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 Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2024 3:05 pm
Quote: Familiar Faces (2) : 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 it's 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, and are always just convincing enough to pass for someone in your life. It’s hard to feel safe anymore. Maybe you’ve just come down with something–or, maybe something from the shadows is just watching you.
Nacrite was, to put it bluntly, Not Happy. Also, possibly paranoid and in the middle of a nervous breakdown. Who could say for certain!
Laughter burbled up out of the lieutenant, sounding mildly unhinged to her own ears. Everyone at the studio had shadowed faces and voices that were plain wrong. Her neighbor this morning had seemed fine at first, but when she’d left to head in to work, sweet little Mrs. Hannesy’s turnip face had been shrouded in shadow. It was creepy as all ******** is what it was. And it seemed to be nearly everyone she knew.
Maybe Nacrite’s face was all shadow-y too and she just didn’t know…
Favorite Starbucks barista? Boom! Shadow. Kid who worked the mailroom at the studio? Yep! Also a shadow!
She didn’t like it. She wanted those familiar faces back and for things to feel normal again. Not this on edge feeling that twisted the gut and made her feel like someone was about to pod person her.
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Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2024 5:50 pm
Kaifeng had warned Pyrrhus to expect strangeness this time of year. He'd mentioned odd dice, strange phenomena...but nothing had covered shadow people.
Ryla didn't exactly have many friends. But there were people he was used to. The closing staff at the coffee shop nearest Kaifeng's place who treated all of his puzzlement as the charming eccentricities of a foreigner--which wasn't wrong, he wasn't from here--and were always happy to answer his questions, for one, but tonight--it had all been wrong.
He'd put in his order, gotten it, gone to pick it up--and the cook who handed over his sandwich had no face.
Neither did the cashier on his way back out, but he could have sworn she was fine just five minutes ago--
He'd left, quicker than usual, and he was sure they'd noticed; he liekd to linger, eat a sandwich and drink a coffee before patrol, but not now. Not tonight, not when there was clearly something very wrong. And if it was following him, a strange shadowy void caused by his presence--
Look, Ryla didn't know. It could be true.
He'd paused to eat his sandwich and drink his coffee--no sense in wasting food--and then powered up, because maybe there was something actually wrong and he'd be able to feel it.
But no, nothing. Chaos, yes, but just the normal distant pings on his mental radar, nothing unusual and nothing close to that little cafe that would explain ******** there was a Negaverse aura nearby, and Pyrrhus prowled towards it, because the Negaverse loved to cause problems, and today was bad enough. Pyrrhus wasn't letting some a*****e make it worse.
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Posted: Sat Oct 05, 2024 1:32 pm
The approaching Order aura did not make Nacrite feel any better about things. Still. She would have been willing to let it slide had the aura's owner had a normal face. She'd have been happy to leave them alone in exchange for that one tiny comfort.
Instead, the... senshi? she saw, while possessing a face, did not look human. They were, in their own way, as alarming to her as the shadow people had been. And right then, she knew who was to blame for the weirdness she'd been seeing.
This might be an actual pod person situation and the alien looking person was one of the ones likely stealing faces! To Nacrite's fevered and paranoid brain, it made perfect sense. Which meant that if she could punch this person... she'd be the hero.
Well. What was she waiting for then? Leaping out and running, she was airborne and coming for the senshi, fist raised to inflict whatever damage she could.
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Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2024 8:07 pm
Pyrrhus was prepared for a fight. He wasn't prepared for an assault from above, and he just managed to spot the incoming threat in time to bring up his arms, so her fist impacted those instead of his face. It was still a solid impact--he was pretty sure he'd have a bruise later--but better that than a broken nose.
There was something incredibly simple about this...Lieutenant, or whatever just launching herself at him, Pyrrhus thought. Straightforward. Easy. She wanted to fight, they were going to fight.
Much better than shadows who used to be people. Or were replacing people. Or whatever the ******** was going on. Better even than uncomfortable conversations Ryla didn't want to be having because they made him think about things and that was....not what he wanted to be doing, to put it mildly.
So he shifted from defense to offense, swinging to uppercut for her chin.
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Posted: Mon Oct 14, 2024 10:10 am
The swift uppercut should have been anticipated. Nacrite knew,even as the alien’s fist connected with her chin, that she should have planned for this. Should have dodged or countered. Instead, she was seeing stars and falling back, though she only just managed to land on her feet and stumble. Standing and swaying for a moment, the lieutenant glared angrily at the alien. Once her world stopped spinning, she gingerly checked her chin and jaw and winced. Bruised for certain, not nothing broken. No teeth knocked out. Well then. Good.
Oh, but he was good. And as a Senshi and an Alien, he would likely have powers that she didn’t. So, if she wanted her people back, she was going to have to play this smarter. Idly summoning her slap bracelet to hand, she flipped and fiddled with it. Not much of a weapon, slap bracelets. But maybe a decent distraction? Hell, get close enough and just slap the alien across the face with it…
Feeling a bit steadier, Nacrite shook herself and reengaged, leaping for the alien, but throwing the slap bracelet at his head and dodging ever so slightly. If she could get him to flinch back, even a little, she could lash out and catch his side with a kick….
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Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2024 12:44 pm
Pyrrhus loved the satisfying impact of fist against chin. It just felt good, felt solid, felt right. To be fighting people again, instead of twisted abominations.
They were both sizing each other up, he was pretty sure. Good. He had no idea what her weapon was--it looked like some kind of....honestly? He had no idea. Small, probably not too painful to be hit with, but that didn't mean she wasn't otherwise armed. Maybe that wasn't her weapon at all and she was hiding something more dangerous.
