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[oldfashionedfutureboy]

[ All he wanted to do was duck out to grab something for dinner. Cook a proper meal for some people and try to settle himself into some shade of normalcy- he doesn't remember what went wrong. Just that something did. That one moment he was on the sidewalk and the other he'd ducked down the stairs to avoid rain or something and then-

Time's lost. It'd been dark. There'd been voices. There'd been- things. Nox. He's covered in something viscous and he's not all that certain as to what it might actually be- part of him thinks he should grab a sample. The rest just wants a bath. A drink, a bath, and a long time spent in bed. He's not visibly roughed up other than looking mighty sorry and ragged as he makes his way, finally, back into the light.

Semiopaque- something, coats him head to toe. Sticks his scrubs to him, mats his hair to his skull, squelches with each step.

There's not a scent- not a taste. Not even all that much of a color but it's like grease and despair and he just- he wants it off. ]

Comments

[diediediediediedie]

[Peridot lets out a shriek at the jumping disk, about ready to leg it in the other direction, when something even worse pops out of the hole. Something unlike anything she's ever seen.

A large ambulatory slimeball rolls slowly along the ground as Peridot's eyes follow it. Is it corrosive? Hostile? So long as it's in the city, she won't be safe. Forming her now-nonworking blaster will have to serve as her only bluff until she can determine what it is.]

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

[ God it's everywhere. He scrubs at his face and flicks the excess away, tries to comb his hands through his hair to free that up but it just keeps massing together like a non-newtonian fluid, going just solid enough to cling to him and just fluid enough to prevent removal. A solid, almost violent flick of a hand after a solid palmful had been collected is let loose-

Unfortunately it's let loose in Peridot's direction. Whoops. ]

[diediediediediedie]

AUGH!

[It hits her right in the face. Because of course it does. But the movements make it clear exactly what it is that's attacking her.]

You...you human! Watch where you're flinging that goop!

[She doesn't seem to be able to wipe it off, maybe she can blow it off by spinning her fingers. And she's going to do it while she storms up to him.]

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

[ Whoops. That wasn't what he'd meant and-


What the hell was that? A machine? Machine's don't emote. He hacks up a bit of the fluid and scrubs at his face again, trying to clear his vision. ]

Sorry 'bout that. Didn't know you were stand'n there.

[diediediediediedie]

I'm certain you didn't. Humans don't pay much attention to anything, do they?

[This stuff is not coming off. Eventually she just grabs the wad with her hand and pulls until it snaps off her face. Now she has to shake it off her hands, which is...not happening either.]

What were you doing down there?

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

Kinda busy try'n to not fall back in.

[ He's pretty sure he's not being pulled back in by the line of slime connecting him to the damn manhole- but pretty sure is not certain. ]

Try'n to get out.

[diediediediediedie]

[That causes her to throw up her eyebrows quizzically.]

Really. And just what's down there?

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

The nox. Loads of 'em.

[ More scrubbing at his hair, his face. ]

Darkness an' Silence an' maddness.

[diediediediediedie]

Darkness and silence...

[Do these things lead to madness in humans? Madness can't exist without a host, so it stands to reason. What a curious notion.

...Perhaps it requires testing. But she's not about to touch him with her hands.

Silently, she plants her foot on Bones and gives him a hard shove backwards.]

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

Mhmm. And teeth-

[ He doesn't get much more time to say anything as he's shoved back toward the hole, the slime easing the way and making it hard for him to find purchase on the asphalt. ]

The HELL is wrong with you?

[diediediediediedie]

Only a test. Relax.

[She advances on him to do the exact same thing. She's not going to give up until her curiosity is satisfied, and she doesn't know the the emphasized word in that sentence so it doesn't count.]

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

I am not go'n back down there for a fuck'n TEST!

[ Try as he might, scramble and grab for anything, asphalt, the rim of the manhole- her ankle- he can't get a hold of anything long enough to keep himself out as he slides backwards, leaving only his arms and shoulders above the damn thing. ]

[diediediediediedie]

[It seems she was right from the distress he's exhibiting! Of course, she won't know from just one subject, but this is good for her hypothesis.]

Thank you, this was very informative.

[And she steps down on his shoulder.]

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

STOP IT!

[ That last shove is all it takes to push him back into the hole, scrambling for the ladder, for the lip of the manhole, for anything. ]

[diediediediediedie]

[She has to jump back out of the hole once he's gone to avoid falling in herself. This stuff is going to take forever to get off her foot.

Still, she feels good! If all humans are like this, then the little trap holes they've placed all over the street suddenly make a lot more sense to her! Maybe human society isn't as idiotic as she thought!

So she helicopters off with a song in her heart. Instinct suggests she should be out of sight when he comes back out though. He might be...mad.]