Unreality [DawnsLight]

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Flinne grinned, "Well, I could scarcely refuse a request from a beautiful woman." He mused. "Especially when she can ask the way you do." He gave a gentle sigh. "But if you bring a parka I won't have any excuse to wrap my arms around you, and to hold you close." He glanced at her slyly from the corner of his eye. He couldn't keep his face straight. It was just too easy smile when he was with his lover.

He arched a merry brow at the suggestion of takeout again. And the apron, of course. Then, suddenly, he felt the warm, soft, blissfully perfect kiss of his lover pressed flush against his mouth." He let out an approving noise, deep in his throat, and a hand rose to cradle Aria's own chin as they kissed. Onlookers be damned. If Flinne was going to moan over a cheeseburger, he wasn't about to let something as little as strange stares stop him from enjoying the best kiss in the world. Or at least, the best kiss 'till the next one came around.

When lips parted from lips, he'd forgotten about everything outside of the immediate bubble of himself, and his dreamer. He smiled softly, and subsided quietly. His mind wrapped itself warmly around that kiss, as they road, until Aria gestured for them to move off.

The New Orleans heat washed over him all over again, and he paused when Aria took his arm. "That sounds fine," He mused. Something was tickling his attention however. "Aria," He said. "Nobody's eyes are glowing." He pointed out.
 
Grin still in place, Aria turned to her lover. "I'm sorry; what?"

Had she heard him correctly? Surely not, or maybe eyes glowed in the world he was from. She was continually forgetting that Flinne came from an alternate reality from her own and just what that might mean. Even so, the muggy heat felt suddenly frigid and Aria found that her grip on Flinne's arm had tightened somewhat; she made a conscious effort to relax before voicing her concern. "Flinne... do eyes normally glow? Because for me they don't. Never have. Except for yours, in a way. But I think that's just because the green is so bright they just seem to."

She tried to glance covertly at the eyes of passersby and wondered briefly just what she was hoping to see. Her heart was in her throat and she found she had to work to swallow it before leading them down a street and into the Quarter. The familiar surroundings took on an ominous atmosphere and Aria filled the space left by the sudden absence of traffic noise by talking about the surroundings and just where they were headed. Her heart wasn't in it and she was afraid that it showed in her voice. Somewhere, as they moved down the cracked slate sidewalk past brick buildings and under wrought-iron balconies hung with plants and colorful beads, a cicada trilled and Aria found herself shying away from the shadows even if they were benign.

Over the tops of the low buildings, she pointed out the sweeping steeple of the St. Louis Cathedral, the white of it shining like a beacon in the midday sun. "There, we're almost to Jackson square," she intoned, voice soft in the hopes of disguising her mounting anxiety.
 
Flinne frowned softly. Ponderously. "I... Sort of. There was this big craze in cosmetic surgery before things went sour. Bioluminescent body augmentations," He said, idly. "Cheap, and relatively safe. Fussed with DNA. After a few generations, nearly everybody had something glowing." He glanced back to Aria as she shied away from the shadows. "I'd assumed you just never wanted one." He glanced at them, just to be double-sure.

She hid her anxiety about as well as she might a two-ton elephant. Casually, Flinne let his arm slip down from her own, to twine his fingers with hers. "Hey," He said, as they approached the square. "Listen. I might not look it, but I'm a hard man to kill. I'll be damned before I let anything happen to you." He murmured.

Both the architecture and the scenery itself were lovely in their own fashion, but Flinne was most completely enthralled by whatever had Aria jumping at shadows. Even if shadows did kill. "Take it easy. All we've got to do is stay out of the shadows. Things won't start going sideways for years. And we've got people working on it, right?"
 
Aria gave his hand a welcoming squeeze, some of the tension in her bare shoulders releasing. She pressed her free hand to her chest as a shaky laugh escaped her. "Oh goodness. I'm sorry, I don't mean to get so frightened; everything is just so strange and then I'll forget for a while and then it all comes rushing back like it will overtake me," she drew a deep breath, realizing that she sounded hysterical and could do nothing else but bow her head in embarrassment while she muttered another apology.

