Back in Noelle's apartment, in a dark corner, two eyes open, one yellow, one pink, which seem to dart back and forth looking to see if anyone is looking. - device-friend-connected
Her apartment was small and relatively well-lit, so the patch of shadow was...notable.
She glanced at the dark patch and decided to not think much on it. It was probably Mr. G, right?
Curious - the shadow was just there a moment ago, now just a regular corner. Probably just a passing shadow from the window perhaps? Or at least that's what one would think if a strange tail hadn't been slinking under the sofa, vanishing under the furniture.
The eyes open once more, blinking a few times before looking back and forth-had she seen it?
Noelle glanced around. It wasn't G. He would've said something by now...or opened the door.
It wasn't Meridia's friend either...with the eyes...
Well...probably not.
Maybe her mind was just playing tricks on her.
She turned back to her tome, reading.
The eyes blinked a few times before closing once more. Slowly the form would creep around the periphery, blending into what stark shadow might be found. FRIEND's eyes popped open once more before looking back and forth, seeing if it could spot that peculiar trinket.
Hopefully it hadn't been seen yet - more worryingly, hopefully nothing popped up that would distract it.
Noelle was engrossed in her book, until the movement was caught by her peripheral vision. She glanced over to see nothing.
"You're twitchy today." Wicht comments, lounging on an upper shelf.
"Just...felt like I saw something."
"Was probably just a fly or something." The fairy comments, not really paying attention.
"Yes....I suppose you're right." She says, looking down at her book once more.
So far so good, just find the device and-
The eyes snap to the source of the small voice, pupils going round before shrinking to slits. The form sinks down once more and creeps along the wall before crawling up.
Verrrry slowly the eyes open once more to the thinnest of margins, both pupils fixed on the fairy. Slowly, ever so slowly its tail starts to creep forward, ever so slightly-then pausing mid motion before retracting.
FRIEND's eyes snap to the left, there, on a lower shelf. A familiar sight. The eyes snap back and forth between the fairy and the box. The fairy... and the box.... the fairy........... and the box..............
Abruptly, a display across the room is knocked over as the tail retracts into the shadows behind it, vanishing once more into the background.
The duo look to the crystal falling from the shelf.
Noelle breathes a sigh of relief and goes over to pick it back up and put it onto the shelf again.
"You really are jumpy today." The fairy comments, relaxing and closing her eyes.
"I suppose I am." Noelle replies.
Odd...the display stand wasn't wobbly, nor was it broken...
They are not looking at the box.
Time seems to slow down at what comes next. It moves to the box in short order, its massive grin growing as it opens its mouth and seemingly swallows the maker's matrix in one gulp. However, instead of chewing on it or digesting it, it seems to almost 'swim' around the item.
Like ink dripping from a page it slowly sinks down onto the shelf, leaving the original in its place, but sitting next to it a perfect copy - save one detail. It is a stark grey compared to its twin. Any trace of color has been washed away, the copy monochromatic in every way.
FRIEND slowly attempts to draw the duplicate with it into the shadows, before a noise echoes into the room - clink. Uh oh. Clink. Clink. Clink. The object, though successfully copied, seems to be a bit too physical for its departure. FRIEND slowly slinks out of the shadows and grabs the box in its teeth and prepares to move.
Noelle heard that. She looked and saw some kind of....shadow, coiling around what looked like her Maker's Matrix!
Wait...no...it was there...then what was that? It was unnaturally washed out and grey.
"Hey! What are you doing?!"
FRIEND freezes on the spot, its eyes darting back and forth across the room, its grin locked in place. It does the only thing it can think of.
It flops over staring at Noelle.
"Meow?"
That...was not the reaction she expected.
She looks at the mirrored maker's matrix. That probably shouldn't be allowed to be around. If the Makers discovered she had that, they might assassinate her.
Granted, they'd probably do that if they learned about how she got the first one, too...but still.
She reaches for it. "You probably shouldn't have that."
FRIEND looks like its about to comply and simply opens its mouth, dropping the grey object - but too far away from the mage's hand. Instead it falls toward the floor, except instead of a thud, there's... no sound at all?
Down below another FRIEND sits there, having caught the grey Matrix on its head, its eyes fixed on it. The two shoot each other a look briefly. The one on the shelf's eyes dart toward the original Matrix, then slowly look up to the mage. A paw slowly extends toward the original, with very cat-like intention.
Noelle nearly went for the grey Matrix, but saw another...shadow...thing...catch it.
She squints as she sees the duo conspire.
After a half-second of thought, she casts Mage Hand on the grey Matrix, as she goes for hers.
Well, crud. The FRIENDs look at one another, quickly trying to think what to do. The one on the shelf rears back, almost looking like it's about to pounce - then the doctor's words ring in its memory.
No scraps.
Did that mean no breaking anything, or no fighting...? Double crud. They'll have to be... strategic...? They look at one another briefly before the shelf one slinks back into its shadow. The floor FRIEND extends its neck and catches one side of the grey matrix in its teeth. The first slinks out of a shadow behind Noelle before wrapping its tail around one of her arms, oddly... rather gentle for such a creature?
Well...that one seems to have left her normal Matrix alone, but it was...brushing against her? And the other is holding onto the grey one her mage hand has a hold on.
"Come on...If you give it up, I'll....give you a treat?" What did strange shadow kitties like to eat?
The doctors orders are absolute and must be followed did she say treat?
Both of their eyes crane up to stare at her, pupils growing large. Soon however they are joined by a third, then a fifth, and soon... an entire pack of FRIENDs, at least ten in all, sit around Noelle with their cheshire grins, waiting for treats.
They really hope it's protein.
Ah. Hmm. That was...a lot more than she thought. Just how many were in here.
