2019-07-21 - Sweet Charity Part 2

Dahlia stood up finally, taking a few slow breaths. She moved closer to one of the windows to inspect that strange shadows a little closer. "...Are the doors locked?" She asks a little offhandedly to no one in particular. Lifting a finger to try touching the window.

There's a barely perceptible ease of tension as Dahlia touches the glass and nothing happens. It may not seem like a big deal - but at least it meant they weren't going to get sucked into the shadow thing either. Well. Not through the windows at least.

Stefano keeps his gaze on a window so he watch the figures in the reflection. "Do any of you have a mirror? A compact? Have any of you been here before? Not this room, this side." Though he can't help but glance back over his shoulder to see if he can see the ones reflected.

Hyacinth keeps the death grip on her fork. "Are the doors even ''there''?" Another useful question worth asking. The shadows shift in the windows but not in the room. It didn't mean they weren't there, it only meant they didn't RSVP and did NOT therefore donate to the fundraiser! She's loathe to feeling afraid, and moreso she's allergic to freeloaders. Hand reaching for Vyv's sleeve she warns against giving the shadows any benefits of the event but it comes out, "Baby, don't let them touch your bonbons."

Yeah not the most productive warning. "Justin... I think the ballroom's having... lighting issues. Again." She pushes herself to a stand and says calmly, "Now is...the perfect time to mingle." As in don't be a sitting duck. "Edison?" She's not taking her eyes off the glass.

Edison, still standing, slowly draws something from his pocket: a thin sliver of mirror. Actually, it looks like a shard of mirror that came off something broken. He holds it up so that Stefano can look into it, if he likes. Maybe he'll even lend it to him. His attention is drawn briefly to something Hyacinth says, and for a moment, he stares at Vyv with an utterly inscrutible expression.

"Right here, Ms. Addington," comes his reply to his employer, and he is ready -- to either follow her, or lead the way for her. Whichever comes first.

"This side? Of what? Like, in a messed up dream?" Justin asks Stefano, then glances over toward Hyacinth. "Yeah, something like that." His eyes are fixed on the windows, and the things that continue moving away from the walls, and closer to the versions of them in the reflections. When Dahlia mentions the doors, he begins to head over toward the nearest door to try and find out.

When Edison produces the mirror and holds it up, it is evident to anyone who looks into it, that a) objects within it are closer than they appear, and b) that the figures are clearly reflected within it. One begins to follow Justin's reflection toward the door, while another one approaches Hyacinth and Edison, a third moving toward Stefano, while the fourth begins to inch closer to Dahlia and Vyv.

The doors seem to be intact, though Justin hasn't quite reached it yet to find out if it will open. In fact, the room, save for its sudden reduction in occupancy, seems much as it has been all evening.

Dahlia was still holding on to her steak knife. She looks towards Stefano. "If you're asking what I think you're asking...Twice. Well...Three times if we count this going on right now." She said. Still a champ at masking whatever she might be feeling. Looking over towards the mirror, her frown deepens when she sees the figures. "...I'm not sure what's about to happen but, everyone be really. Really careful." Not sure if that would even be possible or not. Since Vyv was closest, she glanced towards him to see his reaction.

"A dream, yes. And no." Stefano answers, looking at Edison's piece of mirror now instead of the window. "It's much more dangerous than a dream. In a dream, if you die, chances are good you'll wake up. That's not the case here so as Dahlia said, be very, very careful." Seeing the figure heading toward him, he moves away while still trying to keep sight of it in the mirror or a window. "I don't know what will happen if they touch us but it's probably best not to find out."

Vyv's glances around catch the window and stay there for a moment, focused on those shapes; a glance the other way to confirm he doesn't see them there, and back to the window again. ...yes, still there. A shake of his head to Stefano's question, though it's presumably the mirror one, since it comes along with, "Possibly. Does this side frequently involve buildings behaving like jello? Because if so I may have been the day downtown exploded." Which probably implies only that time, if so.

He directs one of his glances toward the doors when Hyacinth asks about them, and looks about to go check them when she grabs his sleeve. A blink at her remark, though it recovers quickly to a deadpan, "Don't worry, darling, I have no intention of giving them a taste." The mirror is small, but he leans to see what he can as well, shooting another look where the figures... aren't. He picks up the knife from his spot at the table, with a slight nod to Dahlia, and starts to move away from it as well, toward the doors. "So, safe to assume they aren't just hoping for a dance, then?" He tracks them as best he can.

