Freakout Time [Maybe 2 hours into the new liminal]

[mytearsaremine]

[Not long after liminal changes over, but with time enough for the psychic network to start quietly bubbling again, a voice is broadcast into the fray: and that voice is loud.

For once, it isn't Jules. Instead, it's a teenage girl's voice, and while emotions and tone don't translate over the network without a little more experience than she's had, it's still pretty obviously as much of a scream as one can make when one is brand new:]

GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!

Comments

[mytearsaremine]

Well, there kind of is, where I come from. But I don't wanna talk about that here. It might freak people out.

[failgoyle]

...that's probably not a bad idea, honestly. You wanna meet somewhere?

[mytearsaremine]

Sure. I'm in the room with all the geodes. Uh, and I'm all shadowy, so don't freak out.

[She's not calm enough yet to get back into human form, sorry, man.]

[failgoyle]

As long as you're not attacking me, we're good. I've seen a lot of weird stuff--shadowy shouldn't bother me. I'm on my way!

[Soon enough, a very gangly individual will walk into that room. He's not needing to take a moment to adjust to the sudden darkness like a normal human would, even if he looks human enough thanks to his Mask.]

[mytearsaremine]

Over here.

[Kind of off in the back, behind one of the larger geode stones, is a pillar of darkness about five feet tall (maybe a little taller), vaguely in the shape of a girl with glowing green eyes and limbs that seem to be lacking in any particular joints, just gentle curves. Her voice sounds like a teenage girl's voice, but layered like multiple versions of her are talking at once, just a little bit off. Her hair has merged with her tentacles, making her head and back all look a little like it's moving.

She leans out and waves one of those arm-like appendages at him.]

So. Uh. Are you supposed to be purple?

[failgoyle]

[He does a double-take at what he's looking at, but she's not trying to hurt him, and some other Changelings are really weird-looking anyway. He can roll with this, and he shyly returns the wave.]

...only if you're supposed to have tentacles.

[mytearsaremine]

Yeah, I kind of am. Sorry. I don't usually look this bad, but I do usually have the tentacles. I just kind of lose it when I freak out or get too distracted.

[If a shifting cut-out of darkness could look sheepish, she manages it: head hung a little, arms tucked in, what could be feet shuffling.]

You look pretty cool, though.

[failgoyle]

Hey, I'm the last person who should be able to judge for freaking out.

...and...really? You think so?

[mytearsaremine]

Well, yeah. I mean, my roommate back in Ryslig was half bird, and I helped a couple guys when they had giant crystal things growing out of their back, and big fat tusks. We had all kinds of weird stuff. You at least looks like you belong together, you know? Not like you're all bits and pieces shoved together like a patchwork. You work.

[failgoyle]

"Well, uh, thanks!" He shrugs. "...no one's ever told me that before, I'll take it."

[mytearsaremine]

"Really? Nobody? That's dumb, people should be honest about that stuff, and nicer. Compliments are good things, you know?" Jolie is calming down, too, so her prickly tentacles are smoothing out, and her form is solidifying a little. "Anyway, uh. The reason I didn't want to say it over the network is... I kind of... eat people? Like, not their bodies, that's gross. But I ate somebody's soul once. It was... it was pretty awful, and I don't ever want to do it again. But I might. I don't know."

[failgoyle]

Well, now, Jules is concerned. "Well, yeah, I see how that would worry people, but if you're not gonna do it again..." There's a pause. "I feel like I should let you know my soul was probably irrevocably damaged when I made it back out through the Hedge and that's why I am the way I am, so..."

Don't eat him? Maybe?

[mytearsaremine]

There's actually a visible droop. "I'm not going to eat any more souls, if I can help it. You don't need to try and talk me out of yours, or anything. It's awful, okay, I hate it."

[failgoyle]

"Ah, geez, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that, I'm just...kind of a wuss," Jules says, wringing his tail a little. Really, he does feel bad at that visible droop.

[mytearsaremine]

"There's nothing wrong with that. Being kind of a wuss, I mean. I'd rather be that than super strong and likely to hurt people." She forces herself to straighten up again, though her voice still isn't happy. "I'm just pretty sure that's what everyone is gonna think, you know? Now you see why I didn't want to go telling it to everybody?"

[failgoyle]

"Well, yeah." Jules grimaces. "Don't worry, I'm not saying anything to anyone."

[mytearsaremine]

"Thanks. I appreciate that a lot. Now I just have to figure out how not to do it again, and we'll be great." She finally seems to get ahold of herself the rest of the way, and the girl-shaped shadow solidifies the rest of the way into an actual girl, about fourteen, blonde, green eyed beneath a white glow, and with six shadowy tentacles on her back.

"There we go, that's better," she says, sounding relieved.

[failgoyle]

"Oh, hey, you can turn it off! Kinda. Better than I can do; I just hide behind my Mask." Unless the Mask didn't work right. Which was happening more and more often as the Travelers he ran into were the sorts who had enough magic to see through it. Awkward.

[mytearsaremine]

"Kind of. Every time I freak out about something, I basically lose the human form thing. I guess what I really am is the shadow-thing...." She looks up and blinks at him. "Uh. You're not purple anymore. And your tail and horns and stuff went away."

[failgoyle]

"I know how that goes," Jules sighs. "What I really am is a weird purple gargoyle-thing, and...really?" He looks down at himself. "I...I think you're just seeing the Mask. It finally kicked in."

[mytearsaremine]

"So usually people see the skinny guy with regular hair?" Jolie guesses, moving further out into the room to retrieve her backpack, which she'd dropped when she went shadowy and, thus, intangible. "I guess that's pretty useful. You can't freak people out, like that."

[failgoyle]

"Yeah." Jules nods enthusiastically. "That's what it's supposed to do, kind of hiding in plain sight, keeping my head down, minimizing the screaming."

[mytearsaremine]

"But you can't turn it off if you want to? You just have to I guess... hope it glitches at the right time if you want people to see the real you?" Assuming he'd want anyone to see the real him. She'd understand if not, too.

[failgoyle]

"That, or..." Jules hesitates. "There's a thing I can do, kind of a contract, where I basically need a rose and some blood and then the other person has to agree to do a favor for me..."