Fall to Madness [Closed to those responding to SOS]
Characters: Himura Tomoe, Himura Kenshin, Kamiya Kaoru, potentially other people???
Location: Northeast edge of the city on the outskirts of the park
Rating: PG-13
Time: Dec 21st, early evening
Description: Tomoe encounters a section of the city where the madness wavelength has filtered in, as well as a kishin egg. After making an SOS post, Kenshin and Kaoru (and other people?) arrive on the scene where Kenshin, being already unstable from the setting and the existence of his not-quite-dead dead wife is taken by the madness wavelength and it is up to his past and future wife to pull him back to sanity.
It was difficult to believe how quickly… and how slowly time seemed to move. Tomoe had been in Death City for a solid two weeks. For as much time as she had spent feeling as though the seconds couldn’t tick by any slower than they already were, she was baffled to realize they had already added to so much. She wished that the passage of time had brought with it the realization of some sort of purpose, but she was, unfortunately, just as lost as she had been on arrival. All that had changed had been her grace in hiding it. There was nothing here for her to easily fall into to distract herself from the notion-though the prospective employer she’d spoken to offered a bit of hope, it was something she knew, unlike the majority of the work she had seen offered in the short amount of time she had been looking.
But until the shop in question was officially opened she was still left with far too much idle time, and with idle time her mind wandered. There was only so much time she could stay alone in the apartment she’d claimed on the second floor, and with nowhere familiar to go… she simply walked. She was more than aware that it wasn’t the safest action to take-not even a week ago a madman had run rampant and attacked a number of people in the city. But she could recognize that as the freak occurrence it was, that one incident wasn’t enough to force her inside-of course it also didn’t make what she was doing any safer. She knew better than to wander about alone, but it simply did not seem like she had any other options then-other than to remain inside and slowly drive herself mad.
She had wandered through the park, certainly not a new area considering the number of times she had gone to the training sessions in the morning, though it was certainly different when the crowds were absent. It was lonely, certainly, but calming as well… at least it was normally calming. Something was off that day even as she retraced steps she had taken just two days before, following a path that seemed to go out to the very edge of the city itself. The further she went the more a distinct… unease seemed to fill her. It was as if there was a current of some kind in the air that made something tickle at the edge of her mind as if some vagrant thoughts wanted to take hold but couldn’t quite find purchase. Her steps began to slow as that sensation only seemed to grow worse. She wasn’t sure what she was experiencing-but it certainly didn’t seem wise to continue forward-and besides… it was getting late and she was losing light too quickly to warrant lingering any longer.
Tomoe turned, expecting to simply follow the path back the way she came and escape that nagging unease-only to stop dead in her tracks at the sight of a large, dark form standing in the middle of the pathway some twenty-five feet ahead of her. It gave her a very solid fright and she barely kept from yelping in surprise. She froze in place, that unease she’d felt before moving steadily into fear as the foreboding shape remained where it was. Now that she was focused on it… it seemed to be a very large dog… or perhaps a wolf… or perhaps neither. It seemed too large to be either, its ears standing tall and alert atop its head, its snout long and narrow-and its eyes seemed to gleam with their own light. Its head was down and it was clearly watching her, and even more clearly blocking her way…
Ever so slowly she reached into the front of her obi and withdrew the strange network device she’d been given on her first day in the city and very carefully tried to set it to record even as she tried to keep her eyes on the creature-and even as she made those motions it let out an eerie high-pitched yip, tossing its head back as it did before focusing its eyes back on her-it almost seemed like it wanted a reaction. Unfortunately, Tomoe was never one to deliver anything particularly interesting in that category.
She swallowed thickly, eyes darting down toward the device to see the light that suggested she was recording before setting them back on the creature, the tendons at her neck standing out stark as it made the hip again, the fear starting to show more in her eyes.
“I’m on the edge of the park,” she said very quietly, hoping it was loud enough for the feed to pick it up. “There is…. something out here…” she jumped ever so lightly as the creature made the sound again, but this time it began to move, lolling its head to the side, but still keeping its eyes on her-it almost seemed like it was laughing. It stepped to one side, took a step and then almost skipped back to the other-as if it was excited--all the while keeping its eyes locked on her except when it would let out that same eerie yip. “What… what is this…?” she breathed, the fear audible in her voice despite her attempts to keep it even, and she began to turn the device toward the creature-
And at that point, it seemed as though the monster-dog realized something was amiss, because the moment the light from the device became visible its eyes seemed to glow brighter, its ears laid back and it snarled, baring teeth that seemed far too large to be in any dog’s mouth and lunged forward.
Tomoe reacted as quickly as she could, dropping the device, but first firmly hitting the S.O.S. button. She stumbled backward, her hand reaching into her obi again to draw out a simple kitchen knife-nothing like the kaiken she had always carried with her before, but all she had been able to find in those few days in the city. She didn’t even have time to think how utterly ironic, or perhaps ridiculous it was, that she was about to die all over again by being mauled by a wild dog…
Of course, it never occurred to her that this ‘dog’ was actually a kishin egg.
