Horrible Days

Aw Hell.

What a spectacular day. By spectacular, the clouds decided to be wonderful asswipes by blowing their watery load all over the place. The rain was completely unprecedented despite . Sunny days ahead!, says the saccharine-overloaded features of that one weather reporter on the news. Her looks may have fooled others, but he-- Oh wait, right. Joshua realized he was another one of the thousand fools that failed to bring their umbrella.

Running through the drenched sidewalks wasn't fun. Even with the smallest of puddles were a sure threat to get his socks soaked through the mesh openings in his sneakers. It was getting obvious that he was becoming more soaked the longer he stayed outside with the growing darker patches on his suit. Needless to say Joshua's mood was awful as evident with the swearing seamlessly flying off his lips.

OOC:

It was a cold, rainy day in... uh, wherever she was. Where was she again? Part of her suspected it was Azores, but it couldn't be Azores. Azores was stuck in a temporal weather loop last she checked, although then again she was always a bit skeptical of those reports... Well wherever she was it was raining. That was pretty noticeable. The streets were covered in water and seemed to be rather vacant predictably. After all, most people would retreat inside at the sight of rain, or at least that was what Neith had always been told. Floating through the streets with a ridiculously large umbrella that she carried with ease, the girl would calmly take in the sights all around her as she pondered over the nature of this mysterious realm. Soon, however, the sound of footsteps and naughty words would reach her ears causing her to turn around and focus her attention on the source.

Joshua would be witness to a strange creature. It seemed to be a young girl around six years of age or so, although it certainly wasn't an ordinary human being as evidenced by how it casually soared through the air. In addition it seemed to possess an absurd amount of strength as shown by how it was so nonchalantly able to hoist the umbrella over itself despite its small stature both relatively speaking and in general. With gleaming blue eyes covered by a set of ridiculously large shades that appeared to be from some sort of anime, the humanesque creature would gaze at him with a large grin full of admiration.


Neith would then proceed to snap her umbrella in half with ease and toss it into the street. It was immediately run over by a car ensuring that it would see no further use ever again. RIP.

The Nyarlathotep Child had believed he had enough of his day with the shitty morning and afternoons. The rain was just more salt to the wound, which just irritated even more. He just wanted to head on home and just enjoy a warm bath before ending the day with a beer and some jerky to chew on. It was the only kind of respite he really enjoyed. But looking back on it, it awfully seemed as if he was on the path of becoming some cranky old man with a lot of complaints. It was a thought that he disliked a lot. Maybe he should break up that habit more.

Just as he was about to make a sharp left on the sidewalk, someone was apparently inspired by him. How they were, Joshua had absolutely no idea. This person looked awfully young... and bizarre with the absurd eye-wear and floating on an umbrella.


Joshua took a moment to digest what he was seeing. The umbrella's rather casual demise didn't make matters any better either. While this... thing didn't appear at all dangerous, the absurdity and strangeness made a stark reminder of his days when the Primordials attacked and when the Islands had their second trial two years later. Alarms were going off his in grey matter, shrieking in a shrill scream within his cranium.

"Nope. Nope, I ain't havin' any of that shit today," he finally declared. Then he finally cleared the left turn, starting to leave this odd life form on its own. Supernatural creatures of any kind were bad news from his prior experience. With a bad day already in tow, Joshua was definitely not in a mood to be further involved in some crazy adventures.

Seriously, screw this day.

Neith would raise an eyebrow at Joshua from underneath her fantastic shades as he attempted to simply walk away from her. He seemed to have heard her judging from his reaction... Maybe this was a subtle invitation to walk-and-talk? Though she was closer to humans now than she was before she still didn't quite understand their social cues and customs. And it certainly didn't help that those sort of things could vary from one place to the next. Regardless, it didn't quite matter in the end. Unfortunately for Joshua the being had taken an interest in him though that wasn't to say it wasn't a fleeting one. Perhaps if he simply ignored it long enough it'd go away, although did he have the self-control necessary to do so?

