Continuation of the last snippet
>>"I'm just saying, pink is kinda sus."<<
Liz sighed as her partner glared down at bright pink recliner that sat facing the sole television in the room.
>>"Oh really? Garish interior design choices aside I'm more concerned about how it just appeared out of nowhere without either of us noticing."<<
It'd honestly scared the hell out of her, concerning her far more than anything else she'd run across in the Hell Hand ruins thus far. Sure the place was like living through a survival horror manga, but a lot of that was mitigated by Liz and Elise's status as Ace Valkyries. Very little could actually hurt them. For all the jump scares they'd had, and the number of disturbing and frankly haunting things they'd witnessed in this pit of nightmares Liz was confident that short of the Archology itself flexing it's impeller fields while they were so deep inside it there was very little real chance either of them could be hurt.
But that chair had flipped her initial confidence on it's head. It was a such a simple thing but one with a lot of implications. The two hadn't looked away from the area it was in, but between reflexive blinks it appeared. Which made no sense as the two hadn't blinked in sync either, she'd reviewed the sensory data and there was nearly a half second difference between them yet somehow still managed to slip in between when one of them should have had a chance to witness it's manifestation. The cameras and sensors were no better, it'd snuck in between frames lasting less than hundreths of a second. The Sensory data was little better, the readings giving a weird Schrodinger's Cat answer for a brief moment where there appeared to be and not be a chair. There was Higgs particle readings, but they only manifested after the effect, like some sort of half baked distraction or a curtain hastily pulled closed to try and hide the man behind the curtain.
Honestly that would have been fine. Hells Hand was weird, it was sadistic, and it loved to use it's ability to hide from their sensors to drop nightmares right into their faces when they least expected it. What really worried Liz was something far more important.
Their Impeller Fields were extended when it happened. It wasn't the strongest defense, certainly not something that could stop the Impeller Field of an Archology if it put any of it's weight into manifesting something in their vicinity. But that'd still have to break through their impeller fields, they'd have some form of warning as something forced their Impeller aside or at least know after the fact. But no, it'd simply gone through it, not like a knife through butter but like like a ghost that could completely ignore like it wasn't there.
That'd only be possible if it was manifested without Impeller manipulation, but you couldn't just manifest objects out of nothing without using Impeller Fields to shunt something in and out of storage. That was impossible wasn't it?
Wasn't it?
Liz was very close to grabbing Elise and flying the two of them out, lost secrets be damned. She wasn't afraid to die, she by no means wanted to, but the dangers of her profession were something she'd long ago accepted more than happy to take the risk to help humanity. But she wasn't going to throw her life away for curiosity, not when drones could probably do the job if not quite as efficiently. Especially not if she didn't know for sure if death would actually be what was waiting for her should the worst happen.
>>"It's too cutesy, it's gotta be a trap right? Like those Plushies in the Shaper's room?"<<
>>"Negative. Scans indicate it's a perfectly normal, if very ugly, chair. At worst you'll get some crumbs on you hand reaching for the remote."<<
>>"No worries, the Teley has a di-"<< Snap! >>"Nevermind, remote it is."<<
Elise glared back down at the second seat that had manifested for them for a moment flexing her fingers. Her hand stopped halfway through the grab though as an irritated look crossed her face. She hesitated for a moment then sighed.
>>"We're sure this thing isn't going to bite me or something right?"<<
>>"As sure as we can be."<<
>>"Which isn't a lot. What are the odds that it turns out this thing is Soylent Pink and I'm putting myself wrist deep in the remains of Tiny Tim's Tiny Trachea?"<<
>>"It's a 70% polyester blend with artificial stuffing. Granted, I wouldn't put it past the residents to find a way to recycle people into plastics but at that point it's an argument of semantics."<<
>>"Great. Well it getting rather obvious that whatever is watching us isn't really giving us a choice of options. One way or the other we're not going to get anywhere unless we follow it's script. Whelp, here goes nothing."<<
Taking a deep breath Elise pulled back her hand and turned around. Licking her lips she let out grunt and let herself fall backwards, landing squarely on the seat. She sunk deeply into the cushions, almost looking like the seat was about absorb her, before stopping.
There was a beep followed by a crackle as the television turn itself on and filled the room with the sound of static.
Elise just sat there staring into space with a bemused look.
>>"Elise? Are you okay?"<< Liz moved closer, weapons manifested and ready to rip her partner out of the possibly cursed artifact and reduce it to so much dust immediately afterwards.
"I am keeping this chair." Elise moaned as she snuggled herself deeper into it's cushions. "I don't care if I have to drag this damn thing behind us through every floor, I am taking this chair with me. I am going to bring it home, then I'm going to toss my bed in the garbage and use this instead. I think I might take a vacation too. You know, to really break it in."
>>"Weren't you just worrying over if it was made from children?"<<
"Me waking up with back aches ain't gonna bring them back. I think they'd be happy to know their little orphan bodies were helping keep a Valkyrie in top fighting shape."
Dammit, give me back my heartfelt concern! Shooting a last annoyed look at her partner's contented face Liz walked over and snatched the tape out of her hand and proceeded to place it into the VCR. Thankfully nothing else broke and Liz just stepped away waiting for the device to rewind the tape before it could play. Absently she looked over towards the original armchair that sat beside the pink abomination.
"Seriously, take a seat it's like sitting on a cloud."
Was it really that comfortable?
She reached out and ran a finger over the fabric just to test it.
Prrr~
*BOOM!*
>>"Jesus fuck!"<< Elise shouted as she was rolled out of the way of massive explosion less than a foot away from her. >>"The hell was-"<<
She stopped as she saw the remains of the first armchair in a smoking crater. The thing gurgled and twitched slightly, only to receive another few dozen rounds until it stopped. With a disgustingly wet his it finally went limp, the bottom jaw-like seat falling to the floor having lost too much blood either from the new bullet wounds or the complete destruction of it's top half.
She turned to her own seat with a look of confusion and betrayal.
>>"I think I'll stand thank you."<<
