The Secret of Wickwillow Manor

[Ashbringer]

Five minutes?

Byron shuddered slightly, which ended up flexing one of his arms to the left. He knew Perses hadn't meant a literal second, but five minutes... that was forever. To him, it could literally be forever, the time he took to eat a stolen piece of chouta before going back for fruit four days later. He'd gone longer without cadmium, sure. At the Hospital he made it about half an hour. But he'd been Leeched then, and had to reach into his coat pocket, pull out a vial, uncork it, and drink it. Harder than it seemed when one's fingers didn't listen to one's brain. But now, though, Byron had plenty of cadmium. All he needed to do was will it to turn on. 

And it very much wanted to.

Fortunately he had been burning a big bubble, and their surroundings had been static anyway. But Byron still felt it. There was no inside. Everything was there, outside, moving at the same time-frame as he was. Nothing was moving, nothing he was looking at, but he was still straining every sense of himself, trying to hear the sped-up buzz of distant sounds that were far too drawn out.

Some part of Byron knew this didn't make too much sense. Half the time his bubble was less than ten percent dilation, and when he was used to sensing anywhere from ten to a thousand percent, what difference did none make. But even if ten minus zero is ten, the magnitude of that difference can never be compared. And when that part asked the rest of him, and found the answer to be all of it. 

He made it about eighty seconds before burning cadmium again. A smaller bubble this time, just holding him, just for a few hyper-dilated seconds until Persus spoke again and he put it back to it's "normal", large, ten-percent-size.

"You find anything?" he asked, trying to control his breathing a little more. But he could feel that feeling, that something was outside. Watching.

Seems like something found them.

Byron drew his daggers. This, at least, he had some idea how to deal with.

[EmulatonStromenkiin]

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can we have a description of the creature and where it is in relation to us, if within visibility/sensing?

 

[+ZincAboutIt]

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If you decide to look back at it, then yes. However this will result in it attempting to kill you and your companions  

 

[Koloss17]

6 minutes ago, ZincAboutIt said:

 

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You just HAD to put the smiley there, didn’t you?

 

[+ZincAboutIt]

3 hours ago, Koloss17 said:

 

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*blows all of you kisses* 

 

[EmulatonStromenkiin]

3 hours ago, ZincAboutIt said:

If you decide to look back at it, then yes. However this will result in it attempting to kill you and your companions  

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I was under the impression that they were standing in something of a semi-circle, to maximize visibility. I did look through and saw that the group was told not to look, that saves me from potential metagaming. I'm gonna do this anyway, though. If it is within visual range, she can now see it. She is situated between Persus and Byron. 

Malsam grasped her sword tighter, keeping it resting in her lap. She was about to turn around before she remembered what they had been told of the entities in the house. They do not like to be seen, she remembered. With a force of will, she remained staring forward. She no longer cared if the others saw how tense she was, though several of them looked how she felt. She heard a pop and a clinking sound, and with a sense of growing dread, she looked down at the wheels on her chair. Ironically, the brake had broken off.

I should have had that fixed when I got to the city, she thought desperately. She stood up quickly, and the chair spun away from her. Slightly frantic, she spun around to grab it without thinking.

[+Sorana]

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Before I write my post I've got a quick question regarding the looking part. Given the fact that we're not standing in a strict circle with our backs to each other, someone will always see the space behind another character's back. Does that mean that we're looking, or is the looking specific to our own monster behind our own back no one else can perceive?

 

[Voidus]

Whisper was not entirely sure which headache to deal with first, the reprieve from being in a cadmium bubble had been nice right up until it had expanded again at the absolute soonest possibility, slowing their effective progress and ensuring that she had to keep a part of her attention focused once again on the perimeter to estimate how much time they were losing. 

The young blind man it seemed had basically tried to locate everything in the house simultaneously, which might have been a helpful forewarning if they weren't specifically dealing with creatures that were enraged upon being observed. Whisper wasn't sure how whatever senses he had used might have interacted with the creatures but it was unlikely they would be able to avoid angering them at the least. While many in the Alleys were told that it was unwise to look up, into the dark endless skies and maddening void above, there was another piece of advice that was not told to nearly so many.

"It's best not to hear up either." She whispered in a voice so cracked it was doubtful it would be heard even if the corridor were silent.

