capeandcowllogs | Where your eyes don't go a part of you is hovering

Where your eyes don't go a part of you is hovering

WHO: Everyone who's signed up for the Shadow Märchen plot and the people who get involved with them.
WHERE: All over the City.
WHEN: February 1st through February 9th. Specify the dates when you tag in.
WARNINGS: Probably a lot, since this is a festival of dark sides.
SUMMARY: The City plays host to a twisted theater of the mind as numerous imPorts become darkened, monstrous versions of themselves.
FORMAT: To be chosen by the thread-starters.

The start of a new month shouldn't mean anything special for the City--but this time, it does. Even if it's only because of an accident.

The pull of despair within each victim might come from nowhere, or it might seem like the most natural extension in the world of their current circumstances. However it manifests, the results come quickly: one living shadow all too eager to broadcast its nature far and wide, attached to a monstrous witch that warps the world around it in order to feel at home.

Where once there was an ordinary building, there now might lurk the entrance to a distorted dimension controlled by one of those witches. Where once there was a friend, there's probably now a monster. Can't find the friend that's become this monster? Don't worry too much about missing the chance--the familiars of their witch roam the streets looking for those who can be dragged into the labyrinth.

But take heart: what's within is still the same familiar person...in its own way.

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He had been doing better. He honestly thought he had. Maybe it was the visit from Roxy, or maybe it was just finally getting used to how life just was in the City - potentially violent and interrupted with periods of people dying - that got him crawling out of the hole he had dug. Honestly, he was even considering going to visit someone. or rebuild friendships he had let fall apart.

Over the course of the day, all of that progress disappeared. Every dark thought Shinji had dealt with in the past few months, some he hadn't had since back home, all came forward in his mind. The weight felt like it would crush him, and in a way it kind of did. All of it just...it burned inside him. It made him angry. And when he finally noticed his fist was bloody from hitting the wall, Shinji Ikari wasn't alone any more.

The shadow took care of the rest. The electronics store Shinji frequented made a lovely place for the gate to his labyrinth, and the post to lure in others went just as well. If it was capable of deriving pleasure from anything but satisfying its own blind and impotent anger, it would have been proud of itself.

Now, in a dark tunnel full of pyramid structures and dancing, crumbling angelic figures, something massive waits to beat its own bloody fists against whatever it can.

Kanaya was in a lousy mood. She didn't know how else to feel after her talk with Karkat, and the worst part is that she was mostly angry with herself. This whole thing with Shinji gave her just the distraction she needed, but whether it was as a target or some way to punish herself is something she wasn't entirely sure about at that moment. On some level she knew that neither option was especially fair to him, but it was buried under too much of her anger to acknowledge.

She really wasn't any better than him, and she didn't need the excuse of a magic-induced breakdown to show her that, either.

The barrier was right where he'd told her to be, just like the one in Feferi's room. She wasn't really surprised by that, not with the golden gleam she'd seen in his eyes. The Took inventory of her threads, and his certainly disappeared within. Nothing left to do but enter it herself and find her way to where he'd be waiting.

The familiars were the first to notice her.

Chirping, fluttering, unnaturally moving figures, dozens of them, crowding around the entrance to the pyramid in the center of the labyrinth. They stay in place for a few seconds, beak-like masks glistening in the bizarre lighting of the imaginary place.

And then they head towards the visitor, the ivory beaks suddenly looking a Hell of a lot sharper.

She had no patience for these obstacles. She'd run out of patience for a lot of things, and the idea of wandering into a friend's land only to be attacked by angels has never had happy associations. But at least she has the capability to meet them this time.

She leaps in the air, out of the way, opening a portal in front of them that will only lead them to crash into the ground if they fly through it.

It works, for some of them. The ones that crash shatter like porcelain dolls, giving out a horrible screech as their masks and bodies break apart. Red marbles roll away from the remains before falling still.

A few more, whether by luck or being smarter )if that's even a thing with them) swoop back around to attack from behind.

Ain't nobody got time for that. She staggers two portals on top of each other, angled behind her. If they fly in they'll end up flying right back out in the opposite direction, maybe crashing into each other or themselves. She'd use that as her chance to sprint for the pyramid if she didn't have to keep the portals anchored. Sometimes the combat applications of her powers can be really cumbersome.

