etrayalogs | mission 010.

[will cascade open/closed starters in here!]

They don't understand it entirely, but Knife knows something is wrong about them. About the way they catch themself moving on impulses that aren't often their own, about how many times they've nearly bitten their tongue in having to force their jaw tight before sputtering something they should know better than to say. About...something...

What is it? Why am I...?

On a San Fransisco shopping street, Pending is standing stone still before a window display of...something. He doesn't know what - it's not what his focus is on. He's staring at himself, plainly troubled. Something's amiss and he can't figure it out.

Perhaps it's because instead of the characteristic green the half-orc has presented when daring to be around people, Pending is a weird, sickly-seeming ecru.

Or perhaps it's because he's utterly ignoring the car wreck clogging the street behind him - the one he'd come upon and proceeded to pull people out of a crumpled sedan, and gone into some kind of shock-state when thank-yous were blubbered; it's when he rigidly backed away, turned to flee, and got stuck at the reflection.

Further testing is required.

Antigone is sneaking around in a San Fransisco neighborhood, and perhaps she could be mistaken for a bulky, bipedal raccoon when she skirts away from still-working street lights, heart racing...

This has to work. This is like...the thing I do. I have to--

Soon enough, she's stalking a lone pedestrian (is it you? someone on the opposite side of the street?) for blocks, speeding up, slowing down, waiting for the path to be soaked in darkness before silent steps hasten her form forward, reaching to snatch a wallet, a weapon, whatever's dangling and had been glinting in the night and--

"..."

And...and they don't! They just...! Stand there! Frozen! Mid-reach!

Their fingers twitch.

"Wh...what the..."

It's...not...nice...what the fuck........

Knife could steal shit all the time. Why can't they do it now?!

Dwayne is walking down the street in his 'villain outfit', which is actually just his usual red and black leather armor with a large axe on his back and two smaller axes on his belt. A large leather pouch hangs from said belt, which may be what draws Antigone's attention. While he has some normal civilian clothing in this place for when he wants to blend in, right now 'blending in' couldn't be farther from his goal. He needs to get these nullifiers to as many heroes and villains who are affected by the anomaly as possible, and he figures the best way to do that is to draw attention as a potential partner in crime or villain to be stopped.

Of course, to pull this off, he needs to have more nullifiers than the one currently hanging around his neck, which means he can't afford to be pick pocketed. When he hears a rustle behind him, he turns, grabbing his pouch instinctively when he sees Antigone, standing frozen mid-reach.

"A plate full of hot dogs is one thing, but I actually need the stuff in this pouch."

She does fall under the category of 'people who may be effected by the anomaly', though, so he pulls out a necklace, a bracelet and a pin.

"You should probably have one, though. Do you have a preference?"

Dwayne is on a mission, and he's going to do this right. After spending his entire time here feeling useless and having absolutely no idea how to help with the anomaly, he finally has a task that is well within his skill set. Go out, and get people who may be affected by the anomaly to wear the nullifiers until they can come up with a more permanent solution. He can do that! He loves talking to people! It gives him a chance to go out and meet some of the native heroes and villains of this world!

Of course, since the people he's looking for are the powered folk whose alignment changes were causing issues, he figures it's best to make it clear that he's one of them. The best way to do that is to go out in costume (his leather armor, repurposed as a villain outfit) and his full arsenal that consists of one battle axe on his back and two small hand axes on his belt. Once attention is drawn, he figures he can start a conversation that ends with jewelry or pins on whoever needs it.

Once he spots someone who looks like they might be one of the potentially affected powered folks, though, he decides not to wait until he has their attention. Instead he bounds up, a huge grin on his face, and asks, "Hi, can I interest you in a free pin?"

...maybe if the salesman approach was what he was going to be going for, he shouldn't be doing so fully decked out as a villain.

Edited 2025-08-16 01:46 (UTC)

The kitsune is frozen in place even now, save for a few little twitches of her fingers. It's the fingers she's gawking at more than the guy making word-sounds (something about dogs, stuffing presents, whatever).

The clink of trinkets seems to snap her out of the frozen state, and it's like there's a need for all that action that didn't happen in those seconds to catch up together: She bristles like a cat and hops back a step, as if anticipating some kind of retaliation.

