InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "99 Red Ballons"

Max Castle ☾ Máni (manen) wrote in paxletalelogs,
@ 2011-10-31 22:36:00

Entry tags:

mani, urdr

Step slowly, you know that you fall between
Who: Alex & Max
What: Halloween Event Prompt
Where: Downtown Newport Beach
When: 31 October: the wee hours
Warnings: Creepy-ass bishes, yo.
Notes: In Aztec mythology, the Civatateo are noblewomen who died during childbirth and, after returning to the land of the living, stalk travelers and haunted temples. Civatateos are servants of the Aztec moon deities Tezcatlipoca and Tlazolteotl. They can be prevented from attacking the living by placing food on shrines built at the crossroads. Their favorite offering is a cake in the shape of a butterfly.

Though everyone in the building had been invited to the CASKET party, Max had not attended.

For once, it wasn't due to video games or his odd sleep patterns. Instead, it was because of Halloween itself. The costumed holiday proved a boon in that he could pace the streets in his outfit (still a work in progress, unfortunately, but it was improving) without getting weird looks from passers-by. Even still, he'd done his best to maintain sticking to the shadows, and every now and again doing what he could to adapt his strange skill in obfuscation. It was still a come-and-go-as-you-please affair, but every now and again it felt like slipping on a familiar and comfortable pair of shoes. Then the shoes would come untied and he'd trip, but Max was doing his best to appreciate what he was able to do as he was able to do it.

After a long night of almost nothing - maybe even criminals had kids to take trick or treating - Max found himself near a 7/11 that was fairly close to the Pax Letale building. He toyed with the idea of discarding his ski mask and buying a slurpee, going home and popping in an early release copy of Skyrim that he'd been presented with by a friend of a friend. But such were not the thoughts of a hero; though at the moment he was feeling more like a bored young man who just happened to be able to flick his visibility on and off like a light switch. The mask was itchy beyond all belief, and he rubbed at his face for the umpteenth time, considering what he might do next to try and make the hours fly by a little faster.

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urdr
2011-11-03 02:19 am UTC (link)

It was the first Halloween since she'd been sick that she hadn't dressed up for, and even back then, she'd managed to convince her mom or her sisters to bring her a hat or a prop. But she'd been so mortified over her behavior the other night with Adam and then James, she'd just been avoiding them both in the hopes that the earth would swallow her up before she ran into either of them. Tonight, she guessed they were at the party at CASKET, which she'd opted not to go to. She was feeling a little sorry for herself, and found herself unable to sleep -- the dreams were more vivid and difficult lately, and now, without even being able to go to Adam, she got tired of just laying in her bed and waiting for her heart to stop pounding.

Tonight, she didn't even really need anything from 7-11, but it was somewhere that was open, that wasn't her room, where it didn't matter that her hair was in a haphazard bun, that she was wearing her glasses and pyjama pants and a Penn hoodie. She'd exited carrying a small bag laden with things she didn't need or even particularly want: a pint of ice cream, a few magazines, a pack of gum, a bottle of water, a few Hostess cakes she'd purchased more out of curiosity than anything remotely like desire. As she walked further down the sidewalk, she caught sight of the guy in the odd costume and felt that strange familiarity pulling at her.

Mani, that dream voice whispered inside her.

It startled her so much that she dropped her bag, its contents rolling out onto the sidewalk.

"Damn," she muttered, chasing her pint of Haagen Daaz as it rolled away from her.

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manen
2011-11-04 04:48 am UTC (link)

Something moved out of the corner of his eye, and Max glanced to see a young woman chasing something rolling on the ground. His mask didn't entirely block his peripheral vision (something he'd asked the sports department store employee about specifically), so he saw the other woman approaching her from behind, emerging out of an alley way like a stereotypical vampire - long, loose hair fell over her face and front, washed back by a breeze that Max didn't feel.

Her shirt looked realistic, and was bordered by tribal squares in intricate patterns, the colors faded from much use. Of course, he thought it could easily be an extremely elaborate costume; even the make up was dead on, what with pasty white skin and lips so chapped it looked like it hurt. But something felt off about the woman, and Max darted forward to put himself between the younger female and danger.

"Look out!" The creepy woman moved forward at a relaxed pace, as though she had all the time in the world with which to move toward the young woman and do whatever intentions she was holding in her mind. Max's eyes darted toward movement behind her, and suddenly he was beginning to feel like this was the beginning of a bad Halloween prank.

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urdr
2011-11-06 07:23 pm UTC (link)

"Sorry?" Alexandria looked up from her ice cream, which she'd victoriously captured, only to see the strange guy -- Mani, the voice insisted -- step in between her and some woman in a costume. Her brow furrowed, but she got that strange sense that something wasn't right. The voice, the voice from her dream, Urðr, warned her, told her to pick up her things. Straightening up, her bag full of snacks mostly intact, she felt the sense of wrongness more acutely the closer the woman approached. The guy -- boy? man? eugh, gendered age designations -- though, he felt all right. He actually felt -- right.

