Atrophy

Recollections: The Othergrounds [Complete]

What happended to King's awesome blue hair?

@Ratattack

SAVE THESE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS FOR THE IC.

Recollections: The Coven [COMPLETED]

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The pitter-patter of raindrops on Vashti’s black umbrella was drowned out by the thump of the bass that escaped through a pair of pricey noise-cancelling headphones. She hummed along with the melody as her sneakers splashed through a muddy puddle as she crossed the street. Today was supposed to be a sunny day according to the weatherman, which was why Vashti brought along her umbrella. Her life motto was Chaos Rules Everything Around Me and the sudden appearance of gray clouds and torrential showers continued to validate that life choice. However, as she passed by the old shirtless men in jean shorts and their pencil thin, leather-skinned wives running for awnings to seek shelter from the storm, Vashti couldn’t help but think of the real possibility that she had caused the rain. While improbable, it was possible that the act of her grabbing an umbrella was the catalyst needed to spark a summer shower.

It was a ridiculous belief, of course, but Vashti was a girl fueled by believing in the absurd. Bigfoots were real, aliens built the pyramids, and the government was controlled by the New World Order. Umbrellas, in particular, were quite ornery, especially when opened; in doors it spelled bad luck, in Dealey Plaza it signaled a fatal shot. Vashti had to be more careful. Sometimes it was better to get wet than to draw suspicion. The fine old men and old women of Florida had been giving her the evil eye the entire time she’d been walking with the umbrella before the rain came. Certainly it was the umbrella, not the hijab or the heavy wool coat in the blistering heat, that caused the withering denizens of Florida to glare. Still, they’d stare even more if she had taken those articles of clothing off. Sometimes it was better to draw suspicion than to straight up incite a panic.

However, now that there was no sign of the rain letting up there were very few sun-dried WASPs out and about to even notice Vashti. The trailer parks and cheap retirement centers of outer Tampa faded into dilapidated strip malls with boarded up storefronts for Froyo joints, hookah bars, and cell phone repair shops. It was the sad part of town, the dying sprawl where only meth heads and Florida Mans, often one in the same, dared to stay. Vashti normally wouldn’t dare to tread on what was practically a nature reservation for dumbasses, but being trapped in a rideshare with her current circumstances sounded like an awful idea. Thankfully, the rain kept the junkies away and Vashti was free to march through their turf to what could quite possibly be much more dangerous territory.

While she trusted Kimberly Walton with her life (despite being an absolute stranger, Vashti had been a super fan of the girl’s webseries which basically meant they were secret BFFs), she was still a bit apprehensive about joining up with a bunch of Internet witches. It was a justified suspicion, considering the last Internet stranger she met with turned into that thing, and one she tried to shove out of her mind with bright, sugary pop music and fantasies of all the fun she’d have with the Coven. She’d be hanging out with her girls telling fortunes and making charms; it’d be like the good days of school all over again before everyone started to think those things were childish. Yeah, it’d be a good time. No, scratch that, a great time. The best time. This is gonna be awesome, she thought to herself as she stepped out into the street.

The blaring of the horn was so loud that she could hear it through her headphones. Vashti whipped her head so fast that she felt dizzy, the shape of the giant truck just a blur. However, the headlights were a dead giveaway and she jumped back to the curb. Her foot caught it wrong, and a torrent of pain shot through her body as she crashed down on her tailbone. The force of the hit made her lose her grip on her umbrella, and her headphones took her headscarf with them as they plunged off of her head onto the ground. “Awesome,” said Vasthi as she lifted up the drenched headphones. A little water damage wouldn’t hu—the vehicle and a few other black cars with sirens flashing buzzed by her and drenched her with a tidal wave of street water, leaving her mouth agape.

Her umbrella was gone, caught by the wind and trampled underneath the lead vehicle. Her headphones were destroyed, water digging down deep inside of them to drown out the sound of bubblegum pop. Her clothes were soaked, her ass hurt, her hair was ruined, and she was absolutely shaking. She could’ve been killed, smeared across the street like shit on a shoe and left to be picked apart by a pack of wild animals. Asshole Florida drivers like that didn’t stop. She reached down to grab her headscarf. Her hands were trembling as she wrung it out and draped it over herself. Her heart was racing in her chest. She swallowed and looked around in a slight panic, trying to find a way to center herself. She had been shocked by the near hit, but she wasn’t shaking because she had been scared. Rather, she was shaking with an absolutely uncontrollable

^RAGE.

No, no, nonono, not now, thought Vashti. She could feel it stirring to get out, and she knew there were only moments before the Leviathan was unleashed. She hadn’t realized it, but she had been running after the truck. Vashti forced herself to stop. The good thing was she couldn’t see it anymore, so it was easy to shift her eyes onto something else. Only there wasn’t anything around but dead buildings and dead highways. She glared up at the gray clouds as the rain splashed onto her face. Vashti squeezed her eyes shut tight. The sound of rain on pavement wrapped itself around her. Unlike the bubblegum pop, it was real, authentic. Peaceful, even. A relaxing shower, sent to her by mother nature. She let it wash away her anger as she counted back from twenty. The threat was gone, let it go.

Slowly, she lowered her head and opened one eye. Part of her felt like she’d see the smouldering remains of the police truck, but to her relief she hadn’t moved. She let out a deep, relaxed breath. She had gotten lucky that the driver didn’t stop. If they did, she doubted she would’ve been able to pull her focus away from what the Leviathan had perceived as a threat. She took another deep breath and did another count, just to be certain. Nothing stirred inside of her. Good. Good. Everything was good. She continued on down the road to the Lucky Strikes Casino, the rain hardly bothering her. She’d swam in so many rivers the past week that being soaked from head to toe was becoming the new normal.

She could see the Lucky Strikes Casino coming up over the horizon now. The road curved the long way around it, so she opted for a shortcut. Vashti cut through an overgrown field, hopped down into a stream (like it mattered, she was already soaked), and swam to the otherside. It was as she was trudging up the muddy bank of the stream that she heard it: the blaring of that horn again. Her eyes grew wide, the gray clouds above darkened, and a guttural roar erupted from the pit of her stomach to answer the challenge of the horn. Vashti clapped a hand over her mouth as she lurched forward, her muscles tightening as she fell to the ground and convulsed in the mud. Too many teeth split her face in two as she howled while her soft flesh shifted to hard scales. A giant tail ripped through her trousers, and Vashti’s last coherent thought as she sunk deep into the pool of her mind was that maybe she should switch to dresses. A meaty claw gripped the edge of the bank and pulled itself up, accompanied by the stock castle thunderclap of an old horror movie.

The Leviathan was here.

---

---

And things were about to get fucked.

