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--- sessions:001 [2014/10/11 21:46] – Link fixes pinkgothic
+++ sessions:001 [2020/03/07 18:23] (current) – pinkgothic
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 A muted cry ended up as abruptly as it began, a flickering shadow against the backlit windows of the store, like someone deciding in afterthought that silence was the best means not to be discovered and ducking behind the low walls under the windows. They were certainly not the first to have that idea.
-[[characters:Keneh]]'s subconsciousness had clasped her left hand against her lips at an awkward and useless angle, a confused brand of horror battling against an instinct - deemed useless at best and stupid at worst - to shout across and ask if the figure needed help. Groceries had beend discarded hastily but in a way that was almost embarassingly apologetic nearby, bag near-neatly folded against the wall, pizzas thawing in passive-aggressive disregard for the local apocalypse. Her right hand clung to her friend's left sleeve, pulling down as if gravity weren't doing them that favour already - and as if she needed unbroken, continual prompting to stay put.
+[[characters:Keneh]]'s subconsciousness had clasped her left hand against her lips at an awkward and useless angle, a confused brand of horror battling against an instinct - deemed useless at best and stupid at worst - to shout across and ask if the figure needed help. Groceries had been discarded hastily but in a way that was almost embarassingly apologetic nearby, bag near-neatly folded against the wall, pizzas thawing in passive-aggressive disregard for the local apocalypse. Her right hand clung to her friend's left sleeve, pulling down as if gravity weren't doing them that favour already - and as if she needed unbroken, continual prompting to stay put.
 A very different fire glinted further away, a golden, flickering sheen somewhere between the buildings, appearing silent and tame for the distance. A shadow of some forgotten bystander sprinted like a soundless gazelle into deeper shadows.
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 That seemed a step ahead of what Keneh had been thinking, registering to her as somewhere to hide for a while, thoughts muddied. Instinct was guiding her home in the simplest sequence, which for the time being meant leaving the far too obvious target that was her own car behind, and leaving through any regular way meant as an exit, then taking a road shielded from the sight of the affected parking lot in a mostly straight line for as long as it took for her gut to shut up about immediate danger. She gave Delaney a look of confusion devoid of any subtext of accusation - then her gaze skittered along their immediate surroundings, realising for an instant of panic that she didn't have much of a sense of direction in her shell-shocked state. As if to make up for the 'needlessly' childish fear, a guilty glance finds the discarded groceries... should they take those along? It both seemed like an irrelevant question and the single most important one. Then she's nodding, agreeing, finally parsing the words correctly, finally //grasping// the situation, immediately on all fours, crawling away from their cover as rapidly as possible, toward the nearest substitute, driven to near-silent action, struggling against the instinct to get up simply to be able to run faster.
-**✘ IN PROGRESS**
+<fc #008888>Were they supposed to crawl on all fours or shuffle in a crouch or do some sort of fast werewolf run that she couldn't quite recall. How had that lecture on posture and gait gone? There was a disease that made humans move on all fours and she couldn't remember if they did the diagonal foot and hand thing or the same side sawhorse. Suddenly it seemed very important to know which was most efficient.</fc>
+<fc #008888>An uncoordinated hasty scramble that alternated knees banging into the faux-marble and feet trying to tuck under her body surely wasn't it. But it was motion, and it was motion in the right direction, and it wasn't pretty but it wasn't going to take them hours to escape and that was about as much as could be hoped for.</fc>
+<fc #008888>As they put a refrigerated display between them and the window Delaney remembered the groceries and had to swallow a hysterical giggle at the thought that they really should have brought them along just in case. This wasn't the end of the world, no looting was required. And if they were looting it should be something that wouldn't melt.</fc>
+A part of Keneh was rebelling at the idea that they were shuffling away from the clearly marked exit. A different part was mocking the entire situation. Twenty long seconds had gone by without seeing the enemy; her incredulousness was back in full force. Surely it was okay to stand up and quietly leave, and surely they only had regular problems to deal with. The police would come in and mop all of this up and it would be forgotten a week later. An explanation would be found.
+An automatic gesture later, meant to coordinate the rest of the scramble with Delaney, had her continue her crawl forward. It was too late not to look foolish, after all, and there was perhaps use for this yet; just because her psyche couldn't quite decide in what //kind// of trouble she was did not mean it wasn't the worst but most unrealistic of the options.
+Two awkward shuffles later, a heavy, rectangular plastic tarp forming a door into a refrigerated room came into view. Keneh craned her neck, trying to discover how much of it must be visible across the road. The result was almost disappointing - there was no direct view at all. That didn't stop her gut from uselessly pointing out the enemy might by now just as well be hiding in that room.
+Fuck it.
+Another gesture later, willing 'more plausible' mental images of an angry storeworker glaring down at them as they waddled into the staff-only section out of her head, she's somehow leading the way, reluctantly following the advice of ancient auto-pilot subroutines.
