Fixed for you.
Starry Eyes [Worm/Lovecraft Mythos]
Fixed for you.
OverReactionGuy
Verified Sanity
This chapter doesn't have enough cult antics! I demand fancy robes!
...
Honestly I just want Aria to give this "order" a hug.
That was a good one you should feel awesome.
...
Honestly I just want Aria to give this "order" a hug.
Indeed, you could even say that she's seeing events and her friends throughstarry eyes.
That was a good one you should feel awesome.
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Vox De Harlequin
Consequences are for other people
- Location
- Hyalean Theoric World
They had fancy robes, but then one of the sacrifice rooms had a leak and they all got ruined to stop blood getting everywhere.
THIS IS WHY YOU HAVE BURGUNDY ROBES, PEOPLE!
Calm 3.3
helnae
Mlem~
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Calm 3.3
"So… you're Newter, right?"
The orange-skinned, lizard-like cape was sitting on a nearby rock, close enough for him to hear me over the roar of the waves, but far enough to meet caution's demands. I endeavored not to take offense, which was easier than expected, especially in the external department. Yet another plus for cutting off my face!
"Yep, that's me," he replied. He hid his nervousness quite well, I must admit. "And before you make the obvious joke, it's spelled with a 'w'."
"Well, you're no fun," I said, though I hadn't intended to make any such jest. He grinned, though, so it must've been the right thing to say. I grinned back, several times over. He went a little pale under the orange of his skin. Oh, well.
We spent the next few moments in awkward silence.
"So!" we both said at the same time. We laughed, a bit of the tension in the air bleeding off, and then he gestured for me to continue.
"So," I said again, "you're with Faultline's crew of villains, right?"
He winced. "Yeah, how- well, it wouldn't exactly be hard to find out. B-but even so, we're more mercenaries than simply villains."
"But you still do illegal stuff, don't you?" He nodded, a tad reluctantly. "Thought so. So what does a villain want with me? I'm a hero, after all." I slumped slightly and, under my breath, added, "Or at least, I'm trying to be one."
Somehow, he overheard or was just good at reading body language. "Hey, everything okay?" I fixed him with a look from most of my eyes, and he hurriedly added, "Look, I, I didn't mean to eavesdrop earlier – okay, maybe a little, but still! Anyway, I kinda heard you talking to yourself, and while I didn't understand, I could still tell that you weren't happy about something. So, uh, wanna talk about whatever's bothering you?"
"No, I, it's..." I lapsed into silence. Newter shifted a few times during the quiet as if in discomfort, but still looked attentive.
I didn't want to share the kind of stuff that could lead back to my civilian life, but, well… it felt good to confide in my friends. As cliché as it might sound, it almost felt like sharing a burden. A more… human perspective might help as well.
I let out a deep breath from a few mouths. "My fr- I, I kind of lost control of my powers for a moment thanks to a girl saying something pretty awful to me, and they hurt her in a way that probably looked like I attacked her."
"Oh," Newter said. "Was she an ally? A frie-"
"No," I said forcefully, my voices flat with anger. He went pale again, making me wince internally. More calmly, I continued, "No, she deserved what she got. Deserves worse. She's a tr- the worst kind of bully." I turned my head to 'face' him. "No, the problem is, this happened in my civilian identity."
Newter winced sympathetically, which I found weird given that he lacked a non-cape life of his own. "So you think if you go home, either the police or the PRT will be waiting for you?"
"Yeah. I, I don't know if I can go home. My father, he, I can't..."
He sighed and placed his hands on his knees. "Alright. How badly did you injure this girl?"
"… Small cut on the face, some hair cut off. I managed to restrain her quickl- I mean..."
"...'Her'?" Newter gave me an odd look, which quickly morphed into dawning realization. "Wait, is your power, is that," he gestured to Aria's sprawling tentacles while subtly sliding his feet beneath him as if preparing to leap away, "a separate being? A Master power?"
"N-no!"
Several of our mouths shouted at once as I panicked.
"No, no, it's cool!" he said quickly. "If it's something that you're hiding as an ace up your sleeve," he paused and glanced at my bare arms, "okay, you get what I mean, but yeah. It's cool. I won't tell anyone. Promise."
That eased a bit of my tension. Not that much, but still a measurable amount. "… Thanks."
He grinned. "Great! But back to the matter at hand. Now, keep in mind that I'm no expert on parahuman law, but your case sounds like a rather minor case of battery with a parahuman ability."
