[video] (Backdated to 22nd sob)

[umbrael]

[Normally Doyle would be a little more hesitant to throw his face onto the network for everyone to see (as opposed to carefully picking comments), but this is a little bit of an emergency, which is also why he's broadcasting at this hour. The wall behind him is blank and lit - well lit, casting a sharp shadow behind him. The same light is making his face look washed out, and making the bags under his eyes look more pronounced. Well, it's either the light, or how he's been sleeping terribly lately.]

Okay, okay, I thought I was going crazy, but now I'm pretty sure this is some numbers-related bullshit. Has anyone noticed-- Aha!

[His eyes - red, no contacts tonight - dart to look at something offscreen, and suddenly everything blurs as he turns the camera.

It stops, to look at a nightstand. The lamp on it casts dark little shadows under the stuff littering it - a digital clock, a ring of keys, a wallet, a little notepad and pen, a kleenex box with a half-crumpled tissue beside it - but there doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary. He gives it a second, just in case, but nope, nothing to see here.]

... Dammit. Nevermind. Uh.

[The camera pans back to himself. He still looks a little rattled, but hey, he thinks he's doing a pretty good job keeping cool about it, all things considered. He clears his throat - gives the room another glance-around, just in case, and gets back to his message.]

R-right - I've be seeing stuff moving, uh, mostly in the peripheral. Mostly where it's - darker. It started a few weeks ago, I think, so, uh. Anyone else getting stalked by something just out of sight? It can't just be me.

[Of course, as he says this, his shadow - wavers. Not like his lamp moved or anything- the edges of it wriggle. It's only for a few seconds, though it moves most noticeably when he says 'stalked'. He doesn't notice this one, since it's behind him.]

Comments

[umbrael]

[Doyle goes still, and his shadow - well, it snaps straight straight as well, but a few little tendrils peel off from the main thing and curl a little, as if ready to act.

Then Doyle suddenly twists around, and hey what do you know, his shadow keeps doing the weird thing this time, and he gets to fully see and appreciate it. Only for a second, though - because then he yelps and starts flailing away from the wall.]

WHAT THE FUCK?-!!

[He drops his phone and, by the sounds of it, falls off the bed. His voice can still be heard off-screen:]

Ow - fuck.

[part_time_overlord]

[Trying to peer down off the bottom of the camera. Which of course, does not work.]

You OK?

[umbrael]

Yeah.

[There's rustling as he gets his phone and gets back on the bed. He somehow looks a little more disheveled than he did before. His shadow is completely normal. He takes a long, calming breath, and then:]

Did you see that?!

[part_time_overlord]

Yeah, I saw it. Pretty weird.

Try poking it.

[umbrael]

No!

[Behind him, his shadow splits up again, this time into five tendrils, which writhe in agitation.]

[part_time_overlord]

Why not? It's a shadow. What's it gonna do?

[umbrael]

I don't -- why bother poking it if you don't think it'll do anything?!

[yes that's why he's not touching it]

[part_time_overlord]

If you're too scared to investigate your own echoes, you'll never make any headway.

[umbrael]

I'm not scared! I think it's reasonable to be freaked out at shadows doing things they're sure as hell not supposed to!

[shadow writhing intensifies]

And my last echo was like- at the beginning of the month! How could this be the same thing?!

[part_time_overlord]

Freaked out means scared, man.

[He peers at the shadow, though.]

Well it's definitely weird. Maybe one of your other echoes is reacting to something new in your life?

[umbrael]

It means I'm alarmed by something happening that's literally impossible!

[Stare all you want but Doyle isn't going to look behind him. He swears he can almost feel something just hanging out there, though. But nope, not going to look, absolutely not.]

[He starts to reply to the next part, but stops short for a moment.]

... Well -- I uh.

[He's not looking at the camera exactly, but it's more self-consciousness than paranoia at this point. Also, he's kind of mumbling]

... never did figure out what that echo was.

[part_time_overlord]

I can literally feed off of human misery, Calvin can outrun cars on the freeway, there are a bunch of teenage girls who can transform into superheroes in frilly dresses running around, there's a talking ferret on the network, and you are trying to tell me that something in your life is impossible?

[umbrael]

[The shadows writhe a little again.]

It's not impossible for you and them, because you--

[But they start to falter as he falters. Because they what, echoed that back and now it's normal for them? That's not an argument that helps you, stupid. Actually, why argue this at all?]

I mean - I'm not - I'm still a- [ woaaah let's not use the 'still human argument either.]

I- I - uh...

[And he finally runs out steam and just sags. His shadow began to slow down its movement as he fumbled his words, and now it finally seems to settle back into an ordinary shadow.]

... Point.

I guess.

[part_time_overlord]

[Sam's eye's seem to get a brief red glow to them, though it was gone before Doyle was even sure he had really seen it.]

Still a human?

[umbrael]

[Doyle's not 100% sure what he just saw but he's got a feeling he just put his foot in it]

No! Not - ah - I mean - still normal, like, boring, powerless h-person, while you guys have echoed back superpowers and stuff, so doing that... isn't...

[He trails off - then his mouth twitches, and he sighs and presses his forehead into his hand.]

Fuck it, who am I kidding.

[part_time_overlord]

[And back to normal like nothing ever happened.]

Welcome to the club. We're all weird here.

[umbrael]

Great. No offense, but I wish I could cancel my membership.

[Said tiredly. And no, he knows how to cancel his membership, but he's not exactly in a position to move out.]