• Makeovers, makeup and animal testing

Posted: **Wed Nov 21, 2007 11:30 am**

You know, when I first got into the paranormal and supernatural, my friends always thought I was bat-shit insane. If it weren't for the things that go bump in the night, for real... I would think I had lost my mind more than once. Maybe I was a little crazy in this Faceless Man case. For once, something actually managed to worry me. Sure, Jack the Ripper was bad enough, but I don't know if he was better or worse than what I had to deal with.

This particular killer had struck several times between Washington Street and Georgia. The one over there had actually been close to the local police department, almost as if taunting local law enforcement. The one off of Washington had been on the south side, in 1700 block of Hayden Street. The others were spread out similarly, at first forming a cross or a box. As for the suggestion of checking the lunar calendar, there was no connection. Believe me, other than my joke of ninja... they were really the last thing I was looking for. Werewolves or other lycanthrope types would have left paw prints, hair, and most likely a blood trail. None of that here.

Nothing was taken at the scenes, there wasn't anything missing... other than the victims faces of course. The first few were mangled and mutilated, but after that it seemed to be more clean, as though whoever was doing this had a purpose, and was no longer simply attacking victims, but defacing them deliberately. Other things didn't match up though. There were claw-marks all over the victims as well as defensive wounds in many cases. Most had their throat ripped out, or were disemboweled. Pretty gruesome way to go, but they weren't cut by a blade, instead they were torn open.. like an animal. If it was an animal, it would have to be pretty crafty. There were never any witnesses.

Driving helps me think sometimes, as does walking. I was cruising the neighborhoods, thinking over the case itself, as well as all the different implications when I got a lucky break. It was just after dusk, as I was driving by the Amarillo College campus. I turned off at the large recreation area they have there... tennis courts, whole nine yards. Sometimes the local SCA and fencing clubs get together there and practice. Anyway, in the lighting of the park, I thought I spotted something. As I cruised by to take a look, I spotted the latest victim, a white male... name Randy Davis, age 23. There was no way that Randy was up and walking around. He was in an icebox in the morgue. Parking my Blazer I slipped out my shotgun, but had it slung instead of drawing down on the guy..thing... whatever. He saw me, and saw that I was going for him, so he gave this inhuman snarl and lunged for me. Round was already off, safety off, so I flipped the gun up and fired into his chest. The shot ripped through the olive drab jacket he was wearing like it wasn't even there. It wasn't, really.

As I fired, his skin turned black as night, and the coat itself shimmered into translucence, then turned black. The creature took only a split moment to loose its bipedal form as the face it had been wearing as a mask fell off. It was built very similar to a wolf or large predator with an angular head, but it was as black as night. It was like looking into the void. It sprang for me, its claws outstretched. Reflex took over and I sidestepped it, and cracked it across the head with the butt of my shotgun, then shouldered it. As this... thing landed on the sidewalk, it rolled and came back up, except now I could see through it as though it had lost substance. A car turned the corner and its halogens spilled across the thing, causing it to yelp in pain and it leaped under my Blazer. I crouched to look under the truck but it was gone. Turning back I saw the face-mask it had been wearing, except now it appeared to have gone through several days of decay in only a minute, at most. I picked it up and quickly beat feet out of there. Last thing I needed to deal with was angry College Cops (and these ones here have as much authority as APD, and maybe a little more.) Even as I ran for my vehicle the wail of sirens was already starting to kick up in the distance....

Posted: **Thu Nov 22, 2007 1:22 pm**

The engine hadn't died when I got out, because I hadn't taken the time to kill it. Tossing my shotgun into the passenger seat, I kicked it into drive and sped off down the street, for a couple blocks, taking a few random turns until I was back to Washington, crossing it without bothering to look for traffic. There was an upper middle-class neighborhood there with plenty of places to hide if I needed to disappear. The pricetag on the homes there generally started at half a million and scaled on up. Very pretty homes there. I remember driving through that section of town for the first time. Thought I was looking at some parts of New England, especially with some of the semi-colonial style houses and yards that you can find in that place.

Unlike a lot of sections of the city, there weren't very many square blocks, it was almost set up like a gated community with irregular streets. It was a real warren for people that didn't know the area. I quickly worked my way through the neighborhood and then slinked out of it, heading for crowds. Amarillo is a decent sized city, and with as many people present, especially right around the holiday shopping season and everything there's only so many people they can watch at any given time. After laying low for a few hours, cruising here and there, I decided to head for the shop. Maybe Brandon could tell me more.