Location: Northeast edge of the city on the outskirts of the park
Rating: PG-13
Time: Dec 21st, early evening
Description: Tomoe encounters a section of the city where the madness wavelength has filtered in, as well as a kishin egg. After making an SOS post, Kenshin and Kaoru (and other people?) arrive on the scene where Kenshin, being already unstable from the setting and the existence of his not-quite-dead dead wife is taken by the madness wavelength and it is up to his past and future wife to pull him back to sanity.
It was difficult to believe how quickly… and how slowly time seemed to move. Tomoe had been in Death City for a solid two weeks. For as much time as she had spent feeling as though the seconds couldn’t tick by any slower than they already were, she was baffled to realize they had already added to so much. She wished that the passage of time had brought with it the realization of some sort of purpose, but she was, unfortunately, just as lost as she had been on arrival. All that had changed had been her grace in hiding it. There was nothing here for her to easily fall into to distract herself from the notion-though the prospective employer she’d spoken to offered a bit of hope, it was something she knew, unlike the majority of the work she had seen offered in the short amount of time she had been looking.
But until the shop in question was officially opened she was still left with far too much idle time, and with idle time her mind wandered. There was only so much time she could stay alone in the apartment she’d claimed on the second floor, and with nowhere familiar to go… she simply walked. She was more than aware that it wasn’t the safest action to take-not even a week ago a madman had run rampant and attacked a number of people in the city. But she could recognize that as the freak occurrence it was, that one incident wasn’t enough to force her inside-of course it also didn’t make what she was doing any safer. She knew better than to wander about alone, but it simply did not seem like she had any other options then-other than to remain inside and slowly drive herself mad.
She had wandered through the park, certainly not a new area considering the number of times she had gone to the training sessions in the morning, though it was certainly different when the crowds were absent. It was lonely, certainly, but calming as well… at least it was normally calming. Something was off that day even as she retraced steps she had taken just two days before, following a path that seemed to go out to the very edge of the city itself. The further she went the more a distinct… unease seemed to fill her. It was as if there was a current of some kind in the air that made something tickle at the edge of her mind as if some vagrant thoughts wanted to take hold but couldn’t quite find purchase. Her steps began to slow as that sensation only seemed to grow worse. She wasn’t sure what she was experiencing-but it certainly didn’t seem wise to continue forward-and besides… it was getting late and she was losing light too quickly to warrant lingering any longer.
Tomoe turned, expecting to simply follow the path back the way she came and escape that nagging unease-only to stop dead in her tracks at the sight of a large, dark form standing in the middle of the pathway some twenty-five feet ahead of her. It gave her a very solid fright and she barely kept from yelping in surprise. She froze in place, that unease she’d felt before moving steadily into fear as the foreboding shape remained where it was. Now that she was focused on it… it seemed to be a very large dog… or perhaps a wolf… or perhaps neither. It seemed too large to be either, its ears standing tall and alert atop its head, its snout long and narrow-and its eyes seemed to gleam with their own light. Its head was down and it was clearly watching her, and even more clearly blocking her way…
Ever so slowly she reached into the front of her obi and withdrew the strange network device she’d been given on her first day in the city and very carefully tried to set it to record even as she tried to keep her eyes on the creature-and even as she made those motions it let out an eerie high-pitched yip, tossing its head back as it did before focusing its eyes back on her-it almost seemed like it wanted a reaction. Unfortunately, Tomoe was never one to deliver anything particularly interesting in that category.
She swallowed thickly, eyes darting down toward the device to see the light that suggested she was recording before setting them back on the creature, the tendons at her neck standing out stark as it made the hip again, the fear starting to show more in her eyes.
“I’m on the edge of the park,” she said very quietly, hoping it was loud enough for the feed to pick it up. “There is…. something out here…” she jumped ever so lightly as the creature made the sound again, but this time it began to move, lolling its head to the side, but still keeping its eyes on her-it almost seemed like it was laughing. It stepped to one side, took a step and then almost skipped back to the other-as if it was excited--all the while keeping its eyes locked on her except when it would let out that same eerie yip. “What… what is this…?” she breathed, the fear audible in her voice despite her attempts to keep it even, and she began to turn the device toward the creature-
And at that point, it seemed as though the monster-dog realized something was amiss, because the moment the light from the device became visible its eyes seemed to glow brighter, its ears laid back and it snarled, baring teeth that seemed far too large to be in any dog’s mouth and lunged forward.
Tomoe reacted as quickly as she could, dropping the device, but first firmly hitting the S.O.S. button. She stumbled backward, her hand reaching into her obi again to draw out a simple kitchen knife-nothing like the kaiken she had always carried with her before, but all she had been able to find in those few days in the city. She didn’t even have time to think how utterly ironic, or perhaps ridiculous it was, that she was about to die all over again by being mauled by a wild dog…
Of course, it never occurred to her that this ‘dog’ was actually a kishin egg.