The small child smiled, and slid her matchstick back into its box. Then she slid out the chair quite deftly, her cocoa now finished and set down on a side table. She stretched her legs a little and looked up at Styx, “No need to be upset, there will be time for that later, there always is,” she exclaimed with a shrug.
Then she grabbed Styx’s hand, “Hold tight, I shall get us there all the quicker,” she stated with intent quite clear. What happened next was instantaneous, both human and herald became quite fuzzy, and then like will-o’-the-wisps they were pulled, quickly and with all haste to their location.
It was quicker than walking, but slower than running, and it felt quite like being taken by the hand and tossed off into a freshly running stream. Except instead of drowning you were tossed and turned to your destination. In fact, if one were musically apt, they would much compare it to a dance of sorts.
There was another pause as Sarah Appleton stared at the sentences spiraling out from the knight of nightmares that was standing in front of her. With a slight shiver she answered the questions with a collection of statements quite unbecoming of being answers, “I want answers to my questions from you. So, for every question I answer, you must answer one of mine. So, it’s even. That’s fair!” she complained as her fear wavered into frustration.
Hacktop shrugs his shoulders. “Everything that I see around here is a program or piece of code of some sort, and me job it fix them whenever they break.” He rubs his chin is contemplation, “you however… I am don’t know if I can fix. I am not sure what your developer was smoking when he made you. Your code is literally nothing but spaghetti, enough to feed a whole generation for years, and yet you function.”
Hacktop looks down and notices Will’s deteriorated mental state. “I will just hang back for a bit to let you sort yourself out. I have notes to take.” Hacktop’s form then begins to shrink and shrivel up, like a balloon letting out air. As he is deflating, he gets sucked into the USB drive that he is still holding in his hands. His body collapses into itself. His limbs and head bend into the port of the USB drive in such a way that it resembles water flowing down into a drain. His torso get sucked into the drive with a sudden pop, after which the drive, that was floating in the air the entire process, finally drops to the ground.
Syn rolls his eyes. He feels a slight tug, and he dissipates into mist, and seeps into the glass piece, turning it from a as clear piece, to a crimson red. @Spawner
Will glances at the white figure that shouldn’t be real and should not be talking to him-
-and freezes, staring incredulously as said figure folds up into what looks for the life of him like a USB drive, and falls onto the floor. It makes a soft thump against the dirtied carpet.
Will stares down at the carpet slowly, blinks a few times. And he steps away from the drawers and picks up the USB and stares at it for a full minute. He taps its side and prods it with a nail. He glances at the wall and considers throwing the USB full-force against said wall before he finally sighs and pockets the device. “Fine. Fine then. Into my pocket little buddy, you can just sit there for now-”
He turns back to the drawers and lifts his keychain out and pockets it next. And reaches in one more time and pulls out the small gun case. He takes one of the keys from his chain and pops the lock, and draws out the .38.
The chambers are loaded.
“-while I go find some answers,” he says in a quiet voice. Then he puts the gun back, leaves the room, and marches downstairs.
And he marches out of the door, into the nearly-abandoned parking lot, and into his Corolla.
And William Pinbacker starts the car and revs the engine as he heads for the meeting spot in the woods.
There is a sound that rattles out of the armor like a hundred breaths being released at once. The force of the noise shakes the metal and the great eye furiously blinks, the sensors pluming out of its body making strange noises as they dart through the air. The outreached hand curls and it looks for all its curiosity like a claw.
More words flit across the air, jagged and sharp, vanishing only a few seconds after they appear.
As soon as Kay’s arm was released, he backed away closer to the door, to make for an easier escape. He also put his hand closer to the hammer on this toolbelt, trying to hide the movement as much as possible.
“N- no. I don’t even know how I got here myself. I mean, it is my room, but I don’t remember returning here after the- after the meeting.” He slowly lowered his eyes towards the piece of paper that used to cover his face. Four words were clearly written on it: return to the forest. Suddenly memories of the last evening started flooding in his head.
Calm down, Kay, calm down. There has to be an explanation to this. To all of this. And if you don’t find it, this creature is surely going to break you in half
He tried his best to hide his fear, with mixed results.
“I have no idea what happened and how the two of us ended up here. All I know is that something weird went down yesterday, on that meeting of lunatics in the forest. There was a flash of light… and a voice, and then nothing.” He seemed to get lost in his thoughts, trying to remember what exactly transpired. “We both want answers, okay? Our best guess right now is the forest. W- we have to go there. Maybe there’s a chance that someone… something can explain all of this.” Kay didn’t want to return to the forest, not after what happened, and especially with that ominous note left on his bed. But he felt like it was the only option. Surely this statue would protect him from whatever could be hiding in there.