Brandon went through the typical boyfriend thing. You know... "Are you alright? I missed you... etcetera." It didn't take long to put his fears and questions asside. He knew about the cases I was working and had been doing research on his own, but lets face it. Out here in the bible belt resources are limited and the church isn't going to help our kind of people. Thankfully we have help from fellow Lazlites from time to time, even if it is only information usually. Knowledge is power. We also have help from the River City Psions from time to time, but they can only make it into town every so often. We get flack from the Christian community from time to time about Brandon's store, mostly out of ignorance than anything else.

Being versed in some general magic, as well as some psionics he took the face-mask and began to work on it. He was able to determine the creature was related to shadow, but not necissarily negativity. More probes revealed that it was intelligent, but not in the classic sense. Think of it more like a velociraptor or other cunning predator. Problem solving intelligence, and the like. But even then it still posessed at least rudamentary thinking abilities, bordering it between animal and human intelligence, but not retardation. It definately wasn't from our world, and Brandon confirmed this when he tried to remote view where it had come from.. all he got was blackness. It wasn't like a blank wall, but a place that no light existed.. a Shadow Realm or something similar.

After a little while we began to dub the thing a Shadow Beast, but sadly Brandon still hasn't found much out on them.

Later that night, at my apartment I woke to the sound of a bump, very soft.. and something crashing to the floor. One of my lamps in the living room. Slipping out of bed and pulling on a soft robe I fished out my S&W .45. Thankfully as of September, Texas officially operates under Castle Law, so whoever in my house, was only getting one warning. I made sure the mag was full, and slipped another into my robe pocket, and headed down the stairs.

Posted: **Thu Nov 22, 2007 2:39 pm**

A . . . shadow . . . beast? Celeste fought one of those before, I think. Or at least, that’s what she called it when . . . she fought it. And Ron and . . . Willie fought one as well, or . . . so they say. I was too dazed to . . . sense much. A “shadow beast” is an apt name, I would think, though. From what I recall, they . . . are very . . . aggressive. Good luck, Sakura, and . . . please be careful.

Posted: **Thu Nov 22, 2007 10:13 pm**

We've fought them before. Hell, I went into a shadow dimension after Holister.

I made these "Light Guns" by rigging up a car's highbeam light to a rifle stock and using a trigger assembly to turn it on and off.

Posted: **Sun Nov 25, 2007 8:38 pm**

Hi Everyone

It sounds like that thing Willie and Pa fought in tha cavern.
Willie took care of it, but I had ta help him see it.

Hannah

PS: It's cool that it worked, I've made Eilonwy and Pa glow a couple of times too, they don't even seem ta notice. I don't want ta try it on Josh though.

Posted: **Mon Nov 26, 2007 5:38 pm**

There came another crash from downstairs as I creeped down the steps, and then crouched on the landing which turned and went down a couple more steps. Reaching over, I pulled the home made shades I have, which give me a few advantages in hunting the supernatural. Moreover, they also act as night vision. Slipping them on, the ambient light brightened for me as I looked around the apartment. There, nearby was a shadowy shape moving, prowling around the living room actually.

Clicking on my tac-light on the pistol, it immediately shined on the shadow, but it did not dispel only diminished it some. Instead it was the shadow beast that I had fought earlier. I was sure of it. It's outline bristled and seemed to harden as it growled. Maybe I just thought it growled, I couldn't tell. How it had found me, I had no idea. It sidestepped and disappeared into another shadow, then suddenly a great weight slammed into me from behind, knocking me down the short flight of stairs. Thankfully years of traditional martial arts gave me the skill and reaction time to roll with it, with a turn so my back came up against the couch. I popped off a shot, sending a hollow-point into the brick wall behind the drywall. The shadow beast slammed into me again, sending the couch scuffing across the hardwood floor, knocking over the coffee table.

It pounced on top of me, and began snapping and bitting at me as I fought to ward it off. It was strong, but I was stronger. The problem was that it was semi-intangible. I couldn't hit it, but it could hit me, and it took all I had to keep it from doing more than raking me with its claws, shredding my night robe and t-shirt I wore underneath. Now I was wishing I had put on my armor. In desperation I reached out, not with my hands but my mind. In addition to all my other skills, I did have some limited psionic abilities, and with a creature like this, I could definitely feel the energy surging now. The only thing I could think of nearby to help was the rug at the base of the stairs. It leaped off the floor and wrapped itself around the Shadow Beasts head and body. I slugged it hard enough to break or dislocate bone, sending it rolling off of me as I called for my gun, pulling it into my grip. I shined the light back on it as I scrambled backward, looking to get rom and maybe get to one of my blades.