The Leviathan stood up from the bank to its full height. Five foot fucking five, the pennacle of heights. Never had there been a taller lizard. She moved forward with the lithe grace of a drunken toddler. Land was fucking stupid. It existed only for scared bitches to hide from the Leviathan. Stupid metal elephant was so afraid of the Leviathan that its legs turned into circles so it could run faster on the land. Didn’t matter. She’d find it, rip its loud ass snout off, and beat it to death with it. Take one of its round legs as a trophy. Put it on a spike, set it outside of her lair as a fucking warning to any other metal elephants around to not fuck with her. The Leviathan was Queen of the water and the land. Stupid idiots just didn’t know it yet.

She’d teach ‘em today.

But walking was the worst! A dumb invention for dumb bitches. Necessary only to teach the filth of Florida land their place.. Each step brought forth new fountains of hatred that served as fuel to keep the Leviathan pressing onward through the reedy field of mud and trash. Above, heaven applauded her efforts with another rumble and boom. She dropped to all fours. Faster, although not significantly, and sneakier, although not really with that tail thrashing through the reeds. Not like it mattered. Metal elephants were dumb and couldn’t see through her camouflage.

The Leviathan perched at the reeds at the edge of the parking lot, covered in a muddy and tattered outfit too expensive to be purchased on an apparition’s salary. The Leviathan liked the clothes. Regal. Fit for a fucking Queen. The primates hadn’t noticed her approach, too busy dragging around weaker primates. Typical behavior of a dumb, stupid inferior species of idiots. She snorted. If they wouldn’t announce her appearance with their awe and respect then she’d trumpet herself. The primates would shit their fucking pants.The metal elephant started to move and raised its voice as it rolled away from the primates. The Leviathan waited for it to close in on the reeds, and then roared as it leapt at its target.

Immediately it was pure, wonderful chaos.

As it jumped, the Leviathan whipped around its powerful tail and smashed it right into the face of the metal elephant or, rather, the front grill of the FBI command truck. The truck came to a sliding halt as the front of it crumpled around the Leviathan. The monstrous apparition freed itself from the “elephant’s” powerful jaws by tearing at it with its claws, absolutely turning the smashed hood into ribbons as it cut out the heart of its foe. Triumphantly raising the engine block over its head with a victorious roar, the Leviathan soon lost interest in its kill or the terrified primate trapped inside of it. Prize in hand, the Leviathan lumbered over to a nearby sewer drain, kicked it open, and jumped in like an overgrown, irradiated turtle trained in the art of ninjutsu before anybody could even be certain of what the fuck had actually just happened.

Recollections: The Coven [COMPLETED]

I didn't know the FBI was hiring discount emos with scene haircuts.

@JunkMail

Maybe that kind of shit would cut it with the CIA, but the FBI? Come on!

Recollections: The Othergrounds [Complete]

Penny Lawson

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"Nothing ever stays in my way."

[ 21 | 5’7” | Norwegian/Welsh | She/Her | 130 lbs ]

[The Stranger Who Pushes Back What They Seek]

APPEARANCE

"There's nothing wrong with looking as good as you feel."

Penny has a lean, athletic build. Her skin is no longer over-saturated in foundation and bottled tanners, allowing an array of sun-baked freckles to blossom on her lightly tanned skin. She keeps most of her makeup limited to her dark lips and her blue eyes, or so she claims. Likewise, her smile has definitely always been this white and was not treated with any kind of product. Penny has slight muscle definition and even slighter curves. Her right arm is covered in a sleeve of flowery tattoos and her left inner forearm hides a tattoo of a wand surrounded by roses. A tattoo of two interlocked rhombuses is just below her collarbone and another tattoo of a runic glyph is between her breasts.

Her style is heavily-lifted from fashion blogs that some would turn their noses up at and scoff at as “basic”. She typically wears something along the lines of long tops that fall mid-hip over dark jeans or leggings and some kind of boots. Her blonde hair is still dyed a few shades lighter than its natural color, and she keeps it in a loose braid that falls just below her shoulders. Penny carries a brown leather messenger bag slung over her shoulder that is chocked full of seemingly innocuous school supplies and loose change.

Penny comes off as confident to the point of cockiness and moves with a kind of hurried impatience. It's rare to see her not toying with something in her right hand. Her voice is high pitched and exhausting, both in the sense that she sounds as if she’s almost out of breath and it can be tiresome to hear her speak. She stands with her pointed chin held high and her eyes on constant overwatch, with her other hand always resting near the latch of her bag like a gunslinger stepping out into the street at high noon.

OTHER

"What else do you need? I'm pretty much incredible."

Recollections: The Othergrounds [Complete]

Anothergrounds.

R E D U X .// 2047 //.

“He better get me something,” said Maysah as Arbiter ordered her to sit tight and then jetted off towards the bar. She flashed an annoyed glance over at Alex. The Tower had found himself a nice wall to hold up and his eyes were too busy doing ocular pat downs to catch her exchange. Arbiter returned with just one mug, which he had emptied before even sitting down at the table. Maysah gave him a look of murderous intent. If he was going to drag them into an underworld bar in the middle of the night after someone dropped a literal bomb on them, then he could at the very least buy a lady a drink.

She leaned back in her chair and let the two fellows chum it up with one another. Patch guessed that they were supers, and before Maysah could deny it Arbiter already spoke up for them. Fine. It didn’t matter if he knew they were superpowered individuals, but if he knew which ones they were. She listened as Peterson offered them information in return for a criminal favor. A rueful smile crossed her face at the reveal that they were being asked to go up against a corporation. Going up against corporations had been what burnt Stardust in the first place, but back then she could at least take a moralistic high ground on her actions. Now, it sounded like she’d be going after one “legitimate” criminal organization to benefit another illegitimate criminal organization. Hardly a prideworthy job.

“It would’ve been rude to interrupt,” said Maysah as Patch called Arbiter out for talking for them, smirking at his ability to get a rise out of Arbiter. She turned to her irritated chauffeur, “But I don’t even know why you bother to ask. I’m no merc, but my decision has been made since Cedar Fort.”

“Although, this doesn’t sound like a fair deal,” she said to Peterson. “You said it yourself, the information we’re getting you could topple corporations...but it never would be used for that, would it? Much smarter to extort them and keep a nice steady flow of hush money then to blow the whistle and get nothing but branded with stigmata for the rest of your career. Regardless, if you aren’t willing to tease us with a few of those whispers you heard about the warehouse now, couldn’t you at least buy us a meal, rent us a suitable place to stay, and get us some fresh clothes so we aren’t instantly pegged as a bunch of out-of-town super assholes the moment we walk out into the streets?”

Recollections: The Othergrounds [Complete]

@Ratattack That's the other othergrounds.

Recollections: The Coven [COMPLETED]

Vashti Nour

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"Get this, ‘Florida Man Blames Reptilians, Paragon Labcorp For Missing Cat.’ This state is full of whackos, bro! Reptilians are too busy to steal cats."

