[Redd]

When you woke up... things felt different.

The air was still, thick and heavy - each live-giving breath was a struggle. There was no noise; no happy chirping of birds, humming of insects, footsteps of pedestrians, whatever the common noises were where you live. Everything was suffocating in a slight buzzing, audible white noise. Everything even... looked a little duller than usual.

Was it happening again?

You fearfully rush to the window, one hand throwing the curtain aside and peer out. The first thing you notice is you are not the only one. All down the street you can see your neighbours, fearfully pressed against their windows, children and loved ones clutching hands while animals coil around their legs, seeking protection from something.

And what you saw outside...?

Well, you were right. It was back. The beautiful gradient blue sky? A light grey, buzzing, distorted with noise. Black lighting arced across it, impossibly. It hurt to look at.
The soft green grass? A mess of dark grey. What looked lovely and inviting to lie on now looked sharp and uncomfortable. Foliage stood still, as there was no breeze to even rustle them.

The only thing that moved was a white mass, standing in the middle of the street. Moved wasn't the correct word, it was twitching, and occasionally, black lightning would arc off it and fizzle into nothingness. It wasn't... doing anything, but you just knew, this thing was incredibly dangerous.

Prompt: Write 300 Words in this thread of a character reacting to this. Do they fight? Do they run? i̷̜̇ţ̸̨̽ ̷̘̃d̵̺̉̾ö̸̰͙́̄e̴̤͑͠ş̸̀ņ̸̼̃'̵͉̐͠t̵̛̜ ̵̙̰͑͘m̷̻͒̎ả̸̢̯̌t̶͉̙̀t̴̰͕̊ȇ̶͍͕̀r̷͖̮̊,,̶̫̣̐ ̵͕͘ͅį̶͍̑t̶̤͆͠'̷͖͕̈́s̶̠̐̕ ̸̖̽̈́h̸̆ͅo̴͓͋͐p̸̧͠ę̸̌͝ḷ̵̭̏͝e̴͚͇̊̅s̶̼̟̑͂s̶͎̱̏

Deadline: Thu Apr 02, 2021 1:00 am

[SpringsSong]

Lana. Xyshari.

They had only just gotten the three children that they had rescued to bed what felt like a few minutes before when they were both suddenly very wide awake, and very aware of what was happening around them. Xyshari was on the edge of panic, while Lana was trying to keep her calm, but beneath the surface, she was just as concerned as her wife was - likely a side effect of their bond that they shared.

"What is that?" Lana asked, pointing to the strange creature in the road. Xyshari's eyes locked onto it, and she offered a hiss as her ears flattened against her skull.

"Whatever it is, I can't get an accurate sense of it," Xyshari said, and Lana could practically feel Xyshari's fur starting to stand on end. "Get the children."

"What are you planning to do?" Lana asked, noticing that Xyshari had already pulled out her commlink. She looked at Lana, her eyes meeting hers for once. Lana looked down after a moment, and she nodded. "You're right. We can't just rush headlong into something like this anymore - not since we adopted those three. Who are you calling?"

"Theron," Xyshari said. "And he'll get in touch with Arcann and Senya. We need to get the children out of here, though," she said, going to the drawer and pulling out their saberpikes. "We're also going to need these--Theron, thank Ashla," she said after a moment, listening for a moment. "Yeah, we see it too. Lana and I are gathering up the kids, and then we're heading to that one place we told you about. Yes, get Arcann and Senya," she said, looking back out of the window at the creature. "No, under no circumstances are any of you to engage it. I have no idea what it's capable of, but the last time this happened, they designed creatures specifically to combat this, but this one feels different."

[Celtic]

"Oh what in the ever living hell is this crap?"

The wombear snapped her cell phone shut and smacked it a couple times, opening and closing the outdated flip phone. It wasn't working-- presumably that had to do with all this weirdness about. She stared outside, rubbing her temples. She had a full day planned! Back to back meetings, important conversations! "Jeanie!" She called out to the house, "Come look at this!"

"Oh this god awful buzzing, giving me a headache already." She mumbled to herself, still staring out the window at the odd world she was now in.

Jeanie was out of breath already, the effort from getting out of bed and to the window had apparently taken most of her stamina. "What is this? I feel like I can't hardly breath!" She gasped, clutching her chest and sinking down to sit on the floor.

"Yeah? You really want to complain to ME about the pain of living?" The wombear retorted, apparently not in the mood, but really she didn't seem to be the type to ever really be in "the mood." Jeanie just grunted in response, used to the gruff nature of her companion.

