6:19:02 PM <•Antioch|GM> Last time, in Wichita, we found our protagonist Pearl triggering, on the run from her foster parents and realizing her childhood home had been demolished.
6:19:02 PM <•Antioch|GM> As she experiments with her power, she's horrified by it, arms launching outwards and trailing intertwining chains of entrails and viscera, then reeling her back in. She finds herself on a rooftop, looking over the precipice, attempting to try the same maneuver with her feet to get back onto ground level.
6:19:04 PM <•Antioch|GM> ...
6:20:42 PM <•Antioch|GM> Pearl grabs the gutter of the roof and imagines kicking out, launching her feet onto the sidewalk and reeling herself back down to the floor.
6:20:42 PM <•Antioch|GM> It happens much as she imagines it, and she lands beside the road without any trouble, even though she's still not used to the fact that intestines, tendons, and other bloody bits of flesh are entering and exiting temporary stumps in her body every time she uses this power. ||
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6:23:20 PM <•Divock|Pearl> ...
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6:28:20 PM <•Divock|Pearl> "Whoa..." she staggers a bit, though only in shock at the situation. She rubs her arms and legs, feeling to see how sensitive they are given their...new augments. Then, the thought of the park reenters her mind, and though she didn't see it earlier, she tries to head in same direction she ran before.
6:28:26 PM <•Divock|Pearl> ||
6:31:58 PM <•Antioch|GM> Her arms and legs feel... fine. They certainly don't feel like they contain an untold amount of tangling bloody guts and ribbons of flesh ready to burst forth at her command at any minute.
6:31:58 PM <•Antioch|GM> She heads down the block towards the park, hoping to find it. It's a quiet neighborhood, close enough to walk to school from -- but that didn't last long, not when homeschooling was so much better. ||
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6:33:39 PM <•Divock|Pearl> Pearl tries to see if she recognizes any major landmarks, and looks to see if her foster parents are following her.
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6:36:07 PM <•Divock|Pearl> ||
6:36:30 PM <•Antioch|GM> ((Wits (Awareness) check.))
6:36:47 PM <•Divock|Pearl> $roll 1d6
6:36:47 PM <•[ATM]> Divock|Pearl [1] = 1
6:38:57 PM <•Antioch|GM> She doesn't remember much of what lies beyond her house. Her mom used to walk her to school, back before she decided homeschooling was better for the both of them, and before her health started to falter.
6:38:57 PM <•Antioch|GM> She looks over her shoulder nervously every few steps, but if someone's tailing her, she can't tell.
6:38:57 PM <•Antioch|GM> Smallish houses with front yards in various states of needing trimming, a few cars parked in driveways or along the road, some bins of garbage wheeled to the curb... nothing's ringing a bell, for her. It's a miracle she even made it back to her old, demolished house. ||
6:41:31 PM <•Divock|Pearl> ...
6:48:28 PM <•Divock|Pearl> She feels mixed feelings upon arriving back at the lot. She’s no longer lost in the big world at the moment, but, figuratively, she still has nowhere to go. Nowhere familiar to run to, nowhere safe to hide in.
6:52:21 PM <•Divock|Pearl> only sense of security comes from this power she now has. She felt like a new her, well, as new as a horrifying visage as she could feel. She sits on the ground, trying to retreat into the same feeling she had when she ran, to see what it urges her to do.
6:52:23 PM <•Divock|Pearl> ||
6:57:40 PM <•Antioch|GM> Whatever feeling she had then, it's offering her no guidance now. The empty lot offers no comfort, simply serving as a reminder that her last refuge is gone.
6:57:40 PM <•Antioch|GM> It takes her too long to notice the car approaching from down the street, only brought to her attention when the driver's door is shut.
6:57:40 PM <•Antioch|GM> A woman steps out, blue-bloused and wearing a pair of slacks. Not her temporary foster family, but her handler from child services.
6:57:40 PM <•Antioch|GM> "Pearl?" she says, sounding relieved. ||
7:01:05 PM <•Divock|Pearl> ...
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7:10:52 PM <•Divock|Pearl> Pearl looks up, the sight of her handler instilling instinctive fear within her, fear of someone she doesn't know, doesn't WANT to know.
7:11:50 PM ↔ ExecuteDumbo popped in
7:13:17 PM <•Divock|Pearl> She backs away from her, not wanting to return to where she ran from.
7:13:21 PM <•Divock|Pearl> "Go away!"
7:13:23 PM <•Divock|Pearl> ||
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7:18:47 PM <•Antioch|GM> "I thought I'd find you here," she says sadly, walking closer and crouching to attempt to meet Pearl's eyes.
7:18:47 PM <•Antioch|GM> "Honey, what's wrong? You've made Mr. and Mrs. Kornegay very worried about you." ||
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7:27:59 PM <•Divock|Pearl> ...
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7:35:28 PM <•Divock|Pearl> "I don't wanna go back." Pearl withdraws, clutching her knees tighter. “I hate them.” She looks up and sees the handler close, and she reacts, attempting to push the handler away, with a little bit of instinctual power taking over.
7:36:10 PM <•Divock|Pearl> "Leave me alone!" she shrieks.
