I really can't blame them either. The shrinking is far worse than we've ever experienced, but the truth is that we've been having problems for months, and every time new people come on board it's just more confusion. Especially when they start having the hallucinations hit them.
Hopefully it will help. [She smiled over at her and winked.] And if it comes down to it you can call on us. there's usually one of us willing to help the others on the network. no need to be shy.
Certainly. Feel free. I might not have an answer, but I will definitely try to give you one. [Though no promises that the answer would be one she liked.]
[She nodded at the description, recognizing quickly that this was some sort of 'thing' Retrospec was doing to her friend. It was... annoying, but at the very least it wasn't as unpleasant as, say, growing horns or something equally outlandish. Regardless, it was distressing her, so she wanted that to ease.]
I see. Perhaps try to relax. They won't go away, so maybe find a way to accent them or simply style the rest of your look to go with? As I said, they're not unattractive, if you have to be stuck with them.
[She's trying not to let the party make things awkward. Sometimes, it's even working. Letting out a sigh of annoyance, she rakes her hand through her hair again.]
mmm, perhaps. [She managed not to blush too obviously. She was resolutely trying not to let that little confession be too awkward.] But I would also tell you if it doesn't suit you.
I mean, obviously your taste is great since it's me.
[Crap, she didn't mean that in a flirty way. Just in the usual ego-running-rampant way. Arlene hurriedly busies herself looking for something on the opposite side of the card reader.]
[Chloe's hand came back once the knife was taken smoothly enough and slipped behind her back, pulling another out and causing it to spin in her fingers relatively easily. She smiled and motioned for the two of them to continue.]
I appreciate it. We can have each other's backs while we walk, can we not? It is a bit dangerous to go alone these days, after all.
[She opted not to simply volunteer just how good she was with these knives, or how much she'd been picking up. If they fought a bug, she'd see first hand. However, she had a feeling the revelation might be a bit much for Lucy.]
I have five on my person, and the one you have. I've found eight in my house so far, and I find more and more as time goes. They think it is funny at this point, I am reasonably sure.
"They didn't whisper to me of answers," she said when they had gotten a little away. The whispers were still there, but she was willing to risk taking a single ear bud out so that she could hear Eleanor properly. She looked at her for a long moment, color heating her cheeks. "All that they whispered to me was that I could be with the one that I wanted, and kept whispering different names, playing off of my turmoil."
She relaxed her grip and looked back. Part of her wanted to go back, to escort Eleanor. "I... if you want to go back, we can, but I will not let you go alone." Her voice said she didn't think anything good would come of it, but she was willing.
Chloe physically froze when she was asked that. It was a simple question, and her friend had every reason to be worried about her, especially considering some of her past hallucinations. She looked away and murmured, "Kirika and my girlfriend..." But, the fact that she said it the way that she did, biting her lip and her fingers gripping more, it was painfully obvious she wasn't saying everything.
She heard, even at a distance, the whispers again and clenched her eyes. Breathing out, she whispered 'shut up' a few times in French. The last time she'd admitted any attraction to someone that was here in town had gone horribly, and she did not need this stress right now.
So Chloe was hearing names from her real life and the memory one. What did that mean? And why were both of them working on her? Or were they? Eleanor's mind was racing, but in that moment it was a good thing, since it was distracting her from listening to everything around them.
And there was clearly something else there, and she wanted to ask, even opened her mouth to do so before shaking it away. Worry about that later. Chloe was clearly not doing well, and Eleanor wasn't sure she trusted herself either.
"...You're right. We should go." She finally said, reaching out to give Chloe a squeeze on the shoulder. "Sorry."
The cat started to tense, its body crouching very slightly, butt arching up and into the air. There was a very small shift in the way that it looked at them, and just as it did, Chloe shouted "Now, Left!" And, when she said it, she bolted to the other side, aiming towards the right and pulling knives out while she did. She was watching the cat like a hawk, aiming to make absolutely sure that the little feline wouldn't be turning towards Ami at this point.
As she bolted, the furry friend pounced and landed somewhere between them, its paws lancing out and a hiss coming as it expressed its annoyance. The distant sounds of the bus starting to approach echoed down the street like a roaring line.
Had Ami's reflexes been on anything like Chloe's level, this would have been the perfect time to execute a hasty Lass Scamper out of the way, or even a graceful Youth Roll. Unfortunately, she only had the reflexes of a perfectly average untrained human teenager, so the maneuvers she actually used were a Stupid Babyflail followed by a Dumbass Shuffle. But she did go left, so she had that going for her at least.
She scrambled behind the concrete bench end and took cover. She could hear at least one heavy vehicle in the distance, but was it the bus or a truck? It was still too far to see. Meanwhile she peered cautiously out at Chloe and the cat, the latter of whom still seemed to be deciding which way to turn its attention. Which way would kitty choose to go? The suspense is terrible!