"Wait. Not assault?"
"Nah, assault's, like, the threat to do harm, while battery's actually doing it." Silently, I tilted my head, though Aria's mass coming out of my face hampered the act a little. "What? Just because I'm not an expert doesn't mean I can't look stuff up online."
I sighed. "Be that as it may, this still isn't looking good for me."
"Yeah, it's not great, but it's not wholly bad, either. Now, again, I'm no legal expert, but with how small the injury was, and the fact that it was provoked and you showed restraint, any sentence, should it even reach court, should be small, and likely not jail. Of course, that said, if the PRT and Protectorate get involved, they might use it to pressure you into joining."
"Fuck that," I spat, and he arched an eyebrow at the venom my voice contained.
"Oookay, then. Sounds like there's a story there," he said carefully, but I just shook my head. "Very well, I won't pry. In any case, you've got a couple more options from what I can see, and neither requires you go home. The first one would be to join an existing group and stay with them."
I'd been expecting something like this since he first appeared. After all, everyone wanted to be the first to snap up new capes to bolster their forces. But with how sidetracked we'd gotten, it somehow caught me unawares. I would've smirked sardonically if I could. "And let me guess, your group would be gracious enough to welcome me into your ranks?" Melody evidently didn't like where my emotions had gone, because I heard a concerned murmur from her. "It's fine, dear," I murmured in return.
Newter frowned. "Look, do you want me to lie and say we wouldn't like to recruit you? That I'm here purely out of the kindness of my heart? I'd prefer not to insult your intelligence. Frankly, it's a fairly good offer, since we have resources you could use, like lawyers, and we wouldn't require you to kill anyone ever. But even so, we won't try to force you to join."
"I doubt you could," I replied. He glanced to the side, and I smirked internally at his apparent discomfort. "Look, I appreciate you being honest with me and all, but there's no way in hell that I'm joining a group of villains."
He surprised me by just nodding. "Thought not, but I had to make the offer."
My suspicion grew. "So why bother talking to me if you knew it wouldn't work?"
He grew somewhat more nervous, and a glance showed that Aria had evidently picked up on my mood and grown quite a few long, serrated teeth. I had her retract them, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Alright, look," he said. "I'll admit that part of what I intended was to give you a positive impression of us so you'd be less likely to attack us were we to cross paths. You're not exactly a weak cape, even without those lasers I saw. But honestly? As we talked, I got the impression that you really just needed someone to talk to."
"… Thanks, I guess," I said after a brief pause. "By the way, could you, you know, keep quiet about the lasers? And the… other thing?"
Newter shifted uncomfortably, though part of it may have been the dozen or so eyes that sprouted to unblinkingly skewer him with their gaze. "Uh, sure," he said. "But, uh, my team kinda already knows." He gestured to his ear. An eye distorted to zoom in, showing me a small, wireless earpiece.
"You have people listening in," I said flatly. He tried to suppress it, but I saw a bit of a flinch at my tone. Then he scowled.
"Look, would you have me approach a scary, unknown parahuman without any backup? Excuse me if I value my health."
I sat back, supporting myself with my hands. I still didn't like that others could hear us, could listen in on what I'd thought might be a private conversation, but a more rational part of me had to admit that he had something of a point. Besides, it seemed to say, it wasn't as if we'd agreed on anything about this conversation, so I don't really have any reason to get mad at it not being a private conversation. And in any case, what can any of Faultline's Crew do to me?
"So for the sake of my curiosity," I said in a lighter tone that was only slightly forced, "is our watcher looking at us – rather, at me – through a sniper's scope? And please, be honest."
Newter looked as if he'd bitten into a rather sour lemon. "… Yes," he reluctantly replied after a brief silence.
I chuckled. "Probably wouldn't work on me. Bullets, that is," I mused aloud, which didn't really help his comfort levels. "So!" I exclaimed with false cheer, clapping my hands once as I did. "Before our lovely conversation comes to a close, I was curious. You mentioned a third option. What was it?"
Newter sighed and muttered something under his breath that I wasn't fast enough with Rest to catch. "I was going to say that you could just, like, hide out somewhere on your own, though I don't really recommend it. That said, I do know a pretty good place, if you want to know."
"Someplace you guys know well?" I said dryly. I was kind of surprised how hard he was trying to get into my good graces. I mean, I understood how strong Aria seemed to be, but this was just making me suspicious and irritated.