+<fc #008888>Cold meant the electricity was still on and that was obvious from the lights also still being on but it was somehow reassuring. No idea why though. There was power so it couldn't be //that// bad? This wasn't a raging bushfire, this was something they could theoretically outrun. And look, there was a door showing a sliver of outside, running could commence.</fc>
+<fc #008888>Inside of bolting straight for it instincts made her carefully straighten and peer out to check that there wasn't some mutant lurking out there ready to... she wasn't sure what that thing wanted to do but it couldn't be good so she really didn't want to find out. If they came in peace they should go terrorise the wankers in The Lodge, at least that was something useful for a PM to do.</fc>
+The room currently wasn't hiding anything but an atmosphere colder than strictly comfortable, dispelling any notion of taking refuge //in// it. The store's employees had wisely made themselves scarce or were out the back having an oblivious smoke. The dim blue light seemed to emphasise the temperature as Keneh struggled to a stand against legs that bore passing semblance to pillars of jelly. Her arms wrapped around her torso without conscious decision to guide them. A glance back at the settling tarp proved no one had followed them - unsurprisingly, only kindling the sense of trespass plucking at Keneh's gut.
+No matter. There wasn't much in here and the back door wasn't a subjective mmile away, and no amount of dithering about what might lay beyond it could really compete against the idea of staying here like (very cold) sitting ducks or backing back into the store and hoping for the best.
+A few seconds later, they're outside, facing an unmolested stretch of road. Not the apocalypse. Briefly, the thought of backtracking to get the groceries flitted through Keneh's mind, needled by a misplaced guilt. Her left hand found her right arm's shoulder, clasping against it as she paused, slowly becoming aware of the adrenaline in her system.
+She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to will herself to calm down, to come to terms with the situation. She was still wholly uncertain of what she'd even witnessed - a nagging doubt in the back of her skull suggested that maybe she'd hallucinated a part of it, or missed a crucial element. A pang of embarrassment wound up her spine. Still whispering, not convinced the relative pocket of safety was necessarily going to last: "...what did we just witness?"
+<fc #008888>That was a very good question. Delaney briefly considered it before whispering: "Some sort of rocket crash without the rocket and fire that doesn't look like fire is supposed to and a creepy guy smashing a window and hunting down someone in a shop. Who screamed. So I don't care if it looked like it broke the laws of physics, I vote we get the hell out of here. And then call the cops and report a crazy armed guy and let the people with actual guns and body armour and training deal with it." Whatever 'it' was.</fc>
+<fc #008888>"If we've been dosed with a hallucinogen I still want to report it because I want to know what chemical it is and the hospital can probably tell us," Delaney added as an afterthought. Oh look, the science part of her brain was reviving itself.</fc>
+Keneh's gut rebelled at the words 'smashing a window', confirming at the very least that they'd shared the hallucination, if not that it had been real. Of course, a hallucinogen was much more plausible than the alternative. It took her a moment of struggle with herself to even voice it, haltingly: "Looked like telekinesis... you- you think it's a trick?" The expected answer was 'yes, of course' - anything to restore sanity. Surely there were plenty of reasons why a window would bend inward, why shards of glass would splinter off the window frame in neat sequence. Just because the stranger in the parking lot had followed the phenomenon unflinchingly with his gaze meant nothing, surely?
+<fc #008888>Despite the fact her mind had labelled the person 'mutant' it was highly reluctant to assign 'telekinesis' to his actions. Because telekinesis did not exist. Actions required force and force requires work - or was that the other way around? Her physics modules weren't functioning - and however it worked brainwaves could not provide leverage. So telekinesis didn't exist.</fc>
+<fc #008888>Which still left a huge swath of comic book powers intact and possible. "If he can do it more than once it's measurable and not a trick, no matter how he does it." Autopilot, she could do autopilot, although shouldn't she be indulging in the urge to run away? Even if it required running, which was unpleasant. Walk away briskly, perhaps. "I don't know how. Maybe... uh, concealed weapon? A chest launcher? Compressed air? High pitched resonant frequencies?" Except the resonant frequency of glass was within human hearing range, wasn't it? Since the Mythbusters proved opera singers could do it.</fc>
+Keneh's gaze wandered up to the sky, seeking the reassurance of familiarity for a moment of flimsy desperation. Then it's back on the landscape. There was a building between them and the destruction - that was an acceptable shield, but for how long? Unthinking, her right hand grabbed a hold of Delaney's sleeve again, and she's crossing the road, looking around. "Okay," she said, single-word acknowledgement of rambles many times more coherent than anything she felt capable of at the moment. "Okay, let's get home, switch on the news, see what they've got to say. By the time we get back there should be something on it." An explanation, reassuring advice, anything at all.