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Post by Ikkin on Aug 22, 2006 15:51:27 GMT -5
Ikkin was out alone, pacing back and forth, sword drawn, and muttering incomprehenisbly about that awful traitor Sev, when she felt something was wrong. At first, she tried to ignore it- she knew that if something was wrong here, it probably wasn't something she should be heading towards of her own accord. But, she was upset and irritable, and in great need of something to pound on in place of her phoenix anyway, so she ignored those instincts and started walking towards the place that was causing that feeling. If there was a murderer or a traitor phoenix there, all the better, she thought.
It was neither of these things that she found as she continued on towards the vending machine- it was something much worse, and something that could not be made less frightening by being armed. It was Meowth, and she was, quite obviously, dead. Judging by the mess, and the fact that she was still a bit warm, it couldn't have been too long ago... but, that didn't change the fact that there was nothing she could do about it. She turned away, holding back a scream, more of rage than of fear. This was too much... she couldn't take much more of it. She covered her face with her hands, trying to stop herself from crying, but failing miserably. She had no control over her emotions anymore... and knowing that made it all the worse.
Finally managing to bring herself back to her senses, Ikkin decided that she had to tell the others what had happened. It wouldn't do to leave Meowth like this, or to leave the others to their ignorance. So, Ikkin found something to use to cover Meowth, as she'd seen done when there was a crime, then went back to the room with the others.
"Meowth is..." she started, her voice shaking. "Meowth's been... murdered." And with that, she fell to her knees, once again consumed by the emotions that raged free after the soul-bond started to come apart.
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Post by Rider on Aug 22, 2006 17:58:41 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]It was a long, long time before anyone spoke.
"So..." Rider said at last, "That coin's real silver?"
Crystal gave Rider a look that clearly told her to keep her thieving pirate hands off of it.
"Poor Meowth," Wandy said with a sigh. "This isn't the way it was supposed to be."
Ventratta waved his arms in circles, then imitated the motion of firing a handgun, then cupped his paws around his eyes like binoculars.
"The Meepit is right," Rider said. "We need to search for the murder weapon. Either magic or technology did this, and it's hard to say which. Spread out, everyone! But... don't spread out too far. There's still a killer here... somewhere."
Stal was the last to leave the crime scene. He lingered a moment by Meowth's body, his eye hidden behind his sunglasses, before slipping off.[/glow]
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Post by Crystal on Aug 23, 2006 3:01:35 GMT -5
"Must've happened sometime less than two hours ago," Crystal mused to herself.
A particular thieving pirate shot her a look. "How would you know that? And didn't you and Mindy get lost around then?"
"We were NOT lost," Crystal stated with dignity, or as much as anyone could have wearing a bright orange shirt that proclaimed 'Kill or "KILL"?'. "We were looking for the source of a funny noise. And I know because I'm a ninja and because I'm sober most of the time."
"Yeah, you're ninjas," Rider muttered, flipping a silver coin in the air. "You kill people."
And Crystal paced off as if she hadn't heard anything.
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Post by Tracy on Aug 23, 2006 5:18:07 GMT -5
"Hey Rider, sorry I was gone, I was looking for Mowfie. I found this aweso-"
Tracy stopped dead. She her significant expression.
"What? Wait... no. No, you- stop that!"
Rider remained silent.
"SAY something!"
"She's been killed. She was-"
A blood curdling roar echoed through the forums. "NO!"
"I'm sorry. Err..."
Rider looked at Tracy. Her expression looked almost unnatural, a mix of fear, unbridled rage and sadness. Certainly nothing she'd ever seen before. Tracy clenched her teeth, and pulled a long knife out from inside her jacket.
"Uhh, where did you get that from?"
"I'll find out who did this, and I'll make them pay."
"Tracy?"
But the Doofus had already stormed down the hall, blade exposed to the night.
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Post by Rider on Aug 23, 2006 7:12:18 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]... "So who trusted the doofus with a knife?"
"It was one of Nimras' kitchen knives," Mindy said. "Didn't you see the letters NTWF on the handle?"
"She couldn't have found a nice, safe butter knife to play with?" Rider groaned.
Cap'n seemed to be the only one who didn't realize the danger of Doofus-on-the-Rampage.
"Stal and Mindy, find Crystal. The three of you are to find Tracy and convince her not to do anything stupid," Wanderer said. Rider and Spot, you stay here with Ikkin and make sure she doesn't lose it again. I need to find Lycos and Sev." And Wandy left.
The minutes passed.