The pale creature smiled at them -- an awful expression, her gums black, her teeth edged in red -- as she moved closer, and spoke to them in a language she couldn't understand.

Alexandria's eyes widened, and she surprised herself utterly by reaching for the young man's arm.

"Maybe we should go," she said, tugging lightly at him.

The woman's smile turned worse, and she let out a hiss before lashing out a chalky hand at them.

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manen
2011-11-07 01:59 am UTC (link)

He was beginning to have that sense of deja vu, like he had with Lucy, with this woman - so familiar, but not vividly so. Her name danced around the edges of his mind, something...something foreign and yet familiar. Still, he kept his focus on the strange woman with the bad manicure as she took a swipe at him, a wall between the attacker and the woman who felt familiar.

Urðr, something in his mind insisted, but he disregarded the voice in favor of leaning away from the attack, and then dropped down to try sweeping his leg out like he'd seen performed in so many PvP games. It didn't really work, since his legs were so stick thin, but the woman was thrown off balance for the moment; she recovered, focusing her attack on Max, which was better than previously.

"Look, I think you should run," he whispered to the woman behind him, trying to get her out of the way. Something in him made him feel incredibly familiar with running, as though his whole life had been nothing but - now that was going to change, or so Max pressured himself into believing. Suddenly, he vanished from sight, leaving the long haired, disgusting looking woman with a bewildered expression on her face, frustrated that one of them had apparently escaped.

She refocused on Alex, her eyes narrowing maliciously as she moved forward, into something in her path. It was like a glass wall, and she was knocked to the ground, an oompf resounding from the thing that had knocked her down. "Damnit, if only I was walk through as well as see through..."

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urdr
2011-11-08 09:45 pm UTC (link)

If her eyes weren't already open wide enough, they widened just a bit more to accompany her dropped jaw when Max simply disappeared. As the woman ambled closer, then fell, she gasped.

"What the --" the voice was the same as the guy who'd just been there, from exactly the same place it would have been if he were still there, except --

Alex tried to swipe her hand through the space where he'd been, only meet with his shoulder, which caused her to jump back immediately.

For a moment, she was rendered speechless as the creature moved to rise again. Her would-be savior's advice repeated in her mind. Obviously, he was still here. Obviously, there was something very bizarre happening tonight. But it wasn't the first time, while this man's defiance of the laws of physics was more than a little shocking, that sense of awareness inside her made it clear that it didn't matter. As absurd as it was, she knew he was of her tribe, and so he should come with her. At least back to Pax, which would hopefully be safe.

"I think we should both run. I don't live far from here." She strongly suspected, by the feel of him, that he didn't either. "We can have the concierge of my building call the police."

She reached blindly for him as the monstrous woman slowly got to her feet.

"Come on," she said, twisting her bag to keep it closed in case she needed to use it as a weapon.

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manen
2011-11-10 05:04 am UTC (link)

The touch on his shoulder made him jump, though he quickly figured it for the same luck that had the creature running into him. Her insistence had him already turning, agreeing with her assessment that his earlier suggestion was the best course of action. It was one thing to confront bad men with guns and fists made for bludgeoning, but this woman felt strange - and the mere fact that Max felt something regarding this woman was enough to tell him that fighting wasn't going to be the greatest of ideas. There were feelings regarding Lucy, and now this woman, both of whom seemed as familiar to him as his sister. And now she was saying to return to an apartment building - Shit, does she live at Pax, too?! Maybe there seriously isn't such a thing as a coincidence.

He still turned, completely invisible to the eye, and grabbed Alex's elbow as gently as possible in order to begin steering her in the opposite direction of the strange woman. They made good time, for just as the first monster climbed to her feet, two more joined her. Glancing back behind him, Max let out a groan. "What the hell are those things?" Briefly, another thought of introducing himself to the woman since they were obviously going to end up eventually knowing one another via living in the same building occurred to him, but he knocked that idea away. It was the same thing as the other woman, the other night - secret identities are secret. And then without warning, Max's invisibility snapped off like a lightswitch, revealing his hand on the young woman's arm.

Dropping his hand to his side, he gave a sheepish smile under the ski-mask and stopped his pace at the edge of a building, looking back to see if they were still being pursued. "So, uh, which direction to the apartment, ma'am?" He feigned stupidity, not wanting to appear too enthusiastic.

