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Day One: During this time of year, the shadows are always growing longer and darker. Ordinarily, it's not something you think about, but for some reason there is something strange about the shadows this year. When walking through the shadows in Destiny City, it feels cold, or maybe even like the shadows briefly clutched at you. You may feel sluggish when passing through them, or you may feel drained or even unnecessarily anxious. It may be easy to brush off at first, but it's certainly unnerving.
If there was one thing Michelle hated about the fall, it was the fact that everything got colder and colder. Shadows grew longer, the sun wasn't up as long and soon there would be the time change that would mean there would be even less sun coming up. She really liked keeping warm, and if she didn't know better, it felt like she was colder than usual any time she walked through a shadow.
More and more as she went through her day, working in the library or even just at home, it seemed she grew more and more exhausted. It could simply be the fact she's had less sleep since discovering she was a senshi, her mind racing at night and filled with anxious thoughts, but she wasn't entirely sure that was it.
She was typically an anxious mess as it was.
Still, she didn't think much of it except in passing until she was distracted once more.
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Day Three: As if the shadows weren't creepy enough, now they seem to be moving, stretching beyond where the light shouldn't let it reach. In the afternoon sun, the shadows still seem to be climbing; darkness is spreading across the city unnaturally. More than that, now sometimes it feels like you are being forcibly grabbed, like someone is trying to drag you into the darkness.
...Maybe she really should see a doctor about her lack of sleep.
Shadows seemed to be moving, almost looking like something from a creepy anime, as if there ought to be a hand just reaching out to grab at her.
Sometimes it felt like she was being grabbed. She blamed that on the lack of sleep and her overactive imagination.
Michelle felt horrible sitting at her desk, her lower half covered by shadows that typically didn't bother her, but now it felt draining, almost terrifying.
To say she didn't like this was an understatement.
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Day Five: The shadows were worth avoiding before, but now it's almost impossible. Sometimes when you walk through a shadow, you feel your heart beat so loudly in your head that it's all you can think about. You may step into one shadow and step out of another completely across town. Or, at least, it feels like it. There is no way of going back or predicting which shadow you will wind up coming out of, but the news is reporting a wave of fatigue, confusion and stress as having odd effects on its citizens. No one has any recollection of the travel between one shadow and the next, and all passing of time seems warped. Travel is instantaneous regardless of the distance through Destiny City.
Nighttime and Polyhymnia was looking out over the city with a yawn forcing it's way past her lips. The shadows were everywhere. Her heart raced, and she couldn't help but mutter soft prayers under her breath as she passed through.
She'd gotten lost earlier, thus having decided to transform and look around, hoping that would help her figure out what was going on. Sadly, there was nothing that she could figure out transformed that she couldn't have done while in her civilian attire.
Honestly, this whole thing had her thinking she needed to see a doctor and soon, and the only reason she hadn't yet was the reports she'd heard on the news of others having some of the same symptoms as her. If it was multiple people, then surely it wasn't something that she could fix that easily, right?
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Day Seven: As you walk around town, you start to notice that people seem different. Faces you used to remember have been swallowed by shadows; you may 'know' the person by a feeling, but their face is completely masked in deep black shadow. Their voice is unfamiliar, and its clear to you that something is wrong, but no sense of logic can explain this. Shadows seem to be replacing people around you--associates, neighbors, maybe even friends or family members. Even if they act completely normal, you are left with an unsettling feeling. The shadow impostors seem to come and go, but you never feel safe anymore. Something from the shadows is always watching.
Nia wanted to go home to her parents, to leave the city and the shadows that came with it behind.
Coworkers and patrons all seemed off, she couldn't see their faces, couldn't place their voices, and she didn't like it at all. She had trouble on the best of days placing people, but today had been horrible.
Being unable to sleep, unable to focus, she'd transformed again and was looking about the city, trying to avoid the shadows as best as she could, even as she felt like something -- someone? -- was watching her the entire time, even in places where there was no way anyone could see her.
She could only hope that this would end soon, otherwise there would be trouble all over the city -- moreso than there was already -- and there would be no telling what the people of Destiny City could do when provoked like that.
