Fall Arc: Resonance

This is a space for in-character events that do not occur within the line of duty and/or did not fit into the "Daily Life" section as it played out. Threads herein are meant to supplement character development and flesh out the setting elements, but are not necessary to understanding the plot or characters involved. These events are to be considered canon unless otherwise noted.
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Kokuten
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Re: Fall Arc: Resonance

Post by Kokuten »

Sarah seemed to ignore everyone around her, she kept herself balled up, her face tucked into her knees. Her whole body seemed to shiver, as if she was stuck out in the cold. Every now and then she'd let out a little whimper, or a pitiful sniff, but nothing more as she stayed within her own comfort zone.
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Mr. Blackbird Lore
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Re: Fall Arc: Resonance

Post by Mr. Blackbird Lore »

Irvine wrestled futilely with the empty space that held him aloft until it set him down again. He didn't frankly know what was more unnerving: being toyed with by an invisible or opponent, or being moved without the slightest sense of movement and dropped on top of two people he had been led to believe were MIA. As he would put it, This is some creepy God-hand shit. Being unarmed, however, didn't bother him in the slightest. If anything he felt relief at being stripped of armaments, although that kukri had been a dear possession of his. He would regret the loss later. Right now, he was more concerned about Sarah's well-being.

He ignored the greetings of Hotaru and Lutz to kneel beside Sarah and place a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Sarah, we're alright. We have light again. And Hotaru and Lutz." Of course, it wasn't much and it didn't seem to have any real point of origin so far as he could tell, but the world around them was visible.
CadetNewb
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Re: Fall Arc: Resonance

Post by CadetNewb »

Lolita pulled the trigger.

But nothing happened. Nothing. In fact, a more accurate description was that she tried to pull the trigger. But whatever it was kept the marine from doing even that. She grunted in exertion as her hands grasped with all her considerable might to hold onto the weapons. In the end, they were all stripped away from her inexorably as though a god willed it - there was no use fighting. Lolita soon found herself floating helplessly in the air, and it was here that she made up her mind. They weren't here to see her; Lolita's squadmates that is. The ones she cared and fought for were simply gone. And they wouldn't, couldn't see her at all as her face went red with rage.

"You want my weapons huh?! Well, how about my helmet too you bastards!" the marine spat at the darkness, removing her helmet and throwing it into the abyss with all her strength. "I guess you'll want my armor too! Take it!" her voicebox necklace yelled as Lolita finally began to loose it. "You can have my clothing and rank pins too you monsters! You already took away my friends, so you can have it!" Eventually with nothing but her underwear, the marine let herself drift in the darkness. "You f*ing fiends...you all must be enjoying doing this to us don't you..." It was only once before that Lolita had felt so helpless in the face of an unknowable terror; not even the Drathonians were as bad as this. This...this was outright, incomprehensibly beyond those lizards in cruelty. For the first time in a long time, Lolita made the only sound her true voice could manage and let out a raw, animal scream for as long as she could into the dark. "Why don't you just take my life already? Snuff it out like a candle's flame? You already took everything else that mattered to me." Lolita's voicebox murmured as she curled up in misery.

Eventually, a new sensation came to her; the marine realized she was on a floor again. Lolita rushed to her feet just as the darkness lifted and saw everyone else, plus two fakes.

"Ahahahaha! Oh wow. You guys too huh?" she spoke to the crowd in a cheery voice. She hopped from one foot to the next, bust bouncing as Lolita hopscotched closer to them all. "Yeah, whatever they were, they started getting a little touchy.~" the buxom marine went on, now leaning over to Sarah. She gently laid a hand on the smaller woman and spoke softly. "Hey. Easy there, you can relax now. We're all together again." Lolita cooed softly in Sarah's ear. "And you know you're lucky enough to have all your clothes still, right?" The marine's voicebox then spoke in a volume so low, that no human ear could hear.

