[PP-F24] A Knife in the Dark (Incognito Assassination)

[Shiina 0]

"Bruh, you gotta get out more, music is da bomb." Wiggling, as if unbothered completely by the breakdown of what it was supposed to be. A soft hand rakes across a flower stuck in the womans hair, as she fiddled with her menu. Snapping away once, she turned to face Shiina again, who starts to whistle as if she wasn't doing anything. "Neat." Shiina eyeballs the coin and in that instant something clicked. "Sundered Spire." she just drops on the floor like a handful of loose change, after all she was O&I, and it was kinda their whole thing as of late.

"Those nerds seem to pop up everywhere, just wreckin' things. but meh, they get their butts kicked pretty easy too. See cool things, like dudes belt." she leans into the coin with a squint, eyeing it closer. Popping another one of those awaiting apples into the girl's hand before plucking up her own. "Your kinda better this way. All the best buttons do things when they get pressed, and it's better than sitting here all by yourself like a dork." She took another bite and fiddled with her inventory again, peeling out a snowball that wasn't able to melt. "I also have an eyeball sled."

[Hidden 1]

"Get out more... I practically live outside right now." she assured the girl. It was true, she hadn't returned to Ayame in over a week since she had basically ran away. Not since her and Raidou and gotten in a fight. As the girl touched her hair, she leapt back with a threatening look to her eyes. No one, had even dared touched her hair. She had let Sey, but they had literally be engaged. Now here this girl was just casually touching it. 

She checked her hair to make sure caramel hadn't gotten on it while Shiina checked the coin. Then the dolt dropped it on the ground. "Hey! That's the only one I have of those!" She called out, retrieving the coin from the ground. If she lost it, she would have nothing to compare any future coins to. She had been told that these guys were supposed to be pretty important so who knew what having one of these coins could do. 

"Sundered Spire."

A frown displayed on Hidden's face. "You know them?" she questioned and the girl made it clear she had multiple run-ins with them before. "That mean you work with dark-hair, red-eyed moody joker a lot then? He seemed pretty interested in them when I met him. That's where I got this." 

If the girl hadn't handed her another apple, calling her a dork would've been a catastrophic mistake. Hidden hated being called names after her experiences in the real world. Everyone seemed adamant about calling her them. One affectionately referred to her as 'Medea' which pissed her off cause it sounded like Medusa. Hidden did not look like a snake woman. 

"Like... a sled full of eyeballs? Like people eyeballs?" 

[Shiina 0]

"Yep, but we kinda do different things. Really, I just kinda do my own thing, and they bug me when they need some extra juice. I MAKE PEOPLE JUICED." Shiina expressed without a care. Noticing another one of those moody outbreaks, and yet it didn't seem to matter any. "You should totally try it some time, it's like the eyeball part of a giant bee. One of these times, we should totally go sledding. As long as we don't yeet off that cliff, the sled might break or whatever."

Scooching off the bench and looking back at the platter, but one golden apple left upon it. "Meh, you take it. I'ma go find something better. I am going to find those cupcakes, just watch me." A patter of her heels, a shadow familiar still hanging out in her own. Yet, she didn't seem the slightest bit worried. So simple was her goals, on to the next fun thing. A hand clasps a door handle, revealing a candle shop who smiles once the door opens up.

[Hidden 1]

"Okay..." Hidden said quietly as Shiina shouted about juicing people up. "Juices aside, they just call on you when like... whenever? That makes you sound like their dog. Call you when they want to and leave you out in the yard all the other time." She kept quiet about her thoughts of Shiina being a very dangerous dog that runs around the streets unchained. 

When clarifying the sled, it didn't get any less unsettling. "...How many eyeballs?" Hidden had an idea what the bee was, the field boss on Floor two. Was Shiina just massacring this bee constantly? Then the sledding itself, if they fall of the cliff they'd probably die. This girl was insane. It was amazing that she wasn't already dead. Singing her way through the game? Crazy. 