"You're right. Of course you're right. I'm just so silly, like a nervous rabbit. And we've got very good people working on it, I feel." She glanced at Flinne, grateful relief flooding her features. She was still wary, but allowed some of the cool shade to pass over her when it came. His comment about being hard to kill did bother her somewhat, truthful as it might be. He was the last Survivor of his world as far as they knew, and even when existence had snuffed out he had somehow made it here through her dreams. And he wanted to protect her. The smile slipped back onto her face at that. "I'll have to have you meet them sometime."

Calmed and reassured as they entered the wide pedestrian mall between the cathedral and the small garden/park that bore the statue from which the square drew its name, Aria stood hand-in-hand with Flinne and watched the crowd of people move about. Buskers played and posed for pictures with tourists for a few dollars apiece and bright umbrellas covered tables where hand-painted signs advertised palm and tarot readings. The clop of hooves and sounds of traffic made their way through the banana trees, but softly. She loved it here. Drawing her hair over one shoulder to air her neck, her hazel eyes turned to his with a new curiosity. It was hard to tell here in the bright light, but they did seem to glow a little. She thought that it was just her.

Favoring him with one of her wide, easy smiles she asked, "So tell me more about this modification thing, because we definitely don't have that here. Was it just eyes that glowed? It sounds fascinating."
 
Flinne smiled at the woman reassuringly. It would take more than some unseen force unraveling reality as they knew it to keep Flinne from Aria. That thought struck him as odd, and he found himself letting out a merry little chuckle of amusement at the idea that he considered what was pursuing him a 'small' problem. Hand-in-hand with Aria, he let his eyes roam over the buskers, and the street-performers. "Hey, don't worry about it. Things get weird. Change scares people. And this sort of change <i>should</i> scare you. Just don't let that fear keep you from doing the things you love."

Back to the buskers his attention went, although Aria -as ever- had his ear. "Soon would be best, I think. Insight and all," He mused. His eyes roamed from the street-people to the architecture once again. The cathedral in particular held his attention, until the clop-clop-clop of a horse's hooves caught his attention. He hadn't seen a horse in ages.

He caught Aria staring at his eyes, and he felt his smile falter. Was there something on his face? Her question let the tension out of his expression. "Oh," He mused. "I'd say about in the twenties, some rich guy's whelp got this fascination with bioluminescense. When she got the family fortune, she spent the lion's share researching deep-sea fish that glowed. Nearly broke her family researching it. Of course, she made a fortune again through the cosmetic glow-surgeries and gene-therapy that she put patents on straightaway."

He waved a hand dismissively. "There were some low-end mimicry tattooing places that would put inks in you that would glow for a few years, but they were dangerous at best. It wasn't 'till a few babies with glowing eyes, or tongues were born that folks realized that the effects turned hereditary. My mother, -bless her soul- was a hippie. Glowing eyes." He rolled his own. "I'm just glad she didn't git a tattoo 'till after I was born."

He paused, frowning. Something felt off.
 
Flinne's casual mention of the year had her wondering briefly about how time could be different as well. Nineteen-twenties, two-thousand-twenties; genetic modification for something as superficial as cosmetics seemed so... futuristic to her. Before she got too lost in the thought, she returned her attention to the Survivor's fascinating explanation.

"That's amazing. I've seen articles about scientists experimenting with bioluminescence here, but never anything this specific and never on people," she mused. "I can't imagine being surprised by a glowing tongue when your baby is born though." Aria shook her head in disbelief and tried to imagine Flinne's glowing-eyed, glow-tattooed mother. Whatever she pictured, Aria was certain that it didn't hold a candle to the real thing.

His pause and subsequent frown drew her attention and the smiled on her own face faltered. "Oh Flinne, I'm so sorry... Your mother; are you alright? If you don't want to talk about it, I understand. I lost my dad when I was in high school, so I know that it's hard to talk about." Unlacing her fingers from around his, she placed a sympathetic hand on his back.
 
Flinne's eyes fluttered a time or two, before returning to focus. "What?" His smiles were gone. "Oh. No, there's nothing..." Well, there wasn't <i>nothing</i> wrong, so to speak. But he didn't know <i>what</i> was wrong. "I think something's off." He admitted. "Not here. Not in the city, but-" He trailed off, a shiver running down his spine. "We need to get in contact with your scientists." He said, firmly. The Survivor was back, intense, and calm, all at the same time. Gingerly, he set a grateful hand on Aria's shoulder.

