DELTED293y5gds

shadows.

Tim felt his cheeks flare up and turn a shade of crimson when she grabbed his hand. He wasn't expecting it. He told her it was something they should do, and she just... did it. God he wished he had the same confidence that she had. He wanted to be able to just do things and have confidence, like she did. He wanted to have the same sureness in his walk, like she did. He wanted to have the same bravado and excitement in his speech, like she did. He wanted to be as good as she was.

She was so great.
She was so great.
She was so--

"Do you want to swing by the candy store?" Sophia said, effectively snapping Tim out of his Sophia trance. He looked over at her, taking in what she was saying, trying to stay out of his head for a moment. "They might already be working on putting out their holiday specials."

Oh, god, candy specials. If there was one thing that Tim unabashedly loved, it was buying candy in bulk at a discount. But, then again, what sane person wouldn't love that? Plus, The local candy shop had all of the best candy. Not only did they have the best, they also had the worst, of course, and some weird--really fuckin' weird-- obscure candies from other countries. The candies where you couldnt even read the label because it was from Scandinavia. It was candy heaven.

Plus, Sophie wants to go.

"Yeah, that, um... yes, that sounds like fun...we should do that."

minor differences. [MxF, seeking F] (RE-OPENED)

I'm not a fuckin' furry, okay? The ears aren't an accessory, asshole.

It's 2016.

The earth, as we know it, is still doing alright. There haven't been any major wars in a while, nor have there been any acts of terrorism on any area in the world. There were no apocalyptic or cataclysmic events in the past 20-ish years. There were no radiation spikes, no strange astronomical phenomenons, no weird chemical spills over large areas of land, nothing. Everything is perfectly fine in the world, perfectly normal. Everything should be in perfect working order.

Except... something happened. Something completely unexplainable.

Roughly 23 years prior, some children were born under...strange circumstances. They weren't unhealthy by any means, that wasn't the problem. The problem is, they were born with features that aren't supposed to be on human beings. They were born with horns, or antlers, or cat ears, or they had strange lizard eyes, snake tongues-- and it just happened. No explanation whatsoever, there were just thousands of these children suddenly, this wave of babies, that had these features, and then it went away, and the phenomenon never happened again. And, of course, when humans are faced with something they don't understand, they panic, and they get scared, and they discriminate. And that's what happened to these children.

Fast forward. Modern day. Those children are now adults, and they are realizing--now more than ever--that while there are a lot of people who are very accepting of their... abnormalities, there are an equal amount of people who absolutely despise it. They face these problems every day, and they deal with it, in their own ways. They talk to each other, they become friends, they stand up for each other.

They make connections. And sometimes, those connections can evolve into something more.

**********

So, that's the basic premise I have for us! There are still a few things that would need to be fleshed out, but that is something I usually like to do with my RP partner. We are both going to have an impact on what the story will become, so I like to work with my partner when giving it its basic outline.

I would like to have someone who is fairly detailed with their writing. You don't need to write novellas every post, I understand that we all have lives and sometimes we cant sit down and write incredibly long and detailed posts. A paragraph or two a post would be just fine, and even then, you can write less every once in a while, we all do sometimes. Just as long as you like to write. I hope I am able to gain the interest of someone through this, because I would absolutely love to RP this story. I would love to see where it goes. You can either respond in this post or, if you like, you can PM me. I hope to hear from someone soon!

--:|Static|:-- [Fauxbot and Sunflower]

Joels body felt as though it were moving on its own. He practically dragged Barb into the back of the shop, not wasting a second before suddenly, yet gingerly, dropping her onto the cold cement floor. His etyes scanned the back room. It felt like a garage of some sort, or a storage area, or something. He didnt have time to think about it. He was looking for something to block the door off with. Lee was standing with the gun aimed at the door, throwing out evey obscenity she could in anger, daring the creature to come in after them. She wasnt shaking, she wasnt frantic. She was posed, ready for action, in complete control. She just felt like swearing.

"Joel! Fuck, help me out here!" a voice called out, causing Joel's head to snap to the side, towards the source of the voice. Valencia had her body pressed up agaist a large, out of comission soda machine. She was slowly moving it, pressing all of her weight into the side of the machine, inching it along, and clearly, she needed help. Not missing a beat, Joel closed the distance between them in a matter of seconds. He slammed his body against the machine with Valencia, and together, they werw able to move it in front of the door, the sound of scraping metal filling the ears of everyone in the room for a few moments before they were all met with dead silence.

The air was still. Nobody dared to move, waiting for something to happen. The moments creeped along at a painfully slow pace before the silence was broken by Avery's wailing, followed by an uproar of panicked and frantic chittering and harsh whispering. Valencia sighed out loudly, relieved that they were, for the moment, safe. She let her body slide down the machine, plopping on the floor. Joel followed suite, taking a seat next to her, pulling his cap off of his head and tossing it onto the floor in front of them. He closed his eyes, looking up into the air as a small, exhausted chuckle bubbled out of his throat. Valencia smiled and did the same.