"No, no, I'm the only one who knows how to get there. The others would need diving equipment to get there." Wait, what? "Now, I'm making the assumption that you don't need to breath much, or at all. Otherwise, well, we can't really supply the gear necessary."
"So, wait, where is this place?"
"As far as I can tell, it's more or less under the city, but the only way in that I know of is out there." He jerked his head at the Bay, the slowly stood and stretched, his back popping audibly. "Now, can you swim?" And then, almost as an afterthought, "And do you want to come see it? It's fine if you don't want to."
"No, I'll go. And yes, I believe I can swim," I replied. Then, to my friends, "Want to go swimming, girls?"
"Sure!" chirped Aria, clearly happy that I was talking to her again. "… What's 'swimming'?"
I laughed softly. "You'll like it. Now, Melody, I'm sorry, but I'll need you to withdraw your wings for now."
"Oh. Okay."
I released control of said appendages, and they quickly folded up and disappeared. As I healed up the slices they'd been coming out of, I returned my attention to Newter, who was trying not to stare and failing. "So," I said, "shall we get this over with?"
As it turned out, Aria made for a pretty good drysuit, covering me entirely. The murky waters of the Bay felt pleasantly cool against her surface.
Aria was plugging up every gap in my skin, because while I didn't know if the water would pour through to my other side, I didn't want to find out by draining the Bay. Sealing the holes soon turned into covering me fully, keeping my clothes dry. That, in turn, had led to long, flattened tentacles that streamed out behind me, churning the water and propelling me at quite a fair clip. Swimming with them had proven way simpler to puzzle out than it had any right to be. Laser eyes, when unfocused, proved to be great light sources, helping me keep my eyes on Newter's bright orange tail ahead of me.
Eventually he stopped and motioned for me to surface, before doing so himself. I soon joined him there, finding him taking large gulps of air. A quick glance showed the Protectorate's floating base between us and the shore, the sun glinting off its huge shield bubble.
"Okay," He said after a few moments, "the entrance is right below us. You ready?"
"Of course," I replied, and we dived once more, this time heading deeper. Under the combined light of Newter's flashlight and my eyes, a shape was revealed, , jutting out of the muck of the bottom. As we neared it, I began to pick out details. What had seemed like just another rock formation looked to actually be a large tube, or maybe a fallen tower, formed of what seemed to be quite a number of hexagonal stone pillars, somehow fused together or something like that. I followed Newter down into the darkness.
My light eyes rolled in their sockets, their beams scything through the murky gloom of the tunnel. A few fish were startled by our passage as we swam, much to Aria's delight. On a whim I helped her design and make a sort of biological harpoon gun so she could spear passing fish, then reel them in to snack on.
Eventually, we reached a point where the tunnel suddenly slanted upwards. Ooze and gunk had mostly blocked it at the lowest point, though there was enough of a gap for us to squeeze through. Even so, I took a few moments to widen the gap before moving on.
A surprisingly short time later, water gave way to air and we clambered out. I withdrew most of Aria as I did so. Looking around, I saw a branching tunnel before me. Walls, floor, ceiling, all were made of the same hexagonal, columnar structures of dark stone, a stone whose name I knew, was practically on the tip of my severed tongue, but I just couldn't place it, to my frustration. The columns were all parallel, just the slightest angle from perfectly vertical. And it all seemed much more natural than the tunnel we'd come in by, all save for the floor which, beneath the muck and grime and feebly glowing fungus, was smooth, almost as if worn down by… but no, that couldn't be…
"So," Newter said suddenly, startling me out of my thoughts. "Heck of a hiding place, huh?"
"Uh, yeah," I replied after a moment. "Just, how has no one found this place before? And how is not flooded? We can't be above sea level."
He shrugged. "No clue, but it isn't, so… well. That aside, I guess no one has found it yet 'cause the entrance looks like just another rock."
"But it isn't," I replied without thinking. "Uh, I mean, the entrance is clearly some kind of fallen tower, and a tall one, at that. So someone had to have made it, and a long time ago, since as far as I know there are no records of any tall stone towers around these parts. And..." I railed off as I realized that Newter was staring at me. "… Sorry."
He shrugged. "No, I get you, it's pretty weird. But whatever it was, right now it's no one else knows exists, much less can get to easily." He paused. "So, what'll it be? You gonna stay here, or go home to the cops or the PRT?"