[ 20 | 5’5” | Persian | She/Her | 130 lbs]

[Wayward]

APPEARANCE

“And I once thought I was a sideshow attraction back in middle school just because of a little acne..."

Vashti is an animated girl composed of bouncy steps and swinging arms. Her voice is musical and bubbly. Her modest build is hidden in slightly oversized layers of dark, conservative clothing and a loose headscarf. She claims that she wears so much just because she’s always freezing, joking that she must be cold-blooded. What skin she shows is a rich, olive tone. Her outfits, while simplistic, are almost entirely from pricey, name-brand designers, and Vashti seems to have an expensive watch for every day of the week.

However, Vashti is hiding a number of secrets under her layers of clothing. She was cursed, and her curse has left her with several physical deformities that’d instantly make head turns if noticed in public. Her knuckles are visibly dried and cracked, but past her wrist her dry skin begins to transition into dark gray scales that transition back to normal just beyond her front shoulders. The scales are more abundant on her backside, coming from a point at the top of her spinal cord before flaring out to her arms then tapering to the small of her back. Her feet are webbed between the second and third toe and she has a small, vestigial tail that makes it uncomfortable to sit in certain chairs. Whatever has happened to her, it’s going to ruin any beach days from here on out.

Luckily, her face is relatively unchanged. She wears a light amount of makeup that accentuates her dark features and spends a small fortune on product to fight back the frizz from taking control of her black, curly hair. Her eyes are so dark it's difficult to see the pupil, her eyebrows are full, and her face is overly animated and prone to express her true feelings. Despite appearing “normal” from the neck up, there are still a few things off about Vashti’s face. Noticeably, when her eyes hit a certain light her pupils appear slitted, she seems to have a few extra canine teeth in her mouth, and if she brushes back her hair the outer part of her ears are practically nubs.

PSYCHOLOGY

"I want to believe that impulses are just the act of people choosing to give in to their lizard brain. We can all try to be better."

MAIN GOAL ⫻ Vashti would rather be in control of her curse than be cured of it. That power is now a part of her, and she can’t just throw it away. She’ll tame her wild side so that only she is in charge of when it gets unleashed.

^Survive.

WHAT THEY WANT OUT OF THE COVEN ⫻ Security. Until she has utterly dominated her impulses, Vashti wants to be around people who will at least believe what she is going through. Ideally, she believes they’d help keep her from letting go, or at the very least steer her in the right direction when she does.

^Escape.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Watching your own back is a great way to run face first into a wall; watching someone else’s back lets you see it coming. Community is more important than the individual—to a point.

^Fight.

SECRETS ⫻ Vashti is a pretty huge conspiracy theorist and occultist, and even before her induction into the Extra-Normal world had a serious belief in ghosts, demons, and bigfoots. She tries to keep the tin foil hat away from new acquaintances.

More importantly, there’s her curse. It’s a little more involved than some dry skin and a few deformities, but she doesn’t openly talk about that part to just anyone.

^Dominate.

SEXUALITY Straight.

^Procreate.

FEARS ⫻ Losing her sense of self, being a burden, and reptiles.

^Predators.

REPUTATION ⫻ Vibrantly upbeat, overwhelmingly supportive, and a constant seeker of silver linings, the girl is marred by an overly-aggressive competitive streak and strong convictions that she’d loudly voice if she finds them crossed. She’s motherly at best, but at her worst Vashti can be an unwanted busybody sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong.

^Queen.

FLAWS ⫻ Vashti, as much as she denies it, is ruled by her emotions and her impulses. When she loses her grip on control, she really loses it.

^Shackled.

BACKSTORY

”Save your crocodile tears for a real tragedy. All in all, things could be worse. I could’ve been a hamster."

Vashti is the second daughter of wealthy Iranian immigrants living in Jacksonville, Florida. While she never felt strongly connected to her family’s Islamic faith, Vashti had a deep interest in spiritualism from a young age. Originally birthed from a zodiac fad amongst the other middle school girls who Vashti attended private school with, Vashti’s interest in pseudosciences only deepened as they moved on to talking about boys and fashion. From crystal healing to cryptozoology and ancient aliens to fake moon landings, if it was weird and abnormal then Vashti couldn’t get enough of it. With no peers to talk to about the hollow moon in real life, Vashti sought refuge in the same place all lonely weirdos end up going: internet forums.

After years of late nights spent staring at grainy photographic proof and arguing in circles with total strangers, Vashti’s decision to become a cryptozoologist was solidified. Unfortunately, no universities really offered any courses on the subject, but a university in Miami did have an excellent zoology program. Vashti packed everything up and moved into the dorms. Free from her family, she no longer had to go through the motions of being Muslim and left her headscarf in its box. Vashti was certain that she’d be focused on her studies during her freshman year, but without having to worry about what her parents would think her studies drifted into the background. The only subjects that seemed to actually hold her attention was getting a doctorate in beer pong and bong rips and a masters in the human anatomy of the boy from Room 2C.

Gradually, her interests in the paranormal softened as the college lifestyle became her new outlet for fun, but it never fully disappeared. Vashti regularly talked to some of the people she had met online, and one of them lived fairly close to her school. They were a person named Sandy Burch, and they claimed to be a practitioner of chaos magic who offered to give Vashti some lessons if she was interested. Understandably skeptical but curious enough to test the waters, Vashti agreed to meet at a coffee shop. Vashti’s gut told her to leave immediately when the Sandy Burch that showed up wasn’t a frumpy, old woman whose fashion sense had stopped in the seventies but a middle-aged male with a severe widow’s peak, but when Sandy started speaking she found herself fascinated by him. They stayed at the coffee shop until close, and Vashti agreed to meet him again to study chaos magic as his apprentice.

They met publically for months, and Vashti always found herself deeply enthralled by their conversations about magical theory and general bullshit. When she mentioned her interest in cryptids after he had said something about the Gatorboy of Cypress Swamp, Sandy told her that she could actually manifest them through the use of chaos magic—she just needed a place to achieve gnosis first. Vashti mentioned that she had tried before but always found it impossible to achieve the zen-like state in her dorm room. When he suggested trying it at his place her gut told her it was a horrible idea while her mouth said, “What a great idea!”

His place was a dingy little shithole by the swamp that gave spooky psycho killer vibes on the outside, and creepy cult leader vibes on the inside. Yet despite the unsettling place and the animalistic fear inside of her fighting to run away, she managed to achieve gnosis. She singularly focused all of her mental energy on visualizing the Gatorboy cryptid and summoning it to reality through the strength of her belief alone. Naturally, it didn’t work. The Gatorboy was bullshit, as was her ability to perform “real” chaos magic.