"Teamwork." She proclaimed, holding up her hand, for a high five, letting the other push some loose strands of hair from her face, put there by the sudden and tense actions of the preeding moments.

"Yeah, teamwork." Joel responded, givng her hand a meek, exhausted tap, followed by another small chuckle. He was incredibly relieved at the moment, for two reasons.

One, they werent in the diner. They were in a store full of potential weapons.

And two, there were no huge windows in here and, therefore, no place of the creatures to slip in through.

"Alright." Lee said, crossing her arms in frot of her, sliding the revolver into the waistband of her pleated pants. "Those were the final three shots I had. We need to find some more weapons in the store. Bob, see to Barb, make sure she's alright. Rowena, make sure Avery's okay, make sure the brothers are doing fine. Joel, Valencia, stay right where you are, you're doing great. I'll go into the ront of the store with Sam, and we're gonna see if it's safe in there."

She paused for a moment, looking around the room, making sure everyone was listening. All eyes were on her.

"Sound good?"

minor differences. [MxF]

bump

minor differences. [MxF]

Having antlers really fucks with certain aspects of your life.

It's 2016.

The earth, as we know it, is still doing alright. There haven't been any major wars in a while, nor have there been any acts of terrorism on any area in the world. There were no apocalyptic or cataclysmic events in the past 20-ish years. There were no radiation spikes, no strange astronomical phenomenons, no weird chemical spills over large areas of land, nothing. Everything is perfectly fine in the world, perfectly normal. Everything should be in perfect working order.

Except... something happened. Something completely unexplainable.

Roughly 23 years prior, some children were born under...strange circumstances. They weren't unhealthy by any means, that wasn't the problem. The problem is, they were born with features that aren't supposed to be on human beings. They were born with horns, or antlers, or cat ears, or they had strange lizard eyes, snake tongues-- and it just happened. No explanation whatsoever, there were just thousands of these children suddenly, this wave of babies, that had these features, and then it went away, and the phenomenon never happened again. And, of course, when humans are faced with something they don't understand, they panic, and they get scared, and they discriminate. And that's what happened to these children.

Fast forward. Modern day. Those children are now adults, and they are realizing--now more than ever--that while there are a lot of people who are very accepting of their... abnormalities, there are an equal amount of people who absolutely despise it. They face these problems every day, and they deal with it, in their own ways. They talk to each other, they become friends, they stand up for each other.

They make connections. And sometimes, those connections can evolve into something more.

**********

So, that's the basic premise I have for us! There are still a few things that would need to be fleshed out, but that is something I usually like to do with my RP partner. We are both going to have an impact on what the story will become, so I like to work with my partner when giving it its basic outline.

I would like to have someone who is fairly detailed with their writing. You don't need to write novellas every post, I understand that we all have lives and sometimes we cant sit down and write incredibly long and detailed posts. A paragraph or two a post would be just fine, and even then, you can write less every once in a while, we all do sometimes. Just as long as you like to write. I hope I am able to gain the interest of someone through this, because I would absolutely love to RP this story. I would love to see where it goes. You can either respond in this post or, if you like, you can PM me. I hope to hear from someone soon!

--:|Static|:-- [Fauxbot and Sunflower]

As the group entered the darkness, one thing became entirely clear: there was a presence all around them. Joel, specifically, felt as if he was being watched from all angles. Those creatures were out there in the dark somewhere, watching from all angles, waiting to strike them and kill them. His breaths grew quicker as he began to move faster. He felt too exposed. He needed to get his hands on a weapon. An axe. Or a crowbar. Or a fuckin' chainsaw or something. Something to make him feel safe. Something to protect himself.

Valencia, on the other hand, for the first time in her life, felt fucking powerful with her lead pipe in tow. She felt like she could stop one of those things if it came for them. Maybe not kill it, but stop it from killing one of them, or stop it long enough for them to get away from it. She was in a constant state of hyper-alertness, her ipe held at the ready constantly, ready to bring it down on something.

Bring it on, fuckers. She thought, adrenaline pumping through her body as they all waited for Jeff to break the lock. Try me.

In reality, she was petrified. But she needed to be strong. Because if she wasn't, she would be breaking down, and that wouldnt be helpful for anyone in this situation, would it?

