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 Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2018 8:21 pm
She laughed lightly as she held tentatively to his arm, a grip half for interpersonal investment and half for taking some of the weight off her previously injured leg. The night had gone well, she reflected — were she a romantic, she would characterize it with vibrance and vivacity, but such scopes were beyond her instruments of measure — they discussed work and translation studies and she invariably segued into dance's many intricacies. Adel listened as ever with an immeasurable amount of patience. And as alcohol softened her to less useful topics, they each learned a few more curiosities about each other. Useless facts, perhaps, like her preference for hoop earrings over studs, though she found studs much more practical. And in addition: she rather hated pencil skirts.
A few glasses of champagne warmed her pleasantly against the night air, wrapped as she was in shawl and sweater and scarf. Summer shorts were traded away for fleece-lined winter pants that bulged and bunched unflatteringly. Boots in place of sandals kept her ankles warm, her socks insulated against the cold. And beneath her lambskin gloves, Adel felt like a beacon of heat. She wondered, briefly, if there was a great temperature difference between them.
But the chill in the air was fierce and the car, she knew, was two blocks away. Two blocks through the blustering wind, where snow still caked up next to the sidewalks, and they would be in a warm car to heat the chill out of their hands. Two blocks and there would be only the drive between her and the privacy of a home. She had enjoyed herself that night, but a much more productive enjoyment came from disciplinary study, from pursuing helpful knowledge.
Those reflections halted as they turned toward an alley. That passed through it before to reach their restaurant, and in full night, it had changed tones from benign to malignant. Her wariness increased, chasing away her buzz. "Let's consider taking the long way around," she offered while they still stood beneath an ice-encrusted, light-strewn tree. She half-hoped he would oblige, but half-expected he would choose the alley nonetheless to the benefit of her leg.
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Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 5:54 pm
While Adel had not fully expected Ayesha to turn down the invitation to to accompany him to dinner to celebrate his birthday her agreement had still come has a pleasant delight. She was, even now, A bit of an enigma to him, despite shared time and numerous lengthy conversations. One moment he thought perhaps he'd figured her out, only to be reminded in the next that he'd only just barely begun to scratch the surface. She was still a mystery, giving him only what she felt like giving up. Little pieces here and there that he was left to gather up and decipher. Tonight, however, she'd been a little less guarded while they'd talked. A by product of the drinks they'd been enjoying, or possibly even the natural progression of their unique situation, but regardless of why, he was enjoying the warm weight of her walking beside him, holding his arm for support. He'd laughed lightly as well, amused by something one of them had said, though the tension of her hands on his arm chased away the humor and the memory of whatever it was that had spawned it. Paused beneath the tree he glanced down the length of the shadow bathed alley, considering. "Are you sure?" Normally it wouldn't have even been a question--reason wouldn't have mattered, and Adel had no want to deny her--but her ankle had still not fully healed, and the sidewalks had not all received the preventive attention they needed with the snowy weather. "How's your ankle feeling?" He'd hate for anything to happen that might compromise it's mending. But if they were careful. If they took their time and he kept his arm steady and rigid for her...
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Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2019 10:29 pm
"Sore, but stable." Ayesha cherry-picked for justifications, from seeing more of the city to enjoying the chill air. Most seemed wan but for one: "the doctors said I should keep on it a little longer. It's supposed to keep my leg from weakening too much." Did Adel learn about anatomy in his anthropology schooling? Worse yet, did he learn about the healing process? Would he call her on a bluff or be too kind to refute her?
Would he march them both toward an alley where frozen trash caked to the floor beneath dark feet and dark eyes? In Islam and Christianity, they had demons — Satan and Iblis. In Shintoism, the oni. In hellenistic Greece, Charybdis and Scylla. Here, they faced the source of all these words and their wildly disparate sources. They faced the roots that grew these different fantastical ideas represented by pharyngeal and velar and uvular sounds. She knew without an extra sense that a youma lurked. Worse, she lacked the privacy to employ Pavo's protections, and while she trusted Adel, she could not turn that secret on him.
