002 [OPEN] UNPLEASANT CHANGES

[blindpuppet]

Who; Enis Edrin blindpuppet & You
What; Enis slowly transforming into a vampire.
Where; The Harbor District & The Cemetery & her home if you want to run into her at the set up prompt.
When; April 4th - April 22nd.
Warnings; Possible - body dysmorphia, blood, self harm, gun violence, murder of random by standard, crude behavior, triggering depressive thoughts.

[ooc: please contact me if you would like to thread with Enis during this time but also wish to avoid sensitive topics. It will be easy to do but can influence when and how she is found. I am happy to set up specific top levels and work with those interested in CR. I want us all to have fun! Enis has permissions here, you can contact me there or on plurk mizuyoko.]


It had been years since Enis had been allowed to dream. Each night, she’d close her eyes and let the soft whirl of spinning metal reverberate through her skeletal frame. At times, the absence was haunting but calm compared to the dreams that had plagued her waking hours over a decade before. Dreams had never been an escape and she didn’t miss them. Shutting down was enough… She was able to rest and release the feelings that would otherwise become an insidious disease.

In the past, she had been thankful that computers didn’t dream but her time living in the city was starting to change her mind.

Enis hadn’t been allowed her usual release. The nights plagued her, forcing her awake while the days droned on; long and lagging. It was easier when the clouds covered the sky but the days were getting depressingly brighter. The tired sleeplessness ached within every nerve but no matter how tired she was, she couldn’t sleep. Her father wouldn’t allow her rest and there was no reversing his curse.

She was going crazy.

Everything hurt.

Warning.

System reboot.

Systu-

- - - the cemetery - - -

It was two hours before sunrise when Enis wound her way back through the city streets towards the graveyard. The early mornings were perfect for collecting ingredients. Few people walked the streets and the darkness felt lighter despite its usual hushed shade. She would convince herself that didn’t need to sleep.

A pointed spasm pierced her temple and her vision blurred before immediately sharpening. The edges of the buildings became too clear as if a light was shining down from above and at the same time her vision doubled, outlining everything in a pulsing red glow. Enis placed her palms against her forehead to push back the pain but the phantom ache remained.

Warning.

“Shut up.” She growled to the empty street. She was nearly at the cemetery and there was a promised comfort to be hidden among the gravestones. All she had to do was make it that far.

Enis staggered forward with a hand out towards the building wall that lined the left side of the street. Her eyes were closed but it didn’t ease the irritation. There was a thundering steady beat echoing in her head that mirrored the steady calm heartbeat of another. It wasn’t her pulse. She could feel the blood in her vanes as her heart drummed at a frantic tempo.

She didn’t know how much time had passed but the ticking seconds felt like hours. Enis collapsed against one of the garnet stones, hoping to hide behind the tall visage of gray. She didn’t know what was going on but she knew that her father was to blame. She was out of time. There was no stopping the changes of his final failed experiment.

- - - the harbor - - -

Waves rose and crested over the wooden beams of the docks, birds called to the watery breeze while various citizens continued with their daily business. The noise grated against her senses as she slinked between the shadows to stay out of sight. Enis didn’t want to catch anyone’s attention and the dilapidated harbor was the perfect place to find shelter. She just needed time away from the sounds of the city to collect her thoughts but there were few places where she could find such a reprieve.

She wandered along backstreets and around the shady establishments that used the docks to shield its seed activity. Her path moved along a broken shipyard and then passed an abandoned ship that was labeled the Maiden's Mercy on its stern.

Her wondering stopped when her path reached as far as it would go without the risk of getting wet. A lighthouse stood at the coast, its empty light doing nothing to signal to the phantom ships that plagued the quay.

It was perfect.

Enis kicked the door and flinched when the loud crash echoed through the empty cylindrical tower. She hadn’t realized she had that much power nor did she have an interest in making her break-in obvious to an outside observer. She leaned the door back in place before slipping into the dark tower where she’d rest.

It was a dream but she heard the voice in her head.

Serum 85532.

Processing…

Error.

Data locked.

Processing…

Error.

Data locked.

Processing…

Corrupted data expunged.

Processing.

Base parameters updated.

A low groan escaped from Enis’s throat as she began to move. It had been days since she’d taken up residence in the lighthouse but the seclusion wasn’t helping. She felt weak but also uncontrollable power and the contradictions didn’t end there. It was as if every sense and nerve had been ripped raw and was now exposed to the world and its negligence.

She’d never felt like this before and as painful as it was, she couldn’t save herself.

Comments

The Lighthouse

[usestwohands]

He'd followed her from the Cemetery, keeping well away, allowing his infravision to lead him when the light was too dim to see by. His eyes shifted reflexively between the standard and IR spectrums and necessity dictated, and he kept downwind and to the shadows as he followed her. He'd seen the woman when he'd arrived, another resident of the building to which he'd been assigned, but she acted erratically, and even suspiciously as of late. She seemed unwell, truth be told, but she also seemed to have a secret she didn't want the others to find.

The lighthouse offered her seclusion, that much was true, but what was she up to? He'd have to risk a closer look of he was to get any answers, and that meant making his way to the roof of the house, near the pillar that raised the light above the bay, looking for an entry point, or a skylight.