However, what was real was Sandy’s abilities as a magician, who over months had used his powers of suggestion to trap Vashti in a catatonic state. Cryptids, he said, were fake and only an idiot like her would believe in them; Apparitions, however, were a whole other thing. He had been using chaos magic to instill the belief in himself that he could create an Apparition from a human being, and she had presented herself as the perfect, suggestible subject. He would turn her into the Leviathan, a chaotic creature of pure power that his months of indoctrination would allow him to have total control over.

All of Vashti’s instincts were screaming at her to run away, but she couldn’t move as Sandy began drawing a ritualistic summoning circle around her. As the circle was completed and the summoning began Vashti felt like her body was being torn to shreds. She watched in horror as her skin began to flake off as scales erupted from underneath, and it was then that her lizard brain assumed total control over her body. As Sandy beckoned for the Leviathan to emerge, Vashti’s body broke free of its status and moved on its own as it transformed into a monstrous mashup of human and reptile.

The core issue of chaos magic is that it was, by definition, chaotic, and Vashti’s childish belief in the fricking Gatorboy had altered the outcome. She was one part Leviathan, one part idiotic cryptid, and zero parts Vashti—which, Sandy discovered, had been the only part he could control about a moment before her claws had torn open his ribcage and her jaws had snatched out his heart. It was a very quick, very painful death, and one that a terrified Vashti witnessed through the eyes of the out of control monster that proceeded to tear Sandy limb from limb. Only when the threat on her life was completely destroyed did Vashti transform back into an extremely terrified, extremely bloodied, and disgustingly full girl.

She fled the crime scene in Sandy’s truck, and made it back to her dorm in one piece. She passed out for the night and woke up late the following day to a knock on her door. She pretended that she wasn’t there and waited until night to sneak out. Vashti didn’t know where she was going, but she knew she couldn’t stay in a crowded school. All day she felt the Leviathan swimming around in her subconscious. Vashti wrapped herself back up in her headscarf and conservative clothing to hide her new, monstrous features and hopped in Sandy’s truck. She drove aimlessly away from Miami, but the sight of a DUI checkpoint filled her with fear. The Leviathan awoke for the second time.

Instead of attacking the monster tore out of the truck and took off towards the nearest body of water, but not before some low quality cellphone footage of it was caught by another driver. The Gatorboy of Cypress Swamp not only had moved to Miami, Florida, but apparently had a few too many Landsharks that night and didn’t want to lose its license, or so the top comment on the video said. Other comments boasted about it being a hoax, a shitty marketing ploy of Project: Worlds Unknown, or an escaped Paragon Labcorp experiment. The car was traced back to Sandy Burch, suspected drug dealer and known weirdo; current police theory is that some meth head went ballistic, murdered Sandy for some dope, stole his car, and drowned in the river. Possibly a mascot for a local football team.

Vashti didn’t drown in the river. When she emerged she was normal again, or at least as normal as she could be now with her webbed feet and scaly arms. Over the following week, rumors spread like wildfire about the Gatorboy being sighted all over Southern Florida, destroying convenience stores and tearing through the wilderness. A few people even got hurt during her rampage. Most were just injured by her rampant destruction, either getting knocked out of the way by her tail or crushed by something destroyed by her, but two men were in critical condition and one was dead after a hunting party had mistaken her for an alligator in the water and tried to wrangle her. Who knows how many people in Florida would be terrorized by the Gatorboy of Cypress Swamp if not for Kimberly Walton?

The host of the popular web series had tracked down and tackled the Leviathan, sealing the Apparition away in a photo but still leaving behind a scaly Vashti. Kimberly recommended that Vashti seek the Coven to help tackle her curse, reassuring her that the Apparition was sealed and wouldn’t wreck havoc anymore. Starstruck and grateful, Vashti swallowed her urge to ask if she’d be featured on an episode and agreed to listen to the actual ghost hunter. Kimberly gave Vashti a contact number on the back of an old polaroid just in case and the two parted ways. However, as Vashti grabbed the photo from Kimberly she felt herself overwhelmed with an absolute dread from deep inside of her gut. Vashti was on the outskirts of Tampa within the next couple of hours and checked herself into a roadside motel for the night.

As she dreamt she saw herself standing on the beach. The clouds were dark and dangerous, and a cool rain had begun to sting her face. The wind kicked up, thunder clapped, and lightning streaked across the sky as out-of-town beachgoers jumped up from underneath their giant parasols and ran from the shoreline screaming. One of them bumped against her and Vashti turned her head to call out to them, her words being beaten back by the howling wind. She turned back to the ocean in time to see the black tidal wave looming overhead. She could hardly open her mouth to scream as it came crashing down on her. She felt herself being dragged out to the ocean by the undertow, but as she kicked against it she realized it wasn’t the water that had a hold on her: it was the Leviathan. A rush of bubbles escaped from her mouth as another hand latched on to her leg and began to fillet her, the salt stinging her open wounds as the blood sparked a feeding frenzy.

Vashti jolted awake. She could hear water overflowing from the bathroom. Kimberley’s phone number was missing. A buried memory, as if she were viewing it through a secret pinhole in a picture frame, surfaced of the Leviathan’s claws, her claws, tearing the picture to ribbons and flushing it down the sink. For the time being, the Coven was her only option.

SKILLS & TALENTS

"Does laying out in the sun count?"

[Swimming] ⫻ While not normally a beach goer, Vashti’s mutated body has made her a more than accomplished swimmer. She could qualify for the Olympics if they wouldn’t immediately disqualify her for using performance-enhancing curses.

[Breath-holding] ⫻ Her physical changes have made it so that Vashti is capable of holding her breath for almost an hour. However, her body rapidly slows down the longer she holds her breath to the point where she can’t do anything but sit still and think after a few minutes.

[Divination] ⫻ As in, fortune telling. As in, the bullsht kind. Vashti has a deep interest and knowledge pool of all things astrology, tarot, palm-reading, and anything else along the line of chicanery. It’s a fun distraction at best, and a useless creator of superstition at worst.

[Chaos Magic] ⫻ Also bullshit. Vashti cannot do magic. What Vashti can do is, given the right circumstances, enter into a zen-like state of gnosis to singularly focus all of her mental energy on one goal, and then if that goal happens to get achieved later she’ll call it magic. It’s not. It's a coincidence. It’s just a silly, nerdy way to refer to the power of positive thinking. However, it does have some use when it comes to her abstraction.

ABSTRACTION

“I always believed in these kinds of mythological creatures. I just never believed I’d become the living embodiment of Chaoskampf."

TYPE ⫻ Aberration (Afflicted)

ABSTRACTION ⫻ The Leviathan of Primordial Chaos, Vashti’s curse to lose control over her body and transform into a terrible monster whenever she feels a strong enough emotion that triggers her fight or flight response.

The Tempest, the Leviathan’s abstraction to create a massive storm that grows in power and destructibility overtime.

