218/Strange Threads

Strange Threads
Date of Scene:	25 July 2015
Location:	Mitakihara/Pikarigaoka - Penguin Public Library
Synopsis:	Shiori heads to the library in search of an explanation for a strange experience. What he gets instead is a mysterious and dangerous encounter that leaves him whole host of new questions.
Cast of Characters:	Shiori Sato, Seishi Tamashige

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Seishi Tamashige has posed:
The library is, of course, quiet. There aren't a lot of people here at this time of day, aside from the employees manning the checkout desk and occasionally passing through with a cart collecting and re-shelving books. A girl who was tucked up in an armchair in a corner reading area seems to have nodded off over the book she was reading; aside from her, there's nobody else in sight at this end of the library right now, and it's a great place to sit and study or just kill some time with a book without having to worry about being interrupted.

There's no sign that anything's wrong, until a cockroach skitters across Shiori's line of sight.

Shiori Sato has posed:
    Shiori expected the library to be empty, truth be told. With school out, not a lot of kids are thinking about studying or books. Which is understandable. However Shiori's here for another reason. Trying to figure out what happened to Mamoru, for one. For another, to figure out what those images might have been showing him. But hey, at least now he knows not to touch Mamoru. Castles and wars... which one was that? He'd never seen any of those before.

    Hence why he's in the library now. None of those images looked Japanese, so he's looking up western heraldry, hoping to figure something out. There's not a lot here about western kingdoms, being that this is Japan. But he finds a book that might hold answers, and heads to the reading area to look through it.

    He doesn't notice the roach skittering across the floor for a moment; it's the movement he sees first, and he looks up, blinking. It takes him a moment to register the roach as what it is, and he sneers. Eugh. Possibly predictably he makes to step on the thing. He'll have to let the library staff know they may have an infestation...

Seishi Tamashige has posed:
The roach goes duly crunch under Shiori's foot, crushed into the floor. Someone's going to want to clean that up.

...in point of fact, the whole floor looks strangely grimy. Or maybe it's a trick of the light - there should be plenty of daylight coming in through the windows, and all of the library's lights are on, but somehow the air seems strangely dim and murky. When did that happen?

Several more roaches scuttle across the floor in front of Shiori's feet. Everywhere he looks, in fact, there are more - not just roaches, either. Large black ants. Spidery daddy-long-legs. A centipede the size of a garden snake. The quiet of the library is gradually being filled with the dry skittering of many chitinous legs.

They are all heading in the same direction, past the shelves he was browsing only a moment ago.

Shiori Sato has posed:
    Shiori frowns darkly as the chittering and slithering surrounds him. This place wasn't this infested with bugs a moment ago, was it? What's going on? But then... don't centipedes eat other bugs? The harvestman at least. That's... very odd, none of these bugs appear to be trying to eat each other.

Setting the book down on a table, Shiori starts to follow the bugs. This is probably a bad idea, and some part of him realizes this. But this behavior is very weird for insects as far as he knows, and he wants to find the source of it. Where are they going? What's happening?

Seishi Tamashige has posed:
The strange grimy darkness that's settled over the library only gets thicker as Shiori follows the direction that the inexplicable infestation of insects is moving toward. More and more creepy crawlies join in, larger and larger, a veritable swarm--

And then, WHOOM!

One of the tall shelves up ahead abruptly explodes in a violent shower of flying books and dust and torn paper as a blurry red missile comes flying through it at great force and slams into another bookshelf. Dislodged books rain down as the red thing - not a 'thing' at all, but a girl in a short red kimono, her hair tied back in a samurai ponytail and her face hidden by the demonic grimace of an oni mask - struggles to free herself from the long, sticky strands of webbing that have gummed her to the shelf.

That webbing did not come from any normal-sized insect.

Shiori Sato has posed:
    Shiori just grows more confused as he follows the bugs. What's going on? This definitely isn't normal insect behavior. And even if it was, this is clearly no normal insect infestation. Things seem different all around him now, not just the bugs. The library is not as it was. It's as if he isn't even in the library anymore, but somewhere else entirely.

    He turns around to look in the direction he came from, wondering if he should turn back. This situation looks like it's going to need more than just an exterminator to fix. This looks like it's going to need an exorcist! And Shiori is certainly neither of those.

    And then suddenly something explodes! Shiori is quick to duck the debris, raising his arms to cover his head just in case. Once things sort of calm down he peeks over his raised arms to find... a girl in a kimono, webbed to a shelf? Exactly what the heck is going on?!