"And I think we should probably get you home." <i>And me a weapon.</i> "We'll have to see about making me real in your world quickly. If your laws are anything like ours were, being a nonperson makes things problematic." He began glancing about, taking a measure of access-ways to the street they were on. He couldn't shake the feeling that he ought to be doing something more.

"Do you have a phone?"
 
This sudden change in Flinne's demeanor had Aria on edge; indeed The Survivor was back, and she was at a loss for a moment. Reigning herself in before she got hysterical again, Aria nodded and began to lead the way to the street behind them. She listened to Flinne as they hurried along.

"Here, Decatur is always packed with tourists and that means taxis; it'll be faster than the bus or trying to take the way we came." Reaching the corner just past a line of mule-drawn carriages, Aria hailed a cab. Stepping inside, she told the driver the address and turned back to Flinne, frowning while she dug her cell from her purse before handing it over. "Are you sure? Flinne, I trust you but could it really be something like that? Maybe you're just feeling like I was just a moment ago?" She placed a hand on his knee in the hopes of bolstering the man.

Her brows knit in deeper confusion and she cocked her head questioningly, "Who on earth are you calling?"
 
Flinne hurried along after Aria as she walked, and he scooted in beside her. When she handed him her phone, he began to fiddle with it. He'd always hated cellphones, and the phones of this reality weren't any easier to figure out than the ones of his own. "It could be," He admitted, "But I've spent too much time in the middle of apparently normal situations that went sour. And I've got a sort of... Sense for this thing." He frowned.

He found the girl's menu, and he began scrolling through it. "I'm calling your scientists. They need to know..." He paused. <i>Know what? That a complete stranger apparently from some girl's dreams feels like something might be wrong?</i> <b>Yeah</b>, he thought back to the snide voice in his mind. <b>That about covers it.</b> "They need to know, what I know. And if this is something as big as it feels, they're going to need to hop on it." He frowned at the phone, and passed it back to Aria. "But I don't know the number. Or the names, for that matter. I suppose I didn't think that through very well." He let out a sigh.

"What I wouldn't give to have my rifle back."
 
Aria spoke reassurances that she didn't quite feel herself. The crease between her dark brows deepened and she chewed her lip, looking at the phone back in her hands. "Okay, how about this: we get home and check the news. If nothing has happened, we relax and you cook me that dinner you promised. I'll call Maddy- she's the physicist- and the two of you can talk. If there's something going on, something related, then I have the rest of the week off of work. We can hop a red-eye and fly back to Oregon."

She watched Flinne's face closely, hoping that her suggestions were sensible. She trusted him; trusted his instincts and his knowledge. He had, after all, seen it all happen before. Lived it, and had time enough to study it. But God, how she hoped he was wrong now.

"We'll work on getting you papers, too. If it comes down to it, I think that I can purchase a rifle. But we have a few years right? It's going to be just fine." She tried to smile and took his hand between both of hers. She wanted to believe her own words, but even to her they sounded hollow.

A sudden explosion of noise split the tense silence in the back of the cab, and Aria nearly dropped her phone in surprise. The phone! She breathed out slowly to steady herself and checked the caller. The blood thrummed in her ears, hands unsteady and gripping the little electronic hard enough to make her knuckles whiten as she answered, glancing at Flinne with wide eyes. She couldn't even finish the word of greeting before Dr. Young's terse voice thundered over the receiver, "There's a situation. Where are you?"
 
Flinne didn't seem quite put at ease by the woman's words. He subsided enough however, to lean back in his seat, rather than hunching forward on the edge, the gears in his mind turning. Sure, they should have years, but -as his mother had been fond of saying- nobody made a pie out of they crust that should have been made. And this felt... Wrong. On a fundamental level. Even so, he was about to subside to Aria's much more sensible suggestion, when the phone went off.

His shoulders bunched, and his eyes darted to the windows. Nobody outside was screaming, and the driver was still on the road, so nobody had been disintegrated in shadow. He heard a muted voice however, when Aria answered her phone. He turned his eyes back to his Dreamer, his face grim. Again, the gears began to grind in his head.

Their reality couldn't be dissolving this quickly. Not if his own world was anything to judge by. But what if they weren't trying to dissolve this world?

