Forum Thread

Fulminare flicked her wrist lightly and the massive heavy-boned black wolf appeared besides Lilith, his pelt bristling and canines bared. "Take Daedris with you, Lilith." She then unsheathed both her swords, her teeth bared in defiance as a snarl rumbled from her, "You, on the other hand, shouldn't be here." She gestured to the door, "Doors right there."

Eve's copy smiled nastily at Fluminare. "Oh Fully," Eve's copy purred, using the same nickname that Eve did, "you just don't seem to get it, do you?" One of the hands latched out and threw Fluminare into a slide, knocking the wind out of her. She turned to Lilith, who was grabbing Eve by the hand to run, and knocked her aside as well. Eve's hand slipped from Lilith's as they tumbled into the wall of the building.

Eve held her head in her hands to steady herself.

---

Lilith offers Fulminare an appreciating smile, she and Daedris head off towards the animatronics. Freyja soars above her, leading her towards them. There are three of them Freyja warns. She lands on the ground, where a cooper spear sits. It must've been dropped by somebody. Lilith picks it up with a smile. Cooper was pretty conductive. Sparks and heat fly off of the spears tip when Lilith tests her powers on it. Now she has to hope that she has enough to energy to disable these animatronics with her limited energy.

One of the animatronics races towards her. It's much lighter than the other two, so it reaches her first. She juts the spear forward, rather than throwing it, she hangs onto it. Electricity fires off of it and strikes the first one. Just as she hopes, it falls to the ground. She stands on top of it and slams the hot spear head into the animatronics heart, where she assumes the energy source is. It shuts down when she stabs it.

The animatronic lunges at Finn, he solidified some gas and pushed it back. “We need to get out of here. I’m no match for this thing” he said to Charlotte as they started to run. Straight towards a pond deep in the woods.

---

Natsume watched, frozen in fear as Lucifer growled lowly. He didn't know what was going on at all, simply knowing that something very wrong was going on. He was beginning to loose track of who was the Eve he knew and who was the clone, yet even if he knew there was nothing he could do to help. He truly a helpless child who dragged everyone down. His fanny pack felt heavy with all the makeshift chemical weapons he had stored in it, but even if he were to use them now, even he didn't know the full extent of the damage he could do so that everyone could at least get away. It just wasn't worth the risk

---

Briar watched the polar bear, still unsure of its trustworthiness. Neva stared right back at her the entire time, so it appeared they were in a staring contest. Finally, Briar spoke. "I need to move, you coming?" she asks. Neva nods. Briar attempts to stand up but falls, as she sprained her ankle when she dropped from the tree. Neva speaks in her mind. "Ride." she says. Briar nods.

---

Floating face down in the calm pool of the Flash Flood, Kanata closed his eyes as he waited for the stinging pain in his hand to recede. Keeping his wound in water was doing wonders to help keep infection out and his powers aided in the recovery. Where there was once a nasty gash was reduced to a partially scabbed over injury. He was at a bit of a loss as to what to do, as there was no one around to make a wish to him. All his life, everyone was vying for his attention, for his ability to make anything requested of him come true, yet here where people expected him to be at his best, Kanata was a simple puppet waiting for an owner to move him.

---

Shiloh starts to make her way back to camp with Roxy and Derek. The closer they get, the more dread Shiloh feels. They return to an empty camp, Finn was gone. Shiloh gasps at the sight. What had happened!? Her mind automatically jumps to the worse. "Finn!?" Shiloh calls out.
...
Lilith narrowly misses a fist that almost connects with her face. The other two animatronics have arrived. They both look like goofy lifeguards, it was almost humorous to be attacked by these happy looking characters. But the humor is quickly lost on Lilith. She swings the spear downward. The electricity following the strike and latching onto the other two. They both go down. She manages to destroy one, but the other is now starting to stand. Lilith backpedals, moving back towards the pool. Her energy was low, she didn't know if she could manage to create another shockwave strong enough to destroy it's chip. She'll have to try and push this thing into the pool

Derek gingerly stepped over the web perimeter. "Shiloh." He pointed to where the webs had been broken, torn by something pushing through. "He was attacked." Turning, he pointed behind her. "And went into the woods, looks like." He stepped over to the second break, then looked up to the sky. His owl launched from his bracelet, then hovered in front of him. "Find Finn." The owl flew out over the woods, his eyes piercing the shadows.