7:42:29 PM <•Divock|Pearl> ||
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7:47:10 PM <•Antioch|GM> She pushes at her handler weakly, throwing a fit, but her power doesn't go off. In the midst of the tantrum she's throwing, she realizes that her power needs a destination, not a target. She can place... waypoints, she thinks, searching for the right words. The faint impression of a destination on the roof is still in her mind.
7:47:10 PM <•Antioch|GM> "Shh, shh, Pearl," her handler says, ignoring the light barrage of child-sized pushes, "it's okay. It's only for a little longer. You'll be living with your own family, soon." ||
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7:59:17 PM <•Divock|Pearl> She cringes at the thought of having to live with her cousin, someone she knows hates her. She squirms away and looks around for somewhere to latch on to. ||
8:01:58 PM <•Antioch|GM> The impression of a destination on the roof, and, as she things about it, the bottom of the light pole across the street, still exist in her mind. She could latch on to one or find a new one. There's a faint thrum coming from the extant waypoints.
8:01:58 PM <•Antioch|GM> "Come with me, OK?" she asks. "I bet you're feeling tired and hungry. Do you want to get a bite to eat?" ||
8:07:22 PM <•Divock|Pearl> As much as Pearl wants to run, she has nowhere to go. But a thought occurs to her, will the foster home want to deal with her if they know what she is?
8:09:16 PM <•Divock|Pearl> She looks at her hands, then her feet, and stands up.
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8:12:17 PM <•Divock|Pearl> She nods before looking towards the nearest roof, taking her time to look back at the handler and make sure she sees the entrails streaming out of her, before shooting herself to the rooftop
8:12:26 PM <•Divock|Pearl> ||
8:13:20 PM <•Antioch|GM> She launches herself to the roof, hands reaching out and snagging the gutter, wrenching her skyward once again.
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8:13:52 PM <•Antioch|GM> From below, she can hear a faint "Oh God!", followed by running feet.
8:14:13 PM <•Antioch|GM> Below her, her handler is running towards the roof, her flats unsuited for sprinting.
8:14:52 PM <•Antioch|GM> "Pearl! I didn't know! There are people who can help you!"
8:15:42 PM <•Antioch|GM> Atop the roof, she feels the thrumming more strongly. A string between the waypoint on the roof and the lightpole, vibrating. A string waiting to be plucked. ||
8:22:47 PM <•Divock|Pearl> Pearl looks down at her handler, and then at the lightpole. Ultimately, the fear of everything starts to buckle down on her. Giving herself to her shard, she reaches towards the 'string', and lets herself go toward the lightpole.
8:22:48 PM <•Divock|Pearl> ||
8:24:50 PM <•Antioch|GM> There's a distinct difference in the sensation of targeting the lightpole and plucking the string between the two waypoints. Pearl pauses, confronted with the choice as her handler approaches. ||
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8:33:19 PM <•Divock|Pearl> Pearl tries to pluck the string, a curious urge driving her. "What have I got to lose?"
8:33:39 PM <•Divock|Pearl> she thinks
8:33:41 PM <•Divock|Pearl> ||
8:37:39 PM <•Antioch|GM> Bloody chains and muscle tendons and long strands of flesh erupt from both waypoints, knitting themselves together as they meet.
8:38:03 PM <•Antioch|GM> A wall of flesh bars Pearl's child services handler, who screams in horror.
8:38:42 PM <•Antioch|GM> ** bars the way of
8:39:21 PM <•Antioch|GM> The scream is echoed with a backdrop of muffled whimpering and sobbing, seemingly coming from the wall and chains themselves. ||
8:49:15 PM <•Divock|Pearl> Pearl, nearly slipping off the roof, loses her footing and falls to a staggered position. She stares at the amalgamation of guts and innards and her nausea from earlier begins to return again. She tries to speak but nothing comes out but a scream of her own.
8:50:31 PM <•Divock|Pearl> Frantic though she may be, she tries to find the string again, in the hopes of retracting this, 'wall of flesh'.
8:51:49 PM <•Divock|Pearl> ||
8:53:04 PM <•Antioch|GM> Almost as quickly as it appeared, the flesh retracts back into the ground, seemingly into nowhere.
8:54:36 PM <•Antioch|GM> The wailing and whimpering fades as the bloody wall sucks into the roof waypoint, with nauseating, sloppy until it vanishes.
8:54:59 PM <•Antioch|GM> The only screaming that remains is the handler's, who is running down the street and back into her car. ||
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9:03:13 PM <•Divock|Pearl> Pearl's breathing begins to calm, though the constant screaming is what brings her fully back to her senses
9:04:54 PM <•Divock|Pearl> Realizing the kind of scene she must have made, now regretting her impulsive actions, she quickly tries to leave the roof, ejecting her feet to try and land safely.
9:04:58 PM <•Divock|Pearl> ||
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9:06:25 PM <•Antioch|GM> She targets a waypoint on another roof and launches her feet towards it, then again, and again, and again.
9:06:57 PM <•Antioch|GM> She doesn't know where she's going, she doesn't know if there's anywhere to run to, but she runs anyways.
9:06:59 PM <•Antioch|GM> ||||