I was silent for a time. Images of my dad, of the PRT, of Emma injured, and more, all flashed through my mind, and I knew I couldn't put off making a my decision any longer. Clenching my fists hard enough that my nails almost pierced my palms, I made my choice.
"So… you're Newter, right?"
The orange-skinned, lizard-like cape was sitting on a nearby rock, close enough for him to hear me over the roar of the waves, but far enough to meet caution's demands. I endeavored not to take offense, which was easier than expected, especially in the external department. Yet another plus for cutting off my face!
"Yep, that's me," he replied. He hid his nervousness quite well, I must admit. "And before you make the obvious joke, it's spelled with a 'w'."
"Well, you're no fun," I said, though I hadn't intended to make any such jest. He grinned, though, so it must've been the right thing to say. I grinned back, several times over. He went a little pale under the orange of his skin. Oh, well.
We spent the next few moments in awkward silence.
"So!" we both said at the same time. We laughed, a bit of the tension in the air bleeding off, and then he gestured for me to continue.
"So," I said again, "you're with Faultline's crew of villains, right?"
He winced. "Yeah, how- well, it wouldn't exactly be hard to find out. B-but even so, we're more mercenaries than simply villains."
"But you still do illegal stuff, don't you?" He nodded, a tad reluctantly. "Thought so. So what does a villain want with me? I'm a hero, after all." I slumped slightly and, under my breath, added, "Or at least, I'm trying to be one."
Somehow, he overheard or was just good at reading body language. "Hey, everything okay?" I fixed him with a look from most of my eyes, and he hurriedly added, "Look, I, I didn't mean to eavesdrop earlier – okay, maybe a little, but still! Anyway, I kinda heard you talking to yourself, and while I didn't understand, I could still tell that you weren't happy about something. So, uh, wanna talk about whatever's bothering you?"
"No, I, it's..." I lapsed into silence. Newter shifted a few times during the quiet as if in discomfort, but still looked attentive.
I didn't want to share the kind of stuff that could lead back to my civilian life, but, well… it felt good to confide in my friends. As cliché as it might sound, it almost felt like sharing a burden. A more… human perspective might help as well.
I let out a deep breath from a few mouths. "My fr- I, I kind of lost control of my powers for a moment thanks to a girl saying something pretty awful to me, and they hurt her in a way that probably looked like I attacked her."
"Oh," Newter said. "Was she an ally? A frie-"
"No," I said forcefully, my voices flat with anger. He went pale again, making me wince internally. More calmly, I continued, "No, she deserved what she got. Deserves worse. She's a tr- the worst kind of bully." I turned my head to 'face' him. "No, the problem is, this happened in my civilian identity."
Newter winced sympathetically, which I found weird given that he lacked a non-cape life of his own. "So you think if you go home, either the police or the PRT will be waiting for you?"
"Yeah. I, I don't know if I can go home. My father, he, I can't..."
He sighed and placed his hands on his knees. "Alright. How badly did you injure this girl?"
"… Small cut on the face, some hair cut off. I managed to restrain her quickl- I mean..."
"...'Her'?" Newter gave me an odd look, which quickly morphed into dawning realization. "Wait, is your power, is that," he gestured to Aria's sprawling tentacles while subtly sliding his feet beneath him as if preparing to leap away, "a separate being? A Master power?"
"N-no!"
"It's-..."
"I-"
Several of our mouths shouted at once as I panicked.
"No, no, it's cool!" he said quickly. "If it's something that you're hiding as an ace up your sleeve," he paused and glanced at my bare arms, "okay, you get what I mean, but yeah. It's cool. I won't tell anyone. Promise."
That eased a bit of my tension. Not that much, but still a measurable amount. "… Thanks."
He grinned. "Great! But back to the matter at hand. Now, keep in mind that I'm no expert on parahuman law, but your case sounds like a rather minor case of battery with a parahuman ability."
"Wait. Not assault?"
"Nah, assault's, like, the threat to do harm, while battery's actually doing it." Silently, I tilted my head, though Aria's mass coming out of my face hampered the act a little. "What? Just because I'm not an expert doesn't mean I can't look stuff up online."
I sighed. "Be that as it may, this still isn't looking good for me."
"Yeah, it's not great, but it's not wholly bad, either. Now, again, I'm no legal expert, but with how small the injury was, and the fact that it was provoked and you showed restraint, any sentence, should it even reach court, should be small, and likely not jail. Of course, that said, if the PRT and Protectorate get involved, they might use it to pressure you into joining."