"I have some fish in the chillbox." She offers, as she slowly steps back towards the kitchenette, one hand still holding the spell for the mage hand, as she teleports the main Matrix to a hidden place.
Her hand thus freed, she opens the box and takes out some prepared fish.
The FRIENDs all watch the fish in sync between all of them, except the one sitting behind Noelle. Whatever they were planning appears to have been overwritten by the presence of fish protein.
One of the FRIENDs looks at another, what was it the doctor wanted again? A box of something?
A box of fish obviously, another FRIEND reasons looking at the first. They all seem to agree the doctor wanted a box of fish. The one behind Noelle is the only one to audibly sigh slightly as it keeps at least part of the grey device in view.
Well, most of them seemed like they would be fine with the fish, but the one behind her seemed to be a bit indifferent. She began to put the fish into a GREY box that she was conjuring for the strange creatures. Why, it looked almost like the one that her mage hand was holding onto....but smelled of delicious fresh fish. She then took one and offered it to the shadow behind her.
Perhaps the scent would be enough to deter it?
FRIEND observes the box and the fish and... the fish in the box? Sniff sniff sniff.
That is quite fishy. The FRIEND looks at the others who look at the fish in the box as well, then back at the other FRIEND. They seem to come to a consensus that the doctor was after a grey box of fish.
The FRIENDs confer for a moment, leaning in toward one another. There's not quite hushed tones but odd sounds, almost like interference or radio static, with one eyeing Noelle for a moment then going back to one another.
The FRIEND behind Noelle approaches the decoy box, seemingly content with this exchange - until a FRIEND drops from the ceiling and lands on Noelle's head with an unceremonious thump. A tiny thing compared to the horde at her feet clamoring for fish.
Noelle nearly loses her concentration on the spell when the creature lands on her.
"Hey, no pushing. You want the fish? Fine, take it." She puts the fish she was holding into the conjured box. "You all can have this box." And figure out which one gets what and how much.
The FRIENDs make one last look at one another, seemingly having confirmed the plan to action. Time seems to slow down for a moment as one by one they all pounce...
...before landing on Noelle and purring up a storm. It's like someone's mixed a herd of cats with a 56k modem from all the strange interference sound radiating through the room. One FRIEND brushes against her legs, the other the free hand, two more paw at the box of fish, each one somewhere between a semblance of shadow and cat-like mania. All the while the tail starts slowly creeping its way toward the monochrome Matrix.
During the confusion, she lifts the duplicate Maker's Matrix into the air and takes the empty one with the fish, giving it to the swarm of strange shadows enveloping her and purring a strange static. They seemed pleased....they were probably pleased.
Probably?
The horde of FRIENDs seemingly mobs the empty box of fish and start wrestling among themselves for the contents, strangely being... careful with the container? Though how a bunch of shadow cats are supposed to manipulate a box without hands is anyone's guess.
The first FRIEND who began the infiltration from before hops up onto the nearest piece of furniture, eyeing the grey Matrix still. Its eyes look to it, then to Noelle, then back to it. The tail from before curls around it, gently tugging on it.
It tilts its head quizzically, as if asking an unspoken question.
"I don't know where you got this." Noelle replies, referring to the duplicated Matrix. "But if I let it get out, I'll likely not survive long enough to get you all more fish."
Or whatever it was they wanted. Even her original was a danger to have until she could master it and claim it as truly hers.
FRIEND looks up at the box, then back to Noelle. The doctor would probably be upset if she found out this was his errand, yet his instructions were very clear, kind of. No scraps. Or leave no scraps? Leave no scraps of fish? It's hard to think with all the fishy smell in the air.
Think FRIEND, think! This requires the epitome of cat strategy. Its eyes scan the room for anything important before spying the couch. It slowly walks over, leans over one of the seats and-
COUGH. COUGH. COUGH-
It sounds like it has a hairball.
Well, that wasn't ideal.
But it wasn't looking at the duplicate matrix. She took a deep breath and cast a disintegrate spell through the mage hand, vaporizing the duplicate box silently. If it had spare parts, that would've been nice, but it was safer to be rid of it.
Now there was only one box...and it was full of fish.
And and shadow cat thing hacking up gods-know-what on her sofa....
The hacking stops immediately as the box is disintegrated. Well, that also is less than ideal. FRIEND's grin seemingly inverts to a frown at this development, and it's lost sight of the original. What to do, what to do-
Ah. That is... ONE idea, among many. Is it even possible is the question...
FRIEND's face seems to contort as its starts making odd motions - its large mouth opening as it seemingly walks over to the wall and presses its face flush against it. Slowly, from its face shadow starts to bleed out along the walls of the apartment, slowly growing over the interior of the room.
If this actually WORKS the hard part will be finding it later. The other FRIENDs have ceased fighting over the fish and are similarly gawking at its actions.
Noelle places a hand on the fish box.
"Stop that right now, or I'll do it to this box, too." Noelle scolds that one. She wasn't entirely sure what it was doing, but she didn't want to have to exert her domain authority right now, if it could be helped. This was her home...her mage's workshop....and it was as much her as her own flesh and bone.
The shadows continue to expand, slowly bleeding over the interior of the room, the light slowly getting devoured at the same time. FRIEND's eyes water seemingly as it keeps pushing itself to do... SOMETHING... to the interior.
The other FRIENDs are suddenly distressed at the prospect of losing the box of fish the doctor was after. They're about 300% certain that's what he asked. They start batting at the FRIEND consuming the light and interior. It baps them with a free paw.
As it does this, the tail suddenly springs up, coiling around the mage. The pointed tail comes directly to Noelle's face then - starts tickling her nose. Apparently it's trying to make her sneeze.