Which led her to her final irritant. Whisper was also annoyed with herself, none of these had any experience with the Alleys. She should have expected that lack of true understanding to result in a series of mishaps. Should have headed them off much sooner. But she had been curious about the house, wondering if there was perhaps something useful here, some shred that she could pull that would not make this a wasted trip.

A chair spun past her, wheels sliding against the floor and slipping behind their group. Whisper pulled herself to the side, just next to the young girl as it passed. But a chair was not a danger, not in itself at least. So long as nobody-

A pair of gray eyes greeted her. They were just faintly bluer than her own, and lacking some of their cold edge. They were also looking past Whisper right now, to the chair. And to the entire hallway behind them and whatever creatures lurked there.

Whisper twisted, small legs folding down before springing up with unnatural force, carrying her away from both the chair and its owner. Some instinct brought her arms around the nearby form of Vivi and warded her back a step. Not calculation or guile but some more instinctual motion that she had no time to consider right now. Her legs bent a little further than a typical combative stance, ready to spring back at a moment. She kept the two of them facing the other way down the corridor, ears straining for any sign of the creatures that might be approaching.

"Look forward." She whispered, voice cracking to a point of near inaudibility. She frowned and put a little more force into it, just enough to be audible but straining her throat and causing a lancing pain to shoot through. "Look forward. Not at it, not until it is right upon us. Hear. Wait. Patience."

[+ZincAboutIt]

12 minutes ago, Sorana said:

 

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The latter. You aren’t “looking” unless you intentionally look back to see what is specifically causing you the discomfort. It’s sort of a “you only see it if you’re looking for it purposefully” kind of thing. Otherwise you’re good. However if everyone now knows what to look for or where to look, this becomes trickier! Which is why pointing out where to look is a bad idea.

 

Edited January 6, 2023 by ZincAboutIt

[EmulatonStromenkiin]

2 hours ago, ZincAboutIt said:

The latter. You aren’t “looking” unless you intentionally look back to see what is specifically causing you the discomfort. It’s sort of a “you only see it if you’re looking for it purposefully” kind of thing. Otherwise you’re good. However if everyone now knows what to look for or where to look, this becomes trickier! Which is why pointing out where to look is a bad idea.

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so it requires Intent. not sure how this is going to work, should I flip a coin to tell if Malsam sees it? she always intends to see what is going on on some level, but she might not see it for now.

 

[+ZincAboutIt]

28 minutes ago, EmulatonStromenkiin said:

 

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I can flip the coin for you if you want, or you can. I don’t want to be overly directive here so generally I’d leave it up to you. :]

 

[EmulatonStromenkiin]

14 minutes ago, ZincAboutIt said:

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I can flip the coin for you if you want, or you can. I don’t want to be overly directive here so generally I’d leave it up to you. :]

 

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not having a coin, I rolled a die, and Malsam sees the being.

 

[+Sorana]

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Thank you!

Malsam whirled past her, towards the hallway behind her and Vivi was about to turn her head and look where she was going. There was tension in the air, a nervousness of danger approaching and drawn weapons and it had made her draw her rapier again, if only to hold it in her hand and draw some reassurance from its weight. It was the kind of tension that led to mistakes, the kind that made you stab a friend because you were so focused, waiting so strongly for something to happen, that you would react to anything. And so, when Willow moved towards her at a crazy speed she flinched slightly in surprise, but didn't do anything threatening. She had been trained for these situations. Willows arms held her for a moment, pushed her back another step, away from Malsam, turned her so that faced the other way. Vivi knew that Willow was ready to fight, recognized the stance, even though it was a little different from the ones she had seen in her time in the canton, it still had the same basics.

"Look forward. Not at it, not until it is right upon us. Hear. Wait. Patience."

Willow ordered and Vivi hesitated for a splint second, then decided to throw her lot in with her completely. To trust her. She stayed where she was, listened. You don't need your eyes, her father had always told her. You can learn as much using your other senses. He had been good at fighting with his eyes closed, but Vivi always found that unnerving. She prefered to see what she was fighting. Exhaling she forced herself to relax her tight muscles, to be ready to fight when her ears told her to. Or when Willow would act.

And yet, there was something else she could do. Hesitating she looked at Willow's face for a split second. She had protected her. Warned her. Vivi bit her lip and then made a decision. "Can we hide?" she asked, only to rephrase her question immediatly. "Is it beneficial to hide from senses based on investiture?"