--:|Static|:-- [Fauxbot and Sunflower]

"We need to... we need to get out of here. We need to get weapons and we need to leave." Valencia said calmly, restating her point and walking off back to the kitchen. Was she shell-shocked by the events? Probably. Was she currently trying to internalize all of the fear and despair and crippling anxiety she had inside of her? Most definitely. But was she correct? Absolutely. They needed weapons--more than what the diner could provide--and they weren't going to find them by sitting around here doing nothing but crying. So, she decided that the next best step would be to grab something big and heavy from the kitchen. A few moments of searching led her to a janitors supply closet near the back, where she was able to find a pipe, probably left there after the "plumbing incident" the diner had a few months back, as the owner called it. She felt the weight. Swung it a few times. Pretended to block with it. She decided that yes, it would be a good temporary weapon.

"Yeah. This'll work."

Meanwhile, Joel was doing his best to calm the distraught Sam that was in front of him. He figured out quickly that he wasn't very good at it. He barely talked to anyone to begin with, and for good reason. He didnt like talking to them. He wasnt experienced enough to deal with them. He got nervous. And now he was tasked with helping somebody through emotional turmoil? Who the fuck signed him up for this? ut he steadied himself, and spoke the first thing that came to his head.

"um... dont punch the floor." He said, immediately regretting it, looking up to the roof, shaking his head, asking the gods why he was given such poor socialization skills. But he wasnt ready to give up. Maybe one more try. He looked back down at Aam, who was looking at him now with an expression that Joel couldnt pin down. Maybe it was anger? Confusion? Just sorrow, still? Regardless, Joel did the only thing he could think to do in a time like this: just let words pour out of his mouth in hopes that it would somehow turn out something meaningful.

"Look...uh, that thing was fucking big... and it was strong, um, obviously. And so theres proably nothing you could do about it, and theres no point sayting its your fault because, i mean, come on, clearly it wasn't. Because there was a giant fucking thing in here and it killed him. It was that things fault. I mean, it came in and killed someone, how is that your fault right?"

--:|Static|:-- [Fauxbot and Sunflower]

Joel's eyes were glued to the window now. He refused to take them off of it. He saw it. He knew that there was something out there. He had seen it clearly. Well, as clearly as one could see a completely black figure in that fucking void. He was shaking slightly, eyes narrowed in concentration. Rowena handed him a mug of something hot--presumably tea-- and he picked it up, not peeling his eyes from the window, and took a small sip from his shaking hands as he set the mug back down on the table. HE exhaled audibly, then began to speak. His voice was quiet, almost calm.

"It wasn't an animal." he said, shaking his head slightly. "It was absolutely not an animal. It was... it was tall. and it was black. And it had purple eyes. And--and it was thin--it was way too thin. It's body...proportions...whatever. They were way off. It's arms were really long and--and It was just watching.... it was looking at us, and it was watching us.

He looked over, first at Lee, then at Rowena, gauging their reactions. Lee was clearly in disbelief, but Rowena was listening intently. She believed him, and that made him feel a lot better. He continued, directing what he was saying exclusively to her now.

"It looked like it was waiting for something." He said. He shifted his gaze to the front again, his eyes settling on Vincent. HE had the gun. He was watching the window. Everything was fine. Everything was going to be alright.

"Rowena, it looked like--"

The sound of shattering glass filled the diner, followed by the sound of a million tiny shards raining down upon the cool linoleum floor. Anyone who was still asleep jolted awake. Joel's head snapped to the front of the diner. He let out a small sound of fear as the creature stepped through the window, ducking its head slightly to get in. Vincent was still standing near the front. HE screamed. It was across the diner, on the opposite side. ut it turned to him, it looked at him. It moved to him. It was on him in nearly three steps. He had barely had time to aim the gun before it brought down one of its hands on him, slamming his body to the floor violently, smashing his head into the tiles.

The gun skittered across the diner floor, under a distant table somewhere now. Blood was dripping off of the side of Vincent's head. HE was mumbling incoherently, looking desperately for the revolver, his hands feeling for its weight, but they were only finding air. He gave up after a few moments of searching, instead deciding to scramble away from the creature on all fours, his eyes up on its featureless face.

Before he had another second to react, the lumbering creature grabbed him again, this time by the neck. Vincent's movements ceased, his hands went to the creatures as it lifted him up into the air. His breathing stopped. His legs kicked and flailed as he tried to pry the things grip from his throat, his eyes wide, staring deep into the monsters sunken, purple holes. It tilted it's head slightly at Vincent. Innocently, one could say. Like a puppy trying to figure out why it cant run through a sliding glass door.

"Help--"

It was all Vincent was able to squeak out. The creature flicked its wrist ever so slightly, and in doing so, snapped his neck like a twig. The crunching and breaking of his bones echoed throughout the diner. His body went limp in its arms as the life drained from his body. His hands fell from his throat and down to his side, swaying gently.

Vincent was dead.

