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 Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2023 2:11 pm
“The truck is huge tonight; do you mind just taking a thirty? I’ll let you go home early tomorrow, promise!”
Every shred of his being wanted to snap at her. ’Yeah, I know a lie when I hear one.’ ‘Same story as last week.’ ‘It’s a huge truck literally every night. Maybe they should just hire more people.’ But understaffed was the name of the game. Why spend money on more people when you could just work a smaller crew half to death!
His team lead smiled at him in that sort of sheepish, apologetic way- something that didn’t really ease his agitation, since he knew for a fact her paycheck was about a third more than his, and the only difference in their jobs was that she had to ask him to hang around longer than he wanted to. But the meek, rational side of his mind whispered that it was better for him to say nothing. There was no trouble in saying nothing, and it was sort of passive-aggressive in its own regard! She could just sit there, desperately wondering if he was going to come back when she wanted him to or not.
And if he got written up again, he’d be out of a second job in as many months. Someone would hear about his ails at some point in the near future. But not right now. Not at this second.
Warren stared her dead in the face as he flicked the barcode on his badge through the electric reader, mashed his finger into the half-broken LUNCH button, then turned on his heel and left. Positives of the overnight shift: there was practically no chance a customer would stop him on the floor, he knew most of the employees currently in the building, and when he made it outside the building, it was nice and dark and quiet. Peaceful by comparison to the bustle of the day, which was nice only because inside the building was consistently a s**t show.
The old, beat up ‘99 white minivan waiting in the parking lot for him was parked well and away from the Wal-Mart doors. Warren wanted space, and this was hardly enough. He got in his car and drove around the backside of the building, past the privacy fence, and about a block down to a small playground in the middle of an admittedly seedy neighborhood.
This was his little midnight safe haven. Nothing had ever bothered him before, and it felt weirdly cathartic for Warren to sit on a swing with his bagged lunch of a ham and cheese sandwich, a plastic baggie of Great Value brand sour cream and onion chips, an oatmeal cream pie, and a bottle of water. With sandwich in one hand, he pushed off from the ground, starting with a gentle sway by swinging lightly backward and building to a height that left him feeling like he was falling, wind rushing through his dirty blond locks.
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2023 2:35 pm
Wolframite had been following a rather strange youma that had been popped out from one of the random portals that sometimes delivered feral youma into Destiny City. The creature looked like one of the most unassuming creatures he had seen, covering in a snowy gray fur with small, brown spots. It looked like it could be a throw pillow, being the size of a labrador, but instead of walking it rolled it’s body down the way. Wolframite had seen it take out three people so far, taking them for all the energy they were worth. There was no need to hide bodies that were drained. Someone would find them and with the summer as it was, they would blame it on the heat - even if it was only in the 70s tonight. Manageable but easily used to excuse fainting from multiple victims of youma attacks. These things happened.
It was moving now, using the same tactic as before as it rolled silently into a playground and stopped.
Here, it let out a small little whimper, shaking its body as if quivering from pain. A wounded creature preying on the kindness and pity of others. Cruel to target the most morally upright people of the city, but energy gathering took all kinds. They couldn’t afford to do any screening when it came to helping the war coffers be filled.
Curious, Wolframite knelt low on a tree branch overlooking the park, watching the lone man sitting on a swing. It was early morning, strange for anyone to be out here, but he chalked it up to maybe insomnia or eccentric.
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2023 2:37 pm
The wind felt nice. There was a delicate rustle of leaves in the air, pretty much the only sound Warren could hear besides the faint whooshing as he leaned into each pendulous pass of the swing. Until a quiet whimper cut through the night from somewhere behind him.
He skidded to a stop, sneakers digging into the dirt beneath him so that he could look over his shoulder to see… Well, just a great mass of fur, it looked like.
Warren wasn’t sure he would’ve thought to classify it as an animal at first glance. It had an odd shape about it. Real round. No discernable legs. But what else could it be? Someone must’ve been poorly suited to take care of their dog, set it on the world when it became too troublesome, and now its fur had gotten out of hand. Probably nothing it could do for itself, so it was just wandering: someone’s would-be pet with no idea how to exist in the wilds of the city.
Despite it not really being his job to fix some rando’s mistake, Warren supposed he could spare a little. He was hardly feasting on a steak dinner or anything. A bite or two less of sandwich wasn’t gonna kill him.
“Hey, Buddy,” he offered as he stood from the swing, pinching his fingers through a slice of ham to tear a piece off for the furry thing. “You want a bite? It’s not five stars, but beggars can’t be choosers.” He approached cautiously, taking a few steps closer to offer the bites he had. Warren didn’t know this creature, and it sure didn’t look right. Could be rabid for all he knew.