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ Less poetically known as the Gatorboy of Cypress Swamp, Vashti transforms into an Apparition whenever she reaches a breaking point. Generally, a triggering is caused whenever her lizard brain, instincts, gut, or whatever you prefer to call it wins out over her rational mind. Feeling physically threatened or being angered beyond reason are likely ways to unleash the Leviathan, but it can emerge from other sources too such as a feeling of a complete loss of control—be it from being surrounded by a storm of chaos or getting choked and smothered by an oppressive amount of order. Potentially, if Vashti does not control her emotions and find a way to balance and harmonize them then too much of anything could push her into transformation territory.

Once a transformation has started it is almost instant. The dark, gray scales on her arms and back rapidly spread to the rest of her body, her fingers form into claws, she ripples with muscle, sprouts a massive, powerful tail, and her face shifts into a bastardized amalgamation of an alligator, a serpent, and a human complete with a ear-to-ear mouth full of razor sharp teeth that stretches like that of a snakes. Turning into the Leviathan makes Vashti incredibly powerful. Her scales protect her from normal methods of harm, effectively rendering her bullet and cut resistant. Her claws can easily shred through most metal, and her tail is strong enough to smash through concrete. Her jaws can get large enough to dismember a person in one bite. Although a bit lumbering when on land, in the water the Leviathan version of Vashti moves with incredible speed and grace, capable of keeping pace with a motorboat.

Unfortunately for Vashti, the Leviathan is an animal that acts on instinct and instinct alone. She has absolutely no control over it, yet it also has no real higher motivations of its own. Instead, the cause of the transformation will determine how the Leviathan acts. The obvious examples are that if it emerges from fear it will flee from whatever it is afraid of, leaving wanton destruction in its wake as it tries to escape, whereas if it emerged from fury it’d keep attacking until it utterly destroys what made it so angry. However, it gets more bizarre than that: the Leviathan that emerged from having too much fun would try to keep playing, although is too rough to be anything but dangerous, or the Leviathan that came to from feeling sad will wail loudly for hours. Pray the Leviathan never gets attracted to someone. Either way, the Leviathan will remain in control until it has found closure on whatever caused it to transform, or has been knocked around enough to retreat.

Since the Leviathan is an Apparition, normal Apparition rules apply to it. Therefore, if it is in “flight” mode most Blind will not be able to physically see it but rather the destruction it leaves behind, while if it’s in “fight” mode it’ll manifest itself to them if they were a threat. The Apparition itself is powered by believing in chaos, hence how whenever it appears it creates absolute bedlam regardless of the situation. Interestingly enough, the Leviathan can and has been sealed away. However, Vashti’s curse still means that the Leviathan appears whenever things become “chaotic” for her. While it’s likely that the belief in utter chaos is strong enough that the seals on the Leviathan are easily broken, part of Vashti is concerned that she is actually creating a new Apparition everytime it is unleashed.

The Tempest, the Leviathan’s Abstraction, is only triggered when Vashti feels a strong enough fight response when transforming into the Leviathan. When the Leviathan is on the offensive, it’s Abstraction calls in massive storm clouds that darken the area around it—up to a quarter mile around the Leviathan. Rain begins to fall in massive sheets almost immediately, followed by thunder, lightning, and howling winds. The longer the Leviathan is around the stronger the storm becomes. After about ten minutes, lightning starts to strike the earth and the wind begins to blow around large debris. If the storm rages on for longer, say about thirty minutes or so, it creates miniature tornadoes and cyclones. After an hour, the storm creates massive flash flooding. Since it’s a being of chaos the Leviathan has no actual control over the storm. It only serves as the focal point of the destructive storm.

AURA SENSING ⫻ Gnosis, Vashti’s connection with the Leviathan. If she is able to clear her mind and enter a meditative state”, the girl can sense what current thing the Leviathan is beginning to react to and try to avoid any further stimulation by narrowing her focus onto another thing.

LIMITS ⫻ The Leviathan is still affected by Emotional-Fields and it acts as a barrier that'll protect the extra-Normal from the full extent of its strength. They won't be able to one-shot an Awakened or tear them to pieces easily for example. There's also the fact that the storm won't directly affect the Extra-Normal at all, almost like there was a barrier around them. Vashti can only transform into the Leviathan once a day and can remain in this state for a few hours or else she'll transform back on her own.

There's also the fact that she's unable to control it and that jazz.

WEAKNESSES ⫻ Just to be clear, the Leviathan is freaking dumb and easily tricked. It has a single minded goal and that could be used to manipulate or deceive the thing. The Leviathan is also affected by its own storm like the blind and can be struck by lightning, hit with debris, etc, etc. The Leviathan, on land, is incredibly slow and lumbering and can be outpaced by somebody jogging like a true mighty glacier. In terms of elements it's weak against the cold (due to its nature as an alligator) and electric-based attacks (especially in the water). This probably won't come up but the Leviathan's emotional field allows abilities that can manipulate emotions to affect it a lot worse than usual.

OTHER

“I am in control"

^{In control.}

Vashti's Relationship Table

Character name	Opinion
Emily	I don't know if Emily would call us friends, but I like to think that's the case. She might not be the most pleasant person I've ever met, but she doesn't necessarily seem like the super bitch that the others warned me she would be. Between her, Herik, and myself I know we'll find a way to lift curses. Weakling.
Madison	We got off on the wrong foot and its only gotten worse from there. Look, I'm sorry, but I don't think being drunk is an excuse for acting like an asshole. I can't deny her ability to kick ass, but I'm not going to let her intimidate me and keep me from speaking my mind. Still, I'm going to try and clear the air between the two of us before writing her off completely. Competition.
Claudette	It's pretty clear that she's good friends with Madison, which means that it's pretty clear that she probably doesn't like me. She's not as outright antagonistic, but with her being the leader I feel like I'm always walking on eggshells now. Still, I bet she'd be more willing to take an apology from me than Madison. Inconsequential.
Lyss	Regardless of what anyone says, herself included, she is the actual leader of the Coven. She seems levelheaded, comparatively speaking, to the other girls, and is smart enough to listen to someone when they disagree with her. I just hope I didn't rub her the wrong way with any of my outbursts. There's something about her that puts me on edge, though. Dangerous.
Maya	You cannot give someone magic like it's the fricking clap, bro! Disinterested.
Sin	Wait, no, it was Quinn, right? She told me she was the world's best summoner. I haven't met another summoner, so I'll have to take her word for it. She seems friendly, which is a nice change of pace from the others. Curiosity
Herik	I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. Herik is a nice guy, like, an actual nice guy, not the kind that says he's a nice guy and then blows your phone up for not replying back to a text immediately. He makes the Coven bearable. I have absolutely no idea what he sees in me, I mean, does he even see anything in me? We're just friends. I think. Dominate.

Penny Lawson

╚══════════════╝

"I’m un-fucking-stoppable."

[ Age 21 | Height 5’7” | Norwegian-Welsh American | She/Her | 130 lbs ]

[Tenacious]

APPEARANCE

"Just another dumb blonde, right?"