She wonders a bit about the red marbles. Is that anything like a prize the enemies drop? Could she get a powerup from them, or maybe have to use them to put together some weird puzzle shit to enter the pyramid? That would be stupid, she decides, and disregards the thought.

So much for being smarter. The eager angels are dashed together on one either, sharp beaks piercing their fragile bodies. More of the marbles spill out and roll away into uselessness.

With that bizarrely useless resistance out of the way, there's nothing stopping her from walking into the hole in front of the pyramid structure.

She wastes no time. There could be more of them coming at any moment, so she breaks into a run and heads right into the pyramid, blinking her glow to life to illuminate her surroundings.

The inside of the pyramid resembles a military structure of some kind, covered in struts and walkways. The walls are splattered in blood, some of it used as paint for a variety of bizarre shapes. A massive diamond, a giant eye, what looks like a severed arm...

And in the middle is a monster. A purple, hulking thing resembling a human but abstract in a way that leaves the only immediately recognizable trait its massive, bloodstained arms. It throws its head back and lets out a distorted howl, a mix of wounded animal and the voice of a desperate, angry boy crying out.

The shadow watches from a walkway, casually leaning over for his front row seat to the show. "It's just you, huh? You're the only person who gives a damn. Ah well, we'll make do." He...smiles, or at least something like it that shows a lot of teeth.

She deflates just a little on seeing the witch, a pang of guilt penetrating her anger. How long has this been lurking under the surface, and she's never noticed it? She knew Shinji was troubled, but this is a completely different shape to it than she expected.

Her eyes don't move from the witch as she calls out to the shadow. "That's him, isn't it. That's what he's been made into since you were torn from him." She finally glances up, her eyes narrowing. "So, what does that make you?"

The shadow grimaces, anxious for the fight to start. Fielding questions isn't what he had in mind for this. "I'm the part he won't accept," he starts, slowly, fingers drumming on the guard rail of the walkway. "The part that makes him such a good little killer. The part that likes hurting things." The twisted smile reappears. "If he can't be happy, then at least he can be satisfied with that, right?"

The last part of the rhetorical question is cut off by the witch growling. It swings one of its massive forearms around, sweeping it across the floor at Kanaya.

She launches off the floor to avoid the fist, swinging between the struts and walkways until she lands a few feet from the shadow, fists balled beside her. That grin of his certainly had a way of setting her off. "And who would want to accept that? You're the part that anyone would want to cut out! He might be happier without you."

For what it's worth, that took the grin off his face. His hands ball up, teeth grinding as he stares the vampire down. "You're not supposed to be here. You're supposed to be down there, getting crushed. And what the Hell do you know?" The shadow slams his fist down on the railing. "I'm the only reason he's still alive!"

Confused and (still) angry, the witch howls up at the two before starting to scale the side of the wall in some poorly planned attempt to get up to the walkway.

She starts closing the distance slowly. "I didn't come here to die. I came here because of you, the little brat playing like he's something more terrifying. You're little more than a disease that's ripped its way into my friend! You aren't keeping him alive, you're more likely to be the cause of his death!"

She dashes in closer, making a grab for his shirt. "Maybe you're the one who should be facing him instead!"

The shadow makes no attempt to move out of the way, letting her take hold as he practically spits his words into her face. "What the hell do you know? You weren't there. You didn't know what it was like, to have to fight to survive, to have to crush bones and tear flesh and-Oh, right. That doesn't bother you, does it?" Yeah, that grin is back. "Being a monster yourself and all."

The witch reaches out to grab the two from its barely stable position on the wall, not caring who it crushes as long as it's someone.

She lifts him up off the ground by his shirt, seething to the point of shouting. "You think I don't know? Do you think I ever wanted to be a monster?" Leaping in the air with him in tow to dodge the swipe, she lands further down the catwalk, straddling the shadow. It wouldn't keep them away from the witch for long, but it could at least delay it a little.

"I'VE NEVER RELISHED IT! I am what I have become because that's what's needed of me!" She lifts him up a little just to slam him against the catwalk again. "If I've had to be a monster, I least I made a purpose for it. At least I can use it to conquer a monster like you! Shinji deserves better than to have to hide something like you, he should be allowed to purge you."

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Where your eyes don't go a part of you is hovering

February 6th

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