[24: action]

[paper_knight]

After the strange fog goes up around the mansion, anyone who walks into the library will find it changed. The ceiling is lower than usual,  the shelving gone completely haphazard, reel-to-reels and newspaper clippings and fat manila folders shoved in among the books.

Walk a bit further, and the black and white tile of the floor begins to climb the

Comments

action;

[turn4bout]

[ Oh, and it's curiosity's sake that leads Terezi to the library. She was on a not-imp killing roll, and, well, if one of the Shadows fleeing DUE TO FEAR OF HER HIGH HIGH LEVELS, and it happened to lead her to this labyrinth? Whatever. She didn't care.

But then... The faintest whiff of someone familiar. A whiff of colorful doodles.

The walls are a little tough to navigate; she's got her cane out to avoid walking into them, especially where the tile becomes the walls and the walls smell just like the fucking floor and ugh. ]

Hey, MOLDY MARK! I know you're in here!

[paper_knight]

There's some distant shouting, and the echoes of feet scuffling on tile.

It might be the strange way sound bounces in the corridors, but everything sounds slightly doubled.

Tracking this down will be a workout for her senses.

[turn4bout]

Terezi starts to run in the direction (she thinks) the noise comes from, but instead, promptly introduces her face to yet another wall. Like any other six sweeper, she takes a few moments to shout a fuckword or two... Then realizes she needs to take a bit more time to wipe at the teal blood leaking from her nose. Fuck.

"YOU HAD BETTER NOT BE DEAD BY THE TIME I FIND YOU, ASSHOLE."

It's hard to gauge where the noises are coming from-- echoes are her worst nightmare. But she goes with her gut, picks a direction, and follows it.

[paper_knight]

The pathway she's chosen leads this way and that, around sharp corners and down steep inclines, through passageways so littered with research errata that the corridor actually seems to narrow and so many crossings that she might start to wonder whether she's doubled back on herself, if she's the doubting type.

All in all, it's a little reminiscent of this, minus the goblins and the glam rock--i.e. the fun parts.

But she's heading in the right direction: the echoes get louder the further she goes, if no less confusing.

If she keeps at it, she will eventually reach a pair of doors, each set with an unusual lock in place of a handle.

[playingbadcop]

Benny Stango is walking shoulder to shoulder with himself. They're not finished with each other yet, and both bear marks: one's nose looks broken, the other has a black eye and is cradling a smarting fist to his chest.

When they realize that they've come too far into the library, they look sidelong at one another and whisper in unison, "Oh, christ."

And then they hear a voice, an echo. Both heads jerk up, looking in different directions.

"...Meltzer? That you?"
"Forget it. Turn around. You're still smart enough to know when to run, ain't ya?"

[paper_knight]

Their answer is the sound of gunfire.

action; muahahahahahahahaha

[blimeyjamwalls]

Another someone else is clambering along the bookshelves, and leaping between desks, and generally sticking to anything that might help him continue his bizarrely dedicated game of the-floor-is-lava.

There's a very long, very sharp knife held between his teeth. It's cutting up the sides of his mouth, and trickles of blood have left red lines down his chin. He doesn't seem to have noticed.

At some point he freezes on a low shelf, close to the checkered ground, watching it intently.

"There you are. Come on. Come closer. Do you think it's dinner-time? I don't see why it shouldn't be. You have teeth. You must have flesh."

His eyes move slowly along the floor, tracking the movement towards him of something only he can see. Then he snatches the knife out of his mouth and stabs at it, viciously, again and again.

[paper_knight]

Some unchangeable law of the universe states that Mark always gets the crazies. Always.

So here he is now, coming around the corner. He's got a gun in one hand and a long, sharp needle in the other, scavenged from the piles of junk that litter the halls. He has some idea where it's come from, but he's running out of bullets; he can't be choosy about his weaponry, and the needle is certainly menacing.

But menace or no, when he sees Daniel, he freezes, watching him stab at the air.

[blimeyjamwalls]

Shadow Daniel certainly doesn't plan on breaking that law. His stats are set to a constant "sanity: ...".

He swears loudly as the Kaernk splashes away from his knife and out of reach. "God damn you, creature! Cowardly beast! Come back!"

And it's while yelling thus that he glances up and spots Mark. He goes still, with an expression of slight confusion, as though unsure of how to fit this man into his delusion.

Deer-in-headlights staring contest?

[paper_knight]

"Daniel?"