Atrophy

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

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^{And Billy!}
_{@Surtr Inc@He Who Walks Behind@Prosaic@FernStone@Mike73}

The Reid Farmhouse - Outside to Main House

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“What do you think I’m doing?” said Penny with an unnecessary snippiness to her voice. She turned her back towards the group and concentrated. It was easier to connect to Billy than it was before. So Britney had been right about that after all, although that only begged the question of how Britney knew about their telekinetic link in the first place. A concern for another time. The words formed in her mind, and she felt herself sending them over to Billy, “We’re trying to find our way into some creepy ass secret tunnels to reach you guys. What’s the sitch over there?'

“Holy shit, don’t do that. Not yet, at least. Lynette’s about to smoke out all of the bugs.”

“Shit,” growled Penny. She turned to see Rita reaching for the shelf. “Hey! Don’t touch that.”

The commanding voice made Rita freeze in place, her eyes popping open wide and her cheeks sucking in as if she had been caught red handed. Slowly her eyebrows lowered and she shot Penny a quizzical look, her left hand still resting on the side of the shelf. Faintly, it glowed. “Why not?”

“Why not? Because Lynette’s about to use one of her witchy glyphs to smoke out the tunnels and because I freaking said so,” said Penny, a slightly confused look crossing her face as she finished her sentence. She hadn’t intended to include that last part; the stress of the situation was clearly beginning to wear on her already slim patience.

“Unless one of you can materialize oxygen masks we’re gonna be stuck here for a moment. Which...can you?” She looked around at the group and frowned. “I have a general idea of what those chucklefucks can do,” she gestured towards Britney, Justin, and Claire, “but I don’t know shit about the rest of your Abstractions. Whaddya got?”

“I-I-I, um, I got nothing, sorry!” said Rita, her voice quaking as she quickly turned away, but not before giving Martin a quick, pleading look. It wasn’t very smooth. If he gave her away, she doubted any of the others would ever feel comfortable talking to her again. Not that she felt like any of them wanted to, let alone even enjoyed, talking to her in the first place. She pretended to find something interesting on the shelf and picked up a dusty piece of junk, turning it over in her hands to avoid having to make eye contact with anyone else.

“Awesome. Great. Why even talk?” asked Penny, letting out a deep, frustrated sigh. “Anyone else?”

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

@Surtr IncBro you know I can't read.

(Went ahead and edited that bit.)

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

@Surtr IncMan you ain't gotta wait for shit.

Phoned it in with that post, but wanted to keep things moving.

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

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_{@Surtr Inc@He Who Walks Behind@Prosaic@FernStone@Mike73}

The Reid Farmhouse - Outside to Main House

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“They came in through some tunnel. There was a hidden hatch,” said Penny before the bugs had crept through their half-assed defenses. Penny triggered her aura, projecting the trajectory of the insects that were flying towards her and readying herself to begin blasting as many away once they entered within her range. However, they never got close enough. A flash of light rippled throughout the house and then the buzzing stopped, the bugs frozen in mid-air. Penny killed her aura and raised an eyebrow, looking around at their group. Had that been one of them?

Rita joined up with Tuyen, taking advantage of the pause to swat away as many bugs as she possibly could. When the others suggested the basement, she drew upon the conclusion that they were all hoping for, “If there’s a tunnel from the barn to the garage, then maybe there’s one from the house to the garage.”

“Only one way to find out,” said Penny, moving towards the basement. “Claire, you’re a big girl, why don’t you drag Justin downstairs?”

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_{@Surtr Inc@FernStone@Zombiedude101@Majoras End@Prosaic}

The Reid Farmhouse - Garage

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“How about some bug zappers and a fly swatter?” suggested Billy when Rien mentioned their Abstraction, brushing an escaping bug off of his shoulder. Then, he turned to Lynette to address her question. “I think I can somehow telepathically talk with Penny, but that’s about it. She’s with Britney and the others in the house. I can maybe pass along a message, but that’s about it.”