Seemingly without a care, the monster tossed his body aside, through the other window. Vincent smashed through that one too, his lifeless body crumpling on the sidewalk outside somewhere. Avery screamed. Joel had his hands over his mouth, suppressing any sounds, and Rowena mimicked him, suppressing a sob. What the fuck was happening. What the fuck was that thing?

It turned towards them, and Rowena could swear it was looking at her. Was she next? Was it going to--

Before any more of that thought could go through her head, three shots rang out through the diner, and all three of them connected with the monsters head. Two in the forehead, one piercing one of it's large eye sockets. And it's eyes stopped glowing, turning a deep black. IT stopped moving. There was a moment of silence. And then it collapsed. It was dead. Was it dead? Was it that easy? How? What the fuck was it? Who--

"Alright. I'm keeping the gun from now on." Lee said as she lowered the gun, breathing heavily, not a trace of fear on her face as she turned her head to face Joel and Rowena. "Joel, I'm sorry. You were right. I'm sorry."

Joel was right. Jeff was right. They were in trouble, and there were two big fucking holes at the front of the store.

They were exposed.

--:|Static|:-- [Fauxbot and Sunflower]

Joel had his face back up against the glass again by this point, peering out into the darkness now. Once again, useless. Honestly, he was getting really tired of this whole "totally opaque black wall" situation, ad he made it known audibly, letting out a loud, exasperated sigh of defeat as he flopped back in his chair, draping his head over the back of it as he did. He was done with this, for the time being. He wished the darkness would go away. He wished the sun would come up. He wished he had normal problems to deal with. He wished--

"I wish something would just happen." he said, turning his head towards Rowena, who had been giving him strange looks since he started his mini tantrum. "If there's something out there---if somethings going to attack us, why cant it just fucking do it and get it over with, y'know?" By this point, he had leaned forwards in his chair, resting his head in his hands. He ran one of them through his hair, pushing it out of his eyes. He was getting angry, and he was getting annoyed.

"Hey, c'mon, Joel, it's gonna be okay." Rowena said, resting a reassuring hand on his shoulder, causing Joel to look over at her. "I know, it's messed up and everything, but we... everyone is going to be alright." Her voice was calming and soft. She was good at this, calming people down. Hell, she practically did it for a living. It worked on children, and it was working on Joel. He was a bit calmer than he had been mere seconds ago. Not completely, not by a long shot, but still, it was a start.

"Yeah... yes, yeah. Thanks." He said, sitting up, looking over at her still. He gave her a small smile in return for her kindness, letting her know that he wasn't totally lost in his head. She smiled back. They held a look for a moment before Joel broke it, turning his head back to the window in front of him, ready to continue has scan for movement.

"What the fuck?!"

Joel nearly jumped out of his skin, his body shooting up out of his chair, sending it skittering across the floor behind him. Rowena jumed at his sudden reaction. Sam was awake, scrambling to his feet, trying to get to the window, get to Rowena, make sure she's okay. Joels eyes were wide in fear, fixated on a very particular spot in front of him. Because something was out there. Something was in front of the window. He could barely make out what it was. But he could see it's shape. He could see it's too tall, too thin figure.

And he could see its deep purple eyes, glowing like an unnatural, otherworldly fire in it's deep, sunken sockets.

And it was just standing there, outside the window.

Watching them.

Waiting.

--:|Static|:-- [Fauxbot and Sunflower]

Joel had taken his shift from Sam around 3:30 in the morning, positioning himself at the window near the front of the diner. He pulled up one of the chairs from the table closest to him to get comfortable, leaning forwards in it and resting his forehead against the glass in front of him. He sat like that, gun gripped in his right hand, perfectly still, for the next four hours of his shift. He let his eyes scan the blackness outside for any trace of movement, though it felt useless, considering he couldnt see three feet in front of himself. But he knew he wasnt going to fall asleep. Not in this situation.

Her voice startled him a bit, causing him to jump in his seat a bit. It was the first noise he'd heard all night. Hell, he didnt even know anyone had woken up yet, it was only seven o' clock. He hadn't expected to hear anyone stirring until at least nine. He turned around to face her, his shoulders relaxing a bit when he saw who it was. He and Rowena had only spoken a handful of times. In the line to pay for groceries, sitting down on a bench in the park, exchanging hellos as they passed on the sidewalk. But during every encounter he had with her she was always very warm and welcoming. She was a very sincere woman, and she was very easy to talk to. Even for Joel.

"Oh, um, sure, you can do that. Actually, if you want, we can just...both do the watch. I'm not going to be falling back asleep any time soon, and maybe having two sets of eyes would help us out, y'know?" he said, offering her the best smile he possibly could at the moment. "Its also really lonely and boring doing this alone."

He shifted nervously as he stood up, looking down at the gun and turning it over in his hands for a few moments before holding it out to her, wondering if she would take it.

"What do you say?"