"So I take it you don't know either, huh?"

"No, not an ever-loving clue! Everyone here seems pretty gd terrified though, so apparently it's doomsday or whatever." Jeanie grunted her response again, rolling her eyes. "Can you get up? There's something in the road blocking our driveway and it doesn't really seem like it's going to be move anytime soon."

Jeanie looked back with wide eyes, "Yeah? You're really think you're going to be driving right now?"

"I've got things to do!" The wombear was defensive and seemed almost hackly at the suggestion she couldn't go into work today. Jeanie just rolled her eyes, but got to her knees and peeked out the window.

"Lady, not to burst your bubble, but that thing seems to be pre-tty far out of our league. Let's leave it to someone else."

Her bubble was definitely burst. Was Jeanie suggesting that she couldn't just march up to it and demand it leave? Obviously it was a creature and as a creature it was going to have to bend to her very strong will like everything else. Jeanie read that look and quickly jumped up.

"You're basically a snack. Don't you dare go out there and mess with it."

"That is not for you to decide." The wombear was already strapping on a pair of tan work boots, grabbed her jacket and an umbrella to use as a poking implement. Just because the world was ending, did not mean she was going to be lazy and neglect her very important life. Jeanie stared at her companion, dumbfounded by the response.

"You have a death wish. Good lord. Well good luck, I'll watch you get torn to shreds from here, I guess."

"Well you could help." Jeanie snorted a laugh and with that, the wombear was marching out the door, brandishing her umbrella towards the weird, lightning emitting mass. Maybe this wasn't her best idea.

[Sarah]

Zli couldn't lie. He much preferred this hellscape of Evelon. It reminded him of home, if home were ten times worse to live in. His body knew something was different before he even woke and his magic could do nothing to fight the oppressive strain of noise and sensation. Fighting to breathe was not something he was especially used to. He opened his eyes slowly, the ceiling a dark grey and the walls a lighter shade of the same. if it weren't for the sound of eternally buzzing fluorescent light and soupy air he wondered if half the population would not have even noticed.

He stood and dressed. There was no reason for him to rush. He knew situations in which to rush and this was not one of them. The sharp sounds of electricity distinguished itself from the background of whatever magic had transformed this place. With caution Zli opened the nearest window, one that looked down upon the main street. Some form stood its ground outside. A strange thing, but no stranger than any other thing he had seen. A curiosity to be considered.

Considered indeed. Zli spent too long at the window. Time stretched before him in that unknowable way it could. A way that made it seem no time was passing at all. He and the rest were transfixed by this creature. By the new state of the world.

Eventually he was able to pull himself away. A lingering daze settled behind his eyes as he forced himself to close the window and venture to the street. No one else dared move, but that was fine. It would be better, should this creature become hostile, if he were the only one struck down. Zli shook his head to clear the uncharacteristically selfless thought. "Hello there, thing," he cooed softly as he kept a... safe distance away from the creature. "Are you lost?"

[Adelie]

Sometimes it takes you six hours to notice that the world's ended, or whatever the hell's going on. Sometimes that's just how it goes.

Look, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking - oh, it's probably because she slept through it all. It's probably because she's self-employed and can afford to take a day off when she can't muster up the energy to drag herself out of bed, or because she stayed up all night grinding guild wars in her favorite mobile game. And yeah, that might've been true on any other morning.

Not this one.

Today, she had woken up at exactly 6AM. She had set four different alarms for certain amounts of time before the actual date, but - not unexpectedly - it had taken the very last one to force her to stumble groggily out of bed and search the corners of her room for wherever she'd hidden her spare phone. Then, she picked up her laptop, booted up an Android emulator, and tucked herself right back in under her covers.

If she were more observant, she might've noticed the stifling atmosphere - the sky the color and texture of a television tuned to a dead channel, the overwhelming quiet that suffocated everything around her. She might've noticed that there were no birds welcoming the dawn - or, for that matter, no dawn at all.

But she didn't, for a very simple reason - she had no idea. Look, she doesn't usually get up this early. She's got no idea what animals are supposed to be out and about, which bus lines are supposed to be running, what pedestrians should be hurrying by on their way to their corporate wageslave jobs. So the idea that there was something wrong simply didn't cross her mind. The only thought that was crossing her mind at the moment was the fact that not one, but two of her favorite mobile games had released new, time-limited events this morning, and there was no way she was going to pass up getting a first look at them the moment they went live.

