, incited, fall upon her, all aiming to attack. Valerie gives it everything she’s got, and even then, only manages to get away because Icefall has gone berserk, lashing out at anything and everything in the way of his fallen son.
1. Icecrest uses the last of his strength to trip Valerie up and call her a monster (potentially too melodramatic?)
Valerieflees to the sound of Icefall’s grief, Echoing with a terrible pain that she can’t escape, no matter how far she runs.
Valerie gets out of the treasure vault and back into the outer Farfrozen, where the civilian yeti flee on sight, leaving her alone as she ascends back into the empty ghost zone.
Valerie considers how, with her armor shorted, she doesn’t fit in at all with her surroundings, a black shadow where everything else shines. She thinks about how maybe Danni really would be happier where she could at least blend in, even if she didn’t belong.
Val heads back home, contemplating her own act of camouflage, as an ordinary highschooler, as a good daughter, as a hero, and tells herself being something apart is fine, so long as you can pretend to belong.
1. Certain degree of envy for ghosts/humans who have somewhere they do fit in, feelings of how in the search for Danni, Val was hoping to find someone like herself, so they could at least not fit in together.

A stranger met in passing, a chance meeting in another world, unrelated to the goal at hand. They would never meet again. (Use for when Val causes icecrest's death.)

Chapter 3:

Open with Valerie finishing off the last of her food, which had been nothing but plastic wrapped biscuits from another earth, where Uwanna became a major brand name, for the last five days. She reflects that they were likely the result of a “portal dump,” an instance of a portal opening and closing too briefly for most to notice, leaving whatever contents that drop out of it for scavengers to pick at and search over. The muffins, being totally ustopss to ghosts, must have been mostly ignored by scavengers, which she had noticed were mostly the same species as the bug she had assaulted several days prior.

She reflects that she’ll have to find more soon, either spending forever scavenging for another lucky portal dump, or holding up another easy target, which she’s loath to do, feeling that just because it was the ghost Zone, where the strong made the rules and the weak obeyed, didn’t mean she liked doing it. It also makes her feel a strange sense of guilt paired with bitter irony, to see ghosts trembling and afraid of a “mere” human. She finishes her preparations, including setting her suit to artificially glow.

She considers that maybe it would at least be a fair turn against all the ghosts who try to steal her things when she’s not looking or asleep, something she’s continued to have trouble with.

However, for Valerie, none of that matters, because she has, after so many days? Weeks? Her time keeping mechanisms had begun to bug not long after her mapping system became completely ustopss, she has finally made it to the far frozen. (takes in the obviously cold environs, change in hue from mostly green-purple to mostly white and green, settlement in the distance.)

So far as Valerie is concerned, she has now made it to the halfway point of her venture, and as long as she can grab the map, all she needs to do is find her way back to one of the two Amity portals. She does not consider how she might do this, now that she has no idea where she is relative to the either of them.

There is the vague outline of a city in the distance, and Valerie begins to fly towards it, making note of some of the wildlife that scurries by, noting that they all have a distinctly white aura, matching the glow emanating from the environs, making them difficult to spot. She remembers that both Danni and Phantom have white auras (she had previously thought it was a unique trait) as well as a small animal flares its aura at her before running off as well.

She eventually intersects what is obviously a well travelled path leading towards the city, now both more distinct and much larger in her field of view, more so than expected. (path is marked by odd symbols she can’t decipher) She begins to follow it, and soon begins to run into more and more crowds, most of whom are non-yeti, with several of the yeti being herdsman, hunters, or other, relatively low status individuals (Valerie doesn’t know this.) Not long after this, Valerie nearly rams into a ghost, only able to avert a collision thanks to her swift reflexes.

The ghost snaps at her to watch out, and Valerie snaps back, believing herself to be in the right. The offended ghost snaps back that she might be able to do whatever she wants behind whatever door she was godling behind, but that she’s nobody’s lord here, and to either obey the speed limits or don’t complain when she gets arrested. Valerie expresses confusion at the idea that there are speed limits (“What speed limits?”), to which the ghost responds with mild surprise and disgust, that she just passed one, “my lord.” He does this while gesturing to one of the indecipherable signs. He then runs off, deliberately bumping into her as he leaves, with the crowd that gathered during this either snickering or casting dirty looks towards Valerie, who is fuming. She muscles her way back into the stream of ghosts, flying over what she now recognizes as a road, and continues to head towards the city.

The road soon increases in size and density, merging into a large highway with multiple layers of ghosts, and Yeti guards helping to keep everything organized. While Valerie still can’t read the signs, she is able to copy what she sees others doing, and winds up in a fairly fast sector where most of the ghosts are riding some kind of steed or automaton, much like Valerie is riding her board.