"Fuck that," I spat, and he arched an eyebrow at the venom my voice contained.
"Oookay, then. Sounds like there's a story there," he said carefully, but I just shook my head. "Very well, I won't pry. In any case, you've got a couple more options from what I can see, and neither requires you go home. The first one would be to join an existing group and stay with them."
I'd been expecting something like this since he first appeared. After all, everyone wanted to be the first to snap up new capes to bolster their forces. But with how sidetracked we'd gotten, it somehow caught me unawares. I would've smirked sardonically if I could. "And let me guess, your group would be gracious enough to welcome me into your ranks?" Melody evidently didn't like where my emotions had gone, because I heard a concerned murmur from her. "It's fine, dear," I murmured in return.
Newter frowned. "Look, do you want me to lie and say we wouldn't like to recruit you? That I'm here purely out of the kindness of my heart? I'd prefer not to insult your intelligence. Frankly, it's a fairly good offer, since we have resources you could use, like lawyers, and we wouldn't require you to kill anyone ever. But even so, we won't try to force you to join."
"I doubt you could," I replied. He glanced to the side, and I smirked internally at his apparent discomfort. "Look, I appreciate you being honest with me and all, but there's no way in hell that I'm joining a group of villains."
He surprised me by just nodding. "Thought not, but I had to make the offer."
My suspicion grew. "So why bother talking to me if you knew it wouldn't work?"
He grew somewhat more nervous, and a glance showed that Aria had evidently picked up on my mood and grown quite a few long, serrated teeth. I had her retract them, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Alright, look," he said. "I'll admit that part of what I intended was to give you a positive impression of us so you'd be less likely to attack us were we to cross paths. You're not exactly a weak cape, even without those lasers I saw. But honestly? As we talked, I got the impression that you really just needed someone to talk to."
"… Thanks, I guess," I said after a brief pause. "By the way, could you, you know, keep quiet about the lasers? And the… other thing?"
Newter shifted uncomfortably, though part of it may have been the dozen or so eyes that sprouted to unblinkingly skewer him with their gaze. "Uh, sure," he said. "But, uh, my team kinda already knows." He gestured to his ear. An eye distorted to zoom in, showing me a small, wireless earpiece.
"You have people listening in," I said flatly. He tried to suppress it, but I saw a bit of a flinch at my tone. Then he scowled.
"Look, would you have me approach a scary, unknown parahuman without any backup? Excuse me if I value my health."
I sat back, supporting myself with my hands. I still didn't like that others could hear us, could listen in on what I'd thought might be a private conversation, but a more rational part of me had to admit that he had something of a point. Besides, it seemed to say, it wasn't as if we'd agreed on anything about this conversation, so I don't really have any reason to get mad at it not being a private conversation. And in any case, what can any of Faultline's Crew do to me?
"So for the sake of my curiosity," I said in a lighter tone that was only slightly forced, "is our watcher looking at us – rather, at me – through a sniper's scope? And please, be honest."
Newter looked as if he'd bitten into a rather sour lemon. "… Yes," he reluctantly replied after a brief silence.
I chuckled. "Probably wouldn't work on me. Bullets, that is," I mused aloud, which didn't really help his comfort levels. "So!" I exclaimed with false cheer, clapping my hands once as I did. "Before our lovely conversation comes to a close, I was curious. You mentioned a third option. What was it?"
Newter sighed and muttered something under his breath that I wasn't fast enough with Rest to catch. "I was going to say that you could just, like, hide out somewhere on your own, though I don't really recommend it. That said, I do know a pretty good place, if you want to know."
"Someplace you guys know well?" I said dryly. I was kind of surprised how hard he was trying to get into my good graces. I mean, I understood how strong Aria seemed to be, but this was just making me suspicious and irritated.
"No, no, I'm the only one who knows how to get there. The others would need diving equipment to get there." Wait, what? "Now, I'm making the assumption that you don't need to breath much, or at all. Otherwise, well, we can't really supply the gear necessary."
"So, wait, where is this place?"
"As far as I can tell, it's more or less under the city, but the only way in that I know of is out there." He jerked his head at the Bay, the slowly stood and stretched, his back popping audibly. "Now, can you swim?" And then, almost as an afterthought, "And do you want to come see it? It's fine if you don't want to."
"No, I'll go. And yes, I believe I can swim," I replied. Then, to my friends, "Want to go swimming, girls?"