Floating through the air to his side, Neith would follow him down the road he took all while retaining that goofy expression on his face. "Jeez mister, you should really cut back on the swearing. They say that the Crawling Chaos comes for those with potty mouths like yours. Not to worry though! If he shows up then I'll beat him down with my iron fists of steel." The childish creature would jab at the air briefly before attempting to land on Joshua's shoulder. "I was going to ask you a question, but I think I already forgot it, which really sucks. It was important I think." Applying her index finger to her chin, Neith would dwell on it carefully for a moment, although ultimately it seemed nothing was coming to mind.

Hurried footsteps aside, Joshua had hoped he was already creating distance between that weird kid and himself. Christ, was this little midget following him? Looking back towards that floating thing, he didn't really seem all that hostile. This was an increasingly awkward moment. He looked around to see if there were others noticing this oddity. But it was too bad his chosen path was actually devoid of people. Great, now he was stuck with this thing on his shoulder. Honestly, what was with him attracting such weirdos these days? The Nyarlathotep Child really doubted something like this thing was capable of any harm, even less so on effectively smacking away his patron. And speaking of smacking, the urge to swat her off was rising.


"Oh sure, I feel so safe, shrimp," Joshua drawled sarcastically to the side facing her, "Y'know what would be great? Getting off my shoulder. It's almost as if I have some kind of midget blue jay bird on my shoulder. It ruins my vibe."

Hopping off from his shoulder at his request, Neith would trail behind Joshua studying him intently and poking him in the back every few seconds in an attempt to gather his attention. "Well, as I said, I forgot my question. So I guess I'll just have to ask you a new one then. What's your name? I'm Velvet Justice!" She shouted the last sentence as loud as she possibly could and did her best to mimic the sound of an explosion. All this shouting, of course, was done just a few inches away from Joshua's left ear which she floated up to after jumping off the boy's shoulder. It seemed she not only had the appearance of a child, but also the behavior, mindset, and carelessness of one as well.

Well at least she got off, this kid was at least compliant with his request. Yet she was still following him even now. What the hell did she want? What did anyone even want from him? He was an unlikable asshole, so why do people keep harassing him? He kept trying to ignore her while walking around. Increasingly, it was as if she were annoying fairy that served as an accessory to a certain green-garbed elf from a video game.

Joshua hissed as he flinched from the scream and furiously rubbed his ear. Justice or not, if she was going to be like that dumbass Jack, he was really going to book it now. Or just be really pissed off enough to smack her down and be done with it. His patience was starting to wane away and teetering over to actual action.

"Christ almighty, kid!" he snapped angrily at her as he still rubbed on his affected ear, "You don't scream into people's ears! Do you want me to go deaf? The hell do you want from me? Name's Joshua. Whaddya want?"

Despite her protests and the pout she displayed, Neith would seemingly abide by Joshua's advice. Perhaps she saw no further point in screaming into his ears or maybe part of her genuinely felt bad for the distress she had caused him. Who was to say? This creature was, after all, supernatural by its very nature. Though it was seemingly designed to emulate human beings to an extent, there remained a gap between it and humanity -- a gap that it refused to recognize the existence of, but a gap nonetheless. "Huh? You didn't want to chat? We humans are so odd... I could have sworn you wanted to chat." Following this Neith would resume pondering over the subject from before. Refusing to give in, the girl would scour the depths of her mind in search of the memory she sought, and her eyes would light up with glee as she managed to stumble across it.

"I got it! That's what I wanted to ask you about!"

"There's supposed to be some big cosmic convention happening soon. A ton of people from different universes are all gonna get together and have a bunch of fun from what I've heard. Time, space, canon... None of it matters! This is an event which transcends such petty concepts. I was gonna head to it, but I ended up getting lost somehow. There was this one edgy girl I came across and I tried to ask her for directions, but all she did was say some really xenophobic stuff about people from other worlds, threaten to kill me a few times, and declare something along the lines of, 'I'm not going to that event! I-It's not like I secretly have a penchant for trivia games or anything, baka,' before running off. It was a really awkward experience for everyone involved."