Edited January 7, 2023 by Sorana

[+ZincAboutIt]

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As Malsam turns, a strange feeling overcomes her. The compulsion to look behind, to see who it is that lurks in her shadow, vanishes. Instead, she is trapped in a state of utter fascination and eerie recognition. For what Malsam sees is herself.

Or, the beginnings of herself. A short figure stands behind her, clad in her clothes, head framed in short, fair hair. The face is smooth, a plane of skin stretched over bone. But as Malsam continues to watch, the surface begins to slowly churn. A depression forms where one might expect a mouth, sucking inward as lips begin to grow over teeth. Flesh bends outward in the shape of a nose. And skin hangs hollow over empty eye sockets that gape like  broken windows.

A hand - so shockingly akin to her own hand - reaches upward, perhaps seeking to caress Malsam’s own face. The nails are long and sharp; Malsam notes this, and a touch of danger is felt through the stupor of fascination.

For all others, the very vague shape of this creature starts to flicker into life if one is looking for it. The more people who look for it, the more tangible it becomes.

@EmulatonStromenkiin @Koloss17 @Sorana @Voidus @Ashbringer 

[EmulatonStromenkiin]

12 hours ago, ZincAboutIt said:

As Malsam turns, a strange feeling overcomes her. The compulsion to look behind, to see who it is that lurks in her shadow, vanishes. Instead, she is trapped in a state of utter fascination and eerie recognition. For what Malsam sees is herself.

Or, the beginnings of herself. A short figure stands behind her, clad in her clothes, head framed in short, fair hair. The face is smooth, a plane of skin stretched over bone. But as Malsam continues to watch, the surface begins to slowly churn. A depression forms where one might expect a mouth, sucking inward as lips begin to grow over teeth. Flesh bends outward in the shape of a nose. And skin hangs hollow over empty eye sockets that gape like  broken windows.

A hand - so shockingly akin to her own hand - reaches upward, perhaps seeking to caress Malsam’s own face. The nails are long and sharp; Malsam notes this, and a touch of danger is felt through the stupor of fascination.

For all others, the very vague shape of this creature starts to flicker into life if one is looking for it. The more people who look for it, the more tangible it becomes.

Instinctively, Malsam wretches herself from her stupefaction and recoils, bringing up her sword in a defensive stance.

"I mean you no harm, Watcher. Not so long as you mean me none. What is the reason you are here?"

Malsam thought quickly as she spoke. If this mimicking creature was truly copying her, and not just creating an illusion or skinchange, it would have the same weaknesses. There was also a good chance that it did not know how to deal with them properly, so perhaps her brittle bones would come in use for once.

[Voidus]

"Can we hide?" the girl asked, a little uncertainly before rewording her question "Is it beneficial to hide from senses based on investiture?"

Copper? Whisper wondered to herself. Very useful, particularly with this company. Not enough information about these creatures to say for sure if they use such senses or not but overall more beneficial than detrimental.

"If you can." She said, voice grating painfully enough to cause her to wince once again.

Still looking forward she heard the woman who had lost her chair actually speak to the creature. Which meant it was either significantly more inviting than Whisper had assumed or else Malsam was possibly mad. Either case would be useful, but if it was the latter then their lives were still in danger.

Can't be helped, miracle that the Seeker hasn't noticed and pointed it out already. She concluded, resignation and determination warring in her mental tone.

Drawing in a deep breath she drew on the small gemstones hidden in a pocket of her shirt, Light leapt eagerly to her lips, pulsed inside her lungs and drove her to utilize it further. For a moment everything felt sharper, and then she breathed out again, tapping her foot onto the ground and pushing a wave of the Light out behind them, blanketing the hallway wall-to-wall in luminescence before it suddenly inverted into darkness. A wall of shadows concealing the path that they had taken, as close to their group as Whisper could make it without catching any of them inside of it.

With any luck they will be content to linger in the shadows, unseen once again.

Almost as soon as she had finished the thought that hope was dashed as she turned to assess her work and saw a pale hand emerging from the shadows, darkness rippling around it as elongated fingers with wickedly sharp nails reaches out.

Too late. She mentally cursed. Too slow.

Turning immediately to the front again she sought out the steward and raised a brow, a final puff of light streamed from her lips to form glowing letters in the air.

Run? She silently asked.

Not waiting for an answer she readied a dagger in her left hand as her right reached for Vivi to pull her along as Whisper broke into another, more natural sprint down the hallway and towards one of the nearby doors. If fortune favoured them they may at the least be able to gather into a more defensible formation than their current state strung out along the hallway.