What hope she had for her excuse withered when she heard a rasping breath from down in the alley. Out came not a roar, nor a snarl, nor a hiss, but a wretched mewl as if from a pained cat. It stretched the sound loud and bitterly before it died on the air. When Ayesha blinked, she found she could not discern its shape from the overlapping shadows in that alley.
Her heart sunk. That they learned to lure was so much worse than she expected.
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Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2019 5:16 pm
Adel wasn't entirely sure that logic was sound, but far be it for him to question a medical professional on what could possibly be the evidence of a newer study on healing procedures on hyper-extended joints. More over, Ayesha did not want to walk down that alley, and recommended or otherwise she was willing to place herself in potential pain to avoid it. Who was he to force her? "Alright, if you..." His voice trailed off at the sound of rasping breaths, and Adel's focus narrowed down to the unusual shape of a shadow that didn't seem to him as if it belonged there. Then there was the piteous mewling, like the weakened cries of some injured cat, and there was something about it that set the hairs on the back of the man's neck standing on end. His grip on her arm tightened, and before he had realized it he'd taken a step back, drawing her along with him and even pulling her a step and a half behind him. It was like nothing he'd ever heard in nature, and as a world traveler that was saying something. Whatever it was, it nagged at his hind-brain unpleasantly, twisting his stomach into coils of unease. "No, we definitely won't be taking that way." It was time to get back to the car.
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Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2019 5:12 pm
Ayesha's lips shaped the word, breathless. "Wait —"
Her protest withered when Adel pulled her aside unheedingly, perhaps too quick for her to explain herself. She adjusted her stance, shifting her weight to one healthy leg, as her nails bit slight crescent moons into Adel's arm. "We should walk slowly. No sudden movements." Maybe running was what made people into targets. Maybe turning their backs and sprinting like idiots advertised their fear, and maybe these creatures fed on that fear.
With that came another supposition: maybe walking purposefully, fearlessly, was an invitation for an easy meal. She stared hard at the shadow, her mind scrambling to make something out of the dark. Any shape, any discernible figure, any eyes peering back with a mirror-clean glare from its retinas. Was it just a cat? Was she overreacting? Bringing Pavo back into her life had been mainly detractions with few boons; could she trust her perceptions or should she assume that racket came from a normal cat?
No, Adel was spooked too. She felt it in the way his muscle cords stood upright from the bone. She saw the tenseness in his profile. He gathered something unearthly from that shadow. Something unnatural.
Ayesha walked carefully, purposefully, with one foot before the other in lightly wobbling steps. She doubted her ability to sprint at need when her nerves so easily chewed through her coordination like a rat through wires. Left then right then left then right, heel-toe heel-toe heel-toe —
The mewling ceased. A pregnant silence followed one heavy with pretense. Ears everywhere strained to hear breath, to hear life. First came a light scratch, barely audible, followed by another drawn-out scrape. A sudden burst of skitter followed, chalky claws digging at the concrete. Then it leapt, and a narrow, black, amorphous something extended humanoid hands with too-sharp claws in a charge.
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Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 8:10 pm
Walk slowly. No sudden movements. It was how guides warned to react to to large predators out in the field. Do not turn your back, back away slowly and purposefully. From wolves, to bears, to tigers. The advise varied little between them. The one underlying consistency was clear; If you ran you died. But surely that didn't apply here within the concrete reinforced walls of the city. The largest thing roaming these streets were stray dogs. And yet...Adel's pulse still raced as he stared into the darkness of the alley. His grip remained tight on Ayesha's hand as she started to walk them back down the sidewalk. One foot, then the other; slow and sure steps. The mewling stopped and the silence that followed was somehow more unnerving than the sound itself. Adel swallowed reflexively, senses straining to pick up anything at all from the alley, be it sound, scent, or shift in movement. For one impossibly long moment there was nothing to suggest there'd been anything there at all. Then a scratch, light and easily explained away as nothing more than a raccoon, but there the innocent noises ceased. Scraping followed, something heavy dragging along concrete or cinder block walls. Finally they could see something moving. Small at first, unassuming, but it swelled in size as it rushed forward with a sudden unearthly skittering. An amorphous thing. It's shape twisted and contorted as it charged towards them on clawed limbs tipped with dangerous looking claws. There were no hinde-quarters to speak of--Hell, there was no body. The doctor could see bones and other bits of detritus in the mass of it's form in the split second before instinct propelled him into action. Their logic was suddenly flipped on them. Not running meant death, but Ayesha couldn't run on her healing ankle. Without so much as a second thought on the matter the tall man scooped his intended up into his arms in a sweeping turn, then took off at a sprint down the road they'd been walking along, swearing soundly in thickly accented Arabic. Then praying.