She came at him front on. And he was pretty sure that whatever she was throwing at his face was a distraction, but he still ha to move to dodge it, lest it actually be dangerous--he still had no clue what the ******** that thing was, anyway.
Ah. And there was her leg, slamming into his side. Pyrrhus twisted away, but not fast enough--that was definitely going to leave a nasty bruise.
He moved back, giving himself a little more distance, and glared.
"You," he said, "I know you didn't make the shadow people. No matter how much Chaos you've chugged, you're too weak to make magic that spreads that far. But did your people?"
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Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2024 1:33 pm
Oh, how Nacrite loved that sort of glare. The kind that meant that she’d been underestimated and now they were pissed because she wasn’t the weak little kitten they’d expected. Grinning nastily, she blew a kiss in the alien’s direction, though she made no moves to try and get closer. Her face was already starting to hurt like fury. She had zero desire to do anything to make it worse.
But now they each had an idea of what the other could do in a brawl. So, what was left? Talking? Trying to negotiate?
Her own glare took on an uncertainty as the alien spoke. She didn’t like his tone or his words. And being told she was weak made her want to tear him down into his component parts. But there was important information here, whether he knew it or not. Nacrite had a fairly good idea of when people were lying. Hell, she stretched the truth often enough in her daily life to be able to sense when others did the same. Whatever else he was, this senshi… this alien… had not caused the shadowy people. She was certain that he’d probably done equally bad s**t, but he was not the one responsible for Denise at Starbucks going missing.
Allowing her posture to relax ever so slightly, Nacrite cracked her neck and shook out her arms.
“You have a hell of a punch,” she said. “And you are absolutely right that I didn’t make those things. Neither did any of my compatriots. Why would we want to make shadowy replacements for anyone? There’s no strategic value to making baristas and cameramen vanish. Safe to assume your,” she drawled out the word. Let him wonder if she meant senshi or alien. Really, it was all the same in the end. “Lot isn’t responsible either?”
But if neither of their sides were doing this, then where in the hell were the shadow people coming from?
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Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2024 2:36 pm
Pyrrhus evaluated. Considered. She seemed sincere, that was on the face. He was used to lying and manipulation, but usually there was clear gain when someone was trying to play you--and he guessed that "her own amusement" could have been what this Lieutenant was gaining, but that didn't seem like it made a lot of sense given the circumstances.
"And you kick harder than I expected," he said, in the tone of one warrior complimenting another. They were enemies, sure, but credit where it was due et cetera. "I don't know why Chaos does half the s**t it does, best I can understand is that all it wants is to eat, but since your Chaos here is run by people, makes sense that there'd be a reason for what happens as a result of it." And anyway, if she was seeing people missing ********," Pyrrhus sighed. "There's always been s**t in the universe that's not Chaos or anything else, it just kind of is. This might be some of that s**t."
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Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2024 3:44 pm
Relaxing further, Nacrite allowed herself the luxury of slumping to the ground and cradling her aching skull. Some of the fire and piss seemed to have gone out of the alien and, at least for now, she wasn’t terribly worried about him attacking again.
They seemed to have reached an accord of sorts.
“Look, I don’t understand your Chaos prattling and frankly,” she said, “I don’t care right now. That is a tomorrow problem. Today’s problem is do we both agree that neither of us is to blame for shadow people taking over?”
She was tired and having a senshi, however strange, validating her own experience of people being replaced helped to reassure her that she wasn’t that type of crazy. Not yet, anyway. But what on earth was she supposed to do now if the person she thought was to blame ******** hell,” she sighed, “I don’t know about any of that s**t. But if it’s not Chaos. And it’s not Order, I don’t know what it is unless there’s some magical third force out there that’s just Weird. For all I know, there might be. Enough bizarre s**t happens randomly in this burg to support the theory. We got Bigfeets in the winter, ******** exploding flowers in the summer, headless horseman fog monsters now. Maybe this is just more Weird.”
Making a noise that was half sigh, half growl, Nacrite forced herself to her feet.
“I just want normal people with actual faces to come back. Can we actually make that happen or is this some ******** wait and hope and see type situation?”
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Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2024 4:23 pm
"Fair enough," Pyrrhus acknowledged. Probably, Chaos kept its soldiers ignorant. If they didn't understand what they were actually serving, they were definitely way more loyal. Surely the number of people willing to hand over their planet to be eaten couldn't be that large--
Pyrrhus thought of his own people, mentally revised that consideration, and moved on.
"There is absolutely plenty of stuff out there that's just Weird, sorry to tell you," Pyrrhus said. "Sounds like this city gets a lot of it. Maybe from all the magic concentrated here?" It made about as much sense as anything else, really.
"But....no. Without knowing more about what exactly is causing it, I wouldn't know how to fix it. Sorry," he said, and it actually sounded mostly genuine. "It sucks. I don't like it. But it probably is a wait and see kind of situation."
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Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2024 6:46 pm
"Balls," the Lieutenant growled under her breath. It was the most logical answer. And probably the correct and only one as well. That didn't mean that she had to like it, though! "I hate telling a senshi that they're right, but... you're right. And you might be right about the magic thing too. It's the best theory I've heard to date and I hear some weird ******** theories in my everyday line of work."
Going silent because that was about as much as she felt safe sharing about Canary's life, Nacrite gingerly touch her chin again and winced. It was going to be a prescription dose Advil night.
"Well," she began, "since we've established that this is something that neither of us can actually do something about, I'm going home and icing my face. Maybe I'll luck out and my neighbor will be herself again in the morning and I can forget this crazy s**t even happened."
It wasn't the option that her superiors would be thrilled to see her taking, but hell. They weren't here and as far as she knew, they weren't having to deal with this particular mess.
What they didn't know could hurt her, after all.
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