Eventually, they hit what appears to be a large shantytown surrounding what is less a city, and more a mountain, where the traffic eventually grinds to a halt. Valerie is then forced to wait, for hours, as the lines slowly crawl to the base of the mountain, all while fending off overeager venders and pickpockets. SHe is able to figure out that this is a line to check their status and give them what is essentially visitor/immigration documents for the explanations of one ghost to another who was also irate about the long wait. (This outburst was also spurred by some other ghosts being allowed to peel off into a smaller, faster lane by guards who, by this point, are more or less hemming in the convoy.)

Valerie alternates between steaming over being forced to wait in a ghostly checkout line, the dawning realization of just how deep she’s in and how complicated this whole endeavor might be, and the beginnings of hunger. By the time she makes it to the checkout stand, however, she is completely distracted by the massive statues that line the area. Most of them are yetis, but one, obviously new sculpture is of Phantom himself.

Chapter 4:

General Thoughts

-Val goes through processing, they check her for her control over her obsession.

-part of the test involves an artifact that can detect truths from lies + specialist in its use.

-she is irate when they tell her a)it’s not very good, b) that she will need to wait a while while they draw up paperwork for her (visitor license) this is also a test of patience and control.

-Valerie ends up in the surrounding slum for the time being.

-Yetis have own coinage, which she was able to trade for at an exchange station. Danny’s face is in one side, frostbite on the other. This makes her even angrier, but also convinces her she’s on the right track.

-Looks up to inner mountain, decides to wait a bit before flying through the walls. (Decides not to “play their game.”)

****

Valerie looks agog at the oversized statue, exclaiming phantom!? As she does so. The Yeti working the check out desk coughs, and suggests uncomfortably, that since she is a foreigner she might not know, but that statue is of the great one, and that it’s not polite to use the chosen name of such a vaunted personage/it’s polite to use the ekename over their chosen name.

Valerie fails to respond, as she struggles to process that 1)Phantom is famous, 2) Phantom is famous, 3) she had no idea. The Yeti, growing uncomfortable with her silence, rambles a bit about how Phantom defeated the ghost king, thus earning the respect of all Yetis for his heroism, with lord Frostbite going so far as to institute Phantom’s native language, English, as the official yeti

When Valerie fails to respond, the processing yeti pulls her attention back to the paperwork she’ll need to complete as a first time visitor. Valerie assents, mollifying herself with the knowledge that this was likely proof that if Dani wasn’t here, then chances were good some trace, some proof of where she could be, was. She is also somewhat reassured that if Phantom comes here regularly, then there must be some way to Amity nearby, since she’d never seen him disappear for as long as it took her to make the journey to the far frozen.

A part of her is still irate that she knew nothing about this, some part of her convinced that Phantom should have told her, just as he should have told her about where Dani went to when she left.

She is perversely reassured, however, that Phantom’s fame and reverence among the Yetis gives a non-altruistic reason for his decision to fight the ghost king alone, an image that fits with her own imagining of him as a glory hound who only plays the hero to feed his own ego.

She recalls that he offered her everything in exchange for Dani, then brushes the thought aside.

Valerie finished her paperwork with difficulty, as it’s a mix of bad English and written ghost speak in the yeti dialect. The requirements on the form are a mix of the ordinary, (has she been here before, and are there records of her prior visits; race; intention of visit; duration of stay/type of license; taken name, given name, ekename)

And the strange, ( core type/topment; whether she’s a dead, made or born ghost; “status”, which is a request to reveal how powerful she is using the ghostly value scale; an oath to honor Frostbite, king of the Yetis, and all the great ones of the realm (she is unhappy about this), and a simple, blank line, where she is expected to fill something out.

Valerie glances at the Processing yeti, but doesn’t ask questions partly out of pride, (she’s been visibly lost and confused a few times too many for her own comfort today.) And partly to avoid looking suspicious in her ignorance of what is, presumably, something obvious.

She tries to rationalize it out based on what she’s already written, and what she would need to write, (Val handled a lot of the paperwork for her mom’s funeral? Dad too depressed.) She concludes, based on this, that it might be for her job/occupation/affiliation, which she has only just learned ghosts have.

Based on this, she decides to list herself as a “huntress”, and turns the paper in.

The receptionist yeti looks over her documents, frowns in concern when she finds what’s been written in the blank section, but says nothing, simply signing the papers and handing her a new slip of paper, which valerie is then directed to take to another sector of the check in plaza.

Valerie follows her directions to another line, increasingly tired, footsore, and ready to take any chance she can find to slip away without being noticed.