    Yeah this situation has gone beyond Shiori's power to fix. He looks back the way he came again, intending to make a run for it, before whatever webbed that girl to the wall comes in looking for an appetizer. He pauses though, and looks at the girl again. Back at the exit... back at the girl...

    He can't leave her like this. It wouldn't be right. With a sigh, Shiori runs over to the webbed girl, grabbing at the strands and pulling with all his strength, trying to help her get free. He doesn't exactly keep a pocket knife with him. Besides, these things would require a machete anyway. He doesn't care that the strands stick to him, he's not the one who needs to get loose.

Seishi Tamashige has posed:
"What--" Her voice hitches out of her in breathless surprise as Shiori starts pulling on the stretchy, sticky web. The full-face mask makes it impossible to see her expression, but her voice quickly takes on a tone of urgency: "You shouldn't be here! Don't--"

From the direction of the fallen shelf that she was knocked through, there's a crunching, rustling sound of disturbed debris as a long, hairy arachnid leg reaches over it. And another. And another. Attached to a spider that's easily the size of a car. It's heading toward them, mandibles flexing.

"You need to get out of here!" the girl in red urges Shiori, still straining against the web. It's giving, slowly, and his help has given her some freedom, but she's not loose yet.

A flash of movement nearby - a dog-sized creature kind of like a tapir, if a tapir had tusks and a curly mane and eyes that burn like embers, appears nearby. "The Shinken, stupid!" it calls to the girl in a man's voice. "Where did you drop the fan?"

Shiori Sato has posed:
    "I know I shouldn't, I should be at the library reading a book. I don't even know where 'here' is," Shiori replies, still pulling at the strands. It's hard to get any purchase with the sticky strands, but he tries. A bit of wryness entering his voice, he adds, "But since I'm here-- somehow-- I may as well help out, ne?" He smiles, but it's nervous.

    And then... movement. Shiori pauses, head turning to see what it was. The approaching spider has Shiori's eyes widening fearfully behind his glasses.

    Never has Shiori been more thankful he's not arachnophobic.

    Still that is one damn scary spider, and he pulls hard at the strands that haven't quite released the girl yet. And then suddenly there's ANOTHER creature showing up, though not a spider. One he's never seen before. Or has he? It seems... familiar somehow.

    The fan? Since the tapirhound-- yes, that's what he's going to call it-- seems to know the girl and at least not want her to die, Shiori looks to her. "Want me to go get the fan?"

    What is he doing? It's just a fan, how's that going to help? Well, whatever. 'Completely weird' seems to be the flavor of the afternoon anyway. Play along.

Seishi Tamashige has posed:
"O-Yasu!" the girl yelps, masked face turning towards the tapir-beast. For a moment she seems to be looking around wildly, as the settling of broken shelving heralds the giant spider's approach - then her face orients toward Shiori again. Behind the eye-holes of the mask, her eyes are wide. "My tessen," she says. "I had it when the spider hit me, it should be here. Then you have to run, understand?"

Once he starts looking, it won't be hard to find. The fan lies open amidst the scattered books, its polished metal slats and the crimson cord attached to its hand-end standing out brightly against the dust and grime.

"Hurry!" insists the tapir creature, the word rather muffled as it tugs at a bit of spiderweb with its teeth.

Shiori Sato has posed:
    "Un," Shiori grunts, and then heads away from the webbed girl. Frantically he begins searching for the fan-- don't look at the spider, don't look at the spider-- AH-HA! There! It's a fan! And somehow he knows this is it. It's familiar too. All of this is familiar somehow... the girl, the fan, the tapirhound, the situation... He has a weird sensation of deja vu as he picks up the fan.

    Then he remembers THERE IS A GIANT SPIDER and if he doesn't get this fan over to the girl in the kimono they're probably ALL going to get EATEN by said giant spider. Shaking his head to clear it, he runs back in the direction of the webbed girl. "Found it!" he proclaims. Are her hands free? If so he'll hand it to her.

Seishi Tamashige has posed:
She does have a hand free, enough to reach toward him as he holds the tessen out to her. "Here!"

For a split second as her fingers close on the fan, before he lets go of it, it's like the dangling cord somehow moves on its own - a red cord that winds from her wrist to his, entangling both. Or maybe it was a hallucination, because in the next moment it's gone, and she's drawing back the fan as much as her current range of movement allows. "Sankyosen!"

With a flick of the fan, a sudden wind kicks up from nowhere, blowing bits of shredded paper around wildly and, miraculously, peeling back the entangling webs. Freed from the snare, the girl drops to land on her feet in a preparatory crouch, just as the giant spider looms over them both. "Get back!" she calls to Shiori as the tessen in her hand begins to flare with crimson light.

