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Post by Ladorak on Apr 1, 2009 10:57:00 GMT -5
Personza was an island of rugged, austere beauty. From the tops of snow capped mountain peaks to it's sandy beaches and semi-tropical climate, it was an island of hard working meerkats mostly divided up into clans. They were a tough lot, most of them being in favor of self-determination and independence, but those were the two things most lacking for them on this island.
Having belonged to the Calgary Alliance for the longest time, they had finally been sold one year before the birth of Boneparte Lantzer to Rosferia. From then on, bloody uprisings had taken place against Rosferian rule, ending in the ultimate crushing of the Personzan rebels and the establishment of strict colonial rule on the island. It was south of Rosferia, west of Calgary, but it's inhabitants dreamed of an independent Personza, and many of them, including Boneparte, had united behind the faction of old freedom fighter Lukas Pascale.
Having been exiled to Galdea after losing to Rosferian troops, Pascale had returned within the last few years and had recently won election to governor of the Personza Department in the new Rosferian anti-monarchy government. He wasn't fully trusted by the Rosferians, even if they had created a semi-democracy, but that was precisely why the island maintained a strong garrison of Rosferian troops to keep the upstart meerkat in check. These days though....he was growing old....tired and old.....and had begun forming other less.....direct plans for the island.
Having been forced into entering the Rosferian military by his now deceased father, young Boneparte Lantzer had taken a sick leave and had returned to his island home that he loved so much. Quickly falling under the nearly hypnotic influence of Pascale, Boneparte decided to violate his leave and instead stay here, joining in the Personza Militia that Pascale had created and achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, a rank that meant nothing to the Rosferian troops here. To them he was still a mere Lieutenant, and a meerkat at that. They were all just colonial scum that had to learn their place. Calgary had sold Personza out of desperation. They had been unable to control the revolts...but Rosferia had.
Now though, relative peace was on the island. It was one of those fine days in which you could tell Spring was just ready to start bursting forth. It would bring new life....but even Boneparte could glimpse the dark storm clouds gathering on the horizon out over the ocean. There were problems in his hometown again. Problems...nothing but problems.....
This time it was one of those blasted pro-clerical groups. They were ALWAYS stirring up trouble when it came to this one particular convent. Boneparte, not being very religious himself, had shut the place down by Rosferian decree and told them to go worship someplace else....but it seemed as if they were being quite insistent.
It was definitely looking like rain as he stepped down off the stoop of Militia headquarters. The short, brawny looking meerkat narrowed his eyes, sighed, and pushed the top of his cap out and shoved it firmly on his brow. No wretched religious nuts were going to make a fool out of him! Launching himself off the stoop, he landed on the street and began trotting rapidly towards the building that had once been (and some still considered) the Convent.
He was wearing his Personzan outfit, having discarded his Rosferian one long ago. It was a tanned brown in color, much like the pelt of his fur. His boots clomped over the ground as the young officer picked up his pace, his tail flaying about behind him. Not today...they were NOT going to get the better of him today, or any other day!
The convent was a towering old building on an embankment closer towards the hills. He knew the way well. Out of the corner of his way he looked out at the stone fortress that guarded the town on it's cliff near the sea. If only he could take that place...the citizens wouldn't dare to try something so brazen as this ever again.
Ahead of him he could see the convent as he made his way up the embankment, and he could see to his relief that some of his soldiers were already there, with more on the way. Most of them were unfortunately forbidden to carry firearms by the Rosferian military for obvious reasons, but a few here and there did carry muskets. A large crowd had gathered out in front of the convent, mostly meerkats, and almost all of them preventing his soldiers from approaching the building too closely.
No fighting had broken out yet, as it seemed his troops were mostly waiting for his arrival. Good. With a swish and spin he tugged his silver whistle out of his mouth and blew shrilly into it, to get the crowd's and his own forces' attention. "Alright now listen up!" he barked out, fixing the assemblage with a dark stare. "We've been over this already! This Convent has been dissolved! You may not and CANNOT worship here! I'm fine with you going anywhere else that hasn't been closed you want, but you can NOT gather here for worship. This Convent was dissolved by both Pascale AND the Rosferian government need I remind you?" his voice was just a tad nasally, but it had authority behind it as well.