Rider's pocket was feeling unusually cold and light. "Where's Ventratta?"
The Meepit had vanished.
Rider was alone with a half-mad (crazy) kitsune and a really mad (angry) leopard.
And all three of them were staring at each other with looks of identical confusion.[/glow]
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Post by Tracy on Aug 23, 2006 16:56:32 GMT -5
Tracy had spent the past hour storming the corridors, occasionally stabbing walls, portraits, and anything else that got in her way. She could still feel her head pounding, and her hands were shaking. The corridors were dark, and she flinched with every slight of movement. ”I’ll kill the murderer, and end all this.” The quietness was driving her mad. Nothing but endless corridors, old forum posts, and the sound of her own footsteps on the floor. “I can’t wait to get out of here,” Tracy muttered to herself. Suddenly there was a flash of pink, and she spun, throwing her knife with almost deadly precision. Well, almost deadly. ”Oops, sorry Ventratta!” Tracy said, tugging the knife out of the floor. Ventratta let out an angry meep, and scampered back into the shadows. “But what if Ventratta was the murderer?” Tracy said outloud, “I’ve let the murderer get away!” She turned to follow, but the noise of footsteps could be heard. Spinning round, she could see three figures. ”Tracy? Is that you? You’ve got to come back with us. It’s not safe out here.” ”S-stay away! I’m armed.” One of the figures extended an arm. Tracy stepped back. “Get away from me, murderer!” “Oh great, she’s gone mad.” That sounded like Crystal. “I’ve not gone mad! I- I just need to do this, okay? I don’t want you getting in my way. There’s no point in injuring civilians. Unless you’re the murderer of course.” There was a stunned silence. Tracy took this as an opportunity to flee. She could hear protests in the distance, followed by the thudding of footsteps in pursuit. “Think, Tracy, think!” She weaved around a few corners, and dived into an abandoned thread, and waited for the other mods to run past. She quietly crept back into the corridor, and slumped down against the wall. “Ok, ok, gotta calm down. Maybe I should go back and find the guys, and… then we can figure this out together. No point in going all vigilante… hey, where did my knife go?” She fumbled about on the floor, but it was gone. A shiver ran down her spine. “You’re here, aren’t you.” “Yes.” “I thought as much. I’ve been looking all over for you.” “It’s hard to find someone, when they’re behind you.” ”You’ve been following me?” “I’ve been waiting, waiting for the moment to strike. I know exactly where everyone is right now, and I can assure you, the last they’ll hear of you is the bloodcurdling scream as you die.” Tracy felt her breath catch in her throat. “Sorry, Meowth. Sorry everyone. I’ve failed you…” ”Stop being melodramatic, this is my moment.” “Go on then. Stab me with my own knife.” “Ohh, you think…? No, I took your knife as means of self protection. Although, the way you threw it earlier… I don’t think I’m in much danger.” “Then how are you going to kill me?” The murderer grabbed Tracy by the shoulder, and pressed their palm against her forehead. She could feel them entering her mind, her self-profile. “Wh- what are you doing? Please, get out of there… oh… oh no.” They stepped away, smirking. “My… my postcount. You’ve done something to it.” “Correct. 8,905.ninja to be precise. I hope you’ve enjoyed life… because it’s about to end very soon”. Tracy could already feel the gears in her mind halting… her mind was rejecting the change. Soon, her body would go into a “system crash”, she would stop functioning, and she would be the fifth victim of the murderer. “I… you…” “Remember when we revived you when you did it to yourself?” They threw a link at Tracy’s trembling body. “It was a close call, but we managed to bring you back to life. But now I fully intend to sit here, and watch you die.” They laughed. “Wh… what h-uughh-appened to you? I… liked… you were a good person”. “People change. For example, you’re currently transitioning from ‘alive’ to ‘dead’”. Tracy felt herself slipping away. It was over. “Goodbye Tracy”. “Goodbye, jerk face.” |
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Post by Rider on Aug 23, 2006 17:05:50 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]Mindela calmly walked into the Splatterboard and with an unfaltering voice, informed Ikkin, Spot and Rider that Tracy's body had been found. She led them to the scene of the crime.
"A doofus like all pirates," Crystal said, no emotion in her eyes and only the slightest hint of sorrow in her voice.
Rider didn't understand ninja. How could they not be upset? Maybe they were just better at hiding it.
Ikkin retreated to a corner and again lost another piece of her decaying mind. Ventratta emerged from the corridor and climbed back into Rider's pocket, his huge eyes blank. Stal stood in the doorway, silent. Wanderer looked angry.
