Recolle Log Overflow

[true_noir]

What the tin says. Every once in a while, the log threads hit captcha, so here we go!

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[long_live_the_queen]

[It could be worse.

It could be spiders.]

Hm.

[It was a slightly more thoughtful mumble than usual, honest.

Lucy tightened her grip on the knife only to make sure she wouldn't drop it, and started to walk forwards before her knee decided to stiffen up on her.

...she still wasn't over the knives thing. But that admission did make her think. The only thing Lucy could think of right now that she had that kind of attachment to was that beat up old suitcase, and—that stupid clock.]

...were any of them in places they're not supposed to be?

[Well, that malfunctioning clock probably belonged in the trash, but.]

[true_noir]

All of the knives, and my cloak. I didn't own either, and yet I found them in my home, in places they should have been, had I owned them. But I had only seen them in visions.

Others, they mailed to me. [She shrugged and shook her head, looking back at Lucy. Idly, she wondered if the girl had experienced the same.]

Everything but the pocketwatch they gave me feels the same... and that still feels, I don't know, important somehow.

[long_live_the_queen]

[Hm. The only thing like that in the apartment was-

Lucy made a face.]

...that stupid clock.

[true_noir]

[She nodded. Yeah, that fit. After all, why had they gone to that much of a length to get a broken grandfather clock out of a dumpster?]

Probably. [She shrugged.] My watch does not work either. They seem to like sending incomplete and broken gifts.

oops, repeated myself

[long_live_the_queen]

[The teenager grumbled more audibly as she stalked forwards a few steps, relaxing to her previous gate after a moment.]

They sent my roommate a gun that can't be loaded.

[At least, Lucy was mostly sure it couldn't be.]

[true_noir]

...

[She blinked and then paused in her walk, looking back at Lucy for a long moment. There was a little bit of shock there in her eyes, because 'gun that can't be loaded' was really distinctive, and she'd had a bad experience with that gun.]

You live with Minako?

[long_live_the_queen]

[Lucy didn't notice Chloe had stopped right away, and had to backpedal a bit to avoid crashing into her or otherwise getting too close for Lucy's paranoid personal space bubble.]

I do. Why?

[true_noir]

You just... took me by surprise. I have never been to her home, so I didn't know that you two knew each other actually. [She shrugged.] I have... seen that gun before.

[Which was to say that that gun had involved a memory regain for both girls.]

[long_live_the_queen]

[Chloe seemed unnerved by something, or at least a bit off-balance now. Lucy resisted the automatic impulse to immediately dig her fingers into that weakness, tightening her grip on the knife instead.

It was a stress response, nothing to worry about.]

...did it do something?

[true_noir]

[She didn't show any sign of reacting to those fingers tightening, though she was starting to develop an awareness and the shift didn't go completely unnoticed.]

It... triggered a hallucination for both of us while we were at a firing range. Not a very pleasant one, though it still doesn't shoot bullets. As harmless as a water gun.

Actually, water guns are more dangerous. [She frowned and then shrugged.] But it apparently reminded both of us something unpleasant. You'd have to ask her about what she saw. I don't like talking about what I saw.

[Mostly because pointing a gun at someone and firing to make them remember their traumatic past wasn't exactly a pleasant memory.]

[long_live_the_queen]

[No bullets?

...what kind of memories were those?]

Was she hurt?

[Lucy's voice sounded...a bit odd. More focused, a shade colder.

Answer carefully, Chloe.]

[true_noir]

No, not at all. Neither of us were hurt. We just had ... very disturbing hallucinations. [She shook her head.] I think hers involved what the gun was for. She called it an evoker.

[She frowned, shrugging.] I don't think she likes carrying it around right now. I last saw her with a spear.

[long_live_the_queen]

[Some of the tension in her shoulders unwound, and her grasp on the knife handle relaxed a bit. Crisis(?) averted.]

Pretty sure she wouldn't take a gun to the bakery.

[true_noir]

[Hey, Minako was her friend too. She wouldn't have blamed her too bad if she'd honestly thought Chloe had hurt her. 'Course, not stabbing each other was usually a good thing.]