Decisions decisions. At the very least, the two of them had gone in separate directions, which was a positive development for trying to make sure that they kept their distance from its thwapping paws. The suspense was thick enough that you would have to cut it with a knife. However, as the bus was trundling up, there was still some distance.
Looking to the left and right, the cat had on the one hand Chloe, was trying to move around as much as possible to keep its attention, and Aradia, who was moving more slowly and clumsily. Motion, or easy, motion or easy. It yowled and made its choice, whapping its paw at Aradia and starting to stalk towards her, the pillar of the bench serving as protection at first.
Chloe squeaked and pulled out her knife, trying to take a pot-shot at somebody's tail while shouting "Keep your distance! I will try to distract it!"
The thought crossed Ami's mind, briefly and absurdly, that she had not signed up for this. It was absurd because of course she hadn't, one does not simply sign up for Retrospec and its associated shenanigans.
Panicky though she was, Ami still had enough wits about her to follow orders. Keeping her distance might be difficult, however. The obvious path was to slip past the cat, giving it a wide berth, and trying to lead it back in Chloe's direction (since she seemed to know what she was doing, kind of, probably). But when she scooted around the side of her hiding place, the excited cat noticed her immediately, almost as if its senses were evolutionarily tailored to efficiently track the movements of creatures about this size. The cat had a huge advantage here, to be honest.
Ami ducked back around the other side, but the cat followed her there, too, with a quick snap of its head. She tried the first side again, but it was the same. The cat wasn't going to lose her that easily. She'd have to just make a run for it... but she couldn't quite get up the guts to go for it, not with those huge yellow eyes staring her down. The closest she got was a false start, twice, which only resulted in the cat crouching, then crouching lower, its butt wiggling as it prepared to pounce.
Freya was starting to make an increasing amount of sense, and when she felt the tug on her arm, Chloe stopped resisting and let her drag. the drag was soon assisted by the purple-haired girl's own steps and she started to move with increasing speed away from the forest and flowers. She lingered close to the other woman, not quite huddling. She was a little too proud of that, but definitely close. She didn't trust herself not to run either, not until the insidious whispers were gone.
"I... I don't know, but it sounded so real, and I ... I want her." Though she wasn't specifying who 'her' was. Her own mind wasn't capable of that right now.
Really, the identity of this mystery woman was the farthest thing from Freya's mind, considering all the other weird crap going on. The whispers of answers and the desire to help tugged at her mind, back towards the glowing flowers and dark of the woods, but concern made itself a more pressing matter.
"Well, you've got your head on straight now, yeah? Keep your eyes forward. Don't let 'em get to you."
She nodded. "Yes, let's get out of their range, and we can talk." At this point she was as protective of Freya, knowing that the whispers would have affected her as well, as she was of herself. She didn't slow down her own walk until they were well away from them, on the fringes of the city again.
She breathed a sigh of relief, looking for something to sit down on or lean against and smiling at her. "Thank you... I don't know what would have happened if I'd listened too much."
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Cleo - 5/4
I really can't blame them either. The shrinking is far worse than we've ever experienced, but the truth is that we've been having problems for months, and every time new people come on board it's just more confusion. Especially when they start having the hallucinations hit them.
I try to be understanding.
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[She shakes her head.]
This is so far beyond my comprehension, all I can do is accept it.
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You have my gratitude. Do you mind a question, then?
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Larxene - 5/5
[She nodded at the description, recognizing quickly that this was some sort of 'thing' Retrospec was doing to her friend. It was... annoying, but at the very least it wasn't as unpleasant as, say, growing horns or something equally outlandish. Regardless, it was distressing her, so she wanted that to ease.]
I see. Perhaps try to relax. They won't go away, so maybe find a way to accent them or simply style the rest of your look to go with? As I said, they're not unattractive, if you have to be stuck with them.
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[She's trying not to let the party make things awkward. Sometimes, it's even working. Letting out a sigh of annoyance, she rakes her hand through her hair again.]
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So perhaps my tastes are just ... quirky?
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[Crap, she didn't mean that in a flirty way. Just in the usual ego-running-rampant way. Arlene hurriedly busies herself looking for something on the opposite side of the card reader.]
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Lucy - 5/4
[Chloe's hand came back once the knife was taken smoothly enough and slipped behind her back, pulling another out and causing it to spin in her fingers relatively easily. She smiled and motioned for the two of them to continue.]
I appreciate it. We can have each other's backs while we walk, can we not? It is a bit dangerous to go alone these days, after all.