Shiina gave her the last Apple before getting up and returning to her mission of finding the cupcakes. Getting up to follow Hidden would begin to inquire, "Isn't there like... a forever amount of chefs in your guild? Couldn't you just ask them to make you some?" 

Following the girl to the next shop... it definitely wasn't a cupcake shop. It was for candles. "Try not to set something on fire." she chided, giving the taller girl a slight push to encourage her to move forward. 

[Shiina 0]

"But these are candles, I wanted the cakes they go on." Shiina exhumed before being pressed into the building, into a weird library of wax. "It smells alot in here." The songstress spoke as she fumbled into the joint, picking up one bright blue one and twisting it over in her hand. The candle maker immediately flinches the moment she fumbles with the glassware, plucking it out of the air as it almost finds the floor. "You just sell candles?" Shiina asked, messing with the shelving, seeing if anything POPPED out at her. It was here that an epiphany struck. "Wait, dude can you like make a handful of these without wicks?" the NPC twisted his head. "I believe so? but you cant really light them..."

"CRAYONS!" scooping up a handful of different cubes of wax. To the counter, the place was filled with the man trying to keep up, as she brought all sorts of different shades for him. He hadn't been one to see a ton of business, and now it was booming. 

[Hidden 1]

Hidden followed Shiina into the shop, her eyes flicking at the candles that were displayed. Shiina's words made her unconsciously breathe in the air. She found it to be pleasant but didn't take the time to argue with Shiina about the aroma. Instead, the girl was already harassing the shop owner for wax. The childlike joy of 'Crayons' filled the air as several chunks of wax hit the counter. 

Shaking her head, the shorter girl stepped forward, gazing up slightly as Shiina was delighted. 'Why is she taller than me if she's going to act like this?' Catching the shopkeep's gaze, Hidden quickly averted her own. She didn't want to be associated with whatever was happening. A slight tug at the back of Shiina's shirt would signal a whisper, "Just grab your crayons and lets get out of here. Stop bringing so much attention." After her statement, Hidden remained quiet. Hidden didn't enjoy excess attention with her bashful personality, and Shiina was a magnet for the stuff. 

[Shiina 0]

A twist of her head with an eye over her shoulder, an innocent cascade of rather short hair across her forehead. Her dome cocked to the side like a puppy, the girl was embarrassed or something. Right. "OK." She scoops a handful of the newfound utensils from the counter and the shopkeeper begins to lean and speak, "Wait you need to p..." Instinctually, he takes a fist full of col tossed at him like hail. It was more than enough, excluding the assault. "Tank yah Kindly, Bye now... MAKE MOAR." Shiina extrudes sliding out of the building with a still tugging handful of Hidden latched to her collar.

"Where...Can...I...GOT IT."

To the rim of the central plaza, that same rounded fountain that adorned every warp gate. A book from her inventory finds the rim, and the soft scratching begins to play out. As color is forced into a book clearly not meant for it, pictures of scientific plant matter. Her head perks up toward Hidden, still dazed from the leap. A sharp tug sees a page torn out and presented to the place where Hidden could take it. Gesturing a single yellow rod of wax. "Color with me."

[Hidden 1]

After the shopkeep was assailed with coins, Hidden quietly followed Shiina out of the building, guided by the girl rushing out. She was lead to central plaza to the fountain where she would let the girl go. Quickly flipping open a book and tearing out pages, Shiina handed her one to draw on. Shiina gestured to a yellow rod of wax. Hidden sent a glare of discontent. She didn't like yellow. It was far to bright of a color and didn't really fit in any drawing she could make. Not that she was that good of an artist anyway. 

Hidden took the rod of wax and looked at the blank page. What could she draw in yellow? The only thing that made sense was a sun in the corner, but wasn't that a little childish? Disregarding her thoughts, she began to draw a little sun with small little rays coming off of it. Now, there was nothing left she could do with her makeshift-crayon. 