"What? What! I didn't do anything! What?" The confusion is plain. "What are you--huh? What, those aren't mine!"

He rolls his eyes.

"So you came up behind me and had your hand out like you were reaching for pouch, but you weren't trying to take anything?"

Her confusion seems real, though, which throws him off. Is she actually telling the truth? If so, what was her hand out for?

"Look, it's fine either way. And yes, I know these aren't yours. They're nullifiers. I'm supposed to be getting them out to people who might be affected by the anomaly. I'm offering you one."

oh, i'm changing, and i feel more like a ghost.
( something is happening and he can't allow it to.

verity — the anomaly needs him. needs to be protected, to help spread their influence across this planet and make people see things from the other perspective. to be made aware of how wrong they've all been and how much easier it is to understand each other when placed in the other person's shoes. but he can't very well do this if someone[s] are beginning to try and stop their attempts, so. he's out in search of this something that he comes to learn are nullifiers.

already that's an annoyance to him, what with being a mutant and all.

he flies across the sky — weaves through skyscrapers and across winding roads, reaching out with his mind to try and locate where these nullifiers are and deal with them in whatever ways that might entail. when he manages to locate one in a specific area, he drops down to the ground, hits it with a resounding thud as cracks splinter across the concrete beneath his feet, and his left eye flashes gold for a moment as he straightens himself up, flicking white bangs out of his face. )

You're in my way.

( said to whoever might be there. one who has a nullifier? one who knows where a nullifier is? one who's pieced together that an etrayan is in possession — or possessed to an extent — of the anomaly? one who's just in the wrong place at the wrong time? whatever the case, the floor is theirs and nate's giving about ten to twenty seconds before he starts throwing psychic hands. )

ooc.
if you prefer prose over brackets, just hit me with that and i'll match. again, just a mention that knife will be taking nate down but he's available for fighty-fights, talked to, or w/e. info post again here if needed.

Confusion couples with suspicion and Antigone's eyes narrow, glowing little slits in the dark.

"For free? Why, what's wrong with it?" Proof positive she's only half-hearing him over the roar of panicked thoughts in Knife's head; adrenaline serves them well until it doesn't.

It's easy enough to follow the fray to its source, as neither anomaly nor its host seem very keen on subtlety, and that suits Knife just fine. They're trying very, very hard to trust some kind of process here - that there's going to be some coordination, some show of force from more seasoned captives of Echo that will take this guy down, but...

...But it's not happening fast enough. Knife's head still feels like hostile territory, still itching and maddening and--and whatever! Who cares for the setup!

What matters is Knife-as-Pending finally has a clear shot. With the crossbow he ganked from villain-con, perched on the roof of a high-rise, all his focus is going in on angling the shot for the head...

With the bedlam in his head, he can be forgiven for not hearing someone incoming--

"I...I just told you why it was free. Just now."

She really doesn't listen to a single word that comes out of his mouth, does she? He takes a deep breath.

"These are magic. They were made to nullify the anomaly. I was tasked with getting these distributed to as many people as possible to nullify the anomaly's effects. You are a person, so I'm trying to give you one."

He hopes she gets it this time. If not, he might have to just try tossing a necklace over her head like a game of ring toss.

One ear flicks like an irritable cat's. A likely explanation! I oughta fuckin--fuckin--!

...Be...gracious...and thank...him... Her eyelid twitches in tandem with the next ear flick as Knife's thoughts find themselves skewing more considerate than cantankerous.

"Hold it there." She's going to give him the gracious benefit of the doubt and, patting herself down, procure a planchette too big for her hands and bring the lens up to her eye to peer through it.

"No offense, but I gotta make sure it's not laced with some garbage hex." And the planchette lets Knife see magic in its raw state - to discern its properties, be it abjuration, transmutation, and such...

There's not just a nullifier on him. There's several. One around his neck, and more in a pouch on his belt. Dwayne had been out, doing the rounds and trying to get these nullifiers distributed when this guy showed up out of nowhere. He'd expected to draw attention. His red and black leather villain outfit as well as the weaponry strapped to his body pretty much guaranteed that any heroes would have a few questions. This guy's choice of words made Dwayne think that wasn't the issue here, though.