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2023 3:03 pm
It waited, and Wolframite watched as each step was calculated by the youma. You didn't spring an attack unless you were sure you were in reach. Once they came closer, offering the bit of ham to what he could only assume they thought was a starving lost pet, it looked at the man.
Looked, with dozens of black eyes that covered its face. Under that puff of hair, a large mouth unhinged like that of a chest, and from it exposed a large mouth with three rows of shark-like teeth lined one behind the other down to it's gaping sphincter of a throat.
And resting in that mouth was a long, coiled tongue that shot out and grabbed the wrist of that generous playground patron.
The youma than began to start moving closer, and it looked like it wanted a lot more than just ham if it got close enough to bite.
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2023 4:05 pm
”Uh. Woah.” Not right was accurate. As Warren stood in front of the dog, he was faced with a few too many black eyes staring calculatingly back at him. Watching, studying. He didn’t know much about animals, but his experience with most of them was that they generally had pretty stupid looks about them. This one, rather unnervingly, didn’t. His body tensed, heart pattering in shock as he leaned ever-so-slightly away despite being rooted to the spot in a sort of morbid curiosity over whatever the hell this thing could be. He was starting to think it wasn’t a dog. Maybe some kind of oversized spider.
It’s mouth unhinged, and a huge array of teeth was on display as an abnormally long tongue snapped out to snare around Warren’s wrist. So. Probably not a spider, either.
He gasped and lurched back, brown eyes flying wide, trying to wrench his arm free of the monster’s bizarre hold. It scooted closer, pulling at him as it did, and Warren resisted with a curse of “Shiiiit,” hissed under his breath. For being basically a wad of fur, this thing had a surprising grip. “Hey,” he barked, quite loud in the still night air. “Buddy, I’m not gonna be a snack for a couch cushion!” Warren jerked backward with all his strength, feet skidding forward out from under him as he threw himself backwards and landed in a heap on the ground.
He shucked off a shoe with his free hand, chucked it into the thing’s open and waiting mouth. And because he didn’t think a little shoe would be enough of a deterrent, he scrabbled for something else on the ground. A stick, whatever he could grab. Hardly a weapon, and it’d splinter as soon as he tried to stab with it, but Warren prodded it as hard as he could into the back on the monster’s throat.
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Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2023 6:40 pm
Now that was something. Most civilians screamed and cried out for help. It was the most common nature to flee, and when that didn't work, cry out for others to help. That was people were used to there being someone to protect them. Either it was the groups of people around them by being in the city and around others, or it was from appointed protections like security and the police. Most rarely took fighting into their own hand, and the ones that did usually never gave much thought on how to attack. It was a lot of flailing, maybe some punching and kicking, but not much evaluating.
But this one, this one thought about the large gaping mouth, grabbed a improvised weapon, and attacked the best bet at a weak spot. And it WAS a weak spot. The youma cried out a shrill, wet cry, spraying spit all around as it's long tongue was interrupted in sucking energy from this man. The tongue wiggled wildly in the air as the stick was lodged in it's throat before it wrapped around the stick and worked to try and pry it free from it's gaping maw.
This one. This one has something.
Wolframite dropped down from the tree and waved on his own glamour. It took a moment, but it was enough time before the youma could rip out the stick, spraying black blood across the playground mulch.
Winter moved to the side of the playground and ran over to the man, grabbing his arm. "Here! Before it gets you." He cried, masking a look of panic and concern. As if out of breath or scared, he tried to help the stranger to his feet.
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Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2023 4:10 pm
The fluffy mouth-monster shrieked, released him, sprayed him in a spew of what Warren hoped was saliva and not acid or some s**t. Time would tell. Not like he was gonna stay and ask about it. He twisted about to lay on his stomach, pulling himself together to try and get his arms and legs under him so he could high tail it to his car- “Oh, <********>.” He could barely even do that much. His limbs just felt unreasonably heavy, like he’d had his legs crossed for too long or something, and they’d fallen asleep on him.
So like, the complete opposite of what was supposed to happen while he was high on adrenaline.
But if he didn’t ******** off here in the next couple of seconds, this monster would do worse than spit on him- or douse him in this… inky black tar-blood. Warren scrabbled for some distance. The creature still didn’t have legs, it couldn’t be that fast. Warren just had to be faster, and he needed to figure it out right the ******** now because it wasn’t like he could expect anyone else to pop up-
A boy grabbed his arm.
Warren jerked away with a snarl. He hadn’t expected anyone to be around. And definitely not anyone he wanted any kind of attention from. People loitering around this neighborhood at night? They were probably not good people. Add that to someone just deciding to put themselves in front of some alien monster movie project? Doubt. Warren couldn’t think of a time he’d ever been more suspicious of anything in his life.