[Shiina 0]

A skooch forward as her hair floundered a bit from swaying strands. "Noice." Shiina extrudes, eyeing Hidden's keen little yellow sphere in the top of a still black and white canvas. "Want a different color? Check mine out." And what the songstress shows is nothing more than some eldritch horror ball of spaghetti string strewn across a page. Not a single line was followed, and not a single shade seemed to match a damn thing. If it could, the rainbow color could easily bleed off the page and taint the rim of the fountain. "What else is in here?" she begins to scan through the book abruptly, turn after turn with some serious moxie behind each.

She pauses for a moment, sizing up the prospecting picture with one of her eyes locked tight. "Yanno, girl you got some cray cray pretty hair." Shiina remarks at one of the silver like strands she picks up on her peripheral. "But that junk has got to take forever to brush, am I rite?" Her eyebrows performing some interpretive dance on the top of her head.

[Hidden 1]

Hidden, somewhat pleased with her sun, brought her attention where Shiina continued the scenery. What reached her eyes was horror incarnate. A mash of colors in a ugly circle pattern was now the scenery that her sun had shone over. If there were lines, not a single color would be found inside of them. A defeated gaze rested on her face as Shiina offered her a new color. By new color, it was a handful of different sticks of wax dumped into her hands. 

Suddenly, Shiina began flipping through the pages, deeming their portrait as finished. Pausing for a moment, the girl took a second to randomly comment on Hidden's hair. Taken aback, Hidden shyly responded. "Oh really? In the real world it was black but I wasn't really happy with it so I had Rai... dou...." 

Words that were so easy to say were quickly stopped as she broke her sentence at the Red Wanderer's name. The easiness of being in Shiina's presence suddenly vanish, a dead pan look filling her eyes. 

"Yeah I guess it can be a pain to brush sometimes." She replied to the question in a monotone voice. 

[Shiina 0]

"Hmm, Black Hair huh?" Shiina's eyebrows freeze with one of them raised, catching the sudden short circuit that had happened. "Did, did you break?" Waving her hand a bit in front of the woman's face. "I can see it, probably look pretty good black too, not gonna lie." Shiina stretches and plops the book down, wiggling her fingers a bit at the far edges as a couple of prism like crystals fall out of the space between her belly and the plate armor. "Whoops, I need some like medieval duct tape or somthin'" her eyes shift back the way she came, checking if she accidentally left a bread crumb trail of the things again. "You would not believe how much of a mess happens if someone steps on one of these things. Come back to a whole buncha NPC's laying on the ground like noodles."

Her expression shifts, to something more somber and gentle. "You know, sometimes you just gotta drop that junk out in the open and let it stink. Yeah it's a turd, and yeah it's not pretty. But shit stinks, but it's better than steppin' in it." Her smile returns, as if it had always been there. "Or don't, I won't tell you what to do. Not like that dork who tried to keep me from sitting on that big ol' chair." Her face twists into a mimic of a big man "Where are your parents?" she mocks with a deep manly voice.

[Hidden 1]

As the hand waved in front of her face, a small flare of annoyance panged through the midst of the rest of her emotions. Still, she said nothing to Shiina. Shiina backed off on her own and an assortment of crystals fell from her armor onto the ground. Finally, Hidden's face revealed emotion and this time it was confusion. After picking them up, Shiina spoke again but in a different manner. Hidden could've sworn her eyes flashed that same gold. 

Her words which probably had a plain meaning, was confusing still to Hidden. What shit did she had to unload? She didn't just carry shit around. Her sudden mockery of some tough dude sparked a bit of laughter from Hidden. 

"Those crystals..." Hidden began, pointing to the ones that had fallen. "Are those what you make music out of? Is that all they do? I don't think most of the music I listen too turns my eyes colors and the ground into some type of nightclub dance floor. Though that's just me." 