His black eyes swept the group in front of them. "I am going to make one request, and one request only that disperse now, and go gather somewhere else. We will give you this chance to walk away from here peacefully, but if you do not obey the laws of Personza we will be forced to move you by force if necessary." Boneparte was noting with some disconcert that it appeared that several of the group looked as if they were pistols. Not good....all he had with him was his dress sword, but he was hoping that they would at least listen to him and see that standing up before his soldiers was useless....though in this case Boneparte was also noting that his forces were actually outnumbered. Only about two or three actually carried muskets. The rest had their nightsticks and that was probably about it.
Still...this convent had been dissolved, and he was NOT going to let himself be pushed around by a bunch of discontent townsbeasts! One way or another they would disperse alright. He wasn't personally sure how just yet he would get them to move....but generally citizens tended to fear and live in respect of law enforcement....it was just that this time this particular group would give him a little more than he bargained for.
((OK, bookity and ninjasquirrel are up next. Bookity you can have the townspeople act any way you please, but just keep in mind that eventually a small scuffle has to break out and one of Boneparte's soldiers will end up getting shot. Doesn't have to happen right away though if you want to do some stuff first, so just play this out however you please.^^))
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Post by bookity101 on Apr 1, 2009 20:47:17 GMT -5
((A little short compared to Cal's, but I hope it will do))
Rupert Mexin stood on the edge of the crowd, close enough to one of the guards to be able to reach out and touch him. The nervous weasel was shaking in his fur, he was so nervous. So much so that he was stroking his two shot pistol, and didn't notice that it was primed...
Mike Wexel was mad, very mad, so far you could say that he was enraged. Why would they close the church? Why, Why?!?! They had NO right, none at all!! He paced around in a circle. He glared at the beast who seemed to be in charge, then decided to get to the point. He ran up and shoved his face right into the meerkats. "Oh, and why should we leave?" He yelled, his voice carrying the slight smell of whiskey. He waved his paws about as he talked, screamed, at the troop leader.
Father Miklos stood at the edges of the crowd, biting the edge of his lips. "This will get ugly." He said to himself as he walked calmly through the muttering crowd, towards the beast that he assumed was the leader of the troops.
Everybeast was one edge, it would take just a little bit of pressure one way or the other, to turn this crowd from a semi-peaceful protest, into a riot.
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Post by Ladorak on Apr 1, 2009 22:47:21 GMT -5
Boneparte was a bit startled by this citizen's audacity. He was expecting these protesters to simply fold before him, but it seemed they weren't respecting the law much. Digging his heels in, the meerkat Lieutenant Colonel glared right into the face of the one confronting him and narrowed his eyes.
"Because...this Convent was dissolved by law. It was supported by the aristocracy, and we had to stamp it out. You don't need rich scum providing you a nice building to worship in after all. And need I remind you that your priest here." Boneparte briefly glanced over Mike's shoulder to Father Miklos. "He refused to take the Civic Oath." Unfortunately for Boneparte, that had never been officially signed into law by the King of Rosferia, but it had been vigorously enforced here on Personza.
Boneparte didn't so much care for supporting Rosferian laws, but one thing he DID care about was breaking the aristocracy and especially the clergy's hold over his home town. Having grown up in an oppressively religious household himself, Boneparte bore a bit of a grudge against it, and with demonstrators like this, the meerkat had little patience. They were all working for a common goal here after all.....why couldn't they just obey laws.
"Now...get out of my way." he snapped in Mike's face, and strode around him, virtually ignoring him as best he could. "Father." Boneparte addressed the preacher now. "You of all beasts should know that this Convent is no more. You're free to go anywhere else you like, but this building is off limits to you and your group. I'm giving you one chance to disperse.....I recommend you take it." he said, a threatening undertone in his voice. Just do what I say..... he pleaded silently in his head.
He wasn't afraid to use force in this instance to break this crowd up. He looked from right to left, noting his soldiers were still around him, forming a cordon for the most part. Good. He would just have to act like the tough commanding officer and not give an inch to these impertinent upstarts. Some thunder rumbled off in the distance. The storm had not yet reached the island's shores however....but it was coming.