Kay tried to calm down and recollect himself. An insurmountable task in this situation.
“Hey um… what’s your name?”
As soon as the human expressed the desire to leave, Zenn felt a strong urge to follow him. One that she couldn’t control or resist. Have to protect him. Can’t let anything happen to him. She lowered her eyebrows. She didn’t like that feeling. It’s not like she had any attachment to the kid, then why did her body order her to protect him?
“I suppose that sounds like fun. There isn’t anything else to do here anyways. I’ll go with you. Not sure what I eat… or if I eat at all, so why don’t we go and find out?”
Zenn floated away from the bed, clearing a path for Cody, spun around in the air and took a vertical position, fully straightening out for the first time. Her head was mere inches away from hitting the ceiling. Suddenly, her face lit up. She remembered something.
“Oh right, if you don’t want me to be seen, I can do *this*”
In an instant her entire body went up in blue flames, the same colour as her hair, being completely engulfed by them. The fire didn’t seem to burn anything, and didn’t even radiate any heat. A moment later, all the fire went out at once, leaving no sign of Zenn, except for her scarlet bead necklace, which fell into Cody’s hand.
The rattling sound echoes out again, tendrils flaring out like an immense, metal-flesh animal making itself look bigger. The eye, wider than a plate before, suddenly narrows. The clawed hand stops mid-air, and the other smaller eyes dart around and around and around, blinking as they do.
Another sentence writes itself through the air. Internal logic dictates lies as false information. Falsehoods are not actual, and are therefore complex but not desired. Unacceptable.
The hand clenches into a and one finger extends accusatorily. The eye bulges and its smaller kin follow suit. The tendrils around and inside it rattle and rattle and the word repeats, scrawled in massive letters across Horizons’ armor.
Unacceptable.
In a motion that’s almost too fast to follow, the hand slices forward toward Sarah-
-and softly taps its finger against her forehead.
The eyes dilate and spin and shut and the hand relaxes, moving toward Horizons’ head and almost looks like it’s at where a chin should be, like its thinking. It stands like that for a while.
It thinks, because it cannot reduce this organism. It aimed to, it meant to, but it did not. It has the physical power, it has the will, but it cannot act. Something prevents an outcome that should be realized from being.
A mystery. Something at once repulsing and attracting. The contradiction makes Horizons rattle violently, tendrils flaring out uncontrollably before it forces them back inside the armor. It feels strange, something its internal logic identifies as excitement. A novelty.
Then Horizons raises itself to its full height, towering above. It stares down at her with its eyes-
-and claps its hands together, a deafening ring echoing through the forest around them. The trees shake and several branches dislodge from their parents and fall onto the ground below.
Its eyes are flexed in strange ways, half-shut and fixed on her unswervingly. It looks like it’s trying to smile without a mouth.
Another series of sentences write themselves across the knight’s chest. You will not be harmed.
Styx was going to wrench the little girl’s hand and drag her along. But in that touch, the world she knew was gone. Nothing was there. World and thought a blur. Just feeling of changing motion.
Then it stopped. Then they were in the woods.
When it seemed reality was back to normal, Styx pulled her hand away from Pernille. She patted herself down and hugged the nearest tree. Her breathing increased, yet was not heavy.
“What the vu – uhgk! What was that?! What…” She exasperated.
Sarah froze as the hand moved at a blurring speed and tapped her on the forehead. She blinked and then gave pause, was this teasing or an indicator of something more?
She paused and grabbed one of his “arms” and pulled him inside forcefully, “In the car, you’ll attract attention if you keep doing that, we can talk in here,” she grumbled, “You’re still scary as h-” she paused and glanced at the laptop, “And the wifi is down again…Shoot! I really needed music right now,” she groaned.
Sarah then slowly slid her hand into a chest of drawers and pulled out a hoodie with the words “BIRD LIVES MATTER,” emblazoned in bright red on the solid muted grey, “Slide this on it’ll make you look less conspicuous,” she hissed.
Pernille smiled, she was still dancing, swirling around to the beat of a drum that could not be heard by Styx anymore. Then she stopped and blinked, “Oh, just a small trip through shadow and briar, as is my gifted nature, did you like it?” she inquired curiously, “I didn’t know if you would or wouldn’t.”
Henderson holds up the chain ‘necklace’ after Syn dissipates into it. “Ah, so you’re a Pokemon now, huh? Fine by me, I always wanted to be part of the cool kid’s club,” he says as he is getting prepared to bathe.