[+Sorana]

Vivi waited. She calmed her breathing, so that she could listen, her concentration on the hallway behind them. And so waited, seconds felt like hours as she took another deep breath. In and Willow replied.

"If you can." She said with a slight wince when she spoke. The words sounded even more raw than they had earlier. So Vivi could help. Or at least it was worth a try. She inclined her head a little and then reached inside.

Her father had spent hour upon hours teaching her how to wield her rapier, how to behave in a combat, how to read her enemy. But her mother, her mother hadn't even been able to really use her own Shardblade. Vivi gently touched the reserve within her, remembered the endless hours she had trained with her mother. She coaxed a little bit of the copper forward, kindled it until it burned steadily and finally formed it into a cloud that was just large enough to hide Willow and herself. She briefly considered to cover the whole group, but discarded the idea. They were too exposed to blind one of them and the others were too far away to include while leaving him out at the same time. So a small one for now and a larger one when they were in a better position.

Next to her Willow took a deep breath, just like her mom had always done, and when Vivi saw the soft light stream from her lips she felt relieve swap over her. She had made a good choice. Just like herself, Willow had kept at least one skill hidden. And a very powerful at that. Light moved through the corridor behind them and finally, finally Willow moved and turned around. Her tension breaking, Vivi followed her motion and turned around to see what Willow had done. Darkness covered the hallway like an endless tunnel leading into nowhere. With a frown Vivi tried to recall what her mother had called this, but the name didn't come to her mind, and she lost the thought the moment a hand reached out though the veil of darkness. Fear made her heart jump when she realized that this time she was actively looking at the creature. She tried to look away again, but it drew her gaze, the too thin arm, the spindly fingers. No. She forced herself the look up at the ceiling and belatedly mimicked Willow's motion again, turned around and offered the predator a clean way to her back. It made her skin crawl as if thousands of spiders were going on a walk there and she bit her teeth together, her hand closed tightly around the hilt of her rapier. She felt so exposed, vulnerable.

Run?

The word appeared in the air above her, easily visible for all of them. Run. It would leave them -

Willow grabbed her arm and started to sprint down the hallway and Vivi stumbled the first steps along, surprised by the motion. Again. Willow helped her again. She ran next to her, glad that she was finally allowed to do something. Her fear surged up, the act of running away too close to a headless flight and it grabbed her, made her heart hammer in her chest. Vivi reached out for Willow's arm, too, clung to her as they raced towards a door, before she was able to get a hold on herself again.

She threw the door open without pausing to listen for sounds coming from the inside, but she did slow, forced the fear back. It would be worse if there was another monster in there. Panting slightly she tried to calm her breath and get a quick look at the room behind the door at the same time, only now realizing that she held on to Willow with a deathgrip and had flared her copper, too. Sloppy, her mother would say. Coward, her brother.

"Sorry." she muttered in Willow's direction and reigned her copper in. "Won't happen again."

 

[Koloss17]

Perses, head down, opened his senses once more. To his horror, the house creatures were right there. Perses froze, anticipating their next move. They approached, from all sides. From them, one emerged. It’s body morphing, it’s heartbeat changing. As it morphed, it’s heartbeat ended up beating to the same rhythm as Malsam’s. Was it copying her? 
 

He silently cursed, as he wished, not for the first time, that he could actually see what was going on. He cursed again as Malsam opened her mouth to speak.

 

"I mean you no harm, Watcher. Not so long as you mean me none. What is the reason you are here?"

From what Perses had felt during his probing, they were not negotiators. Perses didn’t dare speak further, but he did pay close attention as the creatures in the shadows advanced, approaching behind the others. As Perses opened his mouth to warn them, Willow bolted, Vivi in toe. Ruin. 
 

Perses flared his senses. Bronzesense, lifesense, hearing, touch. He was using unsustainable amounts of each, and because of his in depth probing earlier, they might not last. Luckily, fights often ended quick.

Making his peace with Death, and praying to both Harmony and the Survivor, Perses raised his gun towards the Malsam copy and fired, right at the center of the creature.

[Ashbringer]

Byron was still trying his best not to look in the direction that had been indicated, looking solely at Perses, trying to monitor the edges of his bubble. That might not be the best idea, depending on what "observing" meant for whatever these creatures were. But he didn't have time to worry about that now. The room flashed, and Vivi and Willow bolted for cover - as Byron felt a ripple, then a white-taloned thing start to crawl through the darkness. Then another ripple, farther. Then another.