"I'm in your way? What's that supposed to mean?"

He tenses up, expecting a fight. Already his fingernails are sharpening into claws and hair is spreading over his body in anticipation of things going downhill from here.

"Sure."

He holds up one of the nullifiers for Antigone to inspect. He doesn't fully understand the magic used to make these, since he's not a caster himself, but he trusts Gorgug and figures whatever artificer tricks he used to make these things will do what he says they'll do.

"What the..." She peeks up past the lens, then back through it, then back up again, perplexed. "Where the hell did you get a thing like that? And how'd you not get jumped for it earlier?"

Probably because the folks here don't know squat about magic or its value, but, y'know--

"From Gorgug. He gave me a bunch of these to hand out. And probably because most people here don't have a way to detect magic, and also because most people aren't going to jump someone for something they're already handing out for free."

The name ought to be familiar, but then...did Antigone get the name before during Towelgate? Did Pending get the name back in Aphasia?

There's more important things going on than remembering some guy's name, obviously, so Knife isn't stressing about that right now; they'll at least have the decency to file said name away to interrogate later. Maybe. Probably. Barring any other incoming crises.

She grumbles an uneasy sound, giving the necklace one more peer through the planchette before it's put away and hesitant steps are taken forward.

"Free isn't always safe," she points out, but snatches it anyway.

"Well, yeah, but I trust Gorgug," he says, while he lets Antigone take the charm.

Of course, Dwayne trusting someone isn't saying much. He'd trust a random lich if they came up to him right now and greeted him in a friendly manner.

The necklace is wiggled between fingers in such a way as to imply it were uncomfortably warm or of an odd texture, but it's really just Knife being fickle and unwilling to wholly embrace an offering without a surplus of suspicion - can't give the idea they'd trust anyone and wind up duped later, you know!

"This ain't something that's gonna be makin' noise or talking into my head for whatever reason, is it?"

"I haven't heard any noise or voices talking in my head, and I've been wearing this all day," he says, showing her his own nullifying necklace. "So no, it shouldn't do anything like that."

A singing voice comes hurtling into earshot, as does the black and red suited body holding said voice, "HERE I COME TO SAVE THE DAY!"

Wade barrels into Knife's side, intending to send the crossbow shot off it's mark, as he rolls away and pulls out his katanas, "That's not very nice, good sir! You're not going to hurt a hair on Nate's head, if I have anything to say about it. I happen to like those hairs! Especially the ones that never stay out of his face!"

Does he know why Knife wants to kill him? Not really. And it doesn't matter to Wade. He can't let it happen.

Psht, yeah, like I'm going to trust your judgment, Antigone thinks derisively, nose crinkling a bit with the thought. It may be rather unfair to someone showing undue kindness, but Knife's rarely thinking about what's fair outside of their own survival.

"And you've been just...what? Walking the streets to pass them out like this all day? Even in the dark?"

The tickling sense of impending impediment comes a hair too late to reconsider the shot; survival comes first, so the bolt goes sailing well off-course while Knife's twisting their body to dodge the full brunt of the blow. Pending wholly discards the crossbow in favor of freeing up his hands to launch himself upright, blades dropping into his hands from some hiding spots in his sleeves.

Fuck. FUCK. Fuck-- Wild-eyed, struggling to hear past the blood pounding in his ears, Pending's focus snaps forward to the...glaringly red shape in front of him (that's nice, that helps).

"Piss off," he barks, gruff and urgent. If that's all it takes, all the better; Knife's window to work in is shrinking by the second.

"Yep! Don't worry, I've got my trusty battle axe if anyone starts anything," he says, pointing, "And I can look much scarier if I want to. I'll be fine."

Whoa what.

Antigone gawks.

"Folks just let you carry that open? Without hassle?"

mission 010.

knife threads 🗡️

open prompt 1🗡️

open prompt 2 🗡️

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Dwayne ir'Dorn | OC | OTA

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nate grey, marvel comics.

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for deadpool

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zooms in!

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