"Sure!" chirped Aria, clearly happy that I was talking to her again. "… What's 'swimming'?"
I laughed softly. "You'll like it. Now, Melody, I'm sorry, but I'll need you to withdraw your wings for now."
"Oh. Okay."
I released control of said appendages, and they quickly folded up and disappeared. As I healed up the slices they'd been coming out of, I returned my attention to Newter, who was trying not to stare and failing. "So," I said, "shall we get this over with?"
.o.o.o.
As it turned out, Aria made for a pretty good drysuit, covering me entirely. The murky waters of the Bay felt pleasantly cool against her surface.
Aria was plugging up every gap in my skin, because while I didn't know if the water would pour through to my other side, I didn't want to find out by draining the Bay. Sealing the holes soon turned into covering me fully, keeping my clothes dry. That, in turn, had led to long, flattened tentacles that streamed out behind me, churning the water and propelling me at quite a fair clip. Swimming with them had proven way simpler to puzzle out than it had any right to be. Laser eyes, when unfocused, proved to be great light sources, helping me keep my eyes on Newter's bright orange tail ahead of me.
Eventually he stopped and motioned for me to surface, before doing so himself. I soon joined him there, finding him taking large gulps of air. A quick glance showed the Protectorate's floating base between us and the shore, the sun glinting off its huge shield bubble.
"Okay," He said after a few moments, "the entrance is right below us. You ready?"
"Of course," I replied, and we dived once more, this time heading deeper. Under the combined light of Newter's flashlight and my eyes, a shape was revealed, , jutting out of the muck of the bottom. As we neared it, I began to pick out details. What had seemed like just another rock formation looked to actually be a large tube, or maybe a fallen tower, formed of what seemed to be quite a number of hexagonal stone pillars, somehow fused together or something like that. I followed Newter down into the darkness.
My light eyes rolled in their sockets, their beams scything through the murky gloom of the tunnel. A few fish were startled by our passage as we swam, much to Aria's delight. On a whim I helped her design and make a sort of biological harpoon gun so she could spear passing fish, then reel them in to snack on.
Eventually, we reached a point where the tunnel suddenly slanted upwards. Ooze and gunk had mostly blocked it at the lowest point, though there was enough of a gap for us to squeeze through. Even so, I took a few moments to widen the gap before moving on.
A surprisingly short time later, water gave way to air and we clambered out. I withdrew most of Aria as I did so. Looking around, I saw a branching tunnel before me. Walls, floor, ceiling, all were made of the same hexagonal, columnar structures of dark stone, a stone whose name I knew, was practically on the tip of my severed tongue, but I just couldn't place it, to my frustration. The columns were all parallel, just the slightest angle from perfectly vertical. And it all seemed much more natural than the tunnel we'd come in by, all save for the floor which, beneath the muck and grime and feebly glowing fungus, was smooth, almost as if worn down by… but no, that couldn't be…
"So," Newter said suddenly, startling me out of my thoughts. "Heck of a hiding place, huh?"
"Uh, yeah," I replied after a moment. "Just, how has no one found this place before? And how is not flooded? We can't be above sea level."
He shrugged. "No clue, but it isn't, so… well. That aside, I guess no one has found it yet 'cause the entrance looks like just another rock."
"But it isn't," I replied without thinking. "Uh, I mean, the entrance is clearly some kind of fallen tower, and a tall one, at that. So someone had to have made it, and a long time ago, since as far as I know there are no records of any tall stone towers around these parts. And..." I railed off as I realized that Newter was staring at me. "… Sorry."
He shrugged. "No, I get you, it's pretty weird. But whatever it was, right now it's no one else knows exists, much less can get to easily." He paused. "So, what'll it be? You gonna stay here, or go home to the cops or the PRT?"
I was silent for a time. Images of my dad, of the PRT, of Emma injured, and more, all flashed through my mind, and I knew I couldn't put off making a my decision any longer. Clenching my fists hard enough that my nails almost pierced my palms, I made my choice.
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Malbutorius
C'est le bien qui fait mal
In strange eons even Death may die! IA IA CTHULHU FHATAGN!
Do we need to make that joke EVERY chapter?
In other news, random not!R'lyeh? Huh.
- Location
- Elsewhere
Assault: "So you're saying battery is the violent, abusive half..."
Battery: "No, he's saying assault is a lot of talk and no action."
Malbutorius
C'est le bien qui fait mal
It's been months!
