savetheearth | 3rd Howl | [Log/Action] [OPEN]

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3rd Howl | [Log/Action] [OPEN]

After school, Lyall hurries off campus rather more quickly than usual: he's meeting someone at the museum to discuss cybernetic eyes, for one thing. He's been looking forward to that for a while now. For another, someplace quieter and with fewer people will be more comfortable for his poor, still-overwhelmed nose. Plus, he does rather like the museum, especially the natural history section. That's where he's said he'll meet Chris, so that's where he's waiting for her, staring up at the one full dinosaur skeleton the little place has.

And on top of that, today he has a mission: catch one of those awful little black bugs. Towards that purpose, he has his pockets loaded with plastic bags, test tubes with stoppers, and even a small butterfly net to attempt to catch possessed animals with-- and of course, a wide-brimmed hat to keep the sun off his skin.

Once he and Chris have had their talk, his plan is to go out hunting. He'll be found anywhere around the city, stalking funny-looking birds and cats and testing the air for that tell-tale smell. He probably looks pretty silly doing it, too, but it's for science, dammit. He will put up with looking a little silly.

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Out of all the things she could be doing... catching one of the creatures was the least of what Kallie was concerned about, especially once she realized what she'd just done- with someone else around to see, even. A witness to the strange ability she'd picked up a couple of weeks previous.

Her hand finally caught the smaller animal, shoving it off and then quickly following up with a kick aimed in its direction, but aside from trying to get away from it and the others, the young woman did little else. Her gaze fixed on the man lunging for one of the animals who had just attacked her, but she may as well have used the Thunder spell on herself with how stunned she seemed to be at the moment.

In any other situation, Lyall would have felt enormously silly. Too silly to actually do what he was doing. He was no his hands and knees, trying to catch the bounding feline... thing... that was running on two legs instead of four, and thus was much more awkward. He finally pounced on it, catching it in both hands and against his stomach-- earning himself quite a few scratches, for that matter.

Because as soon as he caught it, it turned into a normal, panicked, squalling cat. A small cloud of little black puffs burst out of its mouth.

The animals were scattering, aside from the two captured or left half-living. Kallie circled the electrocuted cat warily... debating the desire to run now that she was free, before the man so currently occupied with trying to hold a rather angry cat could think to question her about what had just happened...

But then she really looked at him, realizing after a flash of confusion that she recognized his face and demeanor: her old biology teacher from high school, of all things. What was he doing here??

Her gaze shifted again, but this time when she found herself staring at the downed creature, she was far less eager to bend and get a better look. It was still alive, twitching sporadically as it clung to whatever control it had left... and disturbed, Kallie stepped away, closer towards the man instead.

"... Mr Lyall?"

She frowned, holding a hand to the opposite arm. To her chagrin, her jacket was ripped, and to her rising uneasiness, it seemed she was rather scraped up by the brief scuffle as well.

"Yes, yes-- a moment!" Lyall exclaimed, dropping the cat and clapping his hands around the cloud of little fly-sized things. He managed to capture several, but they immediately commenced with the biting.

Wincing, he said, "Hurry, please, in my jacket pocket there is a test tube with a stopper. Could you get it out for me?" He still hadn't registered who she was, but he'd get there. Once tiny alien fae things weren't biting his fingers.

She stared... but then complied, even if she didn't understand just what was going on or what he was trying to do. That said, it didn't help that her sense of personal space was unusually wide, and the idea of touching the clothing of a man who she once had as a teacher was one of the last things she wanted to do. It was with a very gingerly manner that she tilted her head and reached for a test tube, trying to retrieve it with as little contact as possible.

Once she had it, she could only assume he wanted it open as well, but the look on her face was questioning as she held it up between slim fingers.

Be grateful it wasn't in an inside pocket or the pocket of his pants, Kallie. He nodded hastily, wincing again, and held out his closed hands.

Once it was opened, he stuck the heel of his hands against the top, opened them just a crack, and the creatures, sensing an opening, streamed out. Some escaped, but two wound up inside. "Got you!" Lyall covered the top with his thumb, looking pleased with himself. "Finally!"

"What is that?" Kallie finally managed to ask, the revulsion in her expression lingering as she watched him trap the tiny beings inside the length of the test tube. She pulled away the instant she thought he had hold of the impromptu container, certain she felt at least one brush against her hand--

Suddenly, she turned sharply, whipping her face back towards the thunder-spelled cat. There too she noticed tiny black balls of puff skittering away in the wind, escaping from the unfortunate defeated animal... and then it happened again- that hollowness, the reverberating thud of a single heartbeat...

She braced herself in the instant that followed, but nothing else seemed to happen. Her thoughts remained free of arguing strangers, the environment free of any more demonstrations of odd powers. Was it a fluke? Just her imagination overreacting to stress...?