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Post by ninjasquirrel1 on Apr 2, 2009 21:00:54 GMT -5
Dirken Graypaw strutted around pushing and shoving townsbeasts around, menacing them with his spear. His tail tapping the ground impatiently with rage, why wouldn't these stupid beasts back off when you shoved them, instead . . . they shoved back!. His job as Sergeant in command of this small group of soldiers was to keep the townsbeasts in order . . . and he wasn't doing a good job of it. His small force were menacing them, he was even screaming at the top of his lungs! Nothing worked. . . . He feared that it might take some violence to break up this crowd. . . .
His fears were aroused when a townsbeast decided to scream into the face of an officer that had just joined the chaos. His paws shook nervously as he roughly grabbed the beast by his collar. Pushing him back with the rest of crowd, he menaced him with his spear point.
"Oi! Get yerself back with th' ot'ers!"
OOC>Sorry, best I could do, late.
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Post by Ladorak on Apr 3, 2009 20:33:27 GMT -5
((Did good ninjasquirrel, thanks for the post. Think it does convey the tension this group is feeling. I'm deciding to add...a bit more intrigue into this scene, and definitely more of an animosity builder here. ) The meerkat Lieutenant Commander looked briefly over at where.....Dirken he thought his name was, was busy trying to keep the crowd under control. Most of these townsbeasts were old hardliner royalists, supporting the aristocracy and clergy, and most of them detested his new National Guard and what they saw as "thugs" who ran around and imposed the new Revolutionary orders on them. But something was.....off about this. He could understand that barring them from worshiping in their traditional church on the eve of one of their biggest holidays would fire them up...but as his eyes were drawn down the length of the spear that Dirken was holding, Boneparte could see something....rather unsettling in the crowd. Muskets! And they looked like government issue ones at that! The sun, soon to disappear behind those storm clouds, flashed it's light off the steely glint of the ramrods and here and there a few bayonets could be seen poking up like the spines on a porcupine. How the hell had they gotten government muskets?! Looking around and behind the crowd, he could see some of his soldiers, not in his direct unit, but from another platoon, sitting on the ground and being guarded by a rowdy group of ruffians. Had they been captured and relieved of their weapons!? "You...." he pointed a rather prominent claw directly at Father Miklos. "Your group has government issue muskets!" his eyes began to blaze with fire now, a seething anger that was slowly being stoked and fanning into a heated wrath within him now. "Assaulting my troops is and stealing their weapons is as you well know....illegal." his voice had lowered...it was underscored by contempt and also a growing ire at this group. "I demand RIGHT NOW that you return those weapons immediately to my unit....release my troops, and get OUT of here. Last warning...." he said, leveling his gaze right at Miklos. If his eyes were the bores of guns well....chances were Miklos would have been dead by now....but fortunately for the preacher, they were not. This was a complete outrage! Not only were these citizens acting as if they owned the town, but that they could go around taking his soldiers prisoner and confiscating their weapons! More of his troops were appearing now, these few carrying muskets....but Boneparte doubted if it would be enough. They were still outnumbered by this large crowd of rebels. but Boneparte was hoping they'd back down and avoid a shootout. What he didn't realize was that this crowd was probably equally angry at him for closing their Church and preventing them for worshiping on a major holiday, as well as representing new, radical ideals of the Rosferian Revolution that they really just didn't buy. There was a mutual animosity simmering under the surface between both groups....and it was about to explode to the surface if pushed any further.
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Post by bookity101 on Apr 4, 2009 20:58:52 GMT -5
((I think that this will do the trick. )) Father Miklos put up his paws in an appeasing gesture, ignoring the fury that blazed from the meerkats eyes. "I am an old beast, Commander, this beasts assembled on their own, I came to see if I could help disperse the..." The Father's voice trailed off as Boneparte walked off, yelling at the crowd. Miklos' brow furrowed in despair as he noticed the muskets in the crowd, now he know for certain that he could not get this to end peacefully. He walked over to one of the beasts holding a musket. "Do you really want to do that?" He said as he looked at the teen. After a moment, the teen dropped the musket into the Priests paws. In turn, he moved to one of the younger beasts in the regiment and handed it to him. The Private nodded and thanked him with a simple nod. With that, Father Miklos moved on to the next young beast. ******* Rupert Mexin shrunk into the crowd, knowing that his hand gun would be taken if it was found, even if it belonged to his father and not the military. He slunk to the edges of the crowd, hoping that no one would see him. ******** Mike was getting madder, and the alcohol wasn't helping. He paced just beyond the end of Dirken's spear. When the soldiers started to take back their weapons, he went off the deep end. He suddenly dropped to the ground and came up under Dirken's nose, swinging at his gut then his head....