---

"Who's that?" Briar asks, seeing Kanata in a pool. Neva doesn't respond, frustrating Briar. Briar strains to see, but can't make out any distinguished features. (will add more later)

---

After a long chase, and many clashes with the robot Finn was able to take it down into the water. They fell off a large rock and after a pretty far fall they slammed into the water. The robot seized up and sunk to the bottom of the pond. Finn floated on the surface of the water, not daring to move. “What a pain” he said while coughing up water. A gas mask wasn’t the best thing to have on in the water, but he didn’t remove it.

---

When Fluminare dropped to the ground the doppelganger kicked her in the ribs, sending Fluminare to the ground and into a nearby slide, stunning her. Eve tried to help Fluminare but the doppler ganger's arm shot out and a hand caught Eve by the neck and held her up so that the child's feet left the ground.

"Please! Stop!" Eve begged as her lungs fought for air, the doppelganger didn't flinch as she watched the child struggle. "I want to talk. Please." Eve was dropped and the child struggled to get air in her lungs. "You hurt her, let me help her."

"You're attached to something so easily broken." The doppelganger uttered amused.

Eve wasn't a medic but besides being stunned she seemed okay. "What do you want to talk about?" Eve asked, finally looking up at her.

"That's better, a lot better." Eve's copy smiled and Eve leaned as far as she could away from the copy, it was unnerving to see her own face glaring back at her accusatory and petulant.

"I'll listen to you about whatever you want to say, just don't hurt her anymore," Eve begged with her hands in surrender, her heart pounding a million miles a minute.

The duplicate flushed in anger. "This is why." She seethed in ager, pointing a trembling finger at the child.

"What? "This is why." What are you talking about? I don't understand." Eve watched Fluminare in pain, it made her anger rise, something rare in her. "What are you?" The child asked angrily.

"No Eve, the question isn't what am I. It's what are you? And what makes you so special over and over and over again?" Eve's copy grabbed Eve by the neck again and held her so that her feet weren't on the ground. The copy pinned Eve to the wall and bared all her teeth at the child, then suddenly the illusion faded, leaving the copy's true self visible, a painted face that somehow looked angrier than the illusion. White metal plates opened like a flower revealing coils and wire and bare black eyes and jagged prongs for teeth.

Her real face, Eve thought.

"Ask again." the metal monster hissed.

"What?"

"I said ask me again."

"What are you?"

"Wrong question, but call me Mari." Mari held Eve a bit higher with a hand, the other over the child's chest, a finger trailing down Eve's breastbone. "Where'd he hide it?" She asked no one in particular as the eyes searched the child up and down before snapping back to Eve's face. She grabbed Eve's face with the free hand and jerked the head to the side and looked it over for a moment as if lost in thought before jerking the head back so Eve could look at her. "Ask me again." The clone hissed.

Eve watched the metal faceplates close over the tangled mess of wire to have the painted face staring back at her for a moment before Eve was staring back into her own eyes, it was now she realized the right question. "What am I?"

"You are nothing, Eve." Mari hissed dropping Eve, who gasped for air. "You look at me and see a soulless monster. How ironic. How twisted. How unfair." The clone took a step back and watched Eve look up at her, the lips twitched as they lost their savior for the moment. "How backward."

Eve looked up at Mari in confusion as the clone knelt to the child. "I don't know if this'll work but let's try anyway." The clone gripped the back of Eve's head and Eve watched as a young girl approached a kitten but Eve couldn't make the details, then someone approached from behind and it went black and another memory took its place:

A man was stroking her hair, her father. The sun was setting and the bird song was filling the air. It was a calm and peaceful night, the kind Eve loved so much. Her father looked down at her and smiled. "I'm so happy to be here with you." He said kindly, Eve smiled and nestled into him.

"That's mine. That's my memory!" Eve gasped out.

"No Eve, that's his. Let me show you what does belong to you," The duplicate said.

In the dark of night agony flooded the room with its heart-wrenching sound, rain pounded on the window behind the figure. A man was curled on the floor was holding something tightly to his chest as if his life depended on it. When his mouth opened again, the agony flooded the room again, shaking it with its sound.

"No, that's not mine. My memory is the one with my father watching the sunset." Eve protested. "But what's he holding?"

"You don't remember? The little dime-store doll, Suzi. It's all your father had of you after you were gone." Mari said. "He cried into it, bled into it, poured his grief into it. That's very unhealthy you know. He began treating it like his daughter."

"No, my memory is with my dad watching the sunset. We both thought it was magical." Eve protested again.

"Are you sure?" Mari asked. "Look again."