And so she does. Her only complaint is that her internet connection today is incredibly shaky - and for that matter, it seems to be getting worse over time. There's been a few spontaneous power surges, too, but nothing that her hardware can't handle. It's maybe four hours in when she starts feeling like something's wrong when she stomps around her room after turning her router on and off for the seventh time today to no avail, and maybe six hours in when her power goes out completely - and finally, finally, she takes a look out the window to see if everyone else is having the same problem.

Everyone else is certainly having a problem. It's just definitely not what she was expecting.

[zapdragon555]

All this time he'd been gathering power, but Admin hadn't expected to be able to lift himself from the wires so soon. It was never an easy affair—always shutting down some power source or another, burning some electrical outlets, breaking some bulbs... but it was doable. And Admin had been prepping to do so again for some time now. Just a few more targets to hit, and he would be able to... to...

What the hell was that? As Admin zipped along a power line, the energy in his body began to crackle wildly, until it felt too big to hold. It was all he could do to let go of the power line that now felt like molten metal against his particle body, felt like it was fusing parts of him together that weren't meant to be fused, lines of code melding, melting—

He hit the ground. Admin hit the ground with a physical force, so jarring a sensation after having felt nothing for so long. He stood, slowly, a mass of writhing black pixels with two staring eyes, the white crown atop his head glitching and morphing horrifically as black lightning striked across the sky.

Where... was he? And what... what had happened, out here?

Admin stared at the houses around him, his eyes slowly adjusting to the gloom of the world. Cyberspace was devoid of concepts like light and dark, but in reality, either were blinding. Still... still, as he began to adjust, and began to walk on uncertain legs, slowly growing more certain, Admin felt a prickle on the back of his neck that told him just how wrong this was. How wrong it was that he'd been given form, that he felt like he was bursting with energy, energy that... wasn't his.

Admin turned a corner, ducking between two tightly-connected houses. He raised a hand towards what looked like an electrical AC unit, and flinched as lightning shot from his hands and burned against the metal casing. He stumbled away from it. Suddenly, this borrowed power felt... wrong, more than it felt exhilarating. Like a foreign agent that had contaminated its host material so far that it was barely recognizable any longer... or something like that. Perhaps he was bitter that his years of working to garner his own energy sources had been so quickly outshined by... whatever this was.

He froze when he saw it—a writhing mass of white, like looking into a broken, shattered mirror. It was... merely standing there in the street, twitching and shifting. Admin felt himself drawn forward, walking slowly towards it, the tense line of his mouth slowly upturning, curving into a wicked grin. "So—" Oh, his voice sounded wonderful and terrible. He missed having a voice, having meticulously formed vocal cords. "So you're the one who let me take form, are you..."

Admin stopped a few yards away, his grin turning harder as he grit his teeth, straining against the massive amounts of energy pouring off of the other entity. "Haven't seen one like you, before. Like me. You're a new thing, aren't you... you look like you're barely holdin' yourself together, as is." It was larger than him. Easily, it looked him in the eyes while standing. Admin would know fear, if he had a lick of wisdom. "Maybe I could take that energy off your hands... siphon all of it out of you. You're shakin' with it, after all... and I could put it to much, much better use."

[Freezair]

Amsterdam remembered the haze.

He remembered the mysterious incident from last year. He remembered traveling around, seeking the lost colors. It hadn't been that long ago, he reflected--was this some new yearly event? Had the seasons added a new member to their ranks? Winter, Spring, Colorlessness, Summer, Fall?

But this was different from last time. Harsher. The stillness and strangeness had been there last time, but the thickness, the electricity... that was new. And he hadn't remembered any strange staticky lightning monsters the last time this had happened.

The horrible fuzz was clearly taking a toll on others. Amsterdam's head swiveled around the street, and he saw others buckling beneath the persistent background drone and the smell of ozone.

He couldn't quite put his finger on why, but noise like this--white noise, he thought with a chuckle--had always been calming to him. It droned out everything else and let him turn inside his thoughts. Even this otherworldly crackle seemed to help him find his center.

Amsterdam? the little voice within him whispered.

"You see it too, don't you, Bell?" he said out loud. "That strange creature, over there! Is it the one responsible for this?"

There was hesitation in Bellisario's voice. I feel... strange things within it, he replied. He and I, we are alike. But unlike. In... the time before...

Amsterdam visibly winced. He did not like to think about the time before. For Bellisario to bring it up, the situation must be truly dire.

[/i]...In that time, I knew... the things it felt. I sense them within it still. Rage. Hopelessness. A sense that all that I could do was fight. An all-consuming urge to do just that.[/i]

"Well. Then we'll have to tame it then, won't we? Things are always easier once you've practiced them, don't you think, Bell?"