"How did this happen?" Rider asked.
"Examine it yourself," Wanderer said. "Look at her post count."
"Probably self-inflicted, an accident," Crystal said coldly. "After all, she has done it before."
Rider raised an eyebrow. ".ninja?"
"It's not the first time," Crystal said. "Doofus."[/glow]
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Post by Ikkin on Aug 23, 2006 20:10:47 GMT -5
Ikkin, despite having retreated to one of the corners, still heard Crystal's last remark well enough. "Doofus?!" she asked, enraged at Crystal. "Is that any way to talk of the dead?! Besides, didn't Tracy blame you for it last time? How do we know you didn't just want to finish the job?" She threw a pressure dart at the ninja, not really aiming to harm her. It grazed Crystal's cheek and flew on, finally embedding itself in a wall and disappearing.
"Let that be a warning to you," she growled, then turned back into the corner. It was strange... it wasn't really that she was suspicious, she just couldn't help herself. And if it kept going this way... She shuddered inwardly. She was afraid... afraid of what she might become... what she might already have been. The insanity that threatened to engulf her seemed to have taken a toll on her memory... and she really hoped that the answer to the mystery of the murders would not be solved by filling in those gaps.
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Post by Crystal on Aug 24, 2006 12:05:52 GMT -5
Crystal touched her cheek where Ikkin's dart had grazed her. There was blood on her fingers when she pulled them away.
"It's not like the pirates didn't deserve it," she muttered, then turned and stalked away.
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Post by Ikkin on Sept 12, 2006 11:50:31 GMT -5
"Don't you dare blame the victims here!" Ikkin called after Crystal. "It's not like you ninja haven't lost anyone!" Caught up in her emotions again, she turned away, her face in her hands. This was all too much... this had to stop.
***
Meanwhile, in the farthest reaches of At Pen's Point, Sev woke up from a short nap in a haze. Where am I? the phoenix wondered briefly, before catching sight of one of Pen's Point's many bookcases. Strange... he thought. His memories of the previous few days were mostly a blur, as if they had been recorded from a tape while it was fast-forwarding. There were some things he could make out, but they were generic- memories of flying aimlessly, avoiding all human contact, trying to fight off the emotional onslaught that threatened to engulf him as it had Ikkin.
Feeling out the magical signatures of the remaining mods, Sev found that several of them were no longer there. They were either dead or unconscious. And good riddance, he thought. Several times in the last few days, he'd wanted to do exactly that, he could remember that much... but had he actually done it? For some reason, he was sceptical of that. And, in any case, it didn't really matter much. Whoever was doing it, they'd probably keep doing much of the same. And then Sev could finally have some peace.
Hearing some footsteps coming closer, he flew onward. He didn't really want to meet up with anyone right now, anyway.
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Post by Rider on Sept 12, 2006 17:58:47 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]Chapter Four
Stal entered Pen's Point just in time to see Sev disappear in a puff of smoke.
Sev. He didn't really care. Every minute spent caring was another minute wasted.
"Stal!" Spot burst into the room, teary-eyed. "Stal, what are you doing?"
Silence.
"Stal, you haven't been yourself lately. I'm really worried..."
"You're not the only one who's worried, Spot."
His cold, terse voice caught the snow-leopard off-guard. "Well, of course not. But... I'm worried about you. Even Mindy says you're... Mindy suspects..."
"So my own daughter has come to suspect me?"
"Well..." Spot actually didn't know.
"Guesses, words, shots in the dark." Stal drew the knife which had been thrown at him. "Literal shots in the dark. Yet no one does anything about it. We're all just sitting ducks, waiting for the slaughter."
"Stal, I didn't..."
"You go back to your suspecting and wondering and backstabbing and... pirate debates."
"That's not the..."
"If you can't figure it out, then..."
"Will you listen to yourself? Do you even know what you're saying?"
Of course he didn't. Something inside of Stal was slowly burning away, just as something inside of Ikkin was slowly burning away.
And a pair of huge eyes stared through the darkness, a witness.[/glow]
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Post by My email doesn't work anymore on Oct 9, 2006 17:27:33 GMT -5
Somewhere in the dark ruins of what was once the Cosplay and Craftiness board a little leopard girl sat upon a shattered chest of drawers poking through the tattered contents. In her restless slumber Mindy'd chewed through the one blanket she salvaged from the quake and now tried to search for some worthy substitute. But alas among the shattered wood was only stuffing laden with mildew and some pink tutus that'd had probably been crafted by Nick.