Penny has a lean, athletic build. Her skin is no longer oversaturated in foundation and bottled tanners, allowing an array of sun-baked freckles to blossom on her lightly tanned skin. She keeps most of her makeup limited to her lips and her blue eyes, or so she claims. Likewise, her smile has definitely always been this white and was not treated with any kind of product. Penny has slight muscle definition and even slighter curves. Her right arm is covered in a sleeve of flowery tattoos and her left inner forearm hides a tattoo of a wand surrounded by roses. A sigil of spiraling squares can be seen centered just below her collarbone. Another sigil of a bird can be seen near her left shoulder blade.

Her style is heavily-lifted from fashion blogs that some would turn their noses up at and scoff at as “basic”. Penny comes dressed for vacation, tending towards summer dresses accompanied by straw hats and cheap sunglasses. Due to the implication of her being in Florida, there is always some sensibility to Penny’s outfit: she wears spandex shorts beneath her dress and running shoes. Her blonde hair is dyed a few shades lighter than its natural color, and she lets it fall just below her shoulders. She ruins whatever style she has with a red fanny pack that is just brimming with equipment.

She comes off as confident to the point of cockiness and moves with a kind of hurried impatience. Her voice is high pitched and exhausting, both in the sense that she sounds as if she’s almost out of breath and it can be tiresome to hear her speak. She stands with her pointed chin held high and her eyes on constant overwatch, with her hand always resting near the zipper of her bag like a gunslinger stepping out into the street at high noon.

PSYCHOLOGY

"I’m pretty much the best shot we got."

MAIN GOAL ⫻ Penny is a simple girl with the simple aspirations of saving the world from total annihilation. Typical shit, right? Currently, she is looking into the Forgiven to find out more about Luther Saul, but her hunt won’t stop her from handling any rogue Extra-Normals in the meantime.

WHAT THEY WANT OUT OF THE COVEN ⫻ Penny’s fully behind the idea of a group of Extra-Normal women getting together to watch each other’s back, but she doubts she’d run into them. Surely they won’t do anything stupid. She wants nothing for them, currently.

PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Shimmer, with all of its faults, is fucking wonderful and she will do whatever she can to make sure that it continues to be around. She’s a one-woman rebellion smashing down the palace gates of apathy, an unstoppable force of dynamic determination. She’ll poke her head into every dark corner, ask the questions nobody wants to hear, and take actions when others will hesitate.

SECRETS ⫻ There’s nothing that Penny won’t do to protect Shimmer. Nothing.

SEXUALITY ⫻ She’s a bit more focused on her mission than her libido.

FEARS ⫻ Failure. She knows there are others out there she can rely on if she falters, but she doesn’t like the idea of being a burden.

REPUTATION ⫻ Despite the things she has helped accomplish it is nearly nonexistent, especially in Florida. Her friends know her as a force to be reckoned with, a dependable and unrelenting woman who will never back down to any challenge. They also recognize that she is bullheaded and reckless when it comes to a fight, and quick to judge something as a friend or foe.She is the loyalest of allies and the fiercest of enemies.

FLAWS ⫻ She has finally dropped her guard and started to let people in, but that has only reinforced her idea that she must be the one to carry the weight. Her cockiness has transcended beyond overconfidence; she’s a gallant knight armored in a discount dress from H&M. Penny relentlessly pushes herself forward with an almost reckless abandon. If something were to harm her friend, she would be the one to seek retribution. If someone had to risk their life, she would be the first in line. Penny truly has begun to see herself as untouchable, nigh indestructible.

She’s not.

BACKSTORY

"Just a small town girl, trying to protect a stupid world."

Born and raised in Farmer Hill, Penny shedded the popular girl typecast she had molded herself into after the disappearance of her younger brother, Henry. Determined to find out the truth about her missing brother, she spent the next four years of her life alienating herself from the rest of the town with her standoffish attitude and aggressive behavior while searching for Henry. She spent years trudging through the woods looking for him long after the police investigation had been called off, not realizing that she’d walked over the self-made grave Henry had accidentally teleported himself into multiple times. As it turns out, her little brother was an Awakened. Penny herself would undergo her own Awakening at a summer campout her older brother Billy was forced to drag her along to after the sheriff’s son and general town dick, Scott Reese, was corrupted by the Glutton and began massacring her peers.

The survivors gathered together to stop the Glutton, but working together was a tall order for a pariah like Penny. She went off on her own to save some girls from the rampaging Reese and nearly got herself killed if not for the intervention of Claire and Justin. From that moment Penny began working more closely with the other survivors, eventually leading the group alongside Justin once her old popular friend Britney lost the group’s faith. Together they led the remaining Awakened into the Glutton’s lair inside of the mountain near their old summer camp.

However, before they could eliminate the Glutton the daughter of the town’s former guardian, Sharon, murdered Penny’s friend Lynette to get her Abstraction. Penny split from the group to hunt Sharon down, avenging her friend and stopping the destruction of the mountain. She regrouped with Justin and the others and together they took down the Glutton, saving the town, bringing back all of their old friends, and living happily ever after.

Except not quite. The town had been destroyed by an “earthquake”, Godforce had spread throughout their word to bless (or curse) individuals with Abstractions, and while people like her brother Billy were freed from the Glutton’s grasp those who had been killed by others were still lost. With no home to truly return to, Penny’s family moved to live with her Uncle in Boseman. While Billy was more than happy to put the past behind them and help reestablish his father’s auto business, Penny couldn’t shake the horrible feeling that she should be doing more with her abilities.

However, before she could figure out whatever that was, she had to make a detour: she had promised Lynette to explain what happened to her siblings, and one of them had finally gotten back to her through social media. Penny packed her bags and headed to NYC to meet with Lynette’s family. Unfortunately, she was whisked into a fabricated city called Paradise by a girl named Rosalyn before she could make it to New York. Along with her were some strangers plus a multitude of friendly faces from her hometown.

Together, they made their way through Paradise, encountering a troublesome Apparition along the way. Penny and her friend Zoey managed to defeat it the first time, but when they reawakened on a boat in the harbor of the city they were attacked by the Apparition again. The group narrowly managed to avoid it, but were attacked once more by the Apparition after they returned to the city proper. Caelea, a friend of Penny’s who had been one of the key people involved in defeating the Glutton, was murdered by the Apparition and her body was Abscised.

Penny vowed to avenge her friend and, with the help of a stranger named Odessa, hunted the Apparition down after they were separated from the others. Before the fight, Odessa revealed to Penny that she was the Apparition of her former friend Britney. Despite having been forgiven after her death, Odessa was still distraught by the crimes her past life has committed. Together, the two of them managed to seal the Apparition that had killed Caelea, and then reconvenned with the others who had met with Rosalyn, the creator of Paradise.

