taxonomites | Entries tagged with /character glitch

When the message comes, it's just audio now, since Scott has no desire to flash in inability to see to the world at large. "The gym's open again. I'll be starting with my regulars again, but we're going to have to renegotiate things. Call me, or come and see me at my office."

The message closes with no more preamble.

It's fairly safe to say he's not coping brilliantly with being blind, since he's taken to living in his office, where he knows where everything is and nothing ever gets in his way. Literally. He's sick of walking into furniture.

no_rose_tint

Scott’s marker comes back onto the map with as much pomp and circumstance as it vanished.

More strangely, his tablet doesn’t join him instantly to broadcast his misfortune. It appears nearby, resting on a tree stump out of the way, but whereas usually it delights in showcasing these moments, it remains quiet now, when perhaps he needs it most.

Five days is a long time where he’s been. He’s pale and drawn, deprived of sunlight and enough food and water. He has dark circles around his eyes, a mixture of exhaustion and bruising.

There’s no awareness of being moved again. He’s simply regaining consciousness and feeling grass and dirt rather than the metal and stone of where he’s been held, a deep ache in his head and uncomfortable pressure in his eyes.

Slowly, he reaches up, feeling over his face and flinching as his fingers poke sore skin and no visor. He has to risk it anyway, bringing his hands to his face, fingers white knuckle laced as he flickers his eyes open.

Nothing.

No light. Not in or out. No warmth over his hands.

He opens them again, fully, but nothing reaches outwards. Nothing explodes, nothing is rent apart.

Everything is dark.

He can’t see.

He snaps his head up, eyes wide and unseeing, a solid, lightless red covering them from side to side.

no_rose_tint

It might take a while for people to realise Scott isn't around.

He normally gets up before Maddie and is out of the house early. He works during the day, but then goes off to climb and do other crazy things on his own once he finishes and doesn't come home until horrendously late at night.

But one day he doesn't open the gym and he's not there for his training appointments with people. His tablet is on his bedside table with his photo. He doesn't appear on any of the city maps.

He's gone, but it's not like usual, when people are removed from the city. It's more like he found a way to drop off the radar and promptly did so with a thoroughness that would baffle even a seer.

[OOC: Scott will be missing for a few days as the start of his glitch. Feel free to put character responses and reactions here, I will reply with information as characters require it. Contact me ooc if you want to plot and plan.]

azoftheoz

Jason thought he was a knight. A kind and moral knight who sought to protect others and who may or may not be possessed by a demon still. Therein lay the rub. If the demon was still there, who knew where this might go. If he wasn't, and one day returned when and if Jason returned to himself, what kind of control would Jason have in that moment to stop him?

This wasn't something she wanted to broadcast over the tablet; risking the chance that anyone could hear it if the tablet's locking mechanism failed. So instead she gathered her things, slid into her long brown coat and sent a text to Remus.

On my way to your place. I need a few minutes of your time. We may have a problem.

Affixing the tablet to her bracelet, she headed out for Remus' place.

She was only a few steps from the tram when the world seemed to change. One moment she was determined to enlist Remus' help in ensuring that Jason wasn't a danger to himself or others.

The next she was confused and uncertain, the fluffy skirt of her pretty pink princess gown.

"Where..."

Gathering two handfuls of that full skirt, she looked around herself with an expression of utter confusion, pretty and sweet confusion but confusion.

"Hello? Is anyone there," she called, all wide, wide eyes and petulant pout.

Frowning heavily, she looked down at the bracelet she wore, the blinking red light that would have told many she was being broadcast as she peered at the screen before looking up and away.

"Uhmm, anyone? I'm quite confused and could use some help," she said. After all, if a princess asked for help, there was always someone there to help. Right?

personaldemon

The tablet flicks on, broadcasting an image of a Jason Blood who looks incredibly, incredibly confused, which is probably the most striking difference about him.

There are others-- that ~~stupid~~ strange hair seems to have grown a few inches, hanging raggedly about chin level, and, while he's technically beardless, keen eyes would probably tell he's got a day or two of scruff such as might happen in the days before modern razors.

Jason is spinning in a circle, blue eyes wide and worried, one hand grabbing at his left hip as if he expects to find a sword there. Nope. So he goes for a boot knife, only to find that not only does he not have a knife, he doesn't even have a boot. He gawps down at business shoes and trousers and a button-up shirt with utterly no comprehension.

