[center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/241029/f3addec2452d91a38a858e0cfa5528dd.png[/img][/center][sub][b]Late Afternoon[/b][/sub]
[sub][b]Building 1 Cafeteria[/b][/sub]
[sub][b]Interacting with:[/b] [@Massasauga] Rebecca [@Xaltwind] Miyuki [@CitrusArms] Yumeiko [@Eviledd1984] Sam[/sub]
[hr]
Just like with the werewolf attack earlier. Everything moved so [i]fast.[/i]

Velvet, at peak condition, would've been able to smell the gremlin coming, and fast enough to punt the lil' bastard away before it could ruin anything. Unfortunate, Velvet was not, in fact, at peak condition. Her chest and arm still hurt, she wasn't paying much attention to the smell, and frankly she just wasn't as sharp as she used to be.

So, as the gremlin shrieked like two trucks carrying out-of-tune pianos crashing into each other, and knocked the foxes' incoming food to the floor with a splatter almost like modern art, all she could really do was stare. Then look sideways, warily eyeing the black fox. The woman was not fond of her. Not at all. And there was a [i]metallic[/i] taste in her mouth now (and not the good kind), which had suddenly gone dry. There was a high ringing in her ears, and her stomach flipped inside her as indigo fire appeared on each of Miyuki's tails. Velvet swallowed heavily, trying to summon moisture to her mouth again, trying to look away, yet locked on to her in morbid fascination. Like watching a train bearing down on her, as the room seemed to [i]darken.[/i] She murmured something unintelligible in Middle English and her teeth chattered as she was struck with real, honest-to-god [i]fear[/i] for the first time in longer than she cared to remember. Not fear of being hurt, nor fear of death. Something somehow [i]deeper.[/i] An instinctual terror of prey confronted with predator.

She...[i]may[/i] have angered the wrong person.

Only when Yumeiko let her divine power show again, filling Velvet with illness anew, did she realize she hadn't breathed this entire time. Not like she [i]needed[/i] to breathe, not really, but it did feel [i]off[/i] to not. She swallowed again, this time out of both sickness and [i]relief[/i] as the shadow surrounding Miyuki began to abate.

Only to be slapped upside the head anew with [i]DEAR GOD WHAT WAS THAT [b]SMELL?[/b][/i]

Her head whipped around, lasering onto the woman that had approached them, her face freezing into a mask that somehow combined relief, disgust, and horror. There was something like a human underneath it, some echo of that strain of blood. But it was nearly drowned out by a smell like nothing she'd ever experienced before. Like something rotting. Like [i]reality[/i] rotting.

Then, because of [i]course,[/i] someone she'd never seen proceeded to careen through the air and slam into the foxes' table. Because what today at this point but a series of ever-growing failures that spiraled out from each other?

Well, at least it had distracted her from the last of Miyuki's rage, knocked that metaphysical terror most of the way out of her. Staring at the scene in front of her, she dropped her head and [i]sighed.[/i] The divinity sickness had seeped back into her. Miyuki, while calmer, was not someone she wanted to be around right now. The woman couldn't actually [i]hurt[/i] her, she didn't think, but after what just happened she did [i]not[/i] want to make her angry again. If she went back up to her room, a bunch of gremlins would probably chew through something inside her computer and damage it beyond repair. She rubbed her eyes. The smell was horrible, but it would probably be better out in the open, right?

"[color=ff0000]Hey, wolverine girl,[/color]" she said, speaking for the first time since the Incident began, "[color=ff0000]mind if I come with? It's just about night now, the shadows are super long.[/color]" Her eyes flicked back to Miyuki again, and her voice tightened with an echo of that lingering fear. "[color=ff0000]And I think I really need some air right now.[/color]"