The group was able to convince the girl to let them go, but only after Odessa offered to stay behind to keep Rosalyn company. However, before she let them go Rosalyn told them that she had brought them to Paradise to save them from the end of the world, which happened in the summer of 2017—a whole year after the time Penny had been drawn into Paradise. To convince them, the child showed them a Recollection of LA falling to ruin. Rosalyn didn’t know how the world had ended, but she did know that it had something to do with a man named Luther Saul.

Freed from Paradise, Penny finished her trip to NYC to tell Lynette’s siblings what had happened to her. In their apartment building, Penny had a Semi-Awakening thanks to her time spent with Odessa, who had been forgiven yet was still hurting, when she realized that her inability to forgive Sharon would haunt the girl when she returned as an Apparition. A distraught Penny broke down in the elevator as she apologized and forgave the memory of a girl she had hated, triggering her first Abstraction to shift. She pulled herself together long enough to connect with Lynette’s family, conveniently leaving out the fact that Sharon had murdered her.

After, Penny contacted Kimberly and joined the girl in Tampa, Florida, where her hunt for Luther Saul would begin.

SKILLS & TALENTS

"I just really hope that Kimberly never asks me to be in her show again."

Hand-Eye Coordination ⫻Penny has been practicing her aim since she first found out about her Abstraction. If it’s a stationary bottle or a tin can she’s guaranteed to hit it from about a hundred yards away.

Running ⫻ Try getting chased around by a bunch of monsters for a semester and not take up running as a hobby afterwards. Her speed and stamina are improving every day.

Vanquisher ⫻ Penny’s knowledge of Extra-Normals is vast, and she uses what she knows to efficiently hunt down dangerous Apparitions and other deadly things.

Commanding ⫻ The nice thing about being decisive and confident is most people tend to believe that means you actually know what the fuck you are doing.

ABSTRACTION

"Nothing can touch me. Nothing can escape me."

TYPE ⫻ Awakened

ABSTRACTION ⫻ Repulsion/Attraction, the ability to telekinetically force things away from her body or closer to her body.

Air Manipulation, the ability to control air.

ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻

Penny’s Tenacity

She might be more understanding, but disgust still lies below her surface. Penny’s Repulsion can force almost anything that enters a five foot radius around her to rapidly move away from her. Things reflect back in a straight line from her until the effects of gravity or other interference stops them. This means that if she repulses something that is on the ground, it will only hit things that are level with the ground and the moment it hits something with enough force it will stop. She’s only capable of forcing objects that have a weight equal to or less than twice her weight away from her, so she’ll lose any match of chicken that she plays against a speeding car.

The velocity and distance at which an object blasts away from her is dependent upon its size; the lighter an object is, the further and faster it travels. Small objects (less than a pound) likes coins, paper clips, pens, and etcetera, act almost like a weak 9mm bullet, traveling fast enough to penetrate skin, clothing, thin walls, doors, and glass. Medium objects (more than a pound, but less than fifty) like computer monitors, baseballs, bricks, and so on only go about 30 meters before quickly succumbing to gravity, and tend to only have enough force to dent metal, knock the wind out of someone, and possibly fracture or break bones. Large objects (more than fifty, less than her peak) like desks, bags of cement, and some people can be sent back 3 meters. The force is about as strong as an incredibly fit person’s push, so it’s largely only effective at moving large things out of her way, bracing doors, or keeping people forced against walls.

There isn’t a limit to how many objects she can force away from her at once, but she does have to direct the repulsions. This means that she has to know an object is coming at her or within her range for her to repulse it, and she actively has to focus her mind to push it away. Therefore, she isn’t constantly blowing the dirt and trash at her feet away (unless she consciously decides to), nor is she able to push away an incoming projectile if she doesn’t know that it was fired at her in the first place.

Her growing acceptance and understanding has tempered her disgust, meaning that while she still might find herself strongly disapproving of something she is able to power through it and even accept it with her newfound tenacity. Penny’s Attraction can bring back any objects to her at a speed as high as her Repulsion, assuming she has at one point or another touched it to gain an “understanding” over the item. While her Repulsion can only affect items in a small range around her, she can Attract items from much further away—up to a hundred yards. This allows her to paddle-ball her Repulsion rockets back and forth, allowing her to require a much smaller arsenal than she is used to carrying.

Since it is the same Abstraction, she can combine the Repulsion and Attraction together at the same time to create a sort of hold. Conceptually similar to most forms of telekinesis, Penny basically has total control of items that enter within the five foot Repulsion radius of her. She can reposition a Repulsion to give it a better shot or to avoid flying off at an ally, or create whipping barriers around her body of random junk. Her weight limits on her Attraction is the same as the ones on her Repulsion.

Penny’s Abstraction has a secondary effect that allows her to sense the mass, velocity, and trajectory of any moving object that enters her field of view, even if it were moving faster than her naked eye could see. This gives her enough time to react to incoming objects and determine if her ability can affect it. In a way, it acts as a limited danger sense, however the effect is an information overload that can be detrimental to her mental and physical health. After using it for five minutes she starts to experience splitting migraines, nosebleeds, and vision loss, and if she goes with it on for longer than ten she will start to experience blackouts. If she toggles it off before the five minute mark she can recuperate fairly well, but there is a cool down that is directly correspondent to how long she used it for, meaning that if she was channeling her secondary vision for three minutes she would have to wait three minutes before using it again. Once she goes beyond the five minute mark the cool down greatly compounds, tripling once it hits five and doubling itself every minute after that.

Penny’s Temperamentality

The Abstraction Penny took from her dead friend Caelea. Like Caelea, Penny has a volatile temper that lies beneath her seemingly cool and confident surface. Due to this, she has a decent command over Caelea’s Abstraction. Her Air Manipulation is fairly limited. She can only control air by creating blasts of air out of her hands or feet, with an extremely limited range of just around a foot. Penny can control just how powerful the air is, from a light breeze to a very strong gust. Due to the nature of her other Abstraction, Penny primarily uses her Air Manipulation to maneuver herself out of harm's way or to give her a better angle on an enemy. She’s not nearly as graceful as her gymnast friend was, but Penny can use the blasts to launch herself in the air and to dampen a landing.

AURA SENSING ⫻ Penny is capable of tracking items that have been charged with her Attraction ability. She can sense them to a pinpoint location within 500 yards, and can get a vague idea of what direction they are in up to five miles away.

LIMITS ⫻

REPULSION & ATTRACTION ⫻ Emotional-Fields prevent Penny from directly using her ability on other Extra-Normal beings. She can try, but all she'd do is waste energy trying as if she is trying to push an unmovable object. So far the ability only works in a linear fashion, as in she can't make things go left and right or up and down—unless she is manipulating things within a five foot radius of her body, in which then she has near absolute control. The range limits and whatnot were already established in the power section so I won't go over them again. However, the closer an object is to Penny, the more effective it is (in terms of strength and energy efficiency).