As the figures grow closer, those long limbs extend outward, fingers seeming to stretch impossibly long as they reach out toward each person in the room. Everyone, however, manages to dodge those incoming lengthy fingers, except Hyacinth. The sensation is truly strange, between seeing what is happening in the reflection, and being unable to see anything physically there. Wherever shadowy fingertips touch her reflection, Hyacinth can feel a sharp chill that sends a shiver down her spine. The reflection, on the other hand, takes on an inky stain wherever those fingers touch, and that inky stain begins to spread.

A lady apparently doesn't run in Jimmy Choos! Or... at all apparently. There's a sharp intake of breath, eyes going wide and the fork trying to come down on anything it can make contact. Goosebumps break out across her skin in an unsightly fashion (really they do not go with the texture of her earrings at all, but let her live to complain about that later). Is she drying her manicure or freeing herself of her assailant? Eh, it's hard to say, but it's showing off her sparkle nails fabulously.

Edison was already right there, but now he's really /right/ there: still holding up that slice of mirror to get his bearings, he reaches down to give the fallen Hyacinth a hand. "Take my hand, Hyacinth." He doesn't usually call her by her first name, but now is the time. He seems rather unfazed by everything going on, which either says something for his composure, or something for his mental health, or perhaps both concurrently.

"Don't let it..." Touch you. OKay, that's probably bad. Backing away from the one that seems intent on him, Stefano looks around for... something. Anything. "Light. Any flashlights? Candles? Try directing light at it with the mirror." Then sprinting over to one of the heavier chairs, he lifts it up and throws it at a window.

Dahlia watched the hand reaching towards her through the reflection. Almost mesmerized by it. At the last second she seems to remember herself and side steps the elongated hand. Nope. She wasn't messing around with that again. "And don't panic..." Is added as she spies Hyacinth getting touched. Her gaze flits towards Justin to make sure he's okay, starting to move in that direction and especially away from the window that Stefano is throwing a chair at. She's looking at the dessert trays - seeing of any of them are on silver or gold trays that would make a good reflective surface.

Vyv steps away from the one that's after him and Dahlia just barely fast enough, wincing when he catches sight of that other one getting Hyacinth. He's still aiming more or less doorward, taking quick looks at the reflections in mirror and window as he goes. His gaze falls on more of the knives abandoned on their tables, then the mirror, and the hand that isn't holding a knife of its own comes up palm out, fingers spreading, then turns and lifts as if urging something upward. Knives, apparently. Another glance in the mirror, focusing, and the hand moves sharply, like a conductor mid-movement, trying to line the reflections of the blades up with the reflected creature. Well. IN the reflected creature, really, he hopes.

Justin grabs the handle of the door and gives it a solid tug, and the door opens. Though what it opens into is what appears to be a reflection of the room that they are in. Complete with copies of them staring back, including a copy of himself holding the door open, both Justins looking equally perplexed. When the hand reaches out toward him, he lets go of the door, which swings shut, and tries to back away, narrowly avoiding that touch.

When Stefano grabs that chair and hurls it at the window, the chair crashes into it, shattering the window and going straight through whree it and glass can be heard falling into the darkness, and then eventually hitting the ground below. A cool breeze suddenly rushes into the room from outside, but does not abate the blackness. It does, however, remove view of the creature that was after Justin, no longer reflected in its surface.

Dahlia finds a shiny dessert tray. The reflection is distorted, but she can definitely see the things in it.

Vyv does some fancy levitating knifework, as they suddenly fly off their tables and the reflections of them seem to tear straight through the creature that was attempting to touch he and Dahlia. The mouth of the thing opens into a wide silent scream, and it evaporates in a puff of smoke, or the reflection of it does, anyway.

One is unaccounted for. One still reaches for Hyacinth, and the one that was after Stefano diverts its attention toward Vyv instead, suddenly shrinking very small, and darting between tables as it runs toward him.

Meanwhile, Hyacinth is starting to feel very, very cold, and movement is becoming difficult.

Hyacinth gets angry when she's scared, assailed, inconvenienced, offended, charged extra, or is otherwise put out. When she gets angry she gets shit done. Her eyes glass a bit and she stops folding her arms and reaches with a hand for her phone or tries. "Ed-d-d-d-ison... these p-p-people are t-touching m-m-me." Underscore, FIX IT! Full stop. Fingers clutch Edison's sleeve as he reaches for her.

Her skin goes white and rapidly bluish. She freezes in place, her eyes, unfixed dilating until they are solid black. She doesn't budge. Then as suddenly as it is onset her fingers tighten on Edison's sleeve, pull herself up, and dashes with impressive efficiently toward that entire tray of desserts nearby.