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Post by Ladorak on Apr 8, 2009 11:21:53 GMT -5
((Sorry, but I've really got to move this along. Lots still to do, plus an upcoming war, so I'm gonna move things along here a bit. Thanks for all the help with this thread so far! )) Boneparte was satisfied that the preacher was giving in....but then sudden movement off to his left caught his eye and his head snapped around to see one of his soldiers being suddenly attacked. Opening his mouth to shout out some orders, he could barely get the first letter of the first word out before shouts from the angry crowd, goaded on by seeing one of their own brazenly attacking the soldier, rang out in his ears. "Kill those traitors!" "Gun them down!" "Let's go!" "Shoot them all!" That was enough! Several sharp gunshots split the air, sounding quite deafening a this distance as they exploded in the meerkat's ears and white puffs of smoke blossomed up, obscuring view as it drifted over the crowd and into his eyes, causing them to temporarily shut. More muskets were discharging now, and it was hard to tell who was shooting at who. Boneparte's first impulse was survival, and he began to run out of the smoke and towards his soldiers, but ground to a halt in his tracks, gravel kicking up under his boots as he saw one of his volunteers lying on the ground, a bullet having pierced his gut, and dark blood, almost black because of the uniform, slowly welling out and causing the poor 'kat to go into shock as he lay on the ground, disbelief on his face, his paws clutching frantically at his wound, but it was clear that he wouldn't survive. Boneparte recognized the poor fellow as Lieutenant della Serra, one of his most eager and zealous subordinates. Staring down at his compatriot, his face contorted into a look of pure anguish at the Lieutenant's fate, Boneparte was quickly brought back to reality by a bullet whistling past his ear, reminding him that he and his troops were still under fire, and that they were outnumbered. The crowd was advancing on them now, fire in their eyes to either kill or expel all of these hated Revolutionaries from their town. They were good, hard working citizens, and had had enough of their convents being dissolved because their priests had not taken the Civil Oath. "Fall back!" he cried out, his voice cutting into the smoke filled air, the acrid gunpowder invading his lungs and leaving a very foul taste in his mouth. "Fall back to headquarters!!!" The mob sense their advantage, and began pushing his troops back through the streets. His soldiers did the best they could to obey, scattering in general as the crowd moved to split them up into separate groups. The meerkat commander, for his own survival, was forced to rush headlong down the steep slope of the hill off the main road, his feet slipping and nearly giving out under the numerous small pebbles and loose dirt of the hillock. Once or twice he nearly lost his balance and went toppling forward, but he held on, and gained the cover of a nearby building, a house that was probably vacant due to the occupant being amongst the angry crowd that were reloading their muskets and pouring out a ragged but deadly fire at his fleeing troops. Because of the confusion, Boneparte's force had been extremely lucky, and all but Lieutenant della Serra, who was now dead on the hilltop, had managed to get to cover and start making their way back to the headquarters via back alleys and side streets. Boneparte knew that with one platoon having been taken prisoner, he had about 50 soldiers, but only about half of those carried muskets, and the crowd numbered at least 150 if not more. Peering out from around a corner of the stone house, a musket ball slammed into the rock wall close to him and he quickly averted his head, not wanting to catch any stone splinters in his eyes. This was insane! He had to get out of here and regroup his beasts! Staying low, he wished desperately for even just a pistol as he covered his head with his paws and began running crouched down in between buildings, ducking and weaving down alleyways until he could his barracks ahead of him. It had been the former town hall, and the citizens of the town were even angrier at the fact that their seat of government had been taken over Boneparte and his troopers. He bumped into a few of his 'kats, all looking rather surprised and confused, as if they hadn't expected this to have happened. This was HIS home town! Why were his own people acting out in anger towards him!? Gritting his teeth, he reached the barracks in one piece, gathering his hunkering troops together and trying to think of what to do. It was clear that they were all in real danger of their lives, and that the crowd was aiming to push them out of town altogether if they couldn't kill him. The sharp witted meerkat was turning several ideas over in his mind. What to do...what to do..... His eyes came to rest on the citadel on the cliff overlooking town. The citadel...that was IT! If they could gain control of it...they could turn the numerous cannons inside on the town, and force the populace to calm down and get back to their homes. Order would be restored. But there were a few snags that Boneparte