<i>They?</i> He scoffed at himself. <i>What 'they'?</i> He looked as if he were coming to a conclusion, and he didn't much like where it left him. This was different.
 
Aria sincerely wished that it had been either Madeline or Jared who had called. The brusque doctor cursed at the news of her being back in her home state and asked if she had seen the reports coming out of New York; apparently it was all over the news. "You do watch the news, don't you?" the man on the line asked acidly. He cut off her explanation as if she hadn't even started to speak, "These shadows of yours, the ones who stripped that kid in Ohio, they're massing. Do you understand that, Ms. Garza? They're massing in Manhattan without any regards to light; they're just sliding across everything like a time-lapse film and coming together in one knot of... of dark." The longer he spoke about it the angrier and more accusatory he sounded. Aria glanced at Flinne, her eyes wide and frightened; she didn't know if she could speak. Her free hand gripped the skirt of her white sundress as if reality would fall apart if she let go of that wrinkled knot of fabric.

"I...Yes, I understand what you're telling me. But I don't know why, doctor. I'm not an expert and this is... I've never heard of anything like this," Aria stammered in shocked surprise. A humorless bark of a laugh made her pull the phone away from her ear briefly. "Believe me, I'm well aware of your lack of expertise. But you're the closest thing we have to knowing anything about what's happening here. I'm emailing you an airline ticket. Be on that flight." She could hear the receiver being set down before she could reply and she yelled into the phone to stop Young from hanging up. A growled "What?" was her answer.

"Two tickets. I need two, please. I have an expert with me." Her heart was thundering from her sudden outburst; even the conditioned New Orleans cabbie glared at her from the front seat. She could hear Young's muttered "You have got to be fucking kidding me." as he hung up on her.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

The footage from New York played on the television news networks simultaneously when they were able to get home. The surrounding blocks where the phenomenon was taking place had been evacuated, and more shadows slid to join the mass that looked like there was something floating above the street where there was nothing to cast such a shade. Commentary ceased, however, when the mass began to shift; roiling like bubbling tar it seemed to pull itself out, somehow, of two-dimensional space and sit upon the asphalt like a mockery of all the universal rules the world thought it knew.
 
Flinne stared first at the phone, and as the sound of the man on the other end grew more irate, he considered seriously taking it in hand and snarling something nasty into the receiver before hurling it out the window. Despite his ire at the man snarling at his dreamer, the Survivor stewed silently as he waited. Two tickets. It looked like dinner was going to have to wait. He turned his luminous eyes up to Aria's own, and he felt his heart grow heavy. He couldn't make out anything of the news apart from the fact that it wasn't good. And by the way Aria looked when the phone went dead, it was worse than he'd anticipated.

Flinne gathered his dreamer in his arms, and held her quietly 'till the taxi deposited them back at her apartment. When they went in to watch the news, it felt surreal. Almost magic, as if he were watching his own world crumble all over again. He didn't seat. He couldn't sit. He needed to be ready to act. "This is big," He said, quietly to himself. Fear didn't seem to enter into the equation. Just a stern sort of willingness to do what had to be done.

When the time to depart for their flight came around, he had calmed down long enough to sit, but he looked like nothing of the happy, relaxed man that had eaten a cheeseburger that morning. Or rather, the hints were still there, but they'd turned hard and grim. Unyielding.

The airport itself felt like a deathtrap. Flinne was sure that someone would point him out, and decry him as a nonperson. Even so, he kept his face stonily still. "We're going to get through this," He said to Aria.
 
They hadn't spoken much since she got the phone call. And since they had actually made it home and seen what was going on, how the world was buzzing about the writhing mass of shadow made corporeal and squatting, toad-like, in the middle of a Manhattan street, Aria was relatively certain that they had barely even looked at each other. She missed the easygoing man of this morning, the attentive lover of the night before. But she couldn't blame Flinne for his mood. Not with something like this looming over them.

Getting through the airport without documentation for Flinne had been a challenge, but they managed it. The flight was blessedly uneventful save for the murmurs about what was going on. Aria held his hand most of the way, not knowing if it was for his comfort or hers and deciding that it didn't really matter in the end. She was there for him as much as he for her; like he had said as they waited for the flight to begin boarding, "We're going to get through this."