Rusts.

Then Persus pulled out a gun and shot the thing next to Malsam. Okay, they were seen, engaged, and now were splitting up. Not good. Not good. Byron didn't exactly have much hope these things would be friendly. 

"Okay, do we have a plan?" he shouted, Locking his bubble in place briefly before diving down the hall and re-flaring cadmium, making a still light but much larger bubble that should end right before where Vivi and Willow were, and keeping Persus, Malsam, Malsam, and Cobalt within. The monsters were outside - they wouldn't stay that way, but he'd be able to tell when they went through. Except the one Persus shot. He couldn't make one without it inside, not when they were that close and at that angle.

... wait, why did the monster look like Malsam?

Byron Locked his bubble again and dashed next to Persus, daggers ready.

[Koloss17]

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This thread seems to have gone dormant for a hot second. Is there confusion on who is waiting on who? Perses is currently waiting for response from the monsters, and confirmation on whether or not they can eat bullets. From what I understand, Byron is waiting for Perses to answer, and I honestly don’t know what Malsam, Vivi, or Whisper are waiting for.

@ZincAboutIt, @Sorana, @Ashbringer, @EmulatonStromenkiin, @Voidus

Edited January 27, 2023 by Koloss17

[Voidus]

Whisper glanced into the doorway even as her attention stretched behind, to the sounds of a shot being fire, weapons being drawn. Whatever these creatures were seemed only to become more real the more they were observed so she did her best to try not to pay too much attention to the slighter sounds that the creature might make. But Whisper was no tineye, and these were hardly ideal circumstances. Perhaps if she'd been able to take a moment to steady her breathing and concentrate she could have managed it, but her mind still methodically cataloged the slight touch of feet against the floor, the creak of a floorboard further behind, and more than anything that uncanny sense of being watched, observed, a tingle at the back of her neck that took every nerve she had to ignore.

She pulled her focus forwards, towards the room they had opened. Cold gray eyes flickered across the floor to see a matching door in the wall opposite. The room appeared to be a bedroom, relatively mundane as far as she was concerned. Though it did seem oddly... stretched. Perhaps thirty feet in length but only a quarter as wide, warm cream carpet spread from the doorway to the opposite wall. A double bed rested against the left side, also oddly elongated and it seemed that the bedding had all been placed beneath the mattress. But other than that she saw only a floor to ceiling mirror on the right wall, close to their entry, and an even more ordinary wardrobe a little further along the left wall.

No, the door as well. She noted, taking a second glance.

At first she had thought it was an identical door of some dark hardwood with a brass handle. But looking again there was something odd about how the light bounced off of it, candles positioned in fixtures overhead gave a dim orange lighting but the door seemed almost reflective in part. Was it... painted? A thin veneer over a metallic base. But if painted doors and stretched dimensions were the worst this room had to offer it seemed far safer than a corridor of monsters.

Safe enough. She wrote in the air in glowing letters once again. We can watch the doorway from inside without seeing the creatures.

She entered first, scanning the room once more and cautiously checking behind the door before slowly turning back to the corridor. She could only see Vivi in the doorway now, though it took deliberate effort to focus on turning around but not looking for whatever had been watching from behind her. She dropped low, dagger in one hand and the other kept empty for now, using it to gesture Vivi to follow behind.

If we are incredibly fortunate a gunshot and a few nicks from blades will be enough to drive them off. She thought, not even bothering to suppress the utterly doubtful tone.

[EmulatonStromenkiin]

8 hours ago, Koloss17 said:

@ZincAboutIt, @Sorana, @Ashbringer, @EmulatonStromenkiin, @Voidus

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Malsam's waiting on the monster to either move or speak.

 

[Voidus]

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Hi all, so our illustrious guide Zinc has had to step away for a bit. I'll be picking up running the plot on her behalf with some assistance from other mods. Hopefully we can live up to the story she has been telling here with everyone.

