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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shayuri" data-source="post: 6696037" data-attributes="member: 4936">Death Otter glanced around the corner into the room and even though her reflexes whipped her head back out again immediately, the image of what she'd seen there remained in her eyes. Inky dark, like shadow made flesh, reaching out with tendrils...No, things like that don't exist. That's bad anime and worse fanfics.She felt as if her brain was writhing inside her skull...like there was a cat loose in there and it was just realizing it wanted out. There was pounding in her ears.An octopus or something. A big one. Escaped from a zoo...they're smart...Mouth was wrong. Shape was wrong. Mollusks had very little internal support...they were strong, but out of water they wouldn't be able to LIFT much. Nothing to use for leverage.Genetic experiment! Some kind of...of bio-war...thing...No. Just stop. Death Otter slowly opened her eyes, only just then realizing how tightly they'd been squinched shut. How hard her heart was beating. How hot, feverish, she felt. It felt to her as if she was floating a few inches above her body, even though she was still clearly seeing out through her own eyes. Dissociation. She had to stop. Stop trying to figure this thing out. It wasn't anything that fit into what she knew about. Stop pounding that square peg into the round hole of her brain, because it was going to be her brain that broke first. She liked acting crazy...did she want to BE crazy?Watch. Listen. See. All understanding started with observation. She couldn't use what came before as a guide, but she could take this thing as it was, one moment to the next, and learn it the way a baby learned everything.Look again. Don't try to force it to be anything. See what it is.Otter let out her breath and looked back around the corner just in time to see the gunshot go off.What did she see?A monster holding a girl.What did she see?A monster, backed into a corner, holding what looked like a girl who had moments before been remarkably monster-free.She frowned a little.Had the thing been in the bathroom already, and just pounced on the first person to go in? Or had it been with the girl all along?Stupid monster, getting cornered, or clever? Grab the girl and use her as a shield? Or...it's always about us, isn't it? We see our faces in the clouds, in the surf...anytime we see something that looks remotely like one of us, we assume THAT'S the important part. That's the part we have to save, we have to fear, we have to communicate with. We forget other details. Important ones. Like why something that can hide so easily lets itself be seen.She pulled her head back out and said aloud."Watch behind us. I think there's another one."(Mechanics - Use action to use her Talent that gives her a bonus on following rounds. Analyze Weakness I think? Argh! I'll look it up and fix this to be less embarrassing!)</blockquote>

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