Vebyast
Nascent Transhuman
Still completely unaware of how scary she is. It's adorable.
Huh, Lovecraftian architecture under the Bay. Iiiinteresting.
Ignoring the proper rituals when dealing with Eldritch Entities is hazardous to your health, sanity, and possible place in the Timestream.
Also, Taylor is a Deep One now. Well, alright then. I wonder how Melody reacts to water?
- Location
- Somewhere!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
So, the cross goes back deeper? Probably before Scion, then, which means it's more the Lovecraftian ancient history stuff.
- Location
- Here
I'm feeling like the incident with Emma is more of an excuse than a reason for Taylor to do this. The real reason is just accumulated aversion, for which she now has the mother of all unhealthy outlets. And now she can finally retreat to a place that almost no one is even capable of accessing to spend time with her real friends... venturing into the light of day only when necessary according to priorities that grow steadily apart from anything human. This is certainly a way to give Taylor some deeper resemblance of a Lovecraftian horror.
[Sadness]
[Black comedy]
[Anticipation]
[Sadness]
[Black comedy]
[Anticipation]
RexHeller
Title Incoming. Please Hold.
- Location
- Somewhere else.
Please don't remind me of The Brockton Look.
BeaconHill
Lost Among Carbon Fields
Yay!
I've been missing this series. Thank you for writing more! And this is an excellent chapter, with Newter unknowingly helping along her alienation and her increasingly eldritch tendencies. I love it.
Newter is so cute this whole chapter. I love him, too.
There are a few pieces of clunky foreshadowing here. This is one...
... and this is the other. Why's Taylor a stone tower record expert all of a sudden?
Oh, come on, she's catching fish with her friend! It's just normal adorable. :3
Sounds about right. After all, she could just fly over her house and check if there is actually any sign of PRT officers around...
Or, of course, if they got in her way she could feed them to her best friends! I think all of this friendship is the best part of Starry Eyes.
Hey, I liked that series...Please don't remind me of The Brockton Look.
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einargs
Verified Spiller of the Egg Yolk
- Location
- The Egg Yolk, Outer Layer
- Pronouns
- They/Them
@BeaconHill, you wrote it.Hey, I liked that series...
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BeaconHill
Lost Among Carbon Fields
Well I wouldn't have written it if I didn't like it, would I?
~~
And reread the whole thing!
Random question: if Taylor were to cut all the skin off a body part – say, remove her whole finger or her whole hand or arm or something like that – would a starfield in that shape be left there, or would something stranger happen? I guess there's sort of an indication of what would happen with Taylor's not-face: does her starfield look face-shaped from the side (like, nose-having and such) or flat?
RexHeller
Title Incoming. Please Hold.
- Location
- Somewhere else.
It had a bittersweet ending at best. It mostly just made me really sad.Hey, I liked that series...
From what I remember, the former would happen.
- Location
- Home
Random question: if Taylor were to cut all the skin off a body part – say, remove her whole finger or her whole hand or arm or something like that – would a starfield in that shape be left there, or would something stranger happen? I guess there's sort of an indication of what would happen with Taylor's not-face: does her starfield look face-shaped from the side (like, nose-having and such) or flat?
I thought that Helnae stated that if Taylor took all skin off she would pretty much be an event horizon silhouette, you wouldn't be able to appreciate the figure and only would see a 2D cutout of a person to another place. Similar if she pulled the skin of her arm like a glove.
- Location
- The Outer Plane Of Munchkinry.
If she's going to go Pokemon on their asses then she's going to need to figure out some living space for them. Maybe she could eat Sphere/Mannequin.
3D portals are fun to think about aren't they? I had some thoughts about her making a face out of teath, like a scale mail mask, somewhat like what Acord does.Well I wouldn't have written it if I didn't like it, would I?
~~
And reread the whole thing!
Random question: if Taylor were to cut all the skin off a body part – say, remove her whole finger or her whole hand or arm or something like that – would a starfield in that shape be left there, or would something stranger happen? I guess there's sort of an indication of what would happen with Taylor's not-face: does her starfield look face-shaped from the side (like, nose-having and such) or flat?
- Pronouns
- It/Its
This has been answered multiple times in various forms. See the Words of Helnae linked in the index for details. You can just search for the word portal to find various relevant quotes. Do note the different episodes of Words of Helnae have different quotes, so some answers may only be on some episodes (for instance your question is answered on both SB episodes but not the SV one).
owrtho