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urdr
2011-11-14 12:31 am UTC (link)

Alexandria followed his lead without question; he was moving in the right direction, and that voice inside her assured her he had only good intentions. It was somewhat off-putting to feel him holding her elbow, to feel his presence at her side, but to be unable to see him. But then, Alexandria had experienced too much strangeness on her own to second-guess it at this juncture. Thoughts of the murdered concierge from months back came to mind, and she moved a little faster. When she heard the guy's groan, she looked behind them and said,

"Shit."

It said a lot that she didn't even scrunch her nose at being called "ma'am," but she did say,

"Please, call me Alexandria. And it's right over -- shit!" she repeated, another pale, horrible-looking woman -- creature? -- appeared from seemingly out of nowhere directly in front of them -- directly in the way of the path to Pax.

She reached for her new-found companion's arm, and her breathing sped up. Once again, she twisted up the bag, and took a wild swing at the creature, hitting it in the arm rather than the head, which she'd been shooting for.

The bag full of treats tore just slightly, and the creature hissed at her, lashing out with a chalky hand.

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manen
2011-11-14 09:16 pm UTC (link)

He'd had his mouth open to reply to Alexandria, but all conversation was impeded with the appearance of their pursuers. The fact that they'd managed to catch up so quickly and quietly cemented in his mind that these things weren't human. In his gut, he felt a quell of excitement that was wholly immature and unneeded for such a situation - but he couldn't get rid of the thought that this was just like a comic book, he really was doing these things!

Quickly, he jumped between Alex and the creature, using his arm as a quick-made shield to block the attack. The nails slashed at the long turtle neck that he'd used for his costume, cutting the fabric and his wrist, leaving behind long scratches that instantly began to well with blood. Max hissed, but avoided worrying about the pain in favor of delivering another push and then punch to the desiccated looking woman, applying the actions to shoulders and face appropriately. The thing stumbled backward, falling to the pavement. Max wrapped a hand around his wrist, though the lacerations couldn't have been more than a few layers deep. The shirt had done its work, though the hole now ripped in it would have to be repaired.

"We need to go the other way," he rasped, turning to put a hand on Alex's shoulder and steer her away from the path to the apartment building - it had been a good idea, but the things seemed to line the streets in this direction, and they needed to get away. Of course, in a comic book the hero would be dedicated to finding out what these things were and how to stop them, but that usually required a vast library or a database of some sort... Neither of which he had immediately at hand...

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(I'm a complete dick! I'm so sorry I kept you waiting so long -- crazy holidays were crazy)

urdr
2011-11-28 04:20 pm UTC (link)

More than willing to take instruction, Alexandria went in the direction toward which he steered her, but there stood another one. Before she could react, the thing reached out for Alexandria's pale arm, and dug her nails in. When Alexandria wrenched back, the cold, dead feeling of the creature's touch repelling her, the thing dug trenches into her skin. Wildly, Alexandria swung the bag at her, and this time it tore wide open, all the treats spilling all over the ground, cakes and ice cream and cookies. A few packages burst open from the impact, and Alexandria, who'd hooked her arm through Max's uninjured one, gasped as the creature suddenly lost all interest in them and knelt on the ground, curiously poking at the snacks.

Blinking, she looked up at Max, then looked behind them at the other creatures, who seemed to be gliding toward them.

"Oh my God," she said. "What -- what do we do?"

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(rl gets the best of us all the time! don't sweat it!)

manen
2011-11-30 07:51 am UTC (link)

All of them centered on the snack food now spread over the ground like some kind of strange smorgasbord of desserts. Max's eyes went wide beneath his mask, watching as one delicately picked up a snack cake with its claws and actually started to nibble at it.

"I...I think this is as good a distraction as any; let's get out of here." Pulling Alex along with him, he chanced going the long way around the group of strange looking women; curiously, none of them paid the two victims any mind, all still engrossed in the various treats now semi-offered to them. More and more of them were picking through the sweets. Tugging at Alex's arm, he encouraged her in the direction of the apartment, now that they seemed to be in the clear. His arm still hurt like hell, but running away to live another day (especially since he had no idea what he was fighting against) was a much better option than continuing to be cut to ribbons.

"I think we can make it to the apartment building now... Come on." He encouraged her with a fast moving pace, though nothing to the point of simply dragging her along, unless she chose to pick up their speed. He couldn't see any more of the strange creatures, at least, not in their immediate path - it looked like a free run back to a safe house, though Max had no idea what could potentially be awaiting them back at Pax.

(Do you wanna call it a wrap here? Or else you can reply to continue if you have other thoughts on where this should go!)

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	urdr 2011-12-02 03:59 am UTC (link)
	shall we assume that they got back to Pax and were like 'OMG you live here? OMG I live here! OMG!' LOLOL they should hang out >.> I miss me some Max! :D (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	manen 2011-12-02 04:20 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, that sounds fine! And I will hit you up for more threads for sure :P (Reply to this) (Parent)