The shot echoed in the hallway, bullet sinking into the darkness. The sudden twitch of the hand emerging from it the only sign of impact. It... paused, seeming to contemplate this newest sound and sensation. Then it twitched again, fingers spreading as the hand reached forwards, the sharpened points of unnatural fingernails reaching steadily forwards, revealing more and more of the creature as it smoothly exited the veil of darkness, up to its elbow, then shoulder, and then finally a face looking a near-perfect imitation of Malsam but for the two still-empty sockets where the eyes should be. It's mouth opens, revealing a line of white teeth almost conspicuously ordinary, but looking past the teeth gives the impression of staring into a bottomless well. The mouth simply an opening to some great yawning something beyond, and from that something a voice emerges.

"I... mean you no harm... watcher." The creature says. "Not so long as you... mean me none."

The voice scrapes from its throat like nails against fine crystalware, setting the nerves to edge and raising the hairs on ones neck. It is the voice of a creature that so very clearly does not belong. The rest of its body emerges, trailing after the head as though pulled on a string rather than propelled by any normal physiology. Its torso contains a single hole in it, roughly the size of a bullet. The wound leaves no blood, only a hole into the body that seems to open to the same endless space as the mouth, and as it is watched it begins to slowly widen, small pieces of white emerging from the sides and growing rapidly into a set of teeth that ring the opening.

"What... is the reason you are here?" The creature continued, speaking now with two voices overlapping in horrid discordancy.

[+Sorana]

Vivi followed Willow in the room, trusting her assesment that it was safe to do so. She kept her attention on the hallway behind her, listened for footsteps, for the sounds of a fight, of someone running towards them. Instead she heard a voice.

I... mean you no harm... watcher." The creature said. "Not so long as you... mean me none." She lifted her hands and rubbed over her arms to cover the shiver that ran along her body. Vivi frowned slightly and then turned towards Willow. Noone had followed them. They had decided to make a stand and in consequence she and Willow were separated from the group. Locally, that was obvious, but from now on they would be separated in their minds, too. Even if they rejoined the rest, they would never really be a part of that expedition again.

She tilted her head a little to the side and then tried to orient herself. They were in a room adjacent to the outer hallway, not far into the manor. To go on, deeper inside, she suppressed another shivver and shoved the lingering fear away.

Then she gently touched Willow's arm to draw her attention and nodded in a direction she thought might be the middle of the manor. The others provided a good distraction, the best they would get. And it might be safer to leave a group completely, that would never trust them to have their backs. Maybe. She wasn't sure about the last part. She lifted her hands in a questioning gesture, asked Willow for her opinion, still completely quietly so that they couldn't be overheard.

[EmulatonStromenkiin]

7 hours ago, Voidus said:

The shot echoed in the hallway, bullet sinking into the darkness. The sudden twitch of the hand emerging from it the only sign of impact. It... paused, seeming to contemplate this newest sound and sensation. Then it twitched again, fingers spreading as the hand reached forwards, the sharpened points of unnatural fingernails reaching steadily forwards, revealing more and more of the creature as it smoothly exited the veil of darkness, up to its elbow, then shoulder, and then finally a face looking a near-perfect imitation of Malsam but for the two still-empty sockets where the eyes should be. It's mouth opens, revealing a line of white teeth almost conspicuously ordinary, but looking past the teeth gives the impression of staring into a bottomless well. The mouth simply an opening to some great yawning something beyond, and from that something a voice emerges.

"I... mean you no harm... watcher." The creature says. "Not so long as you... mean me none."

The voice scrapes from its throat like nails against fine crystalware, setting the nerves to edge and raising the hairs on ones neck. It is the voice of a creature that so very clearly does not belong. The rest of its body emerges, trailing after the head as though pulled on a string rather than propelled by any normal physiology. Its torso contains a single hole in it, roughly the size of a bullet. The wound leaves no blood, only a hole into the body that seems to open to the same endless space as the mouth, and as it is watched it begins to slowly widen, small pieces of white emerging from the sides and growing rapidly into a set of teeth that ring the opening.

"What... is the reason you are here?" The creature continued, speaking now with two voices overlapping in horrid discordancy.

Malsam's eyes widened when the creature spoke back, repeating the words in a horrible blending and twisting of her voice and it's own. This entity nothing like a Kandra or mistwraith. This was some sort of face-stealer, a changeling, a doppelganger. She could hardly blame the Willow woman from fleeing, as she seemed to know a great deal more of the creatures that may be in the house than the rest of them. However, she was surprised that Willow had taken Vivi, protecting others seemed a bit out of character.

As the creature moved forward, she lashed out blindingly fast with her sword, then retreated closer to the main group.