"I don't know what they're called, but they are the causes of those mutations in animals, and they seem drawn to us-- oh dear." The little things were obviously freaking out inside the test tube, smashing themselves violently against the walls. He patted himself for pockets with his free hand and yanked out a plastic baggy, stuffing the tube inside that and hastily zipping it up. Now at least the surface they were trapped in wasn't hard enough to injure them. Right?

He finally looked up at Kallie and blinked, at last registering her face and its familiarity. "Wait-- I know you. Aren't you one of my students?" Former students, probably, given he hadn't quite remembered a name yet.

Her mind remaining empty of any apparent effects, Kallie still frowned as she turned back, uneasy all the same.

"Us...?" she repeated quietly, noticing with unusual clarity that he'd cut off before exactly mentioning what us was referring to. She crossed her arms carefully, looking down at them as she wondered whether or not she was bleeding anywhere. She couldn't decide on what to focus on- between what had just happened, the furballs, the explanation... and noticing that her thoughts were jumping around erratically. Distantly, she pondered what it said about her that she was able to separate that idea from the rest so cleanly.

"A few years ago," she confirmed after a moment, but it was obvious from her distance and failure to further help him remember who she was that she was reluctant about it. There wasn't anything in her memory that would paint him as someone to be wary of, but... her mood the last few days had put her in a suspicious sort of state towards pretty much everything.

For a moment, Lyall searched his memory for the face and the time frame. Thankfully for him, he had a pretty good memory for students and their faces. And now, their scents: he was picking up on hers now, loud and clear. Or blatant and muddled with more information than he could process, really, but it came to about the same thing.

"Kallie Rayden?" he guessed. "You've grown up quite a bit. As for 'us', I suppose I-- oh. Hmm." He realized quite suddenly he wasn't sure if he'd seen or heard her on the network. "I suppose I don't know, exactly," he finished lamely. "It includes me, whatever it is."

Serious as ever, Kallie tilted her head down- a nod, save that her chin stayed down as she looked up and listened. Aside from the grating comment about growing up (she'd never understood the need for people who'd known another when they were younger to point that fact out, nor the need to point out she'd gotten prettier since her early teenage years), the rest of it was...

Fishy. And, as she stared at him and thought about it, the pieces began filing into place. The memory of biology notes showing up during that first day the network began working slowly filtered back to her, even though she hadn't felt the need to investigate at the time.

"You're on the network..."

Her voice calm, it wasn't quite a question, even if her manner subtly prompted for a confirmation.

Relaxing at the admission, Lyall nodded. "Yes, I am. If you saw that lecture on photosynthesis at all, that would have been me. Quite on accident, of course." He looked vaguely embarrassed about that one.

"Regardless, these things--" He held up the baggie with the panicked pair of furballs. "--seem to be attracted to those of us who have been on that network, and have had something strange change in us. Yours, I guess, would be that lightning bolt. Mine was... I can smell things, as if I were a dog or better." Since she inadvertently shared hers, and this was out in the open, and he knew she was trustworthy enough, he didn't mind sharing.

Kallie hadn't told anyone else about the purple lightning; aside from the man who had tried to attack her - who was sure to have been way too out of it to remember after the fact anyway - Lyall was the first person to see that what had accompanied the number in her head wasn't just another example of an unwanted memory, physical change, or... a new book or whatever.

"You seem really... calm about this," she said, stiffly shifting her weight. She wanted to deny that the so-called lightning bolt wasn't her fault, but realized too that the effort wasn't worth it and wouldn't be believed. At best she'd just be opening a road of misinformation if Lyall then spread that the mutated creatures could randomly explode.

She was still very much disconcerted, however. The part about him being able to smell like a dog would have been interesting, if not for the immediate opinion that formed in her pointing out that that wasn't quite...

... Well, that supernatural.

"I have students involved in this mess," Lyall pointed out. "I would much rather see to it that they stay calm than indulge in any freaking out of my own." He'd already spent some time in private pacing and trying to work this all out, and new data did tend to throw him now and then, but now at least he had a mission or two to keep him focused.

Besides, the lightning was kind of fascinating. "How does that even work?" he asked, eying her hand curiously, as if lightning might crackle out of it again at any moment. "I've given up trying to figure out how the sense of smell thing works, since my nasal cavities obviously have not changed at all to accommodate it. I suppose that must be the same...."

Students- teenagers, then, and more than one to boot. For some reason that bothered her, even if it was ultimately sort of silly. She was hardly any older than a teenager herself, after all. And yet...

In any case, she was distinctly uncomfortable at the path of this conversation; by now it was starting to get to the point where her gaze was roaming, eye contact all but lost as she distractedly watched for potential eavesdroppers. This mess wasn't something she asked for, and talking about the ability to fry things with nothing more than a wave of the hand was something she'd already decided she wanted to avoid.

"I don't know," she answered reluctantly... and nothing more. She busied herself with checking herself for wounds instead- particularly bite marks from the infected animals.