Sighing and leaping back to the ground Mindy curled up on the pleathery remnants of Horserider's Tifa Lockhart cosplay and licked her paws trying to coax out the numerous splinters. Glancing across the floor several other costumes now lay sprawled in moldy shreds. Her own Tao Jun dress among them and even Komori's once admired and revered Sophie costume had been decimated. "Everything just keeps falling apart..." she murmured as her eyes fell upon a scrap of familiar tartan.
Perking her ears in curiosity Mindy prowled over and tugged on the scrap from under the rubble and pulled out the half-finished kilted Berard doll she'd promised to make for Crystal eons ago. A sadness came over her expression as it brought back memories of a time when the NTWF had been a place of enjoyment and freedom. A place where wars had been meant for the sport rather than slaughter, where post counts were altered with non-lethal intentions and her parents always found a way to smile even when the odds were against them... Turning the bald expressionless ploosh over in her paw she wondered what happened to the faux fox fur scarf she'd wanted to use for Berard's hair. Scanning the ground Mindy spotted it peeking out from the corner, or was it? No wait fluffy synthetic scarves weren't supposed to sway back and forth on their own.
Shifting into stealth mode Mindy crawled up closer and closer to the swaying mass of floof only to spot more and more poking out from around the bend. In the middle of a cleared patch of floor Wanderer sat hovering over the heavily clawed and gnawed remains of his beloved red hat trying to ease its wounds with needle and thread. But unlike her mother Mindy's focus lay not on the headgear but instead his nice floofy kitsune tails. Her eyes grew wide and glassy watching each sway slow and carelessly in an almost hypnotic manner. Back and forth they silently went this way and that completely oblivious to the calculations and geometric theorums running through Mindy's frantic imagination as a devious little grin curled across her lips.
With the stealthy ninja skills that would be expected of Kiddo's successor she suddenly sprung up and began searching hurriedly yet silently through the board for anything to suit the task. Finally she came upon a ginormous embroidery hoop miraculously still intact and large enough to be used by a Heartless Large Body as a hula hoop. grabbing onto her prize she lept up and grabbed a splintered rafter and swung along until she hovered right above where the FFI/Naruto smash up labored away. With an expression of maniac amusement poised on her face Mindy lept down and moved in to strike.
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Post by Rider on Oct 9, 2006 17:45:51 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]"Ahh, ninjas, ninjas," Rider leaned back in her chair, staring at the ceiling bulb. "Can't trust a blasted one of 'em. I'd just as soon ship 'em all ut of here so maybe the hairs on the back of my neck will stop prickling all of the time."
Ikkin just looked at Rider sadly.
Rider bit her tongue. "That sounded bad, didn't it?"
Ikkin nodded.
"I didn't meant for it to... oh, forget it. I'm too tired to mince my words. It's not like anyone's been getting a lot of slee- Ventratta!" The pink rodent climbled up Rider's pant leg and settled into her pocket. His paws started moving wildly, his face a Meepitish blank.
"Ventratta, that's just hysteria talking," Rider growled. "Settle down or get out of my pocket."[/glow]
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Post by Ikkin on Oct 10, 2006 15:03:53 GMT -5
"Mind telling me what that Meepit's on about now?" Ikkin asked. She didn't like thinking of her cap'n as being suspicious, but she had to admit that it sounded bad... especially with the unintelligible Meepit talk. But, by this point, even that didn't seem to matter as much... especially since she couldn't be sure she'd even remember the answer after she'd been told it. She just had to keep pretending everything was normal... if she let everyone else know what was happening to her, it would probably just be that much worse. It was strange, she thought, how it could take so much effort to hold on to the last remaining strands of her sanity... how much effort it could take just to go on with her life.
***
Sev flew over Cosplay and Craftiness, not really caring where he was going. Something caught his eye, though... a little leopard, purring contentedly as she wove Wanderer's tails into what was beginning to like a dream catcher. If he wanted to get rid of Mindy, now would be the best time to do so... no one would believe Wanderer if he said he didn't do it, after this.
But Sev didn't want to get rid of the leopard. He just wanted to be left alone. And so, he flew on, trying to find an unoccupied board to land in.
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Post by Rider on Oct 10, 2006 15:08:19 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]"Oh, he seems convinced that Stal has snapped. Please, like that scrawny thing could have brought down a werewolf." Rider had forgotten that Meowth was shot, not "brought down."
Ventratta growled and sulked in Rider's pocket.[/glow]
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