[Day 2, Night - A House South of Town]

[direstnews]

[Written into the ground alongside one of the houses to the south of town tonight are a series of strange letters, forming a rough circle near the wall. A figure of approximately Loki's build, not there during the day's exploration, leans against the wall at the corner. The door to the house is open.]

[Some hours after the sudden switch from day to night, Loki stands in front of the door, a candle before him, a kitchen knife in one hand and a spoon in the other. He checks the mirror set carefully in the darkness, nothing yet visible in its surface. Then he strikes the knife with the spoon's handle, and he holds his breath - and he waits.]

Comments

[12npcs]

[It's churning stops... it lifts one of its heads, as if sniffing the air.]

[charmed_life]

[Oh boy]

[She pauses, ducking back to cast a spell of her own. Pink light dances across her fingertips right before the illusion of a great black stallion with red eyes forms on the opposite side of the creature]

[Go decoy go]

[12npcs]

[It slams against another holy white barrier and begins to rip this one as well... when it notices the stallion and divides again, another half of it's mass sloughing off to surge towards the horse.]

[charmed_life]

[Not as planned!]

[Sends the horse galloping away from where the others are fighting, moving to follow behind the newly created mass]

[12npcs]

[It surges eagerly, wooden hands reaching for the horse's flank as it darts off.]

[charmed_life]

[Okay, Asellus. Think. That illusion will shatter as soon as that whatever-it-is catches it. You only have a little bit of time]

[Time to close the distance so she can execute one BACKSTAB]

[12npcs]

[It shrieks. A terrible sound reverberates around you... You land hard against its back as your weapon sinks in.


You feel yourself start to follow it in...]

[charmed_life]

[ABORT ABORT ABORT]

[She digs in her heels, shifting her weight violently in an attempt throw herself backwards and away from the creature. And that sound. That sound]

[She screeches in return:] LET GO!

[12npcs]

[Your struggles sink your knees deeper, but keep your face out of its back. It flails and struggles, whipping you this way and that. It's scream gathers in pitch and intensity, somehow worming past your ear drums, spiraling through the canals and directly into your brain.

For a brief moment, you feel with such crippling intensity... your first views of cities and villages on the horizon, strange landscapes and mountain formations, the breathtaking from the mundane, in crisp maddening detail, accents and garb, foods and cultures, in some insane whirlwind of color and intensity....




... and it vanishes, shuddering into some sick, empty apathy as the beast tears free of YOU and staggers back away.]

[charmed_life]

[What was...? Could that...?]

[Thoughts and questions aren't forming like they should. Everything is still a blur of color and sound. So many images... and Asellus can't even bring herself to care. Bonelessly she sinks to the ground, sword hilt loose between her fingers as she watches the creature lumber away]

[12npcs]

[Something about it seems to have gotten bigger...]

[charmed_life]

[Filing that away for a time when she has more fucks to give]

[For now, she is perfectly content to blankly stare ahead for a while]

[12npcs]

[Something, just distantly, goes crunch.]