After Henderson is done showering, he packs up his stuff and heads into back his jeep. He has the presence of mind to wrap his spas-12 in his dirty clothing before he puts it way in the truck. He then quickly pays for his night’s stay and hops in the driver’s seat of his trusty vehicle.
“Say Rupert, where do you think that we should go next,” he says while tapping on the glass bead. @MakutaOisli
Hacktop stays silent during the car ride, from Will’s perspective anyway, as he remains inside the USB the entire time. However, if Hacktop was manifest, Will would clearly see that Hacktop is losing his mind again, but for a completely different reason.
It’s… it’s beautiful. Such immaculate design, and one that is actually readable. This ‘engine,’ this ‘transition,’ all the methods tied to this ‘steering wheel,’ pure artistry. I need to see more of these ‘cars.’ I must know more.
Pernille paused and glanced over at her, “Oh? Interesting, well I could, but it may be wiser to go further on foot, while we have the advantage as nay a wisp in the wind, we may find trouble just popping into existence. You are truly at a disadvantage with what might end up as quite the fight.”
She took a few steps over, “Remember, if others have been gifted similar ‘friends’ then it may not be that all of those ‘friends’ are amiable in nature.”
Will keeps driving, oblivious to his passenger’s newfound passion for motor vehicles. He’s able to keep himself under the speed limit just barely, fingers twitching as he grips the wheel. Every red light he runs into makes his skin crawl a bit more, makes his breath a bit faster.
Gotta get there. Gotta find that guy. Gotta fix this.
The gun case sits on the floor, passenger side. Every so often his eyes dart to it and he has to wrench them away.
Horizons feet lift off the ground as it levitates into the car, absently looking around and seemingly oblivious to the hand on its arm. Tendrils flare and dot with eyes and small fingers and reach out before the knight forcefully retracts them and instead focuses on the computer.
Words write across its screen. Machine. Unforeseen. Smaller than previous instance-more complex?
The knight reaches for it but then the novel biped is holding out something; an offering? It’s a false pelt, like the layer they are wearing. There are words about birds written on it.
Horizon’s great eye scrunches in something approximating skepticism, or confusing. But it takes the hoodie and attempts to put it on.
Considering Horizons’ height, it is a miracle it is able to force it on at all. As is, it hangs somewhat anticlimactically from the creature’s knight, scrunched up into a makeshift scarf.
Horizons pokes its new garment experimentally and then a flood of red tendrils burst from its hand and blanket the hoodie; miniscule mouths take taste tests and samples from it, tiny eyes record the structure of the hoodie, small noses catalogue the scent profile of the object.
Words write across the ceiling. Conspicuous? Is that state frightening?
She gave a grouchy sigh as she grabbed the hoodie and pulled it down, “No, no you look positively cheery! Of course you’re frightening you keep sprouting eyes!” she exclaimed with a shiver, “and if it wasn’t very clear that I wasn’t stuck with you I’d have hit the gas already! Now go sit in the front, and keep your eyes to yourself. Do not touch anything.”
Sarah rubbed her temples as she cursed to herself, “What in the Kentucky Fried-” she paused, as suddenly it hit her. She hadn’t driven here last night. Logically, her car should have still been in the forest service’s parking lot…
The sweater tears slightly as it attempts to fit the seven-foot frame (and fails), although the B and M of it are at least visible. Tendrils flock to the tear and immediately begin investigating.
Horizons levitates slightly, body twisting as it navigates to the front seat and proceeds to touch nothing (mainly by hovering instead of sitting). The sensors emerge and then hide, more subtly cataloging the area around it.
A sentence writes itself across the back of the van. What is this machine we are inhabiting?
Within Hacktop’s newfound and frenzied fascination with cars, he slowly begins to take notice of the other item in the car, and more importantly, what lies within it. He isn’t able to make sense of it. Sure, it looks to be very sturdy and efficiently designed, so it must obviously be useful. Yet, something about it didn’t sit quite right with Hacktop.
Within a corner of Will’s vision, small transparent square appears. At first it appears blank, then words pop onto it with the blip.
Hacktop: Soooo..... What it's in the box on the floor there? @Kirathel
Henderson snaps his figures in a moment of epiphany. “Of course the cowards would hide my gnomes there. Excellent thinking Simon, whatever would I do without you”
Henderson fires up the engine of his car and speeds away from the motel parking lot. He is not quite sure which forest that he is supposed or should go to, but he follows his vague trippy memories and natural instinct to try and find the right place @MakutaOisli
“Don’t worry about it,” Will said quietly. “Just something in case the druggie in the woods doesn’t cooperate. He dosed me and everyone else after all.”
His face screwed up in something that could be a grimace or a dark smile. “Someone like that couldn’t be trusted.”