But what state was he in to do anything about it? “Alright, yeah. Yeah, I’m coming.” With the boy helping him up, Warren forced his body to cooperate as he got to his feet. Suspicious or not, he didn’t want to be farther from his exit, so he pointed out his car. “We can get in there. Dunno where else would be any safer.”
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Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2023 2:02 pm
They didn't have time, and Winter was not in much position to help outside of running with the man and getting him out of range. The youma was small and relied a lot of deception and surprise. Outright running did a lot to the prey's advantage, but since it already grabbed him once, he wasn't sure how much stamina this guy even had left.
They called out, pointing to a vehicle close by, and he nodded. Not having a car himself, he always forgot that vehicles were often the safest place for people to go in emergencies.
"Got it!" He said, helping Warren along as they made a dash over to the car. He opened the door, ushering Warren before getting in himself.
And then he sat there, a little confused on what to do in said car.
"I don't know if it can open doors." He said in his best attempt at nervous concern.
"I saw another one down the street."
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Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2023 5:04 pm
They made it to his car, with Warren scrambling across the passenger side to sit in the driver’s seat, while the other guy settled in after him. Maybe it wasn’t the right time to be concerned about it, but Warren was definitely still waiting for this (probably) deceptively short and pretty and unassuming guy to pull out a knife or a gun and demand that he drive to wherever his partner was waiting to conscript Warren into some human trafficking ring. If anyone tried to tell him, ’that kind of thing doesn’t happen here!’ he absolutely would not believe them.
This weird s**t felt like the lead-up into something equally as terrible.
Warren’s hands were on the wheel, twisting the leathery material in his grip as he stared at the little furball some handful of yards away. What if it could open doors? Or like, maybe squeeze its way through even the tiniest crevice, and then they’d be trapped in here with it.
And there were more of them, apparently. More gremlin-a** creatures invading the city. It was the first time Warren had seen one, so he had to figure there was limited information on how to get rid of them, and like, they definitely needed to get rid of them if these things were sucking people up into their gross mouths. “I don’t think it’s going to matter whether they can or not,” he muttered. Because he was either going to take it out here, or he wouldn’t, and it would climb up through the engine.
With no further warning, Warren flicked the shift lever into drive and dropped his foot on the gas, tearing from the grassy parking spot with the squeal of tires as he launched toward the little monster and smashed into it with the grill of his car- and then kept going cause if it was caught under there, he was gonna drag it to death.
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Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2023 4:46 pm
Luckily Winter was a short enough person that he was easy to pass. Even better that the guy took the driver's seat which made sense since this seemed to be his car. Winter couldn't help but to glance around, having not been in many cars aside from a few Ubers here and there. Pulling his attention back, he looked at the creature and then at the other who was now starting the car.
He expected him to drive away. Most humans fled when faced with the dangerous and alien. That was until the car yanked into the direction of the youma. Winter nearly hit the door before he gripped the seat and door as the car whipped forward towards the youma. His eyes widened as he looked at the youma illuminated by headlights and then back at the driver. With a lurch, the car peeled forward and drove right into it. There was a audible scream and THWACK of the creature hitting the bumper and then bounced under the car. Halfway through, he thudding stopped and Winter knew it was dusted.
Best of luck to you back in the Rift.
Heart racing more from the car than the youma, Winter continued to grip the seat and then looked at the driver. "I - I think it's dead." He managed, before taking a deep breath.
"Ya know, most people would drive away." Which showed how much potential this guy had. A fighting instinct was so rare. "You're pretty amazing."
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Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2023 5:15 pm
He didn’t stop until the thudding from under the car ceased, and they reached the edge of the park. No more grass to tear though without getting into a full-blown accident. His car skidded against damp grass, but came to a standstill without further issue. Warren peered up into the rear-view mirror, seeing only about two dozen yards of tire tracks. And nothing else. No creature body. Whelp, he didn’t like that. “Yeah, you can think it’s dead, but I don’t see it anywhere!”
Warren jerked around so that he could rummage beneath the seats behind the driver’s side and pull out a worn and generic-looking tool bag. He fumbled to the sound of heavy clanking metal parts for several seconds, pausing only to glance over his shoulder and shoot the other guy a curious, questioning sort of look. “You must not hang out in this neighborhood very often,” he decided, tone still bordering on mistrusting, but softening a bit in the interim of ‘no danger.’ “There’s kind of a… win or die mindset around here.” That was just how it was in these shadier parts of town. He didn’t know much about monsters or anything, but he knew full well not to trust the people he saw late at night in these neighborhoods!
Present company included.
He grabbed the heaviest wrench he could find from the bag, and barked out, “Stay in here,” that definitely had undertones of, ’not for your safety: I don’t trust you, don’t go skulking around, don’t call anyone, real weird that you showed up here with that creature, and I am not being abducted tonight.’ Warren kicked open his door and warily stepped out in the grass.