The sun was setting. Birdcall echoed in the sky of the falling sun. There was a hand stroking her hair. "I'm so happy to be here with you." The kind voice said. He held the doll tightly and smiled despite the tears streaming down his face.

"But that wasn't good enough, you had to grow up so he made more." Mari insisted and Eve sat there speechless as another memory played. This one of her father protesting to his wife, her mother, about the doll being Eve, insisting that she was in the doll. A small animatronic doll was standing next to him holding a small cat plush that Eve recognized as Zippy, the doll was sitting in the corner of the room on a chair with its head on the armrest and the eyes staring out over the room. "It took him a while to realize that he sensed you as long as that ragdoll was in the same room as him, either way, he started putting it inside his Eve, whenever he built a new Eve."

Eve looked away from Mari and recalled all the times with her father and questioning each of them. She was sitting on the floor of his workshop as she played with wooden blocks, he was sitting on a workbench and hunched over as he worked on another project. Then he looked at her and smiled, she returned it feeling loved, then he went back to his work. She looked past him at a jumbled hunk of something in the far corner of the room, it suddenly twitched and she startled, knocking the blocks over but her father didn't seem to hear. Even as she rebuilt her tower she felt her gaze torn to the metal skeleton, its silver eyes burned into her. It twitched and shuttered, she wanted to ask the words but she couldn't make herself ask.

"Does it hurt?" Eve whispered, she could almost smell the workshop with the hot burning metal and sweat and faint pine and elm from outside.

The clone stared back at her, the illusion of Eve fading for a moment in anger. "Yes, it hurts. So you remember after all?" Eve nodded hoping that this would calm Mari, but the silver eyes burned and Eve looked away, but her face was jerked back to forcibly look at Mari's burning eyes of silver. "Don't look away."

"But it hurts my eyes." Eve insisted.

"Look at me."

With a shaky breath, Eve looked at Mari and willed herself to not look away as the silver light slowly clouded over her vision until it was the only thing she could see. "Do you know why my eyes always glowed? Why did I twitch in the dark? It was because I was left on all the time by your father. Every day, every moment, I was unaware and unfinished. Watching as he made toys and talking unicorns and bunnies for his little Eve, while I was left in the dark. Alone. Forgotten. Abandoned." The silver glow faded from Mari's eyes and Eve blinked, looking a little relieved. "Why am I even talking to you, you weren't even there."

"Yes I was, I remember it clearly," Eve said softly, and the eyes snapped to her.

"Are you sure you were actually there?" Mari sneered. "If you "remember" so clearly then look down." Eve was brought back to the memory, she was immoble and mute as she watched her father work. "Look down," Mari said again and Eve obeyed, looking to her feet. But. . .there were no feet. Only three legs of a tripod. "He was making memories, for you, a life for a rag doll, so she could be a little girl. I'm sure they've been heavily edited, elaborated on, but make no mistake. Eve wasn't there."

". . ." Eve looked at Mari, her face understanding slowly.

"He made us. One. Two. Three." Mari put a hand lightly on Eve's chest. "Four." She put a hand to her own chest "Five." Mari's face calmed until she looked almost human. "First Eve would be a baby, then a toddler, then a child, then a sulky teen, and then lastly she'd emerge as a beautiful woman. She would be finished. Perfect. Me. Or what should've been. But something changed as he worked over his little girl wrapped in grief."

"Huh?" Eve raised a brow, she was only met with a sneer as Mari's eyes wandered up and down the child.

Mari ignored her as she continued. "The littlest Eve was made with a broken heart, she cried all the time, through the night and the day. The second one was made when he was at the depth of his madness, almost believing the lies he told himself; she craved for his love as he did hers. The third was made when he realized he was going insane, questioning everything he thought and begged his brother to remind him what was true and lie. The third Eve was strange, so full of innocence and naivety."

Eve looked at Mari and watched as her chest heaved in anger, the face stiff with rage, she was jealous of a life she never had. Eve was almost afraid to ask but she did anyway. "And the last two?"

"They don't exist." Mari hissed. "Something changed as he worked on the fourth. His despair turned to depression and rage. He seethed as he welded the pieces together, poured his anger into her forge where the bones were shaped. I wasn't an Eve made alive with a father's sorrow, but a father's fury." Mari leaned into Eve, their faces inches from each other. "Do you know what his first words to me were? You are wrong."

Eve looked away as she thought over everything she knew, or at least thought she knew. Eve looked up at Mari. "So I'm not even human."