He didn't anticipate the wood rot in the rafters and they buckled under his weight, light as he was, sending the ranger scrambling for a hold that gave way under his hands, and leaving him crashing into the room below.

The Lighthouse

[blindpuppet]

Enis pressed her back against the cool stone wall of the lighthouse and focused on controlling her vision. Her head constantly ached but little by little, the pain began to recede. It was the only indication that promised an improvement to her current state. After her vision had sharpened, the sounds came next. If it wasn't for the lighthouse's location, she would have been driven mad by the constant barrage of white noise.

It could smell better but she wasn't about to complain about it and who could she complain to.

Breath by breath, she had to focus and find her center again.

That was when the loud crash rang through her ears. Enis was on her feet in a second, moving faster than she'd ever moved before. Her handgun was in her palm, her finger balancing on the trigger as she walked towards the small living space that was attached to the lighthouse. She had thought that she'd be alone out here but she'd been wrong.

She slowed her breathing and listened while taking silent steps towards the door that connected her to the adjacent room. She could hear a heartbeat and animal or human, it was going to pay for interrupting her voluntary seclusion.

[usestwohands]

​Admittedly, he had a slower recovery than he normally would. Fragments of rotted wood dug into his ribs and he struggled to suck in a breath. Nothing was broken from what he could tell, but the fall had been farther than it had appeared and something he was thoroughly unprepared for.

He was only just pulling himself shakily to his feet as she approached and he pulled his hood down over his hair and ears out of reflex. He didn't know how this was going to go, but his air of surprise was past.

[blindpuppet]

The scene sharpened into view as Enis stepped into the room and pressed her shoulder blades against the wall. She didn't know what had fallen in on her solitude but she wasn't happy to be interrupted. She skillfully flicked the safety off the gun and rose it before her. She only saw the shadow of the figure before she shot. It wasn't meant to kill him but to send a warning.

Enis didn't want people following her or visitors and the only way he'd found her here was if he had been following her. If it was happenstance then this stranger was incredibly unlucky.

"Consider that a warning." Her voice was low and careful. She wasn't willing to show her own weakness by admitting that the wall was the only thing keeping her on her feet.

[usestwohands]

It was a searing, raging pain in his shoulder when the weapon, it was a weapon, in her hand barked, impossibly loud. He'd done his best to dodge, but he was incapable of teleportation which he noted in a sort of detached way would have made the event much more tolerable. He reached to his burning shoulder, feeling the warm flow of blood there between his fingers. Breathing heavily, he barely registered she'd spoken, took a moment to comprehend her words.

"A warning," he repeated. It was received, loudly and clearly. He moved to get his feet under himself, to stand, but stars burst behind his eyes when he closed them and he took a few more ragged breaths. He'd never known pain that swift or deep. "I will go." Or he would try, at least.

[blindpuppet]

Even in the dimly lit room, she could make out his features. He was close to her height but possibly shorter than her when standing side by side. His features were angular and his skin dark. He didn't look like any of the races that she was familiar with and while there was always a possibility that her data was lacking, Enis assumed that he was from another world.

Shit. Was he connected to others who had appeared in the city the same way she had?

Her mind was racing when the thick heady scent of blood filled her nose. It was to be expected but the desire it stirred within her was new. 'Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.' Thanks to this stranger she knew exactly what her father had done to her and she'd never been more terrified of the monster living inside of her.

Enis pushed her shoulders against the cold wall and growled as Drizzt staggered. "Leave now." Logically, she knew that he was trying to leave as fast as possible but it wasn't fast enough. Nothing was fast enough. Every nerve in her body hummed with an unfamiliar instinct.

Her voice lowered to a whisper. "Move as fast as you can... before we both regret it." Her throat ached to be cooled but she wasn't a monster. Enis refused to follow the path her father had laid out for her.

[usestwohands]

Similar instincts thrilled Drizzt's blood. He's existed in the lightless dark of the world for 20 years, surviving because he became as deadly a predator as those around him. He heard the warning edging her words and he took them to heart. His mind shouted run and his feet obeyed, discarding the pain in his shoulder as something to be handled when safety was found. He aimed for a window, for it was nearer than any other portal, and willed into existence two things to aid his escape without thinking of the consequences.

He raised a hand and a globe of absolute, impenetrable darkness dropped upon her, and then her head was consumed by heatless, harmless but exceptionally bright blue flame. He didn't know how much time it would buy him, but he hoped it was enough to be free of the window and away from the monster who wanted to devour him, and the biting weapon in her hand.

[blindpuppet]

It was nearly impossible to keep her back pressed against the concrete wall but her hesitation was all the man needed to plan his escape. At first she focused on the soft sounds of his steps and the movement of his shadow in the darkness but then her senses were cut off. There was darkness and then flame.

Enis screamed and buckled forward at the seemingly blinding light. It lasted only for a moment before she shook it off but that was all that was needed for her to loose site of the man who had come crashing through the ceiling.

The darkness spell remained but Enis didn't need to use her eyes to see. She felt the wall behind her and remembered where the door was. The soft echoing sounds of her steps told her hold far away each wall was as she walked back to the lighthouses main room. When she stepped out of the darkness she exhaled and collapsed to her hands and knees.

She couldn't keep going like this.