AIR-MANIPULATION ⫻ Emotional-Fields prevent Penny from say stealing the breath out of an Extra-Normal's lungs, but it also isn't as directly effective against other Extra-Normals. It has a lot of raw power but no real precision, it may allow her to send someone flying but it'd be next to impossible for her to use it to grab an object (not that she really needs to use this abstraction for it). Also, the force required to actually do some feats like knock someone over or even maneuver around the battlefield requires a fair bit of energy. Which tires her out a lot more than other abstractions. Also, it has a short range of around five feet.

WEAKNESSES ⫻

REPULSION & ATTRACTION ⫻ The Abstraction is connected with her mind and causes strain. The usual psychic-nosebleeds, but it can also cause intense headaches, blurred vision, and memory-loss if overused. The Abstraction also requires care, as Penny's ability is automatic, which more or less means she can't stop an object while sending it away. Her ability to sense objects coming towards her also comes with its own set of weaknesses.

AIR-MANIPULATION ⫻ Penny's air manipulation disrupts air-flow to an extent and it means that it's difficult for her to breath while using her abstraction.

OTHER

"Nobody better try and slow me down."

Time’s ticking. Don’t get in her way.

Penny's Relationship Table

Character name	Opinion
Kimberly Walton	It's weird. We're friends, but not in a traditional way. Like, if I'm being honest I really don't know that much about her, but I'd do anything for the girl. I guess we aren't really friends exactly, but sisters. We saved the worlds once. We can do it again.
Rowan Campbell	Kimberly trusts him, so I trust him. I'll watch out for him like I would her.
The Coven	The what?

closed or whatever don't look at this

A genuine look of surprise crossed Penny’s face followed by a sheepish smile as Stacey dropped down next to her and lavished her with gratitude. “Don’t mention it,” she said quietly as she patted him on the shoulder between hiccups. She always considered herself more of a confronter than a comforter, but when some poor guy straight-up ugly cried in front of her it was hard not to reach out reflexively. Penny pulled back as Zoey approached and whatever words she had for the girl dropped out of her mouth as she noticed that the streets had changed. Gone were the buildings and the trash cans, instead replaced with trees and a quaint little pond.

“What?” Penny said flatly. She knew this place before Zoey even said the name. She had a decent number of memories associated with Wild Creek, none of which were really decent. As Penny stood she caught sight of Odessa staring out over the water and froze. Something triggered inside of her, and Penny was transported back to the same pond. The light had shifted; the leaves were a different color. Standing in Odessa’s spot was a tall, better dressed girl holding her arms in the exact same way. Behind her was a blonde in sunglasses and a faux leather jacket—God she had tried so hard back then—screaming and gesticulating wildly. The words were garbled, unrecognizable, except for the line ‘I wish you were dead’ from the blonde before the vision faded from her view as Odessa turned to the group.

Penny unfroze. Had that been a Recollection, or just a hazy memory? Penny glanced around. Nobody else had seemed to notice it. Zoey and Odessa were at odds with one another while Elron was trying to defuse the situation. He brought up an interesting point about the cold not affecting Odessa. What was even stranger than that was how she didn’t seem to be hurt at all from that bump she had taken, while both Penny and Zoey looked absolutely ragged and they had been the ones doing the hitting.

“Wild Creek’s just a shithole pond where assholes would take you to get you drunk on wine coolers and try to reach second base,” said Penny, answering for Zoey. She stepped in front of the girl and pushed down her fist. “And Zoey, supercop is right. Cool it.” She gave Zoey a knowing wink. “We’re all friends here.”

Penny turned sharply on her heel so that she was standing by Zoey’s side as she confronted Odessa.“So, friendo, you seem to have done your fair share of research when it comes to spooky shit. Any guess as to why our old town’s makeout point has suddenly forced itself upon us?”

closed or whatever don't look at this

Snow wasn’t the best of mediums for Penny to use. The loose powder could easily slide in on itself or be shifted by one strong wind that’d dampen the potency of the glyph, but then again she didn’t really have any options. Zoey was kind enough to give her the space she needed to work. She finished the circle that would serve as the edge of the glyph which acted as a sort of sealant to prevent the spell from leaking out. No circle done by hand was ever perfect, at least not by her hand, but they were practiced, indistinguishable from perfection by the naked eye, and, most importantly, good enough to keep the glyph active. How long had that taken? A second perhaps.

Penny moved on to the body of the glyph, glancing up just to see if the Apparition was winding up for another charge. No movement yet, aside from its constant up and down bobbing. She made two waves with her hand. Not as precise as she’d like it, but it’d have to do given her limited time window. She heard feet padding through snow behind her. Hopefully Stacey was smart enough to stay in that straight line. She looked back up at the Apparition. The smoke appeared as if it was coiling up for another charge. Shit. She still needed one more wave.

A light wind kicked up and Penny sharply drew in her breath as she watched the snow at the border of her glyph shift, but it did not move. However, the Apparition was trapped behind another snow storm thanks to Zoey. Penny finished the last wave, drew a single straight line that was slanted ever so slightly next to the trio, and began to slide back as she saw the snowstorm dissipate. Shit. She hadn’t planned on standing down the barrel of the gun once her glyph was done but there was no time to move. Penny’s eyes widened as the Apparition charged straight towards her with its sights set on Stacey. She didn’t even have a second as her entire vision swelled with the smoky form of the rushing Apparition as it closed the gap between them with uncanny speed.

Fortunately, she didn’t need a second. Penny threw her arms up and fell back on her rear as her glyph activated and glowed a brilliant blue light. At the same time, a massive, man-sized stalagmite of ice jutted up from the ground and skewered the Apparition deadcenter. A nightmarish scream of white noise echoed throughout the city as the Apparition cracked apart and shattered along with the giant spike of ice. All that remained was a cloud of black smoke that rose and dissipated until it was lost against the night sky. They were safe for the time being.

“Fuck!” The word came out with the breath Penny hadn’t realized she’d been holding. She let herself drop back on the snow and laughed. Her head was pounding like she had woken up with a hangover. She let her head roll to the side. The cold felt nice on her temples. She hadn’t strained herself like that in quite some time. She breathed heavily as she stared over at Zoey and said, “See? Told you I got it. Good assist though."

"As for the rest of you? Eh...” she lifted a hand off of her chest and wobbled it in the universal sign of so-so before letting it drop with another sharp exhale. Penny tasted copper but forced herself to sit up right. Her vision swam as she rubbed her face and reminded herself that this would only last for a few minutes. Hopefully. She asked the group, “We’re all good, right? No broken bones, no dropped jaws? Is Stacey still running?” Penny grimaced. She’d have to reevaluate her limits. She muttered, “Could someone get Stacey to stop fucking running and give him a hug for me? The plan worked." She threw a half-assed fist in the air. "Go team.”