All around him are.... things that completely defy his suddenly much younger brain. Towers that rise to the sky, but are of no stone that he knows; that shine like steel blades. A road flat and black as a river. Strange wagons racing by with no horses to pull them. Men and women dressed in bizarre raiment as foreign as his own-- not a one of them looks like a God-fearing Briton.

"God's wounds!" the man gasps, throwing himself back from the street's edge as an Extra zips by on a ~~bicycle~~ unfathomable contraption. Jason scrambles for shelter from the street behind a municipal trash can-- crouching in a defensive huddle behind it, head sticking out around one edge, eyes comically wide with confused panic. The tablet, lying abandoned on the sidewalk a few feet away, records everything.

"What manner of gramarye be this!?! Do I dream? Am I dead, and stand consigned to Hell?"

[OOC: Thus is Jason glitched! He's being taken back to his knightly self and has no memories of Taxon, Etrigan, or modern-day technology. Mock him mercilessly.]

sourcebloodaughter

It’s close to the end. Ashley can feel their hold on her loosening and she’s fighting it harder than ever. Her movements are jerky and far less easy than they had been previously. She’s taken to hiding herself when she feels bouts of control seeping back to her, but it’s not enough and it’s not permanent. On the last day, she’s still wandering the streets, but she’s not actively searching for anyone. Cabal Ashley wants a fight. Sane Ashley wants it to end. With luck, she’ll come across someone who can end it, even if that someone is the form of a tiny dragon.

------------------

Later on, once everything is over, she holes up in her apartment, keeping the door locked as she doesn’t really want to talk to anyone. It’s too hard to face everything right now and she’d rather be alone. Instead, she sends out a couple of text messages.

To the whole of Taxon:
Sorry about what happened. I wasn’t exactly myself, but I am now.

To everyone she met while glitched:
...Really sorry about that. Is everyone okay? If you’re looking for answers, I’ll give what I can, but it’s not a fun story.

To Kitten, Nikola, Briar, Buffy, DG:
...Thanks.

To Briar, James:
...Are you busy?

To Arthur:
Consider this the text you asked me to send.

[ and thus ends ashley’s glitch! The top part is for kitten only, but the rest is open for anyone. people are welcome to try to find her afterwards, but she won't be very open to seeing a lot of people so soon. ]

sourcebloodaughter

Just like last week, Ashley's tablet starts recording while she's in the throws of a nightmare. It's far closer to morning this time, and unlike the last, she's fallen asleep with the light on. Her thrashing can clearly be seen as the tablet is up on a ledge with a clear shot at her.

In her mind, Ashley can still feel the tank of water around her, the feel of the medication as it flowed through her veins, the last of her resistance being pushed out. Her mind is being forced back, her will bent into a corner of her brain, and from the looks of her thrashing, whatever nightmare she's having is far worse than the last.

The tablet records for a few minutes before Ashley suddenly sits bolt upright in bed, her eyes snapping open. Those who have actually seen her and pay attention to these sorts of things will notice that her eyes aren't blue this morning. They're red, a deep, blood red. Source Blood red. Ashley pulls herself together and leaps from the loft, landing catlike on the floor below. Eventually, the tablet feed will time out and that is all it catches of Ashley for the next week or so.

The blonde girl is on a mission and no one is safe.

[ ooc: ashley's cabal glitch is go now! she can be found anywhere in taxon, absolutely anywhere (all week, in fact), and anyone is free to tag in, even if we haven't planned anything out! i am willing to have her be seriously injured multiple times (in fact this will be necessary to helping / stopping her), so don't hold back! (seriously, this is your chance to do all those crazy funky power things you never get to do because it's all crazy godmode stuff. go nuts. not even kidding.) if you have questions, feel free to ask me! ]

tothelightshown

Last time, it had happened in an instant. The witch had closed her eyes and, a moment later, DG had opened her own.

This time, however, everything was different. The witch had realised too late that she'd been a fool to send her trusted mobats out after the escaped Glitch. He couldn't do her any harm in his damaged state and the pain that his half existence caused to whatever remained of DG was palpable. Still, what was done was done. Every death weakened her, but the witch held on and her army increased in size by the hour. The formerly palatial palace of the Northern Island had been turned into a fortress.

( When the tablet switched on, it showed the witch turning her back as a dead long coat fell to the floor next to three other expired soldiers. )

aintnoconvict

Some hours before this announcement...

For being such a tremendous genius, Glitch was a colossal idiot from time to time. This usually occurred when he got a bit too generous with denial, when it was easier to look past what was in front of him and turn it into what he wished it would be. In small doses it worked, but this time he'd created a logical paradox.