“Anyway, could we talk about this fire idea? If it gets out of hand we’ll all kind of be screwed.”

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

Meanwhile, we gonna get down on Friday.

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

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_{@Surtr Inc@He Who Walks Behind@Prosaic@FernStone@Mike73}

The Reid Farmhouse - Outside to Main House

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The newcomer was freaking out? Penny was freaking out. She wasn’t necessarily afraid of bugs, but the concept of being devoured alive by a swarm of creepy crawlers did not rank highly on the list of her ways to go. She put her hands on her temples, closed her eyes, and tried to think of some kind of means of escape, but everything came back to “kill it with fire” and with Justin, thankfully alive but out cold, that was a play they could not make. She bit down on her lip hard, her eyes shooting open and giving Britney a look of disgust as the other girl put a hand on her shoulder. Penny quickly shrugged her hand away, but she listened as her former friend instructed her to try and reach out to Billy.

“What’s that bum going to do?” asked Penny with a snip in her voice. “It’s your shitty ideas that got us here in the first place.”

Her words were harsh and rang with truth, but the look of concern that flashed across her face when Britney mentioned that her brother might be in danger was proof enough that Penny was willing to try the absurd suggestion. She had already lost one brother in her lifetime—lost, but not dead, she reminded herself—and she knew that losing Billy, even with her low opinion of him that bordered on outright hatred, would completely crush her. She bumped past Britney and took a seat on the stairs, bringing her knees up to her chin as she closed her eyes. She had to find a way to reach him. But how? And what would she even say?

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_{@Surtr Inc@FernStone@Zombiedude101@Majoras End}

The Reid Farmhouse - Garage

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Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit. This had gone beyond a fun times, breaking-and-entering, Hardy Boys-esque investigation and dove straight into nightmare territory. Not only were they now creeping around the garage of a potential serial killer, but they had just witnessed some nightmare construct assault their friends before the sky turned dark with bloodthirsty insects. As the others helped Maddied seal up the garage Billy rampaged through the shelves, looking for repellent, tiki torches, a bug zapper, literally anything despite knowing that such an item would be way too little to ward off a swarm so large. He was knocking over a bunch of empty paint cans when a banging came from the floor, followed Hagan shouting.

Jordan called for help, and he joined with Kimberly as they began shoving the tools away from the secret hatch in the floor. Even after the tools were removed the door did not budge, but taking a cue from Jordan’s playbook Billy grabbed the crowbar and pried open the locked hatch with a pop. Never in his life did Billy think he’d be relieved to see Hagan, but he did not have a chance to help the big guy up—or even notice that Aliana had been cloaking them—before he heard Penny’s voice as she yelled: “Billy, you fucking asshole, if you’re dead already I am so going to kill you!”

He backed away from the hatch, looking wild-eyed across the darkened garage. Her voice did not come from the hole in the ground, nor had she snuck into the garage with Maddie. He had even seen her run to the house. “Did y’all hear Penny?” he asked, receiving zero indication that any of the others had. There was no possible way they could’ve; even if she had screamed it from the house, there was no way it would’ve been heard over the swarm. It was as if the voice had only been inside of his head, which was alarming in its own right.

“Son of a bitch, are you seriously going to just ignore me?”

“Penny? Penny?” he said out loud. “What the hell’s going on?”

“Billy, goddamnit, if you’re still alive let me know. C’mon you big idiot. Answer me.”

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_{@Surtr Inc@He Who Walks Behind@Prosaic@FernStone@Mike73}

The Reid Farmhouse - Outside to Main House

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“I’m not an idiot!”

Penny jumped up from the stairs. She had heard Billy’s voice in her head. She turned towards Britney, a stunned look on her face. How did she know that was going to work? How did that even work? Penny composed herself and, shouting over the swarm, let Britney know that she had gotten through. She paced back and forth in front of the stairs, trying to keep up mental conversation with her brother.

“Yes you are but that’s beside the point. Are you hurt? Is everyone with you okay?” she thought.