You have a point there, especially a gun that doesn't actually shoot. A spear is strange enough, is it not? [She managed a smile.] Have you seen it yet? The spear, I mean.

[long_live_the_queen]

Not since it came out of the box.

[So like, for five seconds. It had some weird feather thing on it? It almost looked like a stage prop. With an actual pointy bit on it.]

[true_noir]

It was certainly unusual to see it out, though not half as unusual as seeing her dog fighting with her. [She shook her head. That was still definitely weird. Weird in a good way, but weird.]

We fought a centipede. I don't suggest that.

[long_live_the_queen]

...Koro was doing what?!

[Somehow this is more objectionable than "sharp objects in the mail."

...though ugh, centipedes. Lucy didn't like them even when she was normal sized and were one of the few things that actually encouraged her to wear shoes.

Hopefully they didn't run into another.]

[true_noir]

Using a knife to tear a piece out of that centipede. He was more effective than either of us. It was... really kind of amazing to see.

I honestly didn't think he'd do anything. [She shook her head. She'd really expected the spear to be the thing that would be more important.]

Don't get that dog mad. He's... surprisingly smart.

[long_live_the_queen]

[Knives again. The dog was using knives.

What the fuck was today even.

Chloe didn't seem like the kind of person to tell elaborate jokes like that. And...Lucy could always just ask Minako, whenever they got home.

Lucy just...shook her head, rubbing her temple with her free hand.]

[true_noir]

[Chloe was capable of elaborate humor, but she really didn't have this fanciful of a sense of humor, so it wasn't likely to have been made up.

She motioned Lucy to follow and started off again, smiling back.] Oh, don't worry. It's bound to get weirder before it makes sense.

[long_live_the_queen]

[When Lucy's shoulders slumped down this time, it was in exasperation.]

Thanks.

[The grass on the edge of the sidewalk stared moving against the breeze, a few moments after Chloe said that.]

[true_noir]

[She heard the shift in the grass. A week ago, she wouldn't have noticed. Something might have taken attention away. But things were changing, and her reactions were starting to change with them. Both hands whipped out, blades spinning in them and coming to rest as she crouched.

She didn't look back at Lucy, instead nodding towards where the grass was moving. It was impossible to guess what was there, but she was certain they were no longer alone. Probably not a bug, or at least a really big one. They didn't usually make grass shift. Squirrel?]

[long_live_the_queen]

[Lucy didn't notice the grass, but she did notice Chloe dropping into a stance and spinning more knives out of her cloak like something from a movie. The teenager just started backwards, barely avoiding stabbing herself in the leg.]

What?!

[Another grass stem moved, and...something crawled out. Something gigantic, with way too many fucking legs, translucent, segmented, good god. There must have been a drain nearby, or maybe the house centipede was terribly confused. Or curious. Its antennae wiggled towards them, even.]

[true_noir]

Bordel de merde! not one of those...

[These things were, by the standards of centipedes, god-damned close to harmless. Their sting was painful but not actually hazardous to humans. However, that was at a normal size. Right now, it was actually threatening and hard to target.

Chloe frowned and started to maneuver herself to the other side of the thing, hurling one of her knives and aiming for the segmented joints amidst all of those legs. When she threw, it was not like someone hurling an axe in a spinning arc. The blade flew straight and true, in ways that throwing knives normally didn't go. There was more force than normal to it, and the bite of steel made the thing shriek horribly.]

Keep its attention divided, but don't get too close!

(OOC: Roughly, "Oh shit!" or "Oh fuck!")

[long_live_the_queen]

[Regrets for getting out of bed this morning could wait. Objections about how surreal this all was could wait. Now wasn't a time for thinking.

Lucy couldn't throw the knife in her hand like Chloe—even if she had the skill for it, it was her only weapon. Her knees bent and her weight shifted forwards on her feet, but—where did she even start?

One thing at a time. Some of the centipede's legs started thrashing in response to the blade in its exoskeleton; Lucy slashed at those, missing most. But she did carve some of the strange whiskers off of one, making the creature recoil and twist towards her.]