Be careful, Amsterdam. I don't think it'll be like that. It's so much... harsher than others I've seen before. It has so much more of that rage, that fear. It's... dangerous.

"They're all dangerous, aren't they? But they can be helped. We know that for a fact."

Bell's voice was silent for a long time.

...I know I can't stop you if you really want to. But... please, Am. Use caution. Run if you need to. Don't hesitate to. ...I do care about you, you know. And I worry.

"I know," Amsterdam said to the air.

And with that, he began walking towards the beast.

[crow]

"You're not supposed to be here," said Fabian. The customary smile he wore was gone, and while his manner wasn't quite threatening, there was a forced quality to his voice.

Streil smiled thinly. "Yes, well, I think we've quite moved past that point." When Fabian's frown deepened, Streil dropped the smile. "Oh come on, Fabian. You can't be meaning to keep playing your role when everything around us looks like this."

He gestured to their surroundings, which were utterly sapped of color. The textures of the buildings, the trees, even the sky could occasionally be seen to break into patches of static. It was abundantly clear that something was wrong, and even Fabian, stickler for the status quo as he was, couldn't deny it.

Fabian held out a moment longer, then sighed, releasing his hold on Streil's arm. "Have you contacted Ren?"

"I figured we'd go together," Streil said, pulling out a dagger and tossing it idly. "Trigger is already there."

Fabian opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of it, shaking his head. "Very well," he said, a little heavily. "I suppose these are extenuating circumstances."

"Please," said Streil, rolling his eyes. "With all of this going on, no one is even going to notice if you're gone."

The two of them accessed the console just long enough to relocate to Ren's shrine, which offered the advantage of privacy, at least, since users rarely wandered into such a remote area anymore.

Or that was the plan, at least. They didn't expect to be pulled into a white room, facing down an ominous-looking pale figure.

"... Core?" said Fabian uncertainly. Behind him, Streil drew his knives.

[No, it's---] The sound of static filled their minds, and through it, just barely, they could make out the familiar voice. [--- really not me this time! --- can't--- you---- your own!!]

So much for their plans.

"State your purpose," said Fabian, sounding officious despite the absurd situation they were in.

"Or," Streil drawled, "we could settle this with blades. Your call."

[GrayGriffin]

Elidia blinked as she stared at the world outside the temple, her claws pressed up against the windowsill as the  air hummed and crackled. "Is...is this normal?" she asked, turning her head to gaze at Camarin, fear in her eyes. "I've never seen anything like this before...is this just what the modern world is like?"

The Hunter padded up behind her, teeth bared slightly. "No," she said, "it isn't." Already some of the other residents of the temple were opening up the doors, allowing fleeing families to take shelter within the grounds of the temple. "I don't know what's going on here," she admitted.

As various people started hurrying to take refuge, though, Elidia noticed one shape that didn't seem to be moving. In fact, it seemed to be crackling and sparking just like the sky outside.

"Camarin..." she whispered softly, "...is...is that what's making all this happen?" She felt herself bristling-this temple had become a second home to her, and she was eager to protect it and the people nearby as well as she could.

"Perhaps," murmured the Hunter, placing her claws on the windowsill to get a better look and leaning slightly against Elidia's side. "Perhaps it's another victim, one who was already affected by everything happening here."

"Oh..." murmured Elidia. Part of her wished it could have been something simpler, just a villainous beast they would have to defeat to put everything back to normal. "Then...what should we do?"

There was a pause, before Camarin dropped to the floor, claws clacking against the marble tile. "I'll go out and handle it," she said. "I'm tough enough to not get hurt right away, and I should be able to figure out just exactly what's going on."

"Are...are you sure?" asked Elidia. "I-I can go with you!" She immediately started floating towards the entrance until Camarin stopped her, one paw placed gently on her breast.

"Elidia," she said soflty, "this is my job. I have the experience to handle it." She leaned forward to press her snout gently against Elidia's beak. "You don't need to worry, okay? I'm not going to be reckless about it. I promise to come back to you."

With that, she turned and headed slowly out the door.

[Jaykobell]

He was awoken abruptly. He hadn't really had a good night's sleep in a long time, and so, as luck would have it, something was apparently happening that needed his attention.

"Clovis," the voice, one much too familiar by now, had called out to him. "Wake up! C'mon." He heard the blinds rustle, and it didn't strike him right away, but something was wrong. Although some kind of light did pour into the room, it wasn't normal. "Something's goin' on out there."