Maybe I could kill it before it got another good chance to claw me up some more... My chest, stomach, neck, and my lips stung, as well as my legs from where I had been clawed. I probably looked like some sort of knife-rape victim already... I didn't need to have another shot at me.

Posted: **Mon Dec 10, 2007 6:18 pm**

I managed to scramble to my cabinet in the hallway. I set it up with a biometric passcode so that in an emergency I wouldn't have to mess with keycodes or combination or even keys. The lock cycled open and I swung the door with enough force to almost rebound it off the wall. Reaching in, I easily drew my hunting blade. I reached in and also pulled out a small amulet and threw it over my head as I ran down the hallway toward the kitchen as the weapon's locker banged shut behind me. The shadow beast was coming for me.

Now my Blade is a Bastard Sword, but built expressly for hunting the supernatural. I had it worked by a smithy that knows what he is doing, and I had it blessed by the local church, as well as a couple other religions around town, primarily a buddhist, a wiccan and druid. Wanted to cover all the bases. Then I tested the sword, and its something I think that even the people at Cold Steel would raise an eyebrow at.

Anyway, I sidestepped and turned as the thing leaped for me. It didn't catch me, and instead landed on the kitchen table. A carefully timed swipe passed through it in its incorporeal state, but this time it howled in pain and shock. It hadn't expected me to be able to hit it like that. The thing leaped off the table, all hard edges and spikes. I slammed back into the cabinet... felt my head bust one of the doors and it sent the world spinning in a nauseating, sickening fashion. Not good. Sojmehow I managed to get my blade between me, and it. With a shove, I sent it tumbling to the floor with a series of thumps like dumping a sack of potatos. It rolled to its feet and shook itself, giving up pretenses of playing solid and shadow. I reached out quickly and siezed the knife-block or rather its contents with my will. With a mental shove, they flew out of their container in a cloud of deadly sharp edges and knocked the thing half-way across the kitchen, sending it stumbling against the cabinets below the sink. Angrily it charged, now enraged leaping at the last moment. This time I was ready for it, and spun away, only to come around with my blade into his charge. I felt the blade bite into a solid body, and then just like that, nothing.

The thing burst int a thick black mist or smoke, and then evaporated into nothing as I turned on the kitchen light, burning away like fog before the morning sun. Shaking, I caught myself against the counter, then jumped as a banging came from the back door. Tempted to shout something rather harsh, I instead peeked out. Seeing it was Brandon I couldn't help but be relieved.

The house looked terrible. My blood was alover the living room floor and some of the rug, as wella s trailed into the kitchen. ... Have I ever mentioned how much this job sucks sometimes? Brandon finally managed to heal me up, mostly. I might have an interesting scar or two later on, faint as they may be. But.. apparently that was just the tip of the iceberg o' trouble that had landed in my lap.

Posted: **Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:27 pm**

Quite a fight Sakura.

Wow.

Glad to see you're able to tell us about it. Be careful out there.

Posted: **Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:48 pm**

Stay careful, Sakura!

Posted: **Wed Dec 12, 2007 10:39 pm**

Hannah wrote:It sounds like that thing Willie and Pa fought in tha cavern.
Willie took care of it, but I had ta help him see it.

Yeah, but what I fought was solid.

I told Mark about it, and he said that the best thing to do is flip on the lights. Flashlights like Ron and I had in the asylum won't cut it, but a good ol' 60 watt overhead will weaken the thing.

Posted: **Thu Dec 13, 2007 5:55 pm**

Too bad there wasn't an overhead light to flick on.

I still want to know how she made it glow.

Posted: **Sat Dec 15, 2007 1:50 pm**

Ron Caliburn wrote:I still want to know how she made it glow.

I figured this one out. It's actually pretty easy.

Hannah

PS: I do it ta you all the time now, though ya don't notice.

Posted: **Sat Dec 15, 2007 2:17 pm**

If I ever catch you making people glow without their permission . . .

Posted: **Sat Dec 15, 2007 2:21 pm**

Gee Ron, bet ya never thought you'd ever have to say that :lol:

Posted: **Sat Dec 15, 2007 2:29 pm**

Not exactly in the parenting manuals I read while waiting to rescue her.

Posted: **Sat Dec 15, 2007 2:32 pm**

Wouldn't be the first time we've had to make unusual notes in the margins.

Posted: **Sat Dec 15, 2007 2:38 pm**

My entire life has been a note in the margins.

Posted: **Sat Dec 15, 2007 2:43 pm**

That's deep Ron.