"Anyway, the point is, I need you to tell me what this place's name is. And until you do I'm gonna keep following you around like this. Sound good?"

Joshua only groaned at her reply. So while she looked like a kid, she acted like one too. What the hell of a name was Velvet Justice anyway? Who named their child like that? Obviously it was just a title her immaturity created. He wished he could just smack her away. Clearly she was a kid and he couldn't. It was a whole different story if his life was in peril, but she didn't show any intent to harm. Seriously, what was up with this day? "And the sudden turn away from you wasn't obvious enough I wasn't in the mood? C'mon, kid. Get with the program."


Finally Justice had that question she originally wanted ask. And finally he can finally get her out of his hair, if only he had absolutely no idea what the hell she was talking about. So that was also great to have. "Listen, midget. I have no fu-- I mean... I have no idea what you're talking about. Go find some other poor sap to harass. You won't get anything from me. Got it? Scram!"

He even motioned her to go away with his sour expression.

Neith would merely blink with a confused, oblivious expression on her face in response to what Joshua had to say. "No... It wasn't. Should it have been?" She asked while scratching her head and staring at him blankly. As he continued to speak the girl would grow progressively more disappointed culminating in a shake of her head. He didn't even know the name of this place? She had figured him a resident of the reality and if that assumption was correct then wouldn't he know better than anyone else where they were? Then again it was possible he was here under similar circumstances to her. Still though, that didn't make it any less disappointing. Both of the people she had asked for directions so far had failed to help her in any meaningful way.

...No! This was nothing to despair over! All this meant was that an even greater conflict was being presented to her -- a wonderful trial which she would surely overcome! She wouldn't relent. She'd find her own way to the festival no matter what obstacles stood in her way. With a sudden reemergence of energy, Neith would fire a disgustingly sweet smile at Joshua and salute him. "Thank you for your aid edgelord! Justice out!" She'd shout once again having completely forgotten the man's prior advice. Without a second to waste she tossed a strange pop-up book on the ground and began to furiously kick it. "Come on... It's gotta have some juice left in it. Long nose couldn't have sealed it all away. The power of convenient plot devices wouldn't allow such a thing..."

Suddenly a blue aura would explode forth from the book and a strange rift would open to its side. Through the portal would be a visible festival complete with countless stands and activities that stretched off far into the horizon. Neith would stare through it in disbelief for a moment before shrugging her shoulders and scooping the soggy ex-compendium up in her hands. "Welp. Looks like I found it." She remarked with a slight twinge of disappointment in her tone. Looks like there wouldn't be a grand adventure to discover its location after all. "..."


Harnessing the mystical powers of Tatsui (read: metagaming), Neith would taunt the Nyarlathotep Child about his life and stick out her tongue before flying through the portal at a lightning fast speed. It remained open if he wished to follow, although even if he did she'd likely be long gone before he could even step through. And thus would Neith depart from the topic unless stopped by Joshua or someone else.

Joshua rolled his eyes and said nothing. Well, of course, she couldn't tell. This "Velvet Justice" was just some rowdy brat that has yet to learn social cues. Whatever, at least now she was getting out of his hair. That's really all he needed, but he was strangely remaining in the same spot while watching it all unfold. Calling him edgelord or not, he wasn't going to even question how a little kid knew what that word was. The Nyarlathotep Child stared at the spectacle with the book being summoned from God knows where. He finally decided to bug out, enough of all this supernatural bullshit. Maybe he can finally go home and--


The fuck did she just say? Never mind knowing about his life when they just first met. Did he just Rinna's name and poke him where no one should ever make contact with? With all of this day's annoyance and the accumulation of his displeasure, Joshua couldn't believe this was the switch. But, he was pissed off now.


He jumped in right after her without any consideration of any possible risks involved. Someone was going to die.