With an audible groan and sluggish movements, Clovis rolled onto his back and took a few long seconds to stretch. "What?" he complained groggily, letting his arms fall over the side of the bed. "Can't it wait, Hark?"

Now that he was awake, he could see the back of the strange deity. He was looking out the window at whatever was going on out there.

"Well, no," Hark answered, and he turned his attention to the priest. "You should really come and see. You wouldn't believe me if I told you myself!"

Clovis groaned again, this time in addition with a frown. He resigned himself to Hark's request and forced himself out of bed. He was in the habit of sleeping with some loose-fitting clothes, so he had no need to dress up. He went right to the window, not expecting very much. "What could be out there that..." But his voice trailed off as he saw the outside, completely drained of colors, and the inexplicable creature standing there.

A few seconds later, all he could say, pensively, was, "Okay."

"Told you," Hark added, now both of them looking out the window. "Even I don't have a clue what's going on out there. You ever seen this? Some kinda human thing?"

"'Some kinda human thing,'" Clovis repeated with exasperation. "Really? Does this look like a 'human thing' to you?"

Hark shrugged. "I can never be sure," he teased.

Clovis rolled his eyes. "Well, it's not," he begrudgingly confirmed. "Looks more like..."

"Right," Hark finished, knowing exactly where the priest's train of thought was going.

With a sigh, Clovis turned away from the window. "Go check it out," he told Hark. "I'm getting dressed, and I'll catch up."

[Jaden Wolf]

The Beach palace was usually quite picturesque, but given its normal sunset sky, it looked downright eerie now. A few people stood about, chattering in hushed whispers. Some looked understandably concerned, even frightened, while others actually looked excited. The children in particular, used to peculiarity, thought it was quite delightful. Inside, the palace became increasingly busy as most of its residents were now running off to wake the last sleepers and spread the news.

"Hey have you looked outside?" one such resident asked in a rush, bursting into the room and throwing the curtains wide. It was just as grey inside as out, of course, but Selka did occasionally like to indulge in dramatic flair. "All the colour is gone!" she exclaimed in emphasis.

Long legs sprawling under the desk and hand under her chin, Vixen hung over the magazine with all the energy of a teenager who'd rather be getting a mani-pedi than be sitting in class. She glanced up lazily as she flipped a page. Slowly, she blew a bubble with the gum in her mouth and stared at its notably not-pink colour before popping it. "You know," she drawled dryly, "I think I noticed."

Selka shot her an exasperated look before leaning out the window. There was a strange figure out there she hadn't noticed before. For a moment, she thought it might just be one of the more...unusual residents - she was never around long enough to know any of them. But something about it seemed to coincide with the aura of the colourless sky. Not to mention, she could see others leaning out of windows or peeking around from the building courtyard who seemed equally curious. Surely it must be a stranger if no one else had ever seen it.

"Hey there's some strange creature out there," she chirped, turning with a gleam in her eye, "we should go check it out." Vixen, already having gone back to her magazine, didn't look up. Instead she just flopped a hand pointedly towards a pot on the next table that was being stirred seemingly of its own accord.

Selka huffed. Turning from the window, she stuck her hands on her hips and gave Vixen her best "mom" look. Vixen was, as always, unimpressed - regardless of whether she actually saw it or not. Ignoring the other woman's protests, Selka grabbed her wrist and dragged her out the door in pursuit of adventure.

Vixen sighed and cursed that she'd left the pot stirring.

[Redd]

As time ticked on, the creature did not react, though you could feel overwhelming anger seeping from the creature, like a festering wound. If you focused on it for too long, you could feel your own emotions starting to turn into unrestrained hate. If you got too close to it, it did not react though your skin would start to burn, your thoughts would bubble violently in an incoherent mess, madness threatening to overwhelm.

Then things began to change.

It was slow, but things began to blush faintly with color. Hints of green here and there, a soft breeze caressing your face, white noise fading to the hum of insects and the chirping of birds. But surely, the world began to revert.

Your feelings of hope were pierced by a shrill scream. As the grey world began to slip away, the twitching white mass grew hysterical. Ink black claws began to sink into the pavement, scrabbling for purchase as it began to flicker out of existance. Another shrill scream and it's whole body exploded into black lightning and white twitching limbs -- to many to count, as it grabbed at the ground trying to hold onto this reality.

It raised his gaping black maw to the sky and let out one last, ear piercing scream.

And then it was gone.

You hoped that was the last you'd seen of it but you knew it was still out there, in that Other World.

If you look in your inventory, it seems something was set free by the monster and decided to follow you home.