Posted: **Sat Dec 15, 2007 2:46 pm**

Don't tell anyone, I have a reputation to maintain.

Posted: **Sat Dec 15, 2007 2:47 pm**

Right. Your secret is safe with me. :lol:

Posted: **Mon Dec 17, 2007 6:53 am**

Glow? Maybe I put something down wrong.

There is still more to this story, but I am posting it when I can. Life is being generally difficult at the moment.

Posted: **Mon Dec 17, 2007 7:01 am**

They were referring to the "Halloween with the Boys" thread, when Hannah made some kind of shadow beast glow...

Posted: **Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:03 am**

Life becomes difficult when we have to learn something Sakura. Fill us in on the details when you can.

I think I had one to many debates with Shang Li.

Posted: **Tue Dec 18, 2007 8:46 am**

And btw, the thing -was- solid, when it wanted to be.

Anyway, there was no possible way I was going to sleep after that. My nerves were frayed and rattled after that kind of fight. Brandon made coffee and cleaned up the blood and shell-casings while I took a shower, and changed clothes. Sitting at the kitchen table, with a warm mug of coffee in my hands, I felt a little better. My hands had stopped shaking. Normally I'd be prepared for something like that, but this time... no.

"You look a little pale. You sure you're alright, babe," he asked quietly, but despite its tone it seemed almost harsh in the stillness of the apartment. The kitchen light seemed like an interrogation lamp overhead, but after fighting that shadowbeast the last thing I wanted was more darkness. He nodded quietly, as I sipped the warm liquid. "So, you just come over for a social visit," I asked, perhaps with a little more bitterness than I intended. He shrugged it off as he slid into a chair opposite me. "No, I had a dream you were in trouble. Woke up, feeling didn't go away, so I hauled balls over here," he explained with a faint smile. Numbly I nodded. Couldn't help but feel how close of a scrape that was. If it had managed to get me down, I think it would have been all over, but the crying. The silence was tense, and I could tell that he was a little shook himself. Nothing had gotten that close to doing some real harm, or had caught either of us off guard like that.

"Did you find out anything about these things," I asked hoarsely after a few moments. He nodded, then pulled out a wire-bound notebook and slid it over to me. There, in his spidery hand-writting were a set of meticulous notes covering these creatures, their operating methods, as well as typical powers as well as others that they were rumored to possess. There were even methods for summoning or creating them, but they were most assuredly not a naturally occurring supernatural beasties. Usually summed from a shadow-realm, they were in fact living shadows.

After a minute the implication sank in, and I looked up at him. "Suspects?" He shook his head. "None yet, but I am keeping my eyes open. They're very careful. I may try to scry or remote view for them later. But I have nothing to go off of right now, especially with as many closet psychics, closet-witches, and the like running around," he concluded. "Great... so for a while we get to jump at shadows," I murmured.

It wasn't long before he left, and I was able to get back to bed, though now my mind wouldn't shut off as it began its usual process of deduction, reasoning, and guessing.

Posted: **Tue Dec 18, 2007 8:49 am**

Shit girl, I could have told you most of that. I mean, I fought these suckers before, and I know how dangerous they can be. Luckily, I haven't seen them in years.

Being connected to Shadow, light is always a good solution, but also I would recommend smudging your apartment, as well as placing a war... oh wait, you're not magically inclined. I have a couple charms you can use, and I'm sure Brandon can help out.

Come visit me soon. You need some backup, it seems like.

Posted: **Tue Dec 18, 2007 9:42 am**

Sounds like the sort of creature that would make a great assassain or enforcer for any wannabe tough guy mage.

Or something some now dead dabbler brought through not knowing what it was.

The one we fought, we had no area lighting, so we were stuck with it appearing and dissapearing as we were able to get it in our flashlight beams - it moved too fast for us to keep it there for long. There's been all sorts of suggestions around here, but I think the big idea would be to fill the area with as much sustained light as possible and one by one remove any shadows big enough for it to hide in.

Practical in your home, but not anywhere else.

Posted: **Tue Dec 18, 2007 11:29 am**

I agree. I think magnesium flares might help, especially since it gives off a very strong light source.

Posted: **Tue Dec 18, 2007 7:18 pm**

Not sure those would work very well in your home though.

Posted: **Wed Dec 19, 2007 2:04 am**

Or for long enough.

Or allow you to see if you were looking at it when you lit it.

Posted: **Sat Dec 22, 2007 9:25 pm**

So don't look at it. Anybody got any other suggestions besides carrying around bulky lighting equipment. I know Brandon has his own nifty things he can do, but for us mundane and mostly mundane people we don't always have that kind of option.