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Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2019 12:41 pm
Swept into his arms, Ayesha had no way to object now. No way to reach around and stab their aggressor, or pepper spray it, or hit it with her purse. She didn't miss these options — she thought their chances were better if they made enough noise or reached a populated area with enough light — but as she listened to it crawl, she knew these tactics only worked on animals.
And Adel, he must've thought it an animal. He must've thought the same as her, that if he ran fast enough or cursed loudly enough, it would lose interest and return to its domain. They could go home in one piece, with a story to laugh at afterward. They could rationalize it away over wine as an overgrown cat or an aggressive dog or a mischievous raccoon.
What she saw over his shoulder wasn't a raccoon. It wasn't a dog or a cat, though it wore what looked like the skull of one. Its arms were immense and powerful for how narrow they looked, and it dragged the bag of its almost-body across the ground recklessly. Over cans and drain grates and lids it went without a flinch. It wouldn't tire, either. It wouldn't stop. It wouldn't wait for another to steal its attention once it focused on Adel and Ayesha.
And Adel couldn't run for long holding her like this. Maybe in a fireman's carry, but Adel was a man of study — not the blue collar warrior this place expected of him. To help, Ayesha rummaged in her purse for a weapon. Pepper spray sat at the bottom near a vibrant green pen. Hold on, she thought, as she reached in blindly.
On it dragged over detritus. Reach-pull-reach-pull-reach-pull. Four legs became two. Drag-drag-drag. It meowed a last time from a stranger's throat. Closer it loomed, closer, then its hand closed around supple meat. That meat lurched forward and its globulous body lurched with it, then slammed itself about that thin morsel-bone with its inertia. Paralytics prioritized over its digestion; that leg would stop in minutes. Already it drooled, the smell of live meat an enticement.
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Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2019 5:12 pm
He could hear it dragging itself along behind them at a ridiculous, logic defying pace, not only keeping up with Adel's long legs but gaining on them, boiling forward of scrambling limbs and an all but useless body. The meowing, if it could still be called that, sent a chill down the back of the tall man's spine and spurred him even faster, muscles burning with the effort to keep ahead. To escape. And then something bony and claw like wrapped around one ankle and dragged Adel to a sudden and painful stop as he pitched forward, tossing Ayesha aside at the last possible moment to keep from landing on top of her. No doubt it'd be a rough landing for her, but she'd be free to run, not trapped beneath him as he struggled. And struggle he did, flipping onto his back to kick out at the thing's skull face with his free leg, free bubbling up the back of his throat thick and metallic as the leg held captive started tingling. He yelled out, kicking again as he tried to drag himself backward, but the crawl on his leg clung like shackle he couldn't break free. "Aye, Run!" At the very least she could escape. If it was busy with him it wouldn't bother with her, and she could run, find help, survive. He didn't want to die, but if it saved her life... Something appeared beneath his right hand and automatically he closed his fingers around. There was a flash, a wash of heat like a warm wind, and then the shock of cold closing in on suddenly bare arms. Suddenly it felt like his brain was buzzing, something dark and thick and awful closing in around him, and Adel acted on impulse, shouting out again as he slammed the heel of his sandal(???) into the creatures face again with enough force to feel it crack.
