He’d avoided the dreams, he’d avoided the insanity. Yet it still managed to find him in the end…
They were following him. Shadows, drifting across the floor and ceiling, hovering just out of the corner of his eye when he stopped moving, that’s what they were, and when he turned around to regard them, where had they gone? Invisible, intangible, Smoke Creatures of the meatship, with their beady yellow dots and sewn-in smiles, just as restless as he was. What did they want?
Dustin knew what they wanted. He knew it before he came here and he knew it before he met the others. He knew it from his dad’s stories. Ol’ Jacob Silver, Shade Assassin, always on an adventure to rid the world of evil, of pests.
The way they were trailing behind him now, Dustin could see why his father was so annoyed with these things. Couldn’t they just leave him alone? Just for a few minutes—just long enough to close his eyes without fearing that they’d take him in his sleep…
Today he made a bold stand. Commandeering some equipment from Engineering and Special Weapons Division, Dustin brought his makeshift lab in several trips up to he and Yoshimi’s quarters. His side of the room was no longer quite so empty, and he still had a few more boxes to lift.
The scrawny scientist worked diligently and without pause or break. Once or twice he’d take a swig from his stolen thermos, grimace, smack his lips, and then continue with new energy, but otherwise he was unrelenting. Even a heavier box of chemicals didn’t seem to faze him, not while he was on the move, on a mission—
”DUSSSSTIIIN”
A grinding halt was reached in short order. Dustin froze solid, peering over his cardboard commodity with wide, serious eyes.
”DON’T LET US STOP YOU DUSTIN”
It was tall, perhaps seven feet if one doesn’t take into account that it’s floating. Black smoke that smelled of volcanic stone drifted from the open spots in its long, black coat, hooded and long-sleeved. Its neck was thin, only bones and vapors, supporting a head that curled with wispy fumes of hair and glowed with two pinpricks of yellow light for eyes. It had a mouth, but heavy stitches kept it tightly closed into a wide, toothless smile; it had ears, but they were covered by smoke and distinctly pointed at the tips. And it breathed, but that was the only sound it made.
It was the only sound Dustin was willing to hear. He dared not make a sound and he dared not move.
”GO ON DUSTIN” it said into the ambient space around them, ”GO FIND HER DUSTIN, WE HAVE RELEASED HER JUST AS YOU WANTED”
The box of ignited chemicals exploded once it hit the Shade’s chest, and it immediately disappeared within the inferno. Dustin’s proximity was such that, if he weren’t wearing his flame-retardant overcoat and hadn’t pulled it over his head, he’d probably have burnt an(other) arm off, and regardless of such it charred a hole clean through the right leg of his pants. It also sent him flying back several dozen feet down the hallway, where he stopped only after a fleshy wall sucked up his kinetic energy and punched it into his nose.
no subject
They were following him. Shadows, drifting across the floor and ceiling, hovering just out of the corner of his eye when he stopped moving, that’s what they were, and when he turned around to regard them, where had they gone? Invisible, intangible, Smoke Creatures of the meatship, with their beady yellow dots and sewn-in smiles, just as restless as he was. What did they want?
Dustin knew what they wanted. He knew it before he came here and he knew it before he met the others. He knew it from his dad’s stories. Ol’ Jacob Silver, Shade Assassin, always on an adventure to rid the world of evil, of pests.
The way they were trailing behind him now, Dustin could see why his father was so annoyed with these things. Couldn’t they just leave him alone? Just for a few minutes—just long enough to close his eyes without fearing that they’d take him in his sleep…
Today he made a bold stand. Commandeering some equipment from Engineering and Special Weapons Division, Dustin brought his makeshift lab in several trips up to he and Yoshimi’s quarters. His side of the room was no longer quite so empty, and he still had a few more boxes to lift.
The scrawny scientist worked diligently and without pause or break. Once or twice he’d take a swig from his stolen thermos, grimace, smack his lips, and then continue with new energy, but otherwise he was unrelenting. Even a heavier box of chemicals didn’t seem to faze him, not while he was on the move, on a mission—
”DUSSSSTIIIN”
A grinding halt was reached in short order. Dustin froze solid, peering over his cardboard commodity with wide, serious eyes.
”DON’T LET US STOP YOU DUSTIN”
It was tall, perhaps seven feet if one doesn’t take into account that it’s floating. Black smoke that smelled of volcanic stone drifted from the open spots in its long, black coat, hooded and long-sleeved. Its neck was thin, only bones and vapors, supporting a head that curled with wispy fumes of hair and glowed with two pinpricks of yellow light for eyes. It had a mouth, but heavy stitches kept it tightly closed into a wide, toothless smile; it had ears, but they were covered by smoke and distinctly pointed at the tips. And it breathed, but that was the only sound it made.
It was the only sound Dustin was willing to hear. He dared not make a sound and he dared not move.
”GO ON DUSTIN” it said into the ambient space around them, ”GO FIND HER DUSTIN, WE HAVE RELEASED HER JUST AS YOU WANTED”
The box of ignited chemicals exploded once it hit the Shade’s chest, and it immediately disappeared within the inferno. Dustin’s proximity was such that, if he weren’t wearing his flame-retardant overcoat and hadn’t pulled it over his head, he’d probably have burnt an(other) arm off, and regardless of such it charred a hole clean through the right leg of his pants. It also sent him flying back several dozen feet down the hallway, where he stopped only after a fleshy wall sucked up his kinetic energy and punched it into his nose.
Oof. That is the operative word here.