_________________________________________________________________________________

When she pulled the rental car into the now-familiar overgrown lot below the observatory, the summer sky was just beginning to darken. The beauty of it was somewhat lost on Aria; she was tired and hungry and made irritable by the combination. They had foregone checking into the hotel in favor coming straight out to meet Dr. Young and his team. Stopping for food was out of the question. With a quick glance to Flinne, she pulled the keys from the ignition and gathered her purse from the backseat. "From the number of cars, I think we're the last to arrive. It's just up this hill."

Aria stepped from the car and began to climb, thankful for her lack of heels this time around. Every so often, she would glance back at Flinne, her heart falling each time she spied his stony expression. She had foolishly hoped that it wouldn't have to reappear now that he was actually here with her. She scolded herself for the thought and in short order was leading the way down the darkened corridor to the messy conference room-lounge of her initial visit. The dimness made her nervous, and Aria hugged herself protectively. She could hear conversation and smell the stench of burned coffee before the light of the doorway fell upon her and the Survivor.

Jared must have cleaned up a bit; the crumbs and papers were gone from the long conference table around which Dr. Young, Madeline, and Jared himself now sat. Between them, a crumpled bag of fast-food burgers and empty wrappers from what they had already finished as they spoke. Aria's stomach gave a lurch.

Madeline was the first to rise and to speak, coming over to where Aria stood with Flinne and hugging the dark-haired woman warmly. The beautiful blonde offered a hand to Flinne, "Madeline Jensen, it's a pleasure to meet you. You're the expert?"
 
Flinne didn't like planes. He hadn't liked them when he'd been in his own world, and unreality didn't change that. But what he did have was Aria. A constant reassurance. A hand, warm and real, in his own. The more comfort she gave him, the more sure he felt. In times like these, surety was a rare commodity for the Survivor.

By some minor miracle, they'd managed to slip him in and out of an airport without being fingered as the unidentifiable stranger, and were soon on their way to Aria's observatory. <i>That's strange,</i> Flinne thought to himself. <i>Aria doesn't own the observatory. She's only been there once. Why should I think it's hers?</i> But he knew the answer. Somewhere, deep down, Flinne thought this still might be one of Aria's dreams. These people might only be phantoms of their real selves. After all, Flinne was here.

Flinne was dragged from his quiet reverie when Aria mentioned the number of cars. He nodded firmly, and stepped quickly around the car to walk beside Aria. When they'd made their way up to the observatory and started in, Flinne noticed the way she hugged herself. A hand rose gently to settle in the small of her back, and a pang of guilt sprang up in his gut. He couldn't wall himself off. Aria was depending on him.

Flinne's eyes flicked across the faces of the people gathered, and he frowned again. They didn't look like the sort of people to find a solution to the world's greatest crisis since... Ever. He regarded the offered hand for a moment, before he took a second glance at the physicist. She was pretty. Beautiful even. Flinne's hand grasped her own in a firm, rough grip. He gave it a single pump, before retrieving his hand. "I wish I could say the same, but the circumstances are somewhat testing my capacity to enjoy things. And yes, I'm the closest thing to an expert you're going to get on this thing." He paused. "We've had a long trip."

Half-turning towards Aria, his expression softened. "Do me a favor and get yourself some food. Bring me back a cheeseburger, and I'll love you forever. I'll fill in the eggheads while you wait."
 
"I would really rather- No, you're right. I'll be back soon." Aria was able to school her features into a neutral, but still rather cool, expression. At any rate she was able not to scowl at the suggestion that she skip off for a bite while they conferred about the situation at hand, and the softening around Flinne's eyes when he spoke to her had all to do with it. The bottom line was that she probably had nothing of value to contribute anymore; she might as well make herself useful. A warm hand on her elbow led her eyes back up to Madeline's lovely features.

"There's a fast food place just a few miles down the road, past the turn to get up here. Be careful, alright?" With a nod and a lingering parting glance at Flinne, Aria turned on her heel and made her way back out to the car.

Madeline watched the other woman disappear into the dim hallway, the warmth in her expression fading. By the time her eyes flicked back to Flinne she was all business, but her tone was soft. "I know, it's a long way to come on such short notice. Flinne, right? Aria mentioned you when she was here earlier this week. If what she told me about you is right, it's nearly impossible for you to be here, but we've been seeing a lot of nearly impossible lately," she paused, blue eyes cool as she regarded him. "Your eyes are glowing. Faintly. Fascinating," she murmured.