When she comes to the end of the line, there’s a commotion from the building she’s expected to enter into, one of the ghosts that entered just ahead of her is pushed out by two Yeti guards, desperately protesting that the device had lied, that he’s in full control, and if they only let him go back to try again, he can prove it. He’s wrestled into a pair of cuffs that look very much to valerie like well ornamented suppressor devices. One of the yeti guards, mockingly, asks him if he really wants another chance. The captured ghost says yes. The yeti guardsman leans in and tells him that he has a ring in his pocket (the ghosts obsession is “ring,” as demonstrated by his being covered both in literal rings as well as jingling bells), and that all he has to do to get it is lick his boots if he wants it. The ghost falls for this, thanking him and trying to kneel down to lick his boots.

The other guard, Icecrest, who was already trying to discourage him, tells him to lay off it, intimating that he’s wasting time as well as being dishonorable. The mocking guardsman laughs him off, saying he has nothing to gain by being a hypocrite and playing the honorable yeti in front of a bunch of foreigners and “Skeyllings,” a word he has already used in reference to the ring ghost several times. Icecrest bristles, saying that he won’t stand for any slander against his family name. The mocking yeti eggs him on, and if it weren’t for a loud cough from inside the room they were both set to guard, it would have devolved into a fight.

As it is, the mocking yeti gets one last dig in, telling icecrest to give his regards to his father as he cajole the ring ghost into following him, saying that he’ll lead him to somewhere with plenty of rings and bells if he comes along nicely. Icecrest is peeved to be left alone on a job that’s supposed to require two partners, but is blown off.

He turns back around to face the small audience, which includes Valerie, and uncomfortably clears his throat, pretending everything is fine, calling “next.”

Valerie, who now has no one in front of her, has no choice but to step foreward.

Chapter 5:

General Thoughts

Icecrest introduced wielding the truth seeking artifact, as artifact use/handling=part of treasure guard duties.

-Icecrest and valerie interact, icecrest apologizes for altercation, explains yeti position on other ghosts, ghosts who succumb to their obsession

-valerie undergoes truth-test, test for control over her obsession

-valerie realizes icecrest is part of the treasure guard, and may be a useful means of getting info on the infini-map

-valerie, who has run out of food, is upset to learn that even after passing the test (barely, to her distress,) and submitting to certain restrictions as an “inherently weaponized ghost,” she must still wait a day or so to get her visitor’s permit.

-she is very upset about this, letting slip that she’s looking for someone, to the point where icecrest tries to console her, going so far as to offer to offer her some help (this is partly because he is embarrassed and mortified by the actions of the mocking yeti, which Valerie was direct witness to.) He offers to let her stay for the night.

-Valerie is completely nonplussed, rather aggressively asking him why. Icecrest stutters out a combination of the truth, his duty, and his curiosity about her origins, as he has guessed (wrongly) that many of Val’s mannerisms stem from a formation outside the ghost Zone, AKA the living world.

-Valerie, recognizing a means to pump him for info, once she finally lets go of getting out now, accepts.

****

Icecrest apologizes to Valerie as he leads her into the next room, explaining it as a small family quarrel. When Valerie asks why he didn’t just leave (thinking of all the family members who did exactly that, both when her mother died, and when her father lost his job,) Icecrest makes a face, touches his emblem of high ranking, and explains that it was a matter of honor and inheritance, and that now that it was his, he wasn’t about to just prove everyone who disrespected him right and leave.

Valerie is surprised that she agrees with this, and states that she’s surprised that he doesn’t just fire them/beat them up. Icecrest makes a face indicating that he agrees, but points out again that he is family, and also was in public. Valerie, as a matter of fact, had beaten up some of her family members in public, biting an aunt who had gotten drunk enough to start badmouthing her mom at the funeral, but she has the sense to make a noncommittal noise in reply.

By this point they have reached their destination, and Icecrest uncomfortably shifts back to his role of impersonal guard, opening the door, where yet another Yeti waits besides two artifacts. The artifact Yeti blandly comments that Icecrest is late. Icecrest ignores this, choosing to repeat his introduction instead, which the other yeti reluctantly follows along with. (icecrest and the artifact yeti belong to competing factions, as the royal guard, dominated by the house of Ice, and artifact management, acquisition, and storage, as dominated by the house of Hoar)