realized he'd have to overcome. First off, he only had 50 beasts with him, and the garrison in the fortress was around 400. Second, most of them, including their commander, were all loyal to the King of Rosferia, Augustine, and not the new Legislative Assembly. It was doubtful if they would be very keen on helping him, especially since the King was under virtual house arrest in his own capital. But still...he had to try. He could come up with a cover story to get his mammals inside the walls of that fort and then he could go from there. "Alright...listen! I want all of you to follow me...but I want only a few of you....say five or so, to accompany up to the gates of the citadel. I'm going there to try and take command of it both for our own protection and to restore order to this blasted town! The rest of you follow at a distance. I don't want to alarm them inside the fort and make them think we're trying to attack them after all. You, you, you two and you." he pointed his long claws at the five he wanted to go with him directly, and started off towards the fortress, trying to keep as many buildings as he could between the still advancing crowd and his troops. Fortunately, muskets became less accurate with the greater the range, and all of the shots the villagers were taking at them missed. They weren't trained either, and it was no surprise that their accuracy was poor with those weapons. Some of his soldiers fired back occasionally, but it was more to keep the crowd at bay than to actually kill anyone. Boneparte's mind was in overdrive. What...what was the name of the garrison commander and who was he? The meerkat knew that he was a Colonel in the Rosferian army....which meant he far outranked Boneparte's own rank of only Lieutenant. Unable to conjure up the fellow's name, or even his species, the meerkat would just have to deal with him as he came up. Moving up the road to the cliff, the crowd stopped their pursuit. First off, they had accomplished in driving the soldiers out of town, and second, they weren't nearly so stupid as to anger the Rosferian garrison here in town. They would keep a safe distance, but they still hovered around the town's outskirts, threatening to fire again if Boneparte and his soldiers decided to venture too close to their territory. Seeing the strong, thick walls of the masonry fortification ahead of him, Boneparte put on an extra burst of speed and left the majority of his troops on the road behind him, knowing that the garrison commander probably wouldn't like that one bit. There were two blue clad soldiers of Rosferia out in front of the closed gates, and they immediately crossed their muskets together to indicate that Boneparte and those following him had no entry to this place. "Halt!" they barked out. It looked like a jackal and a rat that constituted the two gate guards. "You don't have permission to approach this fort! Get your troops off the road! They're blocking the way! You know the rules! NO local traffic on the military roads!" the jackal's words were acid to the meerkat, but he decided to meet force with force. "There's no time for that now! We've moved onto your road for our own protection obviously! Call the Colonel! Get your Commandant! I must be allowed to speak with him at once!" Boneparte shot back as he came to a halt before the two guards. "You don't have permission to see the garrison commander yokel." The meerkat's eyes narrowed and blazed with fire at the rat's words. "Look!" lashing out, he grabbed hold of the rat's overcoat. The jackal was so surprised by this belligerent show of force that he initially didn't react. "I don't have TIME for this! GET the garrison commander! This is an emergency! Unless you're blind, the entire town is up in arms and have started a mass demonstration! They have to be gotten under control now!" the jackal was advancing on Boneparte now as the rat tried to fight the pertinacious meerkat off of him. Groping around in his pockets, Boneparte finally managed to dig out his Rosferian Lieutenant's badge just as the jackal was reaching for him. "TAKE your paws OFF me!" Boneparte snarled, shoving the jackal back. "I outrank the BOTH of you!" he flashed his badge in their faces, and both of them immediately started to grow nervous. They were only Corporals after all, and when they saw that this yokel meerkat was indeed a Lieutenant in their own military, they weren't sure how to react to this. "I will ask you once more, please call your garrison commander at once. I need to speak to him immediately so that we can get this situation under control...." They were both too stunned to move at first, both staring at him wide eyed. "That would mean NOW!" Boneparte said with emphasis, growing impatient as he could see the crowd taunting and jeering his soldiers, but still keeping their distance. "Uh....yes sir!" the jackal barked, and came to attention, saluting Boneparte before quickly disappearing behind the doors of the fort to go and get his commander. Good! The meerkat began to smile with satisfaction. Things FINALLY seemed to be going his way. Now it was just a matter of convincing the Commandant to let his troops in and he would have this situation under control in no time....