Well, shit. Breaking the window did not accomplish what Stefano was hoping for. Which is to say, letting in the light. Vyv did show him how to proceed though. Grabbing a knife off of the table, he throws it at the one running at Vyv, using the reflection in the window to guide his aim. Like the last one, it screams silently as it gets impaled and disappears in a shadowy poof of smoke.

Edison observes this...unusual behavior. His full attention has been on Hyacinth -- so when he turns tail to run after her, that's when he takes a moment to look around the room and assess the /rest/ of the situation. Some of the situation is under control. Back to Hyacinth: he stares at her back, gray eyes unblinking, and imposes a very strong suggestion into her head: Whatever it is about to do, she does /not/ want to do it. She is repulsed and uncomfortable by whatever choices she's about to make. They're simply a terribly idea.

Dahlia picks up the tray to use it as a means of seeing. Seeing Hyacinth barreling in her general direction - the tray goes up as a means for those close to see the reflections, and she also side steps. She turns the tray so she can try and spot the one that went off grid when the window broke. Still having her own knife in her free hand, she advances closer towards where Justin is and the reflection was.

Vyv's eyes widen as though he might well be as surprised as anyone that it seems to have worked, though they swiftly narrow again, along with a quick flicker of a close-lipped and not particularly pleasant smile. "We can kill them in the reflections," he says, voice slightly raised to be sure the others can hear, and looks fully ready to see whether it works a second time, this time focusing the intentions on the one that's attacking Hyacinth.

The gesture gets the knives in the air again, but before he can get them properly aimed there's a-- tiny one coming right at him, fast, from across the room! He mostly stifles what would definitely not have been a yelp and surely only resembles the cousin of one by coincidence, and the knives dip, some clattering to the floor, as he just barely manages to dart away from the thing in time. It's matador-with-a-cape close; shame it doesn't have that kind of style too.

He's pretty startled when he catches it going poof in the mirror as well, and traces the trajectory swiftly back to Stefano. "Cheers," he says, before giving Hyacinth a worried look. Okay, they are very good desserts. But an entire tray is definitely out of character, even aside from the skin and eyes situation. Still, there's a possibly more urgent thought: "There were four..." Like Dahlia, he looks for the last, though from where he is for now.

Justin continues to back away, both from the door and the shattered window, just in time to see Stefano dispatch the little one neatly, and Dahlia approaching with the tray. He backs up toward her in time for her to reveal just how close that last one is to reaching for him. With her help he narrowly avoids getting clipped by it. "Hit it with the tray," he suggests to her as he reaches blindly around the closest table, coming up with a shiny centerpiece. It'll have to do. He lobs it at the thing, but misses, the centerpiece shattering against the wall.

The one that had been touching Hyacinth seems to vanish WITHIN her as her eyes turn black, and she seems to be subsumed with a serious graving for carbs. But Edison seems to be having her questioning her carb choices.

Vyv's knives clatter to the ground, but his artful dodging leaves that opening for Stefano to neatly dispatch the second shadow creature. That leaves one encroaching on Justin and Dahlia, and one /inside/ Hyacinth.

Hyacinth would never, were she not possessed, ever make this face at Vyv's art. The man is a Picasso of pastry and the Monet of marzipan. This work doesn't deserve her hissing at them clearly tied up in conflict as if her hand were trying to subvert her will and bring that tiny chocolate niblet towards her face, teeth bared as if she's trying not to eat 2500 carbs in one sitting.

Dahlia takes Justin's advice, squeaking when she saw how close it was to Justin. The tray gets whipped in the direction of the shadow. In the reflection - it gets knocked right upside the head. As it tries to get away, she lunges forward - driving her knife into it's back. There's a bit of a wild look in her eyes. She almost tries to stab it again, but realizes it's gone. "Got it." She breathed out - letting the knife fall - but keeping hold of the tray. Now looking towards Hyacinth. "...I'm not sure what to do about her though..."

Stefano grabs another knife as he searches for the third one, focusing on it after a moment. But then it's destroyed so he turns to frown at Hyacinth instead. "Feed her protein?" he suggests after a moment. It's hard to say if it's a serious suggestion or not.

Edison, still holding that mirror shard, stares hard at Hyacinth. He rushes over to a tray full of macarons and raises it high above his head. "Oi!" He's surprising loud, for such a normally quiet fellow. "There's something much better over here, but she won't help you get it. Why don't you come over for these nummies! She won't help you. I've seen to it." This is probably only partially true, but there are things to be done here. A little white lie or two is essential.