Valerie is ushered up to the artifacts, and made to place her hand on the the one to her left, the artifact yeti (Hoarhind), begins asking questions:

name: Valerie responds similarly to how she did on her sheet, responding with “Red huntress”
1. Val notices the artifact glow, and Hoarhind marking something on his sheet
2. Hoarhind then asks for Valerie’s given name, which angers icecrest, as he recognizes the request as both nonstandard and rude.
3. Val tries to lie, but due to the artifact, which she can’t remove her hand from, is eventually forced to give it up.
4. The yetis note that the name she gives is unusual for “machinekind”, who typically have acronyms or code numbers as true names.
Intent, what Valerie intends to do during her stay: Valerie answers that she’s looking for someone she’d lost, an ice ghost like them, and the far frozen was her best bet. She gets away with this question without too much trouble. Use this opportunity to have Val ruminate on why she wants to get Elle back.
Does she mean harm to the yeti, their land, their way of life: Valerie answers no, she isn’t here to hurt people, she just wants to steal their stuff.
Do her “needs” pose pose a threat to herself or others: what Hoarhind means here is her obsession (Valerie is still masquerading as a ghost), but Valerie interprets this an inquiry into her “need” to be here, to which she responds no, as just stealing a map isn’t really threatening. The artifact yeti expresses doubt about this, commenting that those with a “need” for hunting rarely grow it in a healthy way, much less a safe one. Valerie realizes what the blank line meant just as she is rtopased from the truth-telling orb’s hold.

At this, the artifact yeti is seemingly satisfied, and Valerie is allowed to remove her hand. She is then made to place her hand on the second artifact, which she does much more reluctantly.

Upon touch, Valerie is sent into what is, effectively, a mental simulation, where she is instantly made to forget how she got there and why. So far as Valerie is concerned, she is hunting in Amity and is on the lookout for prey, which she finds soon enough. She is relieved that her target is obviously bestial (Cujo?), though she can’t exactly remember why, and proceeds to hunt (insert cool action sequence), she is stopped, however, by Dani, who pushes her away from the beast just as she is about to administer the killing blow. Valerie and Elle argue, with Elle pushing the idea that killing the beast is wrong, and that she should hold back. Valerie can’t remember, exactly, why she hates the dog, but she does know that she wants to kill it, that it is her prey, and that Elle is in the way. The fight escalates to the point where Valerie is forced to choose between harming Elle, or letting Cujo go. Ultimately, she decides to let it go, though she does so in poor grace.

(The orb is designed to test the user's obsession-compelled desires versus their personal ones. As Valerie is not a ghost, it targeted her strongest desires and used it to build a choice based scenario: her revenge versus her morality, matching the appropriate characters from her memory. Note that the yeti’s also usually use the orb to gather details concerning a given ghost’s power, abilities, personality, and thoughts. While Valerie gave away much of her combat abilities in the fight, her humanity interfered with the artifact’s ability to process the mental aspects.)

(The artifact yeti blackmails Val for his own personal gain, this intersects with Val’s own desire to get into artifact storage, she ends up cooperating with him as part of the heist.)

Valerie is then rtopased from the artifact’s grip, and is quite angry at the perceived manipulation. Both Yetis, however, stare at her in astonishment, though the artifact yeti looks on with more than a little irritation and concern. Icecrest, meanwhile, is ecstatic, and asks why she didn’t mention before that she was acquaintances with the great one.

Valerie is tripped up by this, she doesn’t want to be associated with Phantom at all, much less mooch off his reputation, but it’s obvious Icecrest is an utter fanboy, and as a member of the artifact guard, a likely source of knowledge to the infinimap and how to get it.

The artifact yeti, (Hoarhind) interjects that the last he checked, the great one was not a girl, though there was a great resemblance. He also tries to ask how she managed to desist from her hunting target so easily, though he is cut off before he can complete the thought. (--put this last line elsewhere)

With Hoarhind’s interjection, Valerie makes her decision, discussing her involvement with Elle in a little more detail, and that while she’s not Phantom (she refuses to call him the great one,) she believes she might be the same kind of ghost/related, which is why she decided to search in the Far frozen in the first place.

She is also pushed into admitting that she is aware of Phantom by Icecrest, although she claims to have only worked with him directly once, in the rescue of Elle, which is true, and intended as a ploy to boost her reputation without involving herself too deeply with Phantom and his large, hairy fanboys all at once.

Icecrest is more than happy to offer his aid in the search for a friend/relation of the great one, and even offers to shelter her in his clan’s outpost, where he’s staying for the duration of his stay outside the capital city (which is inside the mountain Valerie saw,) Valerie assents, deciding the chance of reward was worth the risk, especially now that she realizes just how utterly huge the Far Frozen is. This is done after overcoming an argument with Hoarhind.

Valerie leaves with Icecrest, she sees, but is ultimately unsure what to do about the glance Hoarhind throws her way as she leaves, which is both cutting and suspicious as he clings the second artifact close, looking over its data.

(Note-Icecrest is still guilty about the negitive image of his people Valerie must have after the incident with the ring ghost outside the tent, which also factors into his decision. He brings this up briefly with Hoarhind?)