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Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2019 10:43 am
The skull shattered, the pieces peeling away with a wet slurp as they rained down like spent fireworks. The creature reeled on its gelatinous core, reforming, reassessing, feeling its head for the damage done to its latest hat. And upon no longer finding it, it emitted a shrill screech and propelled itself forward at a loping, skewed gait. No longer could it puzzle out legs, bipedal or quadrupedal or otherwise, and it lumber-stumbled forward harshly enough that it became bodily projectile more than approaching menace.
Addled, it still clawed and ripped. Wrenched and dragged. Mainly at the air it cursed and sputtered and spat. This thing, this meat, it hit it hard and broke the hat. Broke the spell of camouflage. Broke the knowledge of bodies. Its half-remembered hands wheedled at the air, knitting and slapping at the nothing where Adel's head used to be, or where his arms might've been had he been as coordinated as the creature.
Ayesha was still stunned, both by the fall and the seemingly instantaneous transformation that overtook Adel into something else altogether. She knew who that was, knew who wore the weather-inappropriate attire, but she also didn't. She felt, instead, that persuasive dig at her thoughts that she looked upon a stranger. A stranger who instantly took the place of her betrothed, who looked very alike and yet not at all like him. Glamour was a powerful thing, she realized.
So powerful that she neglected the youma for a time. And youma it was, she realized, by all the ugly impossibilities surrounding it. It slopped about like a can of jelly, laden with trash and particulate. And it threatened to overtake not-Adel's perfectly clean sandal, dirty his perfectly good pants.
Gathering her purse, Ayesha winced as she struggled to her feet. Her shin groaned beneath her weight and her rump still smarted where she struck the pavement. Pebbles scattered from her clothes. She clutched her purse as a bludgeon that she then brought down on the creature, soliciting a wet squelch that clung to the article's off-white underside.
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Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2019 7:06 pm
The skull shattered, piece of bone exploding out from where his sandal had connected like a tiny bomb had just gone off inside it, and Adel had a split second to marvel at the strength of that kick before the thing was lumbering after him again, if less...organized than it had been. An amorphous blob of pure nightmare fuel tat threatened to roll up and over him, and if the tingle, the spreading numbness in his leg was anything to go by he very much did not want that to happen. Giza, something inside him corrected as he scrambled back. Not Adel, Giza. He didn't know what that meant or where the thought had come from, but he knew it to be true. Even if that hadn't been the case there wouldn't have been any time to question it now. He was barely keeping ahead of the thing, practically crab crawling backward across the snow and the ice and the pavement, tearing up his palms in his haste. And then Ayesha was there beside the horror, beating it with her purse like the bag was some medieval flail. Her presence seemed to be enough to get him back on his feet, if unsteady, and he grabbed for her hand as he turned, pulling her with him as he started an unsteady, hobbling run away from the thing.
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Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 10:12 pm
Another bubbling screech erupted from the amorphous creature. It did not wait for its prey to keep attacking; it was better off finding more docile prey in other alleyways. With a garbled, disappointed sputter, the youma's gelatinous body crept back toward the shadows from whence it came.
And Ayesha was towed with untoward force away from the scene. She stumbled somewhat on her leg, her shoe catching on pavement and groove as she was dragged beyond sight of their situation. No longer could they look back and see bone splinters or glops of mystery fluid or any lost articles of clothing — Adel ensured it when he left in a desperate hurry. But he wasn't Adel anymore, was he? Seldom had Ayesha ever witnessed anything so transformative. Still, Adel never stated any kind of transformation phrase, nor did his shift from normal human clothes to Egyptian guardian bely any new name. What was he, exactly?
The thought could haunt Ayesha at another time. For now, they were retreating, and Adel lacked any awareness for the fact that he was now much faster and stronger than as a civilian. Doubly oblivious was he to how important it was to keep that identity a secret, and to learn that he now projected an aura that their jello enemy could sense.
There was only so much Ayesha could say for this if Adel wasn't a senshi. Less now that they took off running and their encounter hadn't followed. But questions, explanations would have to wait until they caught a moment to themselves. When that would be, she didn't know.
But she did know that Adel had a very eventful birthday.
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