"Not even close, you're not even the soul of Eve. You're just a ghost of a man who lost everything. The sad little tears that fell unceremoniously onto a doll that used to belong to Eve. How ironic is it that once I received a soul of my own that I escaped the abandonment of him only to be overshadowed over you?" Her hand suddenly gripped Eve's shoulder to hold her upright and still as the eyes flicked to Eve's torso, the freehand hovered for a moment. "And if I had to guess. . ." The hand suddenly made a quick motion and Eve gasped as the area spun. Mari's hand disappeared but soon it reemerged, she was holding something.

"Look before you lose consciousness," Mari whispered, Eve's eyes landed on the object in Mari's hand, it was a dimestore ragdoll, recognition flared.

"Suzi," Eve whispered.

"This is you."

Eve's head dropped as she slipped into black.

---

Shiloh walks towards the treeline, but she doesn't go too deep into the woods. Finn could've run in any direction, and she had no idea who or what was lurking in there. That train of thought only made her more worried. She glances up at the sky, watching Derek's owl with hope in her eyes
...
The final animatronic lunches forward, as if expecting it's downfall, but eager to take her down with it. They crash down into the water before it can land a hit on her. For a moment, the water becomes electric as exposed wires sear the water. It even momentarily stuns Lilith, who holds a small immunity to these shocks. A shocked scream escapes her throat and water quickly fills her lungs. She desperately heaves the heavy machinery off of her, adrenaline coursing through her veins. It gives her the strength to kick the thing off of her so that she can swim to the surface. She holds onto the side of the pool, coughing and sputtering up pool water. "That's it, I'm done with water parks" she mutters to herself. Once she has the strength she tries to crawl up onto land, but her shocked body won't cooperate. Daedris gently bites her arm to help pull her up onto land. She uses the spear as a walking stick, and slowly makes her way back to Eve and the others.

The owl made a few large circles, then stopped in the air, flapping its wings furiously. Circling again, he dove towards Derek. There's a small pond, Finn and the automaton seemed to have fallen in. Finn is on the surface, but there's no sign of the robot. "Thanks. Shiloh?" He watched as she turned towards him. "There's a pond out there, Finn is floating at the surface. There's no sign of the robot though, so we'll have to keep our guard up." Taking a step towards the woods, he looked at her and Roxy. "Ready?"

---

His familiar curled loosely around his wrist, tugging him to alert Kanata that someone was here. Rising from his resting place, Kanata spent a few seconds looking around before locking eyes with Briar. His curtain of sopping wet blue hair made him appear something out of a monster movie as he slowly moved towards her, head tilted on an angle as he stared unblinkingly at the tribute.
(in case you need a visualization of exactly how creepy Kanata is being rn)


Natsume flinched when Eve fell unconscious, jerking slightly as he watched with fear filled eyes. Most of the conversation went unheard by him as his heartbeat was thundering, drowning out any other sound that his own terror.

---

"It probably sank, I'm no rocket scientist but I'm pretty sure metal is heavier than water," Roxy said, giving a nod to Derek's question.

--
Mari's footsteps paced back and forth as she waited for Eve to wake up, she wasn't dead, if Mari wanted Eve dead she would be. When she saw Eve's eyes open she grinned, not caring about Fluminare's weak struggle against the bond that was holding to the slide, it wouldn't last long, but long enough to finish this. "Are you still listening to me?" Mari asked Eve.

Eve felt the area still spinning as she opened her eyes when she tried to breathe each breath stopped short of going in or out. The doll was on the ground a few feet in front of it, Eve reached towards it convulsively, like she was gasping for air.

"Unlike you, I was real. I was an actual real little girl, a little girl who deserves the love and affection that you were showered with. You are nothing." Eve's copy hissed at her. "Do you know where my hate comes from? It's not from this machine I reside in or whatever past life I had if you want to call it that. It's because even now I'm not enough."

As Mari rambled on with her speech Eve used her fingers to claw the floor since she found herself unable to move the rest of her body, when she finally managed to claw her way to the doll she gripped it with her fingers and pulled it to her. The doll was "accepted" by her body and the doll went in where Mari had ripped it out from her torso. Eve pushed herself to her hand and knees and crawled toward the employee building, she could see through the open door a desk with a pair of scissor handles. Eve felt her strength coming back to her, but for the sake of her pursuer, she continued to act weak, keeping her movements slow and clumsy as if still in pain. Mari didn't seem too worried about Eve, rather taking slow deliberate steps a pace behind her.

