Welcome to Gaia! ::

Metrognome emerged with an eager smile on his metal clock-hand face as he surveyed the crowed around him. He had been called upon and there was so much energy here for him to collect! He would have to take it from them. Stubby arms were just barely long enough to allow him to rub his hands together.

... First, though, he needed their attention. They were going all different ways, and he could hear music playing dimly over the ambient noise of people moving about in a place with high ceilings. And all of the humans were taller than him. No one seemed to pay too much mind as Metrognome pushed his way to a nearby bench; double-takes, sure, but no one impeded him. And those he bumped into had their eyes on the short-statured, nearly pyramidal wooden man now standing beside an ice-cream eating pair of teenagers on the bench.

He could not speak through his die-cut mouth, but he had so many more methods of making noise at his disposal. The metal outlines of lips on the Metrognome's needle turned upwards into a grin as he grasped the counterweight and pulled it to one side like a chubby human man might adjust the buckle on his belt while hiking up his trousers. The Cardian's view of the world shifted to the left as he pulled to the right, and then back the other way as he let go. And a sound as his face passed the center point of his body:

Tick.

Nearby people stopped to gape at him. He had their attention now! The needle affixed to the front of his body oscillated back and forth steadily, sounding each time his face at the top passed the position of perfectly upright. The sound in that part of the mall had hushed, but mostly in confusion. Was this some sort of clever ad? For the store that sold robot toys, or for the piano shop downstairs?

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

A young woman with an armload of bags who had been walking alongside another young man (husband? boyfriend?) stopped immediately in front of the bench and mistakenly made eye contact with the Cardian. She was his.

And the best part was that he could keep up his rhythm indefinitely and still have both of his hands free!

Meeting no resistance at all, Metrognome reached out and rested one short stubby hand on her shoulder, and started to drain her. By the eager look on his face, one might expect the rhythm to speed up accordingly, but it did not, instead remaining perfectly even.

Then the woman dropped to the ground, unconscious, and the crowd around the bench at the mall started to burst to life again as some people shoved to get away, and others shoved closer to see what was going on. The man who had been with Metrognomes first victim did his best to ease his partner to the ground, then immediately rounded on the exceedingly strange man (machine?) standing on the bench.

"What the hell was that? What did you do to her!?" he demanded, stepping closer and glaring at the Cardian.

A quarter-note later, he was entranced, too.

Alessa had only come to buy a new sweater, one simple new sweater. Nothing special.
So, when there was a small crowd forming around some spot, she did her best to do like everyone else: pretend there was something more interesting going on in the opposite direction. She didn’t want to be involved. She didn’t even want to know what she was trying not to get involved into.

Alas, the girl didn’t get very far when she heard Cassie’s cries of “T-TERRORIST! SENSHI! IT’S A SENHI!”. Automatically, she turned 180° and trotted towards the scream. A tiny part of her hoped it was, indeed, a senshi. Or Sailor Polaris. She really owed her one.
The other parts of her, however, there rational ones, were unanimously raging and shouting that monsters and destruction went hands in hands with senshi sightings.
She had a hard time making her way through the crowd without actively pushing anyone.
Suddenly, she stumbled into a mostly empty area, next to Cassie (who she’d swore she had seen somewhere, at school, maybe? Or in the news?).
The brunette stared at the couple near the bench. Then on the clock-like thing. Then on Cassie. Then on the clock again.
She didn’t feel so much at ease anymore. Everything was off, and she wasn’t so certain there was any senshi around.
Slowly, she walked towards Cassie, then behind her. “Wha… what’s going on?” she asked in a semi-whisper. Sincerely, she hoped it was all a joke, or an ad. If that was the case, the actor was really good, he even looked awfully pale. This can’t be real, right?

Sitting back, hovering above the crowed, Ishi giggled. Just like the human 'mooves'. Candy and all.

BUT REAL.



(Your posting order is now set! Ishi will be considered out of play unless directly called upon. He will rejoin the RP after the Cardian is defeated! Have fun guys!)

Helplessly, she watched the man drop lifelessly on the ground, then the cop, whose intervention turned out to be useless. Huh. That was definitely not marketing strategy.
Afraid, she looked around. Why did it have to happen again? Last time, she almost got eaten by a monster. But there was a senshi to save her, at the very least. Why was there no superhero to save the day?