[Shiina 0]

She plucks out another one, the light from sunlight making it shine like oil. "Yep, they're like some sort of microphone. But they work better for me than anyone else. Dunno how to describe it. They just pump up what's already there. They're like back up singers, I call this one Shaniqua. She's sassy, a bit of a diva." Proceeding to color as if nothing had ever changed. Shiina shrugs "Beats me, just happens when I'm all serious freakin' beeswax. N'da you do it too, your eyeballs get all..." Shiina pauses to press both hands in balls near her eyes before yelling out "BLAM" and making her fingers wiggle like lasers. She giggles and flops onto the side of the fountain. "So Chiquita banana, my dude." she uses one of her fingers to produce a moostashé "What dart though fair name, or whatever?" A wide grin forms, drawing accent to the tiny spec of caramel shining on her left cheek. "I'm Shiina." as a handful of crayons clatter off the side of the fountain.

[Hidden 1]

Hearing Shiina's explanation hardly made any more sense. The crystals just boosted her voice? So it really was her singing and nothing else? Even Shiina herself had no idea about the deal with the flashing colors. It was a strange happenstance, and Hidden could do nothing but trust Shiina on her word. It just happened. All that it could be written up to was that she was just another crack case of Firm Anima. All of them seemed to have some sort of gimmick that made no sense. 

Shiina was just crazy and crazy things happened when she sang. What else was there to understand. "For my sanity, I'm just gonna say okay." She didn't even want to think about Shaniqua and her attitude problem. But it begged the question. "You name it Shaniqua or did it tell you its name was Shaniqua?" Either answer would've been just fine. The entire situation was already the craziest it could get. 

 "I'm Shiina."

"Yep. I'm Hidden." 

Hidden replied without a beat, her brain having already taken enough crazy. She was at her limit. Much longer, and she would become a simpleton. Unquestioning of any of the mumbo jumbo that Shiina busied herself with on a daily basis. How had Firm Anima not put this crazy girl on a leash? No way they let her roam free and create a wake of destruction. 

[Shiina 0]

"Of course I call her Shaniqua, she can't pick out her own name. That would be silly." The girl looks toward Hidden, a coy grin placed upon her face as she just sat there making it out like she was the crazy one. "Really? Are you sure?" with regard to the girl's name, playfully eying her with one eye closed.

 

 

She begins to shovel the rest of the crayons off the fountain into the water, enjoying the sounds of the *plunk* as they touch down. Her attention gets stuck on the small bits of coin, just below the surface, that were gleaming from sunlight hitting them. Made them almost look white beneath, and shoving her hand in, she fails to clutch it. Refraction was a bitch.

"Hmm, wonder what else I can do? Pretty difficult to top goin' mano eh mano with a burlap sac with a unicorn horn." She giggles with a wiggle, making another attempt at pawing the coin. She wanted a souvenir of the day, and so help her she'd get one. 

 

[Hidden 1]

Hidden raised an eyebrow at Shiina's proclamation. "Out of everything... that would be what's silly?" That's where Shiina drew the line? Hidden watched as Shiina began to play in the water, dumping in her crayons and becoming infatuated with the coins in the basin below. Hidden shook her head as the girl spouted another meaningless line. Standing from the fountain, she looked out. It was amazing she hadn't been hassled by the guards yet and forced to flee. Who knew, perhaps while she wasn't looking Shiina locked them all up or stole their pants. Possibilities were endless. 

Violet eyes returned to Shiina who was still fishing for coins. "I feel like you've probably robbed enough people to not need the coins in the fountain. Especially when you are already chucking random amounts of it at innocent shopkeepers." 

She tugged on the back of Shiina's clothes, but this time harder than the last. "Outta the water, leave the money alone." Hidden's tone was that of an exasperated mother. "You like music don't you? Let me listen to you play or something." 

[Shiina 0]

Being scooped out of the fountain like a sack of potatoes, she presents a single coin to Hidden. "It don't matter none, this is a fountain coin mein. Souvenirs are important. It's like a reminder of all the cool places you've been and people you meet." It was but a single col, but to Shiina it was special. Cradling the thing for a moment, holding above her head and shutting one eye to compare it to the sun. It casts a single circular shadow on her eye, giving the girl a wide grin. "Music, ye ye. It's not the type with words doe." The songstress quips with a wave of fingers through her hair above her right ear that was in a ripe mess now. "Hmm, let me think." She starts to hum a tone, one that was a record of a memory from one of her adventures. It was somber, gentle at first.