"Madeline, let him at least have a seat before you start studying him," Jared interrupted, raising his hand in greeting from the other side of the table. "Jared Moore. Have a seat and let's get started."

Dr. Young made no move from where he sat and made no gestures of greeting. At last, he just shook his head after a while. "This is ridiculous. I refuse to believe that you're some man that that woman dreamed into being. But it's not important. How are you exactly an expert on what these shadows are doing here? Tell us everything. The sooner we can actually do something about this the better." Young glared, lanky arms crossed over his chest.

Madeline flopped into the chair that she had previously occupied with a little groan. "Give it a rest, Bill. These people wouldn't be doing all this just to make you look like more of an ass than you make yourself," She turned to Flinne and indicated a seat beside her, a thin apologetic smile on her face. "Don't mind the surly bastard over there, we keep him around because he's actually quite brilliant." Young looked livid, but kept quiet and waited for Flinne to begin.
 
Flinne frowned faintly as Aria left. He couldn't shake the feeling that he'd just put his foot in his mouth, but he didn't know why. Of course, his motives hadn't been for Aria to leave because she wasn't useful, but to get her food because she hadn't had anything to eat since chocolate pancakes for breakfast. Madeline's voice pulled his eyes from the doorway Aria had disappeared from. Quietly, he listened to the observations, questions, and suggestions made.

He resisted the suddenly serious urge to throttle Young, and sat himself on the very edge of the chair beside Madeline. "Yeah, Flinne will do." He said idly. He certainly wasn't going to tell anybody he didn't absolutely <i>have</i> to about his last name.

"I am an <i>expert</i> because I am the last man alive from an entire existence these things wiped out." He shot a glower so sharp at Young that it could have drawn blood. "As for how I got here, that's a bit of a tale." He began with the first appearance of the wrong-facing shadows. And then the strange quirks in the laws of nature themselves. Perfectly sound boats had begun to sink, and brand new cars wouldn't work. The water level began to sink. People stopped getting sick. By the time people had gotten wise about what extended exposure to the shadows did to a human body, it was too late for many.

That was about when Aria returned with the food, assuming she didn't take her time about it.

He explained how exposure to the shadows worked, and how despite exposure to normal light-sources, the shadows wouldn't move, or flicker. He explained how all the stars went black, and then the very sun itself disappeared. He couldn't tell when the moon had gone, as it's entirety had been bathed in shadow with the sun's absence.

He explained how he could see without the sun, and how day and night only held meaning when you were sleeping. How food disappeared, and then water. People began to die in droves, and it was all out war for nutrients. He then told how the corpses began to disappear, and how things began to become pale. Unreal. Insubstantial. Any food found wasn't rotten, it was just a shell of the food.

He explained how it had been two days since he'd been able to eat, and drink, and those had been pale substitutes for real food, when he'd found something shockingly <i>real</i>. A door. And then he told them all about the dreamers, and Aria in particular. He told them about everything up until that point. Or at least, everything except the night spent in passion, in which they had no business sticking their noses anyhow.

"And so I'm here." He said, in conclusion.
 
When Aria returned, the room was stock quiet save for the sound of Flinne's voice and the hum of the coke machine. Trying not to draw attention from his tale, she set the bag containing his cheeseburger and fries beside him. She had eaten her own meal while driving, surprised at just how hungry she had been and happy she was alone as she wolfed down the burger and fries. Feeling much better with a little food in her system, she sat beside Flinne until he finished.

Madeline took notes while he spoke, jotting down every detail he described no matter how minute. She was still poring over them when Jared spoke, "I'm going to go start making some calls to a few friends of mine in Portland, see if there's any funny business going on at the port there. Talk to some people at the hospitals, see if I can get in touch with anyone in New York, too," he stood, running his dark hands over close-cropped hair and stretching. They had been there a long while even before Flinne and Aria had shown up. Jared made his way around the table, placing a hand on Aria's back briefly as he went. "It's good to see you again, despite the circumstance." A smile flashed across his face and Aria nodded in polite acceptance, returning the smile with a pale one of her own. He hurried out, already dialing on his cell, voice fading as he moved away down the hall.

