- Joined
- Jul 31, 2018
- Messages
- 100
- Awards
- 11
- Essence
- €12,407
- Coin
- ₡2,500
- Tokens
- 5
- World
- Nos'Talgia
- Profile
- Click Here
The sound of ringing phones came from every open doorway and window as she ran past. Bewildered faces, their owners standing dizzily in doorways or on front porches, stared listlessly out at the scene of the small town, seemingly unaware of the unease and strange energy hanging in the air.
A few of them, though, were incredibly lucid. Sagging almost limply in their doorways, sprawled out on the ground, or dropping to their knees. Clutching at and leaning against the doorframe as their faces twisted into countless masks as the psychic energy in the air suffused them and understanding dawned within their minds. Some of them wept silently, tears the didn't even seem to register slowly leaking from eyes and rolling down their faces. Others simply shook with the mix of feeling roiling within them, threatening to boil over into only they could guess what.
For her part, Ashe-0 took in all these sights with a grim, almost cold indifference to her countenance, even as her limbs shook and her expression wavered. The feeling of the psychic phenomena had hit her like ten tons of bricks, and she had been forced to retreat to a very isolated place within her mind. A swift shutdown of all simulated emotional responses, and leaving only the logical and calculating portions of her brain running. Running at full, almost overclocked, to handle this influx of alien and foreign information. Trying to process where it had come from, and shift the emotional input and readings into something more easily defined.
It wasn't working.
Whatever it was, it was powerful. Overwhelmingly so, enough to batter aside her attempts to logically rationalize it all like a tidal wave. Not with brute force, but with sheer overwhelming insistence. Like a gentle hand, stubbornly applying just enough force to shove open a door in spite of all its locks and securements.
The feeling she recognized as the human affliction of 'nausea' rolled across her sensors, and brought with it a host of other afflictions and issues. Foreign feelings and thoughts manifested in her mind, and as she managed to reach the outskirts of the town they finally proved to be too much.
She stumbled once, her seamless stride breaking like waves upon a rocky coast as a fresh wave of desperation and forceful emotion hit her. She fell, managing to turn her lopsided tumble into a rough roll and send herself spilling off the road into the grassy field at its side.
All six limbs hit the ground. Knees, two fists, two open palms supporting her as her entire mechanized frame shook and trembled. Her single large eye was open to its widest, shaking and jostling around with such a frequency it became a blurred rainbow of different hues of blue.
Her retreat into logic and calculation was shattered entirely, like the door not only being forced open but removed completely from its framing. Standing in that open doorway, cast in shadow and seen only in silhouette-profile, stood an imposing figure. Humanoid, and garbed in some manner of armor from a bygone era. They reached out, holding up one hand with an upraised palm toward her, and spoke: "He returns. He seeks to corrupt and unmake everything. We need help."
And his words brought the fresh return of her suppressed emotional responses, surging past him like a blinding light, and filling the entire scene with a gentle white haze. The sickening feeling of nausea, the tremble of uncertainty and confusion, eased and faded all at once. They were instead replaced by a singular feeling in her head: this being, this immensely powerful and capable being, was the creator of this world she walked upon.
And it needed her help.
A few of them, though, were incredibly lucid. Sagging almost limply in their doorways, sprawled out on the ground, or dropping to their knees. Clutching at and leaning against the doorframe as their faces twisted into countless masks as the psychic energy in the air suffused them and understanding dawned within their minds. Some of them wept silently, tears the didn't even seem to register slowly leaking from eyes and rolling down their faces. Others simply shook with the mix of feeling roiling within them, threatening to boil over into only they could guess what.
For her part, Ashe-0 took in all these sights with a grim, almost cold indifference to her countenance, even as her limbs shook and her expression wavered. The feeling of the psychic phenomena had hit her like ten tons of bricks, and she had been forced to retreat to a very isolated place within her mind. A swift shutdown of all simulated emotional responses, and leaving only the logical and calculating portions of her brain running. Running at full, almost overclocked, to handle this influx of alien and foreign information. Trying to process where it had come from, and shift the emotional input and readings into something more easily defined.
It wasn't working.
Whatever it was, it was powerful. Overwhelmingly so, enough to batter aside her attempts to logically rationalize it all like a tidal wave. Not with brute force, but with sheer overwhelming insistence. Like a gentle hand, stubbornly applying just enough force to shove open a door in spite of all its locks and securements.
The feeling she recognized as the human affliction of 'nausea' rolled across her sensors, and brought with it a host of other afflictions and issues. Foreign feelings and thoughts manifested in her mind, and as she managed to reach the outskirts of the town they finally proved to be too much.
She stumbled once, her seamless stride breaking like waves upon a rocky coast as a fresh wave of desperation and forceful emotion hit her. She fell, managing to turn her lopsided tumble into a rough roll and send herself spilling off the road into the grassy field at its side.
All six limbs hit the ground. Knees, two fists, two open palms supporting her as her entire mechanized frame shook and trembled. Her single large eye was open to its widest, shaking and jostling around with such a frequency it became a blurred rainbow of different hues of blue.
Her retreat into logic and calculation was shattered entirely, like the door not only being forced open but removed completely from its framing. Standing in that open doorway, cast in shadow and seen only in silhouette-profile, stood an imposing figure. Humanoid, and garbed in some manner of armor from a bygone era. They reached out, holding up one hand with an upraised palm toward her, and spoke: "He returns. He seeks to corrupt and unmake everything. We need help."
And his words brought the fresh return of her suppressed emotional responses, surging past him like a blinding light, and filling the entire scene with a gentle white haze. The sickening feeling of nausea, the tremble of uncertainty and confusion, eased and faded all at once. They were instead replaced by a singular feeling in her head: this being, this immensely powerful and capable being, was the creator of this world she walked upon.
And it needed her help.
Beginning the quest "An Arbiter's Plea" here.
Words: 613
Total Wordcount: 613