It's not real, the mantra that had mostly seen him through the past month, the quick and decisive rejection of a problem. All dreams matter, all of them mean something, especially DG's. Her visions had guided them across the O.Z., they would always be significant.

Things could not be unreal and true at once.

He'd noticed little signs, little shifts, little alterations in attitude. Posture. Mutterings. I'm certain it's a phase, majesty. Wrong then but he knew better now, and so that morning over coffee he analyzed every smile, gesture, and word while being oh so cautious with all his own. At the end of the conversation his heart broke again and icy fear coiled around his spine, but he tried to hide it, kissed her cheek, touched her hair, and excused himself to work on something in his office.

This time, he wasn't going to run, he knew had to stay and exert whatever influence he could to keep the worst from happening again. The city had to know still, so he'd find Madelyne and Bagoas and send them out, keep them safe.

Glitch was only able to find one of them. He hoped it'd be enough.

ooc: so how this'll roll - Glitch will track down Maddy and she'll go out with a ~cryptic message~ for Cain and other folks. Elsewhere in this post: awful things happen to Glitch. Must be a day that ends in y.

tothelightshown

A long time ago - so long ago, in fact, the history had long since turned into myth - the Wicked Witch of the West, as she was known to her enemies, had been the most powerful being in Oz. (The wizard had been all show and Glinda had been all light. Without help, they would never have been able to defeat her.) She had been content with her domains in the west, ruling the Winkies with an iron fist and conducting occasional magical experiments with her sister. It was the arrival of that damned girl, Dorothy Gale, that changed everything.

The girl killed - murdered - her beloved sister before setting off along the yellow brick road with three Ozian companions. The witch could have killed her immediately, of course. Would have killed her immediately, if it hadn't been for the shoes. Her sister's shoes. Powerfully magical shoes that couldn't be removed by force. She captured the child easily enough. From that point on, it should only have been a matter of time. The child was lucky, however, and her friends were indomitable. Although the water that Dorothy had thrown wasn't enough to kill her, it was enough to destroy her body. The witch - or what remained of her, at least - sank into the rocks beneath her palace.

( For several long and agonising centuries, she waited. )

Later, DG - or someone who looked very like DG, except for the tattoos on her chest and the dangerous gleam in her bright blue eyes, appeared on the tablet. She was sitting in what was unmistakably a throne, flanked by armed soldiers dressed in black and smiling as she addressed her fellow prisoners.

There was no need for secrecy now. Glitch had been cleverer and quicker than she'd expected. He'd managed to get a warning out before she'd taken him to heel. No matter. The people in the city had one obvious and potentially fatal weakness. A great many of them loved DG. They knew that they wouldn't be able to harm the witch without harming her.

"Hello, Taxon. It's been a long time since my last visit, but the city is just as I remember it. A city of wasted opportunities."

Her smile widened.

"I'm looking forward to meeting you all. You may call me DG. For now."

tothelightshown

DG was dreaming.

It wasn't the first time that she'd journeyed to the O.Z while she slept, but this particular dream was unusually vivid. She wasn't a child running through the forest with her sister. She wasn't practicing magic under Tutor's watchful eye or listening to her mother singing a lullaby. The familiar and somewhat hazy mixture of memory and imagination had been replaced by stark images of a grey and barren world bathed in permanent darkness.

The same thing had happened for three nights in a row and, each time she fell asleep, the voice in her head grew a little louder.

You broke your promise. You let go. After everything that you said and everything that you've done, you abandoned your sister again.

"No! It wasn't like that!"

It had been the city. Taxon had taken her away from the O.Z. She'd never stop fighting to get back home. Back to Azkadellia.

It doesn't matter. Soon, there will be nothing left for you to hold on to.

I'll get you, my pretty. You and all your little friends.

She woke with a start. For a long moment, she lay perfectly still, staring up at the ceiling with wide blue eyes and her heart hammering in her chest. Eventually, she sat up and sighed, pressing the heal of her hand to her eyes.

"This is starting to get weird."

In Taxon, that was never a good sign.

brokenoptimism

"Hello?"

The mansion is quiet but for a few strange minds he has never touched before and Charles is curious. Not frightened. Just curious. He found the baseball bat where he always kept it, slightly disturbed by the gun resting a hand's reach closer. Where had that come from? Guns were dreadful things.

"Mother?"