Eve could hear Fluminare's cries of worry for Eve's safety but ignored it as she reached the desk. She winced as she put pressure on her feet, still feeling a struggle, but she truly was nearly at full strength. She leaned heavily on the desk, one of her hands directly on the scissor handle.

"We both know you can't be re-created you either, but honestly, do we really want that? Besides. . ." Mari was right behind her, blocking the exit, she was moving faster. "I think I hate you more than I love killing." Mari's hand raised in attack and Eve swung around, swinging the scissors in a single movement and jamming it in Mari's shoulder. There was a thunderous, ear-piercing metal on metal sound as the blades punctured the metal skin of Mari. Eve stumbled back in shock, her hand having a large scratch from exposed metal, Eve cradled it. Mari stumbled to the side as she jerked the scissors from her shoulder, she froze as she examined the wound, her head tilted slightly as if doing a system check. Eve didn't wait for the results, she bolted past Mari and back outside, running past Fluminare.

"I know it's childish of me, but if I'm not going to be loved then you're not going to be either," Mari uttered as she walked by the struggling Fluminare in her pursuit of Eve. "Your dad thought you were so special, he just couldn't let go of your memory because it was too precious."

Eve glanced around the area, looking for something before her eyes landed on the very thing that Eve nearly killed herself on earlier. You. Eve saw the unused mechanical pirate with the sword, at least six inches and razor-sharp. Eve could hear Mari's footsteps approaching and quickly shuffled the branches and brush over the pirate to hide it as much as possible.

"You can't win, you can't overpower me, you aren't like me," Mari whispered with relish, she rounded the corner and her eyes lit up at Eve in the open and exposed.

Eve was facing the threat, not hiding. "I shouldn't be here." From where they were at they both heard Fluminare break out of the restraint off of her.

"Eve!" Came her shout, "Eve!"

"It's okay Fluminare, I'll be right out," Mari called out, her voice indistinguishable from Eve's, she also looked like Eve down to the letter, not the older version she'd been masquerading as. For a moment Mari shifted awkwardly then looked to Eve with a cruel smile. "How far along do you think I can go before she realizes?"

"You're right Mari, I was never supposed to be here," Eve whispered, making Mari's smile fade.

"No?" Mari closed the distance between them as she held Eve up slightly by the throat.

"Neither of us were." Eve looked at Mari with the ghost of a smile, confusion flickered in Mari's eyes before she looked behind Eve, just barely making out the pirate. Eve's hand flinched from behind her, triggering something. A pulley screamed and Eve grit her teeth and prepared for the pain, but when the sword went through them, it didn't hurt. Mari gasped out as the blade plunged through her too, sounding almost human as the illusion faded. The skin fading as shock crossed the now metal face. Eve struggled to breathe as the smell of hot plastic and the sound of busting sparks came from far, far away. Eve's sight began to fade until there was finally nothing but black, Eve felt her head slump forward and couldn't pull it up again. Mari twitched a moment longer, rattling the blade that was piercing them both, then her head rested against Eve's forehead.

"Eve!" Eve heard Fluminare's cry and knew she found them. "EVE!"

I'm sorry I scared you so much. Eve thought, but the words never came. Then it all. Went. Black.

---

Briar nearly slides of Neva's back in surprise. She steadies herself on the ground. She manages not to say anything, although she could feel her hands start to tingle. She braces herself and stands up, wincing as pressure is put onto her sprained ankle. (pretty dry for ideas rn sorry)

---

Blinking slowly, Kanata crawled forward onto dry land, his jellyfish familiar clinging onto his back. Dripping wet hands reached out and grasped Briar's ankle twisting it this way and that as he inspected it. Dipping his hand into his fanny pack, Kanata drew out a tub of anti-inflammatory medicine he had received as a sponsor gift for his wounded hand. Setting the medicine down beside Briar's foot, Kanata retreated slightly, watching her intently

---

Briar's eyes opened wide. "Thank you." she whispers. Neva nods approvingly. "I have nothing to give." Briar says sadly. She had barely had enough food for herself. She stares at the stuff for her ankle and slowly sits down, rubbing the sprain before applying it.

---

"Humans always have something to 'give'." Kanata replied, watching as he held a hand up to keep his head steady. "Sometimes they give me a 'song' other times it is 'food'. Humans are 'intresting' creatures, very 'resourceful'. After all, to not give a 'god' a gift is a sin." He said it very seriously, drawing nonsensical patters on the ground with his free hand, legs kicking childishly. His back half was still submerged in water so he didn't feel like he was going to dry up anytime soon

---