A(n Un)Familiar Problem

Well, brief debate about writing vs padding aside, Here's the next chapter:

*Bonus objective gained: Steal everybody's hats!

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Broadly speaking, you're pretty sure that seeing random colours is an indication that something is wrong. That said, this world seems to be pretty wrong all around, weird sky, weird creatures everywhere, Drills' seemingly insatiable lust for murder… yours specifically.

The way you see it, nothing is right with this world. Thus, you can conclude that seeing random colours that definitely aren't there is probably not too bad a sign, certainly something you could probably just entirely ignore without any problems down the line.

Except, you're not just seeing colours: you can feel how close, or far, those colours are.

Well, mostly. Pink seems to be something of an exception, presumably because it's so bright that you can't get a feel for anything but its general direction. For all you know, it could be within arm's reach or… uh, the opposite of being in arm's reach? Whatever. Focal point: you know what direction it's in and that's about it.

Of the others, purple is the furthest away. Yellow is a good bit closer, though still a fair distance, but you're pretty sure it's moving away from you right now. And the grey-black seems to be moving around a little, perhaps wandering around a small area? It also seems to be moving up and down a bit, unlike the others. Maybe it's trying to climb one of the buildings or something?

Whatever it's doing, you reckon you're going to go and have a little look-see. If there's nothing there you can write off the colours as meaningless and get back to your rather unsuccessful hunting trip. If there is something there?

Well, uh… you'll see what it is and then figure out what to do about it. That sounds like a solid plan, right?

Your goal in mind, you open your eyes once more and head back towards the street. The grey-black thing was decently close by your reckoning, but this whole place was a maze of streets, sub-streets, alleyways and buildings. how long it would take to actually reach it was yet another thing that was still in question- Something began to screech loudly.

Your head instantly snapped to face the source of the sound: A Two-legger that seemed to be staring and pointing one of its arms at something in your general direction, though a quick glance around failed to reveal what had apparently reduced it to gibbering…

Oh right, camo: You'd forgotten about that. Oops.

It- no, wait. On closer inspection you're pretty sure that's a female -She continued to point at you, arm starting to wave around unsteadily as the pitch of her gibbering continued to rise. It's a good thing you don't seem to have ears, otherwise you'd imagine that they'd be beginning to hurt right about now from the rather excessive screaming.

Seriously, you're pretty sure you're not that ugly.

Sure, you hadn't found a good moment to groom your hair so it was probably a bit messy and you were still slightly stained with the black ichor of that Rumbler, which strangely didn't seem to be evaporating any time soon, much to your annoyance, but you could say with confidence that you don't look bad enough to warrant-

Your train of thought was abruptly derailed as a foot applied itself to your face.

Not because it hurt mind, it was actually rather pathetic: a Glyt could hit you harder and they really aren't good at hitting, what with their wings being so hilariously fragile and prone to breaking whenever they try it.

No, it was more from the *surprise* of the screaming-Two-legger deciding that !!kicking you in the face!! was a good idea, considering how terrified it seemed to be of you.

You'd probably have given some consideration to doing something that would discourage such behaviour in future, kicking people in the face is rude and all that, if the scared woman hadn't instantly spun on her heel and set about running, and occasionally hopping on the foot that hadn't been introduced to your face, away from you as fast as she could. And damn if those Two-leggers can't run: she was already halfway down the street before you'd figured out what had just happened, still screaming at the top of her lungs. It was actually getting more impressive than annoying at this point: Do two-leggers not need to breathe or something?

It was also your cue to be somewhere else, lest you find out what kinds of things that sound would attract…

Oh! And you should probably try turning your camo on this time, lest something more dangerous spot you.


The streets seemed busier now, somehow. You'd thought seeing four or five of the Two-leggers was a lot, but there had to be hundreds back there: all moving more like a tide than a group of individual creatures.

You'd already felt pretty leery of picking a fight with those things earlier, though one of them being scared of you had admittedly made you feel a bit more confident about the possibility of fighting them, but now knowing that there were this many of the things in the area? No way. No way you were trying it because there was no way you could hope to win against any kind of horde that big.

No wonder that woman had seemingly decided to make as much noise as possible: you couldn't think of anything that could hope to fight this many things at once. Making a loud enough sound to attract the attention of an unending swarm like that? That there is one hell of a survival strategy, and definitely not something you want to be on the wrong end of. And if that sound could attract more of its own kind, why wouldn't it attract Drills? You're still kinda hoping that she's some kind of outcast that's stuck on the other side of that bridge and not likely to be a problem you have to deal with again in this life.

But are you that lucky? Yeah, no.

The Two-leggers were quite clearly on the 'Do not mess with' list just from how many of them there seemed to be in this place, let alone the possibility of there being more monsters like Drills mixed in with them. Plus you're pretty sure they're where boots come from, so it's a safe bet they don't taste any better than your taste palate's old nemesis.

On the bright side though, your pursuit of the mysterious dark spot seems to have taken you away from wherever the two-legged tide were headed. In fact, you've seen next to none of them in some time now. On the not-so-bright side, the thing seemed to be actively moving around, though not specifically away from you, and didn't seem to be having anywhere near the number of problems you were having with the local maze-like conditions.

Still, you've been slowly gaining on whatever it is you're searching for. By now you're pretty much on top of it by your reckoning, though given that it kept moving that wasn't saying much about how long it would take to finally catch up.

A few more twists and turns later, through both streets and alleyways and over at least one fence, it was clear that you were really gaining ground now.

If being able to see the dark dot whenever you closed your eyes wasn't a big enough hint of that, the way things seemed to start changing struck you as a pretty strong hint that you were closing in on something notable: Everything seemed to look ever so slightly wrong, er… Wrong-er, than it already did. Like it was ever so slightly distanced from this reality.

The more you thought about it, the more it was like being at the edge of your home barrier: everything grey and unclear.

One final turn brought you into a small clearing of sorts, a vaguely triangular area shaped by buildings with a small patch of disappointingly green-ish grass. Seriously, what's wrong with blues and purples, why does all the plant life around here have to be green?

You'd have probably spent a few more minutes whining to yourself about this twisted realm you'd found yourself in, had a sharp whining noise not gained your attention by the merit of increasing in volume rather rapidly in such a fashion that, from your experience with ominous noises, usually indicated it was getting closer. Lo and behold: something was indeed approaching you. And… Okay, you don't even know how to begin describing that thing! Whatever it is though, it seems to have noticed you and you're pretty sure it's glaring at you.

Then again, maybe that's just how it looks at everything. It is pretty much just a giant eyeball on a tube after all: it doesn't seem flush with ways to convey its mood beyond looking at things with said giant eye.

Considering that the jet of fire coming out from the bottom of the tube-thing is also kicking up a ton of dirt… Yeah, life must suck without eyelids: you'd probably end up glaring at everything too if you got stuff in your eyes constantly like that thing must. Either way, it seems to be hovering about a foot off the ground, and considering that you couldn't see it a moment ago and lacks limbs suitable for climbing, it's a safe bet that the eye-tube thing can fly: Joy.

Hopefully it's less annoying that the other flying things you've had to deal with in the past, but you wouldn't bet on it.

So... what now?

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[] Attempt to befriend the thing, somehow.
[] On second thought, it doesn't look all that friendly:
-[] Maybe you should leave?
-[] You know, it looks an awful lot like dinner right about now...
[] Something else? (write in)