[She opted not to simply volunteer just how good she was with these knives, or how much she'd been picking up. If they fought a bug, she'd see first hand. However, she had a feeling the revelation might be a bit much for Lucy.]
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...how many of those do you have?
[Was there even a person under that cape, or just more knives?]
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[...]
I have five on my person, and the one you have. I've found eight in my house so far, and I find more and more as time goes. They think it is funny at this point, I am reasonably sure.
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And you kept them all?
[Lucy was still kind of startled by this revelation.]
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oops, repeated myself
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Eleanor - 5/4
"They didn't whisper to me of answers," she said when they had gotten a little away. The whispers were still there, but she was willing to risk taking a single ear bud out so that she could hear Eleanor properly. She looked at her for a long moment, color heating her cheeks. "All that they whispered to me was that I could be with the one that I wanted, and kept whispering different names, playing off of my turmoil."
She relaxed her grip and looked back. Part of her wanted to go back, to escort Eleanor. "I... if you want to go back, we can, but I will not let you go alone." Her voice said she didn't think anything good would come of it, but she was willing.
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"What name did you hear?"
Actually kind of an important question anymore.
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She heard, even at a distance, the whispers again and clenched her eyes. Breathing out, she whispered 'shut up' a few times in French. The last time she'd admitted any attraction to someone that was here in town had gone horribly, and she did not need this stress right now.
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And there was clearly something else there, and she wanted to ask, even opened her mouth to do so before shaking it away. Worry about that later. Chloe was clearly not doing well, and Eleanor wasn't sure she trusted herself either.
"...You're right. We should go." She finally said, reaching out to give Chloe a squeeze on the shoulder. "Sorry."
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Aradia
The cat started to tense, its body crouching very slightly, butt arching up and into the air. There was a very small shift in the way that it looked at them, and just as it did, Chloe shouted "Now, Left!" And, when she said it, she bolted to the other side, aiming towards the right and pulling knives out while she did. She was watching the cat like a hawk, aiming to make absolutely sure that the little feline wouldn't be turning towards Ami at this point.
As she bolted, the furry friend pounced and landed somewhere between them, its paws lancing out and a hiss coming as it expressed its annoyance. The distant sounds of the bus starting to approach echoed down the street like a roaring line.
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She scrambled behind the concrete bench end and took cover. She could hear at least one heavy vehicle in the distance, but was it the bus or a truck? It was still too far to see. Meanwhile she peered cautiously out at Chloe and the cat, the latter of whom still seemed to be deciding which way to turn its attention. Which way would kitty choose to go? The suspense is terrible!
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Looking to the left and right, the cat had on the one hand Chloe, was trying to move around as much as possible to keep its attention, and Aradia, who was moving more slowly and clumsily. Motion, or easy, motion or easy. It yowled and made its choice, whapping its paw at Aradia and starting to stalk towards her, the pillar of the bench serving as protection at first.
Chloe squeaked and pulled out her knife, trying to take a pot-shot at somebody's tail while shouting "Keep your distance! I will try to distract it!"
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Panicky though she was, Ami still had enough wits about her to follow orders. Keeping her distance might be difficult, however. The obvious path was to slip past the cat, giving it a wide berth, and trying to lead it back in Chloe's direction (since she seemed to know what she was doing, kind of, probably). But when she scooted around the side of her hiding place, the excited cat noticed her immediately, almost as if its senses were evolutionarily tailored to efficiently track the movements of creatures about this size. The cat had a huge advantage here, to be honest.
Ami ducked back around the other side, but the cat followed her there, too, with a quick snap of its head. She tried the first side again, but it was the same. The cat wasn't going to lose her that easily. She'd have to just make a run for it... but she couldn't quite get up the guts to go for it, not with those huge yellow eyes staring her down. The closest she got was a false start, twice, which only resulted in the cat crouching, then crouching lower, its butt wiggling as it prepared to pounce.
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Freya - 5/8
Freya was starting to make an increasing amount of sense, and when she felt the tug on her arm, Chloe stopped resisting and let her drag. the drag was soon assisted by the purple-haired girl's own steps and she started to move with increasing speed away from the forest and flowers. She lingered close to the other woman, not quite huddling. She was a little too proud of that, but definitely close. She didn't trust herself not to run either, not until the insidious whispers were gone.
"I... I don't know, but it sounded so real, and I ... I want her." Though she wasn't specifying who 'her' was. Her own mind wasn't capable of that right now.
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"Well, you've got your head on straight now, yeah? Keep your eyes forward. Don't let 'em get to you."
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She breathed a sigh of relief, looking for something to sit down on or lean against and smiling at her. "Thank you... I don't know what would have happened if I'd listened too much."
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"Already listened too much, if you ask me." Her tone wasn't harsh; merely chiding. "Don't sweat it. Couldn't leave you there."
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