The first thing Hidden would realize was the sound seemed echoed, as if something was making it reverberate from a distance. A cart carrying fruit loses a wheel and begins to fall on its side. The NPC freaks and tries to grab one handle and hold it aloft as apples began to pour out the side. The next? There were vibrations, very subtle at first like a minor tremor, but as the sound increases so does the feeling as if everything was shaking. The fountain behind them both would be the obvious tell, as with every note ripples come out in pulses loosely from where Shiina sat.

[Hidden 1]

Shiina tried to explain the meaning of 'souvenirs' but Hidden wasn't buying it whatsoever. "Its... just a coin." Producing her own from a small pouch she grabbed her inventory she showed it to Shiina. "Look. I got one too." She had plenty more than this one coin. Flipping the coin into the fountain without making a single face, she would continue to prove her point. 

As Shiina started humming, Hidden once again got an uneasy feeling. The ground began to vibrate as if her voice controlled the very ground they were standing on. More Chaos ensued as the water behind them rippled as if it were boiling. Nearby, an NPC's cart fell over. Gripping the fountain that she sat on, fear crept into her heart. This girl was some sort of monster, with an ability like a Siren. Weaving some sort of magic into song right? That's what she was doing. Shiina was the unknown. Hidden knew the dark, but this was actually terrifying to watch. Was this what it felt to be targetted by her songs? She assumed she was the target in this scenario. While Hidden was losing her grip in fear, something inside of her only gripped tighter. 

"Nice party trick kid."  Hidden said coolly to Shiina. "Pretty silly, but I guess it has some worth. Honestly, its more flashy then anything. Seeking attention much?" A hand as dark as shadow passed from behind Hidden's figure and stroked Shiina on the head condescendingly. Shiina wouldn't be able to feel anything but a freezing cold tingle on her scalp. Suddenly, Hidden jerked away from Shiina. 

"I-I think I need to go." Hidden said, her voice not collected at all. She had sat with Shiina because for once she hadn't heard the constant voices telling her to throw them away, maybe even kill them. Now, she couldn't be around because she was almost certain that Shiina had heard that voice with her. As if her thoughts had actually spoken to Shiina themselves. 

[Shiina 0]

"Yeah, but that's just a coin, this one is special." Shiina twists it and places it into Hidden's hand. Although it was lost on the girl, she gains the object nonetheless. "It's a memory of coloring." A single hand sprouting from Hidden's back, a grasp of shadow that finds placement in the steel locks of the girl. It finds purchase, before it starts to destabilize and lose strength. It nestled the girl while a song was playing, one of hope that doubt could never honestly harm.

As it would recoil, and Hidden needed to create some distance from the girl. Was it her, or the creature clutching her heart that was retreating? A chipper smile plays from the girl, one that didn't seem even the slightest bit concerned. "Doh K, Hidden. I'll see you later or whateva. Maybe we get cupcakes." The voices of her inner creature were being consumed by the child's song, lost in the myriad of voices of the fallen and forgotten. Cry of the Ancients, would shoulder the pain and wash it all clean.

Edited November 13, 2021 by Shiina

[Hidden 1]

Upon touch, the shadow quickly retracted, moving away from the being it just touched. Although, Hidden remained entirely oblivious to the pain that it retracted from. Taking the coin and pocketing it, she quickly stepped away. Even for the moment, her own voice in her head had been silenced. She had never doubted Shiina like everyone else. No, facing her now there was something else entirely. 

Fear.

Shiina was something different where the very world itself seemed to bend at her will.  "Uh yeah... we should." Even if Shiina would continue to follow Hidden, it didn't matter. She just needed as much distance as possible. At first, her escape was a walk but slowly it ended up in a full sprint. Quickly flying through her inventory while on the move, a dark flowing cape would cover her on the move out. Certain onlookers would shrink into their shadows as she darted away. Though, suddenly her form entirely vanished within an instant. It was far more fluid than that of a normal vanish, almost as if she melted into the air itself.