Bat firmly in hand he padded barefoot down the stairs, barely aware of the bracelet on his wrist, projecting his image to anyone in Taxon who cared to look.

"Who is there? I know you are here. I can hear you."

electro_girl

The body of Mayland Long lies dead on the floor of the library, surrounded by smashed china and spilled tea. The rest of Taxon cannot smell the smells (unless you happen to be in the library), a small blessing, but they can hear the animalistic sounds of fear and rage coming from the woman on the scene.

"No! No. No," Gwen repeats. "A glitch. Gotta be. It was too strong. The charge was too strong!"

Somewhere, a woman appears beside her--an extra--blathering in Gwen's ear and kneeling beside the body. "Don't touch him!" Gwen shouts, before remembering that she's the one who shouldn't be touching anyone. "I'm gonna fix this," she says, only because she's said it before and it feels like she's living in that memory. Everything seems like a dream, slow and thick like molasses, and Gwen doesn't even have time to react when the extra tries to shake her out of her reverie.

The woman goes down to the floor, her head landing on Long's blackened hand.

Out of all things--the sight of two blinking tablets snaps Gwen out of her daze, and she kneels over the woman and zaps her twice in the chest. Like startin' a Chevy.... Her eyes open and she coughs, a sputtering and painful sound.

"Help," she finally calls aloud, her eyes finding the tablet. She's done what she can but it might not be enough. She can't touch them anymore. "This wasn't supposed to happen."

[OOC: Immediately following THIS. Thus ends Gwen's glitch, and so her electricity returns full force. Any poor soul who wants to get in on this toasty goodness, hop on in. The Extra's alive but needs some serious post-electrocution care. Or just gawk at the misery.]

electro_girl

At first, blue light fills the tablet screen, flickering in and out and making little buzz buzz noises. When it zooms out, two pale hands are visible, and the electricity bounces in the air between Gwen Raiden's palms. Now the tablet focuses in on Gwen, whose way of battling stir-craziness is to make pretty blue light shows with her hands. She's reclined on her couch, sinking into the cushion with her feet relaxed in front of her. The palms of her hands are facing each other, and jagged streams of blue light fizz in and out in the gap between them. She looks concentrated, her eyes not wavering from where the bits of electricity are generated, but she's not focused. She's somewhere far, far away. After a while, the light show tends to lose its shine. After a few decades, it's pretty much like throwing a ball up and down, up and down.

And then it seems to be over. There's one last, dying flicker of blue lightning, and then nothing but air. Gwen's hands still hover, but the electricity's gone.

Now her eyes focus, and Gwen returns. She leans up from her reclining position, her legs swinging up over the table and down to the floor. She wiggles her fingers, moves her hands apart and close together. "Okay," she murmurs, her brow furrowed in confusion and suspicion and a little bit of worry. "What's the game?"

As if struck by some idea, she stands up, walks to the other end of the room, and puts her bare hand to a light switch.

Nothing happens, and this might seem ordinary to most Taxon residents, but Gwen looks like she woke up with purple skin. She moves to another part of the room and touches something, and then another, and then another, and when the tablet finally catches her eye again, her brow has softened, her eyes are bright and wide, and her lips are pressed into the most ecstatic smile Taxon's ever seen.

"I can't believe it," she says, aloud, incredulous. She lets out a short laugh. "It's gone."

[OOC: Beginning of Gwen's glitch! No more electricity what could go wronnnngg?]

undoing.livejournal.com

It had been a long time since Angel had stepped foot in a church without having to be constantly mindful of what he touched. He knew the 'safe' areas like the back of his hand: the wood of the pews, table tops and other objects that were seldom blessed. Now, however, while he was human and without the restrictions put on him by the demon he'd been bound to, he could touch whatever he wanted without fear of harm.

And he did, running his palms along the dulled edges of a cross that stood taller than him, set off to the side of the ambulatory. He was tempted to move it to stand in the center before the choir where it ought to be, but this was Taxon and he doubted any of this meant anything to their hamster overlords. This all meant something to him, once upon a time. Before the vampire he'd become had twisted the faith he held as a human into a cruel mockery of it.

"I shouldn't be here," he declared suddenly, hands falling away as he took a step back. He didn't leave, though. He just stood there, staring.

Two hundred and fifty-four years was a long time.

tinynarcissist.livejournal.com

The video feed shows Adrian, just around dusk, sitting on the step of a building. He has a bicycle leaned next to him, and a solemn look on his face. He has a few things he needs to say to people.