For a moment, Lyall almost pressed her for details-- the scientist in him wanted to know as much as possible, to hopefully put together more pieces-- but between the expression on her face and how she was looking at anywhere but him, he had a feeling it wouldn't go over well. So he swallowed his questions and nodded. "All right. It all is very confusing, I'll admit... are you all right?"

Rapid subject change. He cleared his throat and clarified. "Did those mutated animals actually break the skin? I haven't seen that they're poisonous at all, but there's no harm in at least washing well." And now he just sounded like a teacher again.

She refrained from answering for a few moments more, until she was sure. Trying to stamp down on her still-increasing uneasiness, the fear of what it might mean to be bitten by one of those creatures, she peeled the sleeves of her jacket up, running hands over her skin in search of punctures in the pale surface.

After a minute, she unzipped down the middle too, switching her attention to examining down her front as well. It was undoubtedly an odd sort of show in the briskness of the early April late afternoon, but when it came to this Kallie honestly didn't even think to care. Making sure she wasn't going to mutate into something with cat ears or worse was far more important.

Somehow, though, she found little reason to worry. While irritated here and there, it appeared she'd managed to escape drawing blood. She sighed and shook her head slightly, relieved-- or as relieved as one could be given the circumstances, that is.

Lyall sighed with relief of his own and nodded, glad that she'd been thorough, at least. "Good. Another fellow I met was bitten by one of the creatures possessing them-- these." He held up the little bag, where the tiny creatures were flitting around in a panic. His own hands were scratched up along the inside of his fingers and his palms, though only a few were bleeding. "But he seems to be doing just fine."

He kept the bag out, this time, not wanting to accidentally squash his test subjects (again), but he did pull a kleenex from a pocket to wipes his hands off. "I probably ought to wash my lovely new markings off, though. Vicious little things."

"Hmn," Kallie provided shortly, watching the bagged creatures intently before blinking, looking up. "Another person on the network, I'm guessing..."

She was bothered and it showed, frowning as she began zipping back up her jacket and her mind slowly began putting pieces together. Mr Lyall had already mentioned the mutated animals being drawn to them, and she had no reason to doubt it; the message from 'Jack' earlier seemed to support the matter. Far more important to her, obviously, was what had just happened here though- the animals were starting to group together, and weren't just lacking in fear when approached, but-

"They're attacking us," she said, abruptly far more bold, "If they were going after just normal people too, we would have heard about it."

... A short mental wince at herself using the word 'normal' to denote those who hadn't been pulled into the network business, but then she continued, "...What happens once they get a hold of something bigger?"

"The largest creature I've seen them inhabit thus far is a cat, or a crow," Lyall told her, sound thoughtful as he worked it out in his head and stared at the clear baggie in his hand. "The cat lost more of the sprites than the squirrel did... which also lost more than the sparrow I chased off. It may be that they cannot inhabit something larger... or that it takes such a large number gathered in one place, at one time, that it is infeasible. But you're right about that, that we're the ones they're interested in, not other people. Other people are noticing them, but are not noticing them in the same numbers."

He was a teacher, after all. He interacted with so many people over the course of the day that he heard things, and he had a whole campus to watch, despite the discomfort with sunlight.

That was what she had meant- for now the mystery critters were only possessing smaller animals, but what if...?

She shook her head. "Alright, well," she started, but then promptly followed up with not much else aside from a show of tenseness, with arms crossed and one shoulder lifting as she turned her face away. By now it seemed like hours ago, but she had been doing something before being stopped by the twisted, furry hostiles.

"... I should go."

Abrupt, maybe, but her uneasiness here was getting increasingly difficult to ignore.

She always had been quiet and stand-offish, Lyall remembered. He picked himself up off the ground at last, dusting off his knees and watching her a little hesitantly. "All right. ... will it be terribly forward of me to ask for your number? The network one, I mean. There are too many people I know in this thing. I really would like to have a way to contact you, if there's trouble. You can have mine, of course, and I'll always respond and help if I can."

Kallie frowned even more... but couldn't think of a reason to deny the request. Problem was, she already knew from experience that writing it down would do him little good and quickly fill whatever piece of scrap paper she used for the task with whatever random chatter happened to be the latest on the network in question.

"I'll tell it to you," she offered quietly, but from the set of her weight it was obvious she wanted this action to take as little time as possible.

"Thank you," Lyall nodded, ready and willing to let her go once he knew he could track her down again if need be. The number spoken was good enough; he'd remember it, if it wasn't too long. And, in the interest of good faith, he said: "Mine's 71865924."

She paused, taking a moment to commit this new number to memory alongside her own; she didn't carry a pen when she was out running, anyway. Thankfully, the number was slightly shorter than hers... if a bit more complicated.

"Zero-zero-eight, zero-two, zero-seven, two-two-six" she answered finally, cutting the number up into sections like she might an address or similar. The edges of her lips turned down a little bit more in the process, however. After all, as she was exposed to others' numbers as well, one had to wonder about all those zeros in hers...

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professorwolf - 2013-04-22 19:58 (UTC) - Expand

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