Just as she wondered that, a girl in cape pushed her to run forward.
It was a bit violent, and Alessa lost her balance and fell, while more people were leaving the scene. Lying pathetically on her knees, she looked up.
Holy s**t, that's a superhero! That's a senshi!
No.
That's a... wait a minute.
…"V-vaaan?” she asked, her voice betraying both confusion and disappointment.
Just her regular classmate. With a makeshift costume. She had watched too many action movies to be really impressed by that.
However, at the moment the strange ticking creature turned towards Van, she experienced a sudden burst of adrenaline. She got up, and shouted, her voice filled with an unusual rage: <********! That’s enough! Don’t you touch her! Don’t you ******** touch anyone!”
She stepped forwards, despite having only her clutched fists to fight. In a few seconds, she was going to regret that bitterly.

Those tinted eye-lenses... they were keeping his impeccible rhythm from entrancing the strangely-dressed human before him! The spaces that made up Metrognome's eyes turned round with momentary surprise, then narrowed to angry half-circles as he concentrated on her. And she was telling all the other humans to keep away from him? He wanted to dance! He had set the perfect meter and everything!

Ding~ Tick. Tick. Ding~ Tick. Tick. Ding~ Tick. Tick.

The stubby box of a cardian began to take a step towards her, and nearly tripped over the fallen form of the unfortunate mall cop. Metrognome looked confused for a second, then bent to take the nightstick from the man's limp fingers. With this silly human in costume, and-- now there was another one yelling to her. He wanted all the attention for himself!

The caped human with the tinted eye-protectors was closest, so Metrognome figured he would finish that job first. Holding the nightstick like an oversized conductor's baton, he edged towards her, stepping around the mall cop's body before conducting his own waltz. He thought he saw her begin to succumb to his rhythm before the other girl had shouted - he would find that one later.

Stepping in time to his own beat, Metrognome spread his arms and grinned menacingly at the aspiring superhero, and tried again to snare her - he had to overcome her resistance to his charm, to preserve his own ego. Then he would drain her like he had drained the others.

The funny thing with Alessa was that, once she tricks you into thinking she’s badass, it turns out that not only she’s actually kind of pathetic, but she’d also tricked herself and is now bitterly regretting it.

So when Metrognome moved to try and get Super Van, the brunette immediately stopped right in her tracks, letting out a small scream, and stepped back again, her arms in a defensive pose. If she had any reason to, she would have apologized, too.
Fortunately, the monster(?) wasn’t going for her. It was going for the superhero wannabe. (She was mildly sure it was Vanessa, but should anyone ask her about that, she would deny completely the fact she thought her costume was very silly). Alas, she was back her meek self, and she didn’t feel like going for it anymore. Instead, she did the thing she had already done not too long ago, the only thing she believed she could manage.
Distraction.
“Hey! You! Look at me! Look, a three-headed monkey!” she shouted, flailing her arms in the air, looking like a complete idiot, as Cassie was dashing away from her and towards the wooden midget.
Déjà vu all over again.

There were other people who still wanted to dance, and were not running away! Three little girls now, two more plus the costumed one! This would be so exciting. Most of the other mall patrons had moved away, giving them some space - like a dance floor!

Ding~ Tick. Tick. Ding~ Tick. Tick. Ding~ Tick. Tick.

The rhythm continued as Metrognome stopped abruptly, though, as the other girls started making noise again. He rounded on them, changing his plans to dance with the caped little lady first - if they were going to keep shouting like that then he supposed he could give them a bit of attention, too. Was that one calling him a three-headed monkey? He shook a stubby fist at her as he advanced, then tried to grab her hands when he was close.

... This meant that the cardian's attention was off the superheroine, however, when she chose to assault him with the crowbar. The top of Metrognome's head was not difficult to reach, and he skidded to a halt as the piece of metal hit him with a solid, hollow thud. The die-cut holes for his eyes went round as ping-pong balls at the impact, and, though his waltz meter still remained constant it clearly took Metrognome a moment to gather his thoughts again.

Shaking himself off, he turned just far enough to glance back at the Caped Crusader who had hit him, then lunged suddenly at Alessa, attempting to grab her and entrance her at the same time. Energy from this one would pick him up, of course. Then he would be better able to take on the one with the weapon. His solid metal frame could protect him from her for a few more moments, for sure.