“Miss Summers, Miss Stackhouse, I need to say thank you for your help.

Mr. Luthor, I took a couple of things out of that man’s room, I hope it’s okay. I’m sure he can replace them when he comes back.

Mr. Long, I enjoyed our conversation. I’m going to read more on physics and energy when I get home. I hope you figure out how everything works here.

Miss Lehane, you shouldn’t give up. Two years is a really long time, but it’s not forever.”

[ooc: There’ll be a thread below for Watchbabies escape shenanigans, please wait until that’s posted before replying. That thread is private, otherwise this post is open for voice/visual replies, even if you’re not on the list of people he addressed. This will be tiny!Adrian's last post. :( ]

tinynarcissist.livejournal.com

In the hours since he awakened in a room not his own, in a building definitely not his parents' house, Adrian has quietly gathered as much information as he possibly can. He knows the room belongs to someone older, but a little trial and error shows him how to get clothes his own size from the kind of science-fictiony cupboard. And some time spent investigating the little communication device has given him enough information to be able to use it and navigate his way around the city.

Now the problem lies in finding out what happened to put him here, and how to get home before his parents realize he's missing. Carefully working out the best way to approach open contact with a group of strangers, he decides a simple broadcast is best. Cuddling a little purple lynx kitten in one arm, he sets up the tablet and addresses it solemnly, in perfect albeit slightly accented English.

"My name is Adrian. Can someone help me find transportation to Midtown Manhattan, please?"

[ooc: In case I forget for future reference, Adrian at this age (12) speaks with a very slight German accent.]

niteowlet.livejournal.com

Hello Taxon! You are greeted with the visual of a face peering closely into the visual feed. A tiny Dan Dreiberg is sitting cross legged on his adult counterpart's couch with his face inches away from the tablet, with nose, eyes and glasses filling the screen. He knows exactly what the device is and how to use it, but everything else is a fog. He vaguely remembers the house he is in, but he's not sure if he's supposed to be there.

"Hi! Hello? My name is Daniel Dreiberg. My parents are Benjamin and Lisa. Has anyone seen them?"

child-of-none.livejournal.com

Walter stirs under the jacket and pokes his head out. It seems too early, it's far too quiet for it to be time to wake yet, but then it hasn't stopped him in the past. He likes the quiet, without the other boys to avoid and the timing needed to make sure he gets his spot at the table, or by the window, or...most any place he's found and tried to claim as his own, barring a few.

But as he sits up, he realizes something isn't right. There's no bed, no rows of beds at all, or even walls. He's on the ground, outside, under a trench coat. How did he get here? He doesn't remember getting sent away from Charleton, or even sneaking out after lights out...And where is here, anyway?

There's something in his pocket, and he pulls it out to regard it curiously, chewing on his lip in thought as he tries to figure out what it is. There's a button, and it makes a click that gets a startled jump out of him, and suddenly there's a lighter patch, and symbols all lined up. The citizens of Taxon who may be watching this are now treated to the image of a small, underfed, snub-nosed boy with a shock of bright red hair and more freckles than skin looking at the screen in a combination of undisguised curiosity and wariness. Walter frowns, unable to puzzle out the machine, then puts it down and gives his attention to the rest of his surroundings.

[ooc: for the next two weeks, Rorschach is now a tiny! feel free to let your muses stop by through coincidence or design, or just poke their heads in on the tablet; he'll be much more receptive to new people than usual so feel free to exploit the opportunity.]

saucyspinster.livejournal.com

Mattie awoke with the sun as she always does, washed and dressed, the empty sleeve of her left arm pinned up neatly, read her Bible and checked the contents of her larder. Now it's time for cooking breakfast (there's an art to doing it one-handed that she mastered years ago, and carries the burns to prove it), and only now as she sets the table does she realize that the display of the tablet is lit and has probably been broadcasting her movements around the kitchen. She sets a bowl of eggs and then a platter of ham and fried potatoes on the table, and calls out 'Breakfast!' to the air. Then turns to the tablet and considers it with pursed lips.

"I do not hold with eavesdroppers but since I know it is not always a person's choice in this city, when he is made privy to the business of another, so I will make an exception. There is a good breakfast here, for anyone who has need of it."

[Location open immediately to tiny!Don and later to any takers on the breakfast invitation, everyone else visual or voice as you like. For those unfamiliar with adult!Mattie, she's around 40, missing the lower part of her left arm, and sterner than stern.]