[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

[nyanotech]

[Yes that is. Fast.]

Nya?

[12npcs]

[From where he stands, Loki can see the arc of the sword flash. It draws a heavy arc through the creature, parting it like heavy jello. The tip moving almost in slow motion, it passes almost inches from your defensive arm.

The two sides of it shudder in the air and drop in a wet spray of some thick, dark substance.]

[allsneakandnoplay]

[whatever splatter effects just like home]

[12npcs]

[But back home, it didn't seem to trickle in past the plates, sludge in around the circuitry.

Almost at once, your vision and hearing blur. Static takes over as one codec after another open themselves. People you know and people that you don't start talking. Some explaining, others reminiscing, most philosophizing.

All of them talking at once, but none drowning out the rest, your circuit come alive, trying to process all of it at once... From how taffy is made, to existentialism, to the first picnic...

It's almost too much, not enough time, your mind too frail to take it that some feverish haze takes the edges of the codec, blurring them into one voi-

Codecs Offline]

[allsneakandnoplay]

------Rose--! Sna-- Snake--?!

[--*

AAH


AAAAAAAAAAAH

Raiden goes dead still, standing there, trying to process and just not. Maybe he screamed? He's not screaming now. Just staring straight ahead at nothing.]

[nyanotech]

[The hand on his arm probably doesn't even register.]

Raiden?

[allsneakandnoplay]

[nooope. he mutters "Rose" again, "John." "Sunny." "Snake, Snake-- Snake, come in. Snake, do you copy?"]

[nyanotech]

Easy.

[Access ports, access ports . . . you can't all be wireless, can you?]

[allsneakandnoplay]

[There is a what looks to be multiple panel lines along his spine, though they are practically seamless. The least seamless is at the base of his neck, below his hairline.]

[nyanotech]

[Reeeeeaches up, resting fingers over that.]

Raiden? This may tingle just a little.

[allsneakandnoplay]

[still making alarmed, trying-to-calm grunting exhales...]

[nyanotech]

[A little like a fond hair ruffle, a little like knuckles rapping on the edge of an open firewall . . . and there's a static filled crackle hissing over the comm.]

. . . —s is the c-c-c-c— . . . —iden?

[allsneakandnoplay]

--!

[his head clears up at the startle -- presses his fingers to his temple]

What--?

[direstnews]

Oh, ick.

[12npcs]

[From that first splatter, your mind starts to stumble over yourself. The caw of a mockingbird seems to echo in your mind, bringing up plans within plans within plans. Everything you had intended, everything you had anticipated, everything HE did and didn't, opening up into one perfect, glistening web of possibilities... And with a sick wrench it jerks back further, taking in more, and more, and more, until your mind takes in the dizzying scale of entire world wo-

and it's over, just before something would have surely snapped, leaving you absolutely hollow... empty of everything but apathy.]

[direstnews]

[The noise is not a scream, but it is a very unhappy noise all the same. He clenches his eyes tight shut and presses a hand to his head, as though trying to hold himself together- or as though trying to hold the world, or something much closer to home, at bay.]

[And then, all at once, the tension there goes slack, and the eyes blink open, no light behind them.]

[nyanotech]

[The noise is enough to catch her attention, but the slackness that follows . . . that's worse. Worse and even more concerning.]

Loki?

[direstnews]

Here. I'm here.

[He doesn't sound quite certain of that, but the slackness and the apathy goes as the creature is destroyed. In its place is something that tries for flippant but actually sounds kind of upset.]

I've... yes. I'm here.

[nyanotech]

[Takes his face in her hands, watching how his eyes track.]

I'm not so sure.

[direstnews]

[They are not unfocused so much as avoidant, though at that he looks straight at you.]

I am. I swear it.

[nyanotech]

[Her thumb brushes a cheek.]

You need a bath.

[direstnews]

It is... it is as you say.

This substance...

[His fingers track through it, and his eyes slip away again to stare down at it.]

[nyanotech]

[Takes his wrist.]

Bath first.

Come on.

[nyanotech]

[Slumps a bit behind Loki, relieved.]

That was close.

[nyanotech]

[Except those, those aren't good reactions at all.]