01/04. along came a WHAT IS THAT.

[icingkills]

[ accidental video ]

[A solid thump jostles the device on, flashing a view of trees: that thump was the device's owner jumping down the last few steps of a ladder leading down out of the forest. He's moving fast and has the device in a pocket, so the images it sends are a series of confused flickers of blue sky, blond hair, green leaves, something

Comments

[lastpunchline]

What in the name of fuck was that?

[icingkills]

I was hoping someone who's been here longer than me would know.

[lastpunchline]

Never seen anything like that. Short of some crazy comic villain's experiment.

[icingkills]

Then it looks like I've had my first encounter with one of the City's resident monsters. I didn't realize they'd be so...monstrous.

[unborn_of_this]

[clutches to a nearby tree, wrapping his remaining legs against the trunk, as if to embrace it. He's too hungry to bother with courtesies now, so his voice no longer holds a human quality]

Pity, Master, have pity, sweet Master, your servant sees, Master, remember, Master...

[...and then he leaps forward, stalking towards the man]

[icingkills]

[And here is where a normal human would be utterly creeped out by that voice and that already-mangled monstrosity itself, not to mention the fact that he's coming closer.

November 11, standing just over knee-deep in the lake, smiles serenely.

The moment at least one of the creature's remaining legs dips into the water, November lights up in a way quite distinct from the sparkles plaguing him today. A blue glow surrounds him, and his eyes glint red, and then a thin skin of ice races out from where he stands over the lake's surface until it reaches the Tickler's semi-submerged legs, where it forms a solid block extending down into the muddy sand of the lake bottom.]

[unborn_of_this]

[momentum carries him forward, the Tickler stumbling over his own legs and sinking just a trifle. Two of his legs are no longer of use to him, and a wiser creature would remember fear.

Instead, he has enough discipline to do as he has before done, sinking his other legs to rip off the offenders, leaving them like hollow, turpentine-reeking stubs to their ice.

...and, terribly slowly, he still advances.]

[icingkills]

[It's the slowness that saves November this time, because he wasn't expecting the Tickler to mutilate himself like that. He has a habit, which he'll need to break here, of expecting those other than human to behave rationally.]

It looks like we both make payments in our own ways.

[Even as he's speaking he's dropping into an almost-crouch so that his hands close around water which suddenly isn't water anymore but rather razor-sharp shards of ice, and he flings them one after another at the Tickler's eyes. When both are gone, he reaches down again for more. He still shows no natural fear--and he moves fast.]

[soulofocean]

...JACK??

What the hell IS that thing!?

[icingkills]

I haven't a clue, but it's gone now.

[soulofocean]

---Gone? Boy, that's a relief. But-! ...It looked like it wanted a piece of you! How did you manage to chase it off?

[icingkills]

Appearances can be deceiving, Umi. Maybe it just wanted a good look at the sparkles.

[sciencedaughter]

Please identify what you just saw, to the best of your abilities.

[icingkills]

It looked like a giant spider. I'm afraid I don't know what it actually was; it left rather quickly.

[sciencedaughter]

Please define "left".

1/2

[icingkills]

It retreated to its lair, I suppose. There must have been something about me it didn't like.