Nothing to be heard, nothing to be seen. He hefted his wrench, sliding his hand down so he had as much length to bludgeon with as possible. Then he dipped, a short, sharp movement that had him fully in the ground and eye level with the undercarriage of his car. …And there was nothing there, either. He sat up, peeked rapidly through the back window at the other guy, then down again, under the car, judging, suspicious- if it had gotten in somehow-
There just wasn’t any evidence, though. And nothing ultra-weird about the guy. “That thing- it’s really completely gone! I don’t see it anywhere. Not even a trace! Besides, like, the dent in the bumper…”
“What was it?”
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Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2023 5:52 pm
Winter was pretty sure the youma was dead. If he could power up, he'd be able to read the signature, but considering that hit and the soft body of that youma, he was sure it was blasted into next week. Poor fluff was no doubt going to be more careful around cars after this experience.
Sitting upright and proper in the passenger's side, hands set in his lap, he looked around at the outside as if searching, but he wasn't much of a actor. Leisurely he was looking where the headlights lit up the park, casting shadows and a view of all the torn grass left behind. In the carnage of the car, Winter tried to make out any dust piles but with the speed of the car, it might have all blown about into the dirt.
"I've been her a few times." He admitted, having been expanding his usual hunting grounds to these areas. Worse areas were prone to crime so collecting energy was just chalked up to another mugging in the area. There was just the downside that a lot of people were armed in one way or another. The amount of times he went to attack someone for them to have a pocket stun gun or a pocket knife had been a bit too much for comfort.
Win or die mindset. He liked that. What a fun mindset, and if this man had the same kind, then that's exactly what he liked to here. Winter wished more people had it.
At the command to stay, Winter nodded. "Right." He confirmed, somewhat happy to get a simple command. As the other went out with their handware in hand, Winter took a moment to look at the interoir of the car. He hadn't been left alone in a car before too much. Most of the time if he jumped someone, he shoved them back into their vehicle and tried to leave before getting caught. There was a few times would he spare a moment to look the inside and push some buttons. There was even the rare occasion he'd crawl int the driver's side and turn the wheel, and push some of the man buttons on the console. It was fun to pretend how to drive. Norman humans must have so much fun with it.
In here, he watched the other hunt for the youma before slowly pushing one of the buttons. AC poured out of the vents. Oh. That was neat. He looked up again, watching the over move around the car and then drop out of view.
Slowly another finger pushed a button. The emergency blinkers came on. Winter had no idea what happened with that button, but now there was a ticking going off and on and some lights were flashing on the driver's side console. Huh.
How did people learn all of these buttons?
Pulling his hands back in his lap as the other came back inside, he shrugged.
"Beats me." As far as lying went, Winter didn't usually have to lie to other people. He usually didn't talk to civilians at all. The very idea of creating a plausible story hadn't crossed his mind. Just being a person out at night seemed reasonable as he always met people out at night to collect energy from. Seemed logical to him.
"Do you think it ran away?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2023 9:28 am
The emergency lights flickering on then off before he got back in the car ramped up Warren’s mistrust a hundred fold. It probably shouldn’t. This guy didn’t really look that much older than him, and he seemed kinda short and kinda weak. Warren could probably take him without much issue. It was the chance that the signal lights were just that: a signal, telling someone else, someone Warren couldn’t see and didn’t know about, that they could approach. And this guy’s general non threatening demeanor was part of the ruse.
Why else would this ******** stranger be touching s**t in his car?
People went missing around here with alarming frequency. And it seemed quite seldom the perpetrators were ever caught. Who was to say what tricks and methods they used? Maybe weird shadow monsters just ate the missing. Or maybe it was a distraction for weirdos like this dude to get in his car and abduct him. The 'how' barely mattered: Warren just knew he wasn't about to be counted among the ranks of the long-gone.
“Huh.” He slid into the driver’s seat, attention very rapt on the dark-haired man beside him, and rather than toss his makeshift weapon in the back behind him, Warren wedged it beneath his thigh, close. “Dunno. I guess? Don't even see any traces of it.” He yanked the door shut behind him.
Maybe he wouldn’t have been as suspicious if he’d seen where that weird ******** creature had escaped to.
But he hadn’t.
It was just Warren and this guy.
He clicked the side panel button to lock the car doors. "Just in case," he explained as all the latches flicked down. His eyes hastily scrapped over the other, searching for- he didn't know. Anything? Out of the ordinary? Anything threatening? But there just... kind of... was nothing. Besides that furball (and consequently being parked in the middle of the grass), everything was pretty normal.
"Hff, whatever. I’ll make sure you get wherever you're going so that thing doesn't come back or something. Do you live around here, or like, what were you doing out and about at this hour?"
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