“We’re fine, I think. The barn kids found a way to meet up with us. How are you doing this?”

“How would I know? I just am.”

“Oh, great. Well, now what?” he asked.

It was a good question.

“They’re all together,” said Penny to Britney. “Now what?”

| Glimhollow | a Tale of Dust and Dissent

I'm digging this idea.

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

Bad news: My weekend plans got cancelled and I lost $80.

Worse news: I wrote a post. Garage gang one will becoming later after some hate drinking.

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

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_{@Surtr Inc}

The Reid Farmhouse - Outside to Main House

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Penny had been caught off-guard when the abomination had attacked Justin. She had drifted away from the others, largely to keep herself out of earshot of Claire’s grating voice, but when the being that was all tendrils and nightmares had latched itself onto Justin she had broken into a sprint towards the fight. Her body felt like it was on fire as she ran—she was still exhausted from her scrap with Scott earlier that day—and she shouted in distress as she watched the thing throw Claire through the air and into a car windshield like a rag doll. She didn’t like O’Sullivan, but she didn’t want the girl to be killed. Fortunately, Claire was still moving. Unfortunately, the creature had already closed the gap between itself and its target, the girl whose car Claire’s body had ruined, and was entangling her hard. Penny cursed; she couldn’t risk taking a shot without hitting the girl.

Britney, however, had more control over her Abstraction. It vanished as a spear punctured through its chest, but none of them had any chance to breathe a sigh of relief as buzzing filled the air. Penny turned her head to witness insects blotting out the sky like a plague of Egypt. She might’ve been able to swat a few bothersome flies out of the air with her power, but there was no way in hell that she would be able to react fast enough to punch a hole in something that massive. She bolted with the others towards the house, nearly colliding with the mousy girl dressed like an old professor as she crashed through the entrance.

“What’s happening?” asked Rita with a shaking voice. She had caught glimpses of the fight through the blinds of the study, but had not been able to witness the entire thing.

“Giant fucking swarm of pissed off insects hellbent on devouring us like crops,” snapped Penny, punching her fist against the wall. She had witnessed Andrea swallowed up by the swarm, but couldn’t have done anything to help her without being eaten alive herself. Britney had said something about the new girl controlling the swarm. The blonde girl turned on her heels and yelled at her former friend, “Why don’t you wake that bitch up and tell her to stop?”

Meanwhile, Rita followed Britney’s instructions and shut up the window in the living room that she had crawled through. She noted the open fireplace with concern and slid shut the gate, hoping the mesh was too small for any creepy crawlers to squeeze through. She could see the light outside fade away as the swarm descended on the house; they were running out of time. There was no time to panic. Barricades, she had to look for barricades. The coffee table would help board up one of the windows, but it was way too large for her to move it herself. She poked her head into the hall.

“Someone give me a hand! It’s too heavy.”

Penny, despite her protesting, had also gone to work by smashing the entrance mat up against threshold of the door and pinning it into the wall to act like a net to prevent the insects from slithering inside with a handful of pencils and her Abstraction. When Rita shouted she obliged the girl, following her into the living room. The two of them struggled to flip up the table and press it against the wall as they heard the sound of hundreds, if not thousands, of tiny bodies throwing themselves against the glass to get in.

“There’s windows in the study,” said Rita. “We gotta get those next.”

The two hurried over to the room in unison; Penny blasted the computer off of the desk before they stood it upright and pushed it against the window that had been blotted out by bugs. Penny felt her muscles scream with agony, and as Rita darted off to look for any potential breaches in the kitchen Penny caught herself on the door frame of the study before she stumbled and fell. She tried to stand up straight, but all she managed to do was twist her face into a look of agonizing pain and withhold a stream of curses. She buried her face into her elbow and took a deep breath.

“How’s Justin? Breathing?” she said, shouting to Claire over the swarm. She wasn’t just worried about the guy. It would have been nice to have someone who could torch the insects once they slipped through the cracks.

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

I'mma be stuck outta town this weekend. Should post Monday night.