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Post by Carrow on Apr 8, 2009 15:36:45 GMT -5
"What in the name of fur is going on here, may I ask?"
Dorris Faria, the fort commander, strode out. The dormouse was normally quite a cheerful character, which seems quite odd when you consider his position, but he was quite ticked off now. His green eyes were clouded with annoyance. His fur was mainly light brown, but there were grey patches here and there, which came about as a result of the stress that came with his job. Dorris still clung to the way of the sword, and his particular one looked quite impressive in his paws. Far from being unwieldy, it suited him very well.
Eyeing Boneparte, Dorris raised his eyebrows.
What's going on!? He shouldn't be here.
((*looks at post above*
Cripes. How was that?))
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Post by Ladorak on Apr 8, 2009 18:29:02 GMT -5
Boneparte, for the sake of facilitating cooperation, came to attention and sharply saluted Colonel Dorris Faria, the commandant of the garrison. "Colonel Faria sir. Lieutenant Lantzer of the Rosferian Artillery." the meerkat introduced himself to Faria. He was....a little more than surprised to learn that the Colonel was nothing more than a diminutive dormouse. A mouse....commanding a fortress? How had HE gotten his job?
"Colonel Faria sir, as you might have heard, there's a full scale demonstration going on in the town. As you're aware, the convent in town was recently dissolved, but a large mob has gathered and has refused to disperse. They surprised a battalion of my National Guard, of which I'm a Lieutenant Colonel of, and disarmed them, taking away their muskets. I tried to get them to disperse peacefully, but they started shooting, and one of my beasts has been shot and killed! They're running out of control now, and we're in real danger of our lives sir!"
He hooked a claw down at the town where the armed crowd was still milling about off the military road. "Sir this has to be brought under control! I came up here to take my troops inside the fort and turn the guns upon the town. I'll take full responsibility for it, but we need to act! Under the threat of the fort's guns I think they'll back down and disperse back to their homes. Sir I'm..." he checked himself, realizing he was sounding a bit impertinent. "I'm requesting that my troops be allowed to do this, or that you do it sir. Roll your guns out and we'll get this under control in no time. This is a real emergency here, we have to act now!'
The meerkat was aware he was sounding pushy, but he really didn't have time for formalities! His beasts were in real danger here, and this mass demonstration needed to be broken up before it got out of control!
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Post by Carrow on Apr 8, 2009 18:56:02 GMT -5
"You want me to turn the guns on the town? As far as I can see, the situation is hardly that desperate, Lieutenant Boneparte, that we need to act thus. As I see it, such a show of force would drive these rioters to even greater efforts, making them even more difficult to control. There must be another way to solve this problem. Not that I care anyway - my loyalty lies not with the Assembly, but with the King, and I will only take orders from him. Furthermore, I refuse to recognise your so-called 'revolution', and besides, I outrank you, and you are head of the National Guard, a military force that is not sanctioned by Rosferia. In fact, were it not for the fact that we are both hoping to extinguish this riot, I would have no reason to speak to you."
Boneparte was also a second-rate citizen, being of Personza, and while Dorrit didn't care much about that, he still thought that the Lieutenant was not worth his time. Under these circumstances, he did however feel that he needed to listen to what Boneparte had to say. Perhaps the two could come to some agreement, but Faria thought that the meerkat that stood before him now was going about it entirely the wrong way.
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