Dr. Young sat forward, hands interlaced and his elbows resting on his knees. He was shaking his head. "But not instances of just what's going on in Manhattan? Why are these... things coming together like this now? I don't even understand how it could go from two dimensions to three. If it's as you said, and there's nothing to effect them, then we're just done for." Young tossed his hands in the air in a gesture of sudden violent helplessness, his lip curling in a snarl, "Humanity's over with; we might as well get our final lays and eat our last meals before all the food fades away and us with it."

The sudden clatter of a chair against the stained carpet made Aria jump and she expected to see Flinne throttling the spindly doctor. If her eyes could get any wider, they did when she saw that it was Madeline standing and presently slamming her fists against the table with a murderous look on her face. "I've just about had enough of you acting like this you stupid son of a bitch, all because you're frustrated that you can't make any sense out of it. I'm sick and tired of your goddamn whining that this or that is impossible and you refuse to believe it; you're going to have to if we're going to live and I'll be damned if I'm just going to roll over and take this!" The blonde panted, teeth bared in anger while Young just looked at her like a chastised dog. Aria couldn't help feeling a little bit of smug satisfaction at that.

The tension in the room was just beginning to disperse while Madeline shuffled her notes when Jared poked his head back in the room. "Don't kill the messenger, but I was making my phone calls in the monitoring room when something came up. You'll want to see this; it's big and it's moving... and there's just absolutely nothing left behind it."
 
Flinne didn't like the circumstances that had fallen into their lap any more than he liked the fact that his world wasn't even so much as dust in the wind any more. What he liked even less, was some puffed-up egghead snarling at him because he was panicking. Flinne was about to launch himself across the room and throttle some sense into the man, before Madeline beat him to the punch.

Some of his ire left him in the wake of her chastisement, and a bit of the tension went out of the Survivor's shoulders. Beneath the table, a hand settled gently on Aria's knee. From it he drew comfort. Surety. And -most of all- more strength to keep fighting.

When the other man -Flinne was still struggling with names- poked his head back into the room. The news was unsettling at the very least.

Flinne glanced back at the collective would-be saviors of the world. He wanted something made clear. "I didn't say that <i>nothing</i> could hurt them." He said, quietly despite his ire at Young. The man had been told off, and the ire of the unreal man wasn't something he needed to contend with. Not until the whole thing was over, anyhow. "I said that I couldn't find anything to hurt them. I had a rifle, some provisions, and I went to community college. On top of that, my world was very nearly unmade before anybody thought to fight against the shadows. The sun didn't even remain." He pointed out.

"Let's find a way to kill these things."
 
Gathered around the glow of the monitors in the observation room, they watched the fuzzy images of far-flung stars wink out inexplicably in the wake of... well, Aria couldn't really say for certain.

The view was grainy, absolutely no definition besides the hint of a rippling shape moving though the vacuum of space. It seemed to writhe there among the stars like a ball of snakes, every so often a lashing tendril of itself extending and wiping another bright point of light from the infinite dark. It send cold waves of terror through the room as they realized that each tiny point could be the center of a solar system like their own; a star like their very own sun.

Aria gripped Flinne's hand, her own clammy and cold, while they stared. She just felt so tired. This day seemed to stretch on forever, like a bad nightmare. He was here though; and she took so much comfort in that. The end of his tale in the conference room, those last moments spent in his world before her dream had swallowed him once more to bring her to hers were harrowing to learn. He hadn't told her, and she didn't particularly blame him. Besides, when did they have the time or even the inclination to talk about such dark things when it seemed that everything was going so well?

Dr. Young leaned his hips against the back of monitors and pushed his glasses back up onto the bridge of his nose. Madeline's scolding seemed to have brought him back down to earth and there seemed to be a calculating look in his eye as he regarded Flinne. "Alright. So explain just what can hurt these things. We need some idea so that we can start to make preparations when I call the DoD. I think we've got more than enough evidence to go public with at a press conference, especially given what we have going in the east," Young stepped away from where he leaned to indicate a monitor with footage of the shadow-toad still crouched in the street on the other side of the country. It hadn't moved since forming hours ago and seemed to be waiting. "We need something, something to stop a mass panic and at least give us the appearance of having a handle on things until we actually do."
 
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