Shiori Sato has posed:
    ...Okay that was weird. There for a minute it looked like the cord attached to the fan... that it was trying to wrap around him as well...

    PAY ATTENTION SHIORI there is danger afoot! EIGHT FEET, to be more precise! Also wind somehow frees the girl, and Shiori steps back as the webs just peel themselves off of her.

    Suddenly he's being directed to get back and that fan starts to light up. He does not need to be told twice, and jogs several paces to one side of the girl, hopefully out of her line of fire. He takes the opportunity to look at the tapirhound thing again. Where has he seen that thing before...?

Seishi Tamashige has posed:
He'll find the tapir thing looking back at him, its eyes steady and unwavering and glowing like flame. Its gaze is arresting, unnerving, and - like so much about this incredibly strange situation - inexplicably familiar.

"--NIGHTMARE BREAKER!" Behind Shiori, the girl in the mask launches herself at the spider, becoming a blur of movement and red light. The sound of impact is not the disgusting crunch and splurt of chitin and ichor, but something more like the catastrophic shattering of an enormous stained-glass window; for a few disorienting instants it's as though the entire library save for Shiori and the tapirhound that's staring at him all seems to come apart into shattered fragments.

...and then reality reasserts itself, and the library is as it's always been, no sign of grime or insects or overturned shelves. The broken bits of the nightmare evaporate on the floor like so much mist.

The girl in red, tessen in hand, stands beside the no-longer-destroyed bookshelf and catches her breath.

Shiori Sato has posed:
    Shiori frowns as he looks at the weird creature that spoke to the girl in red. Why isn't he afraid of it? He should be afraid of it. Of HIM, Shiori's mind corrects. Not just because of the male voice. He knew the creature was male. Familiarity... everything about this is familiar, and it shouldn't be. It's not right but it is and he knows it...

    And then everything disappears!

    The girl in red's attack shatters the ruined library and everything seems back to normal! Shiori looks around, looking for traces of the destroyed reality and... finds nothing. Then he looks back at the girl, silent for a long moment. Finally?

    "...I wasn't supposed to see that, was I?"

Seishi Tamashige has posed:
Her face turns toward him, and slowly she shakes her head in answer to his question: no. No, he wasn't supposed to see any of that.

Turning to face him fully, she bends in a shallow bow. "Thank you," she says, "for your help... but you shouldn't get involved in weird things like this. Put a little more value on your own safety."

As she finishes, she straightens back up, and then turns and starts briskly away, heading off between the shelves.

The tapir creature, however, makes no move to follow. He's still standing there, staring silently at Shiori with those ember eyes.

Shiori Sato has posed:
    Shiori looks sheepish when the girl chides him gently. "I... should, yeah. That was stupid of me," he agrees. "I'm sorry. I... almost ran. But I couldn't leave you like that..." He may not even realize that he's talking to her retreating back, his voice sounds a little distant. And she may not even hear it when he says quietly, "...It was just so familiar..."

    It's only then that he becomes aware that the tapirhound is still staring at him. He turns his head to look at the creature, clearly bewildered, as if the being held an answer to some question that he hasn't asked. He's just so CONFUSED!

Seishi Tamashige has posed:
If the beast has answers for Shiori's confusion, he doesn't seem like he's going to volunteer them. But he does speak again, quiet words that are clearly for Shiori and Shiori alone:

"Did you see it? The cord of fate..."

"O-Yasu!" The girl in the mask has stopped at the corner of the shelf, clearly having just realized that her companion wasn't following. At her call, the tapirhound finally breaks eye contact with Shiori and trots after her. Without another word from either of them, they vanish behind the bookshelf and into the depths of the library. Even if Shiori tries to follow, by the time he gets past the shelf, there'll be no sign of them.

Over in the reading area, the girl who'd nodded off while reading jerks awake with a gasp from a nightmare about many clicking, skittering legs.

Shiori Sato has posed:
    "...Cord of fate? What...?"

    He pauses as the girl in red calls to the creature and they both leave the area. Shiori indeed does not follow. He knows better than that. He stands there for a moment more, until he notices the girl waking up. He looks in her direction, still with a confused look on his face.

    ('Okay. Weird. Quit thinking about it, Shiori. You're normal.')

    Besides, he needs to figure out if he can help Mamoru with THAT bit of weirdness. Shiori sighs. ('...First that weird vision of Mamoru's, then falling asleep in the shopping center... now this. What's going on...?')