14 [Action]

[flicker_flash]

[Katie's been back for some time.  She thinks, anyway.  She has a vague recollection of saving a certain captain from drowning.  Silly place to sleep, the middle of the ocean.  She shall lecture him on it one day.  Maybe.  It's not important.

What is important to Katie is not readily apparent to anyone who finds her in the woods today, though they

Comments

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[asmilethatkills]

[Where there's the smell of blood, Pride will likely be around nearby. Although he's keeping himself hidden for the time being and letting his shadow slither about to find the source. Maybe Katie will spots eyes appear in the shadows and then suddenly disappear as if there was nothing there to begin with]

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[flicker_flash]

[Quite possibly she has seen them - there's the briefest pause in her stumbling as she peers at the darkness under the exposed tree roots. ...but maybe not, because after a moment of blinking, Katie's gaze drifts away as if someone called her name and she moves on. If Pride's looking for blood, she certainly has plenty of it.]

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[asmilethatkills]

[Blame it on Gluttony for his weird cravings. Intrigued by this human, he decides to play with her for a little bit]

Now what is a child doing wandering alone in this forest? [the leaves rustled as if something was slithering around her] You smell of blood.

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[flicker_flash]

[Waving a blood-smeared hand dismissively at that. Though the word 'blood' does give her pause, drawing her back to the present long enough to realise that something's creeping among the leaves like the bogeyman. There's a long enough pause as she peers into the darkness, and her words are absent.]

What makes you think I'm a child?

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[asmilethatkills]

I can see you.

[Oh look, an eyeball appears up on a tree trunk]

[action] 1/2

[flicker_flash]

[................]

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[flicker_flash]

[Lazily reaching up with a finger and prodding it.]

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[asmilethatkills]

[Pfft, well that certainly amused Pride as the eye blinks]

Do you usually poke eyes of strangers like that? How rude of you. [Saying with a bored tone]

[action]

[flicker_flash]

But we've met before. [Waving that off.]

And you're multiplying. Perhaps you're a black hole. Are you going to come out?

[action]

[asmilethatkills]

I'm here. I'm there, I'm where you least expect me. I could be standing right behind you and you wouldn't even know it.

[And with that, a distorted set of eyes and a toothy grin appears on the forest floor behind her.] So why are you in this forest?

[action]

[flicker_flash]

Why am I in this forest? [Repeating you, shadow monster. In that absent-minded, attention-caught-elsewhere sort of way.]

I'm not sure. I think I'm looking for something. ...goldfish. Glass. All Blue...

[She's uh. Walking away on you, Pride. >.>]

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[asmilethatkills]

[Sure you're not walking towards him?]

A pet?

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[flicker_flash]

[A distinct possibility!]

Oh, a pet. I think I had a... [--pet once. Trailing off, as for a moment her expression shifts into sharp awareness, and she looks at her hands.]

Oh. I hope that's not mine. I had --

Oh, that's right.

Licorice.

[action]

[asmilethatkills]

All I got from that was that you killed your pet with licorice, which I do not think that is what you meant.

[Pride isn't sure whether to be amused or annoyed by how odd Katie was responding to him at this moment and just...going along with it for now.]

[action]

[flicker_flash]

Of course it's what I meant. I kill my pets all the time. They don't love me enough.

[Reaching out one hand to scrape it against bark. Perhaps she's trying to get rid of the blood and the dirt.]

[action]

[asmilethatkills]

[Hope Katie doesn't mind tiny shadow hands tangling themselves around her hand]

How violent. Although, love is simply a human idea and nothing more.