"Tell them what happened, and I'll do my damn best tol kill you all." Lolita threatened with a smile.
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Kai
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Re: Fall Arc: Resonance

Post by Kai »

Hotaru kind of shook her head at the entrances of the rest of the squad, and clicked her tongue a few times. "You kids are all so stubborn" the pot called a group of kettles. The Ethnically Japanese girl made her way over to her squadmate, and joined in on the consoling. "it's alright, Sarah, we're okay. they're not here to hurt us, they're trying to help. Look, they're even trying to make themselves less scary-" sure enough, if the marines would look around, they would notice that all of the shades had by now taken on human forms, each one mimicking the individual they had transported. A shade with green glowing eyes made its way over, holding a hand out to Sarah, and Smiling.

"We are... Sorry for the Fright... Only trying to help" it said, its voice surprisingly soothing despite the awkward cadence of its sentence. "We are not to harm... Only protect."

"They're gonna take us to the survivors, Sarah, We've completed our mission. Everything is okay now" Hotaru whispered into the green-haired squadmate's ear.
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Kokuten
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Re: Fall Arc: Resonance

Post by Kokuten »

Hair disheveled, eyes reddened by hiccuping sobs, Sarah looked up and back at Irvine. She was shivering, he could feel it on her, and see the insecurity in her eyes. It only took her a moment to realize what was going on when he brought her mind out of the somber darkness. There was what looked like pity in his eyes, even if he really wasn't pitying her. As the fear slowly drained from her face, shame gently washed back in, at breaking so badly in the situation. What kind of Marine was she? To turn into a pile of tears when separated from her unit in some flowering darkness. She cowered at Irvine, not drawing from his hand, but from his gaze as she dropped her face back into her knees, yet to even notice the shadowy beings, despite seeing the strange shapes out the edge of her gaze.

Lolita's words breathed warmly into her ears, calming her some, but shaming her even further as she had seen her crumble as well. Her mind raced as she realized the blonde was half-naked, and raced further at the why. The woman curled up against the beautiful Marine, though, finding some security in the closeness. Her sobbing slowed to a crawl, as she slowly came back to her senses. She could make out words from a odd voice being spoke, but the chiming voice of her other comrade into her ear brought her to summon the courage to leave her small measure of comfort. She wanted to smile, and show them that she was getting it together.

Then she saw the being that had the green eyes. It looked just like her.

With what light there was, everyone could see the color escape Sarah's face, as she let out a fearful yelp. Her arms wrapped tightly around the half-naked Hotaru, as she backed away into the safe breast/ab space that was Lolita. She threw begging glances at both Irvine and Lutz, as if expecting them to explain this to her, before simply subsiding to holding her japanese teddy-bear close. The only response she could manage was quiet, hiccuping fear.
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Mr. Blackbird Lore
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Re: Fall Arc: Resonance

Post by Mr. Blackbird Lore »

Irvine rose to his feet quickly and put himself between Sarah's Shadow and the women. "Harm comes in more than one form. You think beings devoted to avoiding harm would know how to tactfully address them all." His voice was challenging, his stance firm. Only physical violence was going to make him change his mind at this point. "And I would say fear isn't even a stone's throw from harm. Despite what you may think, a good many of us are rational: talking to us would have worked much better than kidnapping, disarming, and then taking our shape. It's... unsettling." He gestured to Sarah to emphasize his point.

He could appreciate the sentiment of these Shadows, but he couldn't appreciate their methods or mannerisms. They were doing it all wrong, but claimed they were doing right. That's about all one could expect from a group of pacifists, though. Just because they knew humans had a penchant for violence, they assumed all of them had a predilection for it-- well far from it. Some of us recognize the only way to handle a violent person is through violent retort. Ironically- and in a counterproductive line of thought- Irvine was willing to come to blows to make his point.

"Let's start with you." Hillman pointed at Sarah's Shadow. "Taking her shape is clearly the antithesis of helping."
CadetNewb
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Re: Fall Arc: Resonance

Post by CadetNewb »

Humorously, Hotaru, Sarah and Lolita were now lined up from shortest to tallest as the buxom marine hugged them both from behind.