"Nor I," Vyv murmurs to Dahlia's remark. "...Hyacinth?" he asks more loudly, studying her and the way that fight's going. There's a fair bit of focus going into it, but in the end, he just looks frustrated. Edison's words get a glance at the man, and a tiny nod of approval; he does what he can do to help with the persuasion, wordlessly. The candy in Hya's hand drags itself back down to the table and pins itself there, the others around it deciding they're very happy right where they are too, thank you. Face first might still be an option, but wouldn't Edison and those macarons just be... easier?

Teamwork makes the...well it makes the shadow lunge out of Hya Addington leaving her body lurching. The bonbons in her hand hit the table like The One Snack (Elven scripture not included). She fights for her bearings at her name and sees the shadow beastie rush her PA. Her anger snaps in a resolute look at the critter. As it lunges for Edison ball lightening snaps from her fingers. "STOP TOUCHING MY THINGS!" As the electric blue lights up that darkness it slams into the shadow before the shadow slams face first into the 5th course and explodes. Composing all her dignity, still freezing, and teeth chattering she narrows a proud look undermined by the slight waver in her voice. "Mine."

As soon as that shadow explodes there's a strange juxtaposition of images that happens to those few who had been combatting shadow things in the darkness. Suddenly, they are back in the party as though they'd never even moved from their original spots just as BANG one of the lightbulbs just above the spot where that shadow creature went poof explodes, sending out a shower of sparks. People duck all around, startled, but unharmed, and there's a pause in the band playing for just a moment, before the music continues and the party carries on as though nothing at all were amiss.

Hyacinth no longer feels the cold, everything back to room temperature. The window is intact. The chair and all the knives and even the dessert tray and centerpiece are whole and exactly where they'd been found.

Dahlia watches tensely as Edison and Vyv work to get Hyacinth back in her own and safe. And it works! The next thing she knows, she's sitting down again and there's a startled gasp that doesn't feel like her own when the light bulb goes off. She blinks a little, cautiously looking at the others around the table. As if silently asking if anyone else was just in that freaky mirror world or if she was losing her god damned mind. Her fork is in a death grip. Which is slowly loosens.

Justin and Stefano are back on the dance floor right where they were about to dance when the entire thing started. He flinches as they are suddenly back and the light bulb explodes, and then he takes a moment to look around the room, gathering his wits about him before he looks back to Stefano, "That. That is what that fish hook dream was like."

"I thought it must be but if you didn't know what was happening..." Stefano wasn't going to make an issue out of a one shot happenstance that turned out fine. "You know, I usually skip desert but it's a special occasion and I hear the bonbons are good. I'm going to get a few. Want some?"

Edison never even got to sit down! Nor does he now. He simply wipes his hands off and looks at Hyacinth, both eyebrows raised, with an expression of 'well, that's that, then' on his face. It's probably the closest thing he gets to relieved. He glances Vyv's way, too, and breaks into an almost cheeky grin. All of that's off his face as quickly as it was there, and he approaches Hyacinth once more. "Seems another mojito is in order." He walks off towards the bar to get her one without another word.

Hyacinth looks very upset and is staring at the light when it explodes. She doesn't flinch, but stands up smoothly warming a smile to the room in that projection of address to the gathered looking up, "And THIS is why your contributions to the restoration effort are necessary and greatly appreciated." Deep breaths, Hya, just like being a kid, the ABC's. Always Be Closing. ...She had a complicated and productive childhood. Her hand falls to Edison's forearm and gives it a squeeze as he passes. Looking to Dahlia she's alright, Justin and Stefano are. Her hand falls to Vyv's shoulder and she says, "Dance with me. I feel like I have calories to burn after...dinner."

Vyv lifts his hand from the position of holding, well, nothing down, as the thing takes the bait and leaps from Hyacinth. A shift of weight, but before any possible thought might be put into effect, that lightning zaps out, making short work of it. The glance from the exploding shadow to the woman is startled and impressed, just as the world changes back -- and they're seated at the table once more. A deep breath, taking in their surroundings, and he's collected himself again. "Very nice," he says, initially to Hyacinth, with a light touch of her arm, though the look travels on to Edison, and that flicker of a grin gets a subtler but definite look of amusement in return, clearer for the relief of things being back as they should be. He gives the man a slight inclination of his head, which probably translates to something in the general 'good work' area. Hyacinth's invitation gets an inclination of the head too, and he stands, offering her a hand. "Yes, why not?" he replies, "Let's go trip the light fantastic."