"Shhh. Everything's going to be alright Sarah." Lolita spoke softly into the shorter woman's ear. She then rested her chin on top of Sarah's head and looked down at Hotaru. "Hotaru, you do know their attempts at looking less scary only makes them ironically even more scary, right? I mean, look at the Sarah in the middle of the Sarah sandwich we just made." The marine pointed out the green haired woman in between them. "I reckon we can use her as a fear-o-meter now even. Heck, I'm going to go into a bit of fancy math speech; the high levels of fear my fear-o-meter is showing directly correlate to my high levels of suspicion and distrust." Lolita spoke as though it were a matter of fact, Sarah hiccuping all the while.

"I mean, why do you trust them so much?" she asked. Lolita was just about to add on, 'And how can I be sure you're even normal, or even you?' but stopped herself; any more, and it may have all just fallen apart right then and there.
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Kai
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Re: Fall Arc: Resonance

Post by Kai »

The Shadow that looked like Sarah pulled back slightly at Irvine's angry words, seeming to be hurt by them. it didn't do much more, however, simply staying where it was as all the other shades formed themselves into human-like shapes, whose full forms didn't quite seem to be anything firm just yet, as if they were wracked with indecision.

"Idunno, maybe because I bothered to talk to them?" Hotaru responded to Lolita, almost snippishly. "It seems like you guys haven't. What with all these mean words and freaking out and stuff." Hotaru huffed, thrying to throw her arms up in the air, but she couldn't with Sarah clinging so hard. "Honestly, they just want to help. They found a few survivors here when they came to the station, and the only way they found they could comfort the human survivors was by taking on their forms so they could communicate more easily and at least try to live like the humans. They just haven't met enough people to completely understand them. So, don't go acting like they're the ones being insensitive, okay? They're doing the best that they know in order to help." Hotaru's brow furrowed as she tried to think of a better way of explaining things, before she put out one final thought.

"It's like, If we see the world in Black, White, and Shades of grey, they see the world in Orange, Blue, and shades of green."
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Re: Fall Arc: Resonance

Post by CadetNewb »

Lolita nodded along as Hotaru explained her side of the argument, to make sure the other woman understood and knew she was was listening with rapt attention. When she finished however, the taller marine couldn't help but bring a finger to her lip in thought while holding Sarah up against her bust, who in turn apparently did so to Hotaru. A lightbulb appeared to flicker to life inside her mind though. "Ok, I guess that makes sense, but there's one discrepancy that you failed to address." Lolita spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. "What have you done to the real Hotaru!? You've never, ever been this introspective and deep before!" the marine shouted, finger now pointing accusingly at the smaller marine. "You're usually all like 'So, I was like pinned down by Drathonians and then it was like, grenade toss, grenade toss, rifle burst~' or maybe you'll be looking in the mirror and cupping your breasts when you think nobody's looking with that expression on your face that says 'I wish they were bigger' or something."

"What. The. Hell. I mean, its not like you're the only one able to get over your fears and apprehension because you're the dumbest of our lot." A short, awkward silence came after that in which another lightbulb went off in her head. "Oh." Lolita simply stared at the person that was most certainly Hotaru. "Um. Yeah. Sorry I doubted you..." she apologized.
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Straken
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Re: Fall Arc: Resonance

Post by Straken »

Once the whole squad was reunited Lutz was content to just hang off to the side while Hotaru took the spotlight explaining the situation, after all he was still confused about most of what had happened as well. He glanced occasionally back to his own double as he considered what the girl was saying. After Hotaru finished and Lolita started raving, Lutz took it as a good time to chime in.

“I’m still trying to wrap my head around it as well, but from what I’ve gathered from the other me here that is really the best way to explain it,” Lutz said as he crossed his arms and relaxed against the nearby wall. “These may be doppelgangers, but we the originals haven’t been swapped at all. So no worries.”
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