The Reaper's Game: New York's UG

"Where's your fist?! I can't see!" Audre cried punching the air randomly.

"M'Kay," Nemo replied, figuring try has nothing better to do anyway. "Kind of excited to try everything, if I'm honest."

Amanda walked into a coffee shop covered with graffitti, getting in line with Nemo, and blinking when people actually acknowledged her. "We're visible in coffee shops."

"Just coffee shops?" Nemo questioned, noting the decal merely as a piece of art rather than a symbol.

Jane grabbed the girl's arm and touched her fist to her own. The light came up, and the monsters stopped following them both. "There. We're all pacted up." she said as she relaxed.

"Y-yay," Audre panted, resting a hand on Jane's shoulder.

"So... I'm Jane."

"Audre," said blind girl looked up at Jane, "Nice to meet you."

"Sure." Now that she was safe, her true colors came out, her grumpy and irritable self.

"Ha, sorry for screwing you over," Audre mumbled, "I'm blind."

OOC: BBL~~~

"Great. Just what I needed." Jane snapped, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

"Whatever, better than no chance at all," Audre grumbled, "A lot of people didn't make it."

"Maybe they're the lucky ones." Jane said grumpily.

"Maybe..." Audre mumbled, rubbing her arm.

Make a pact if you want to live...

Pounding the pavement with no imminent intent to come to a stop, a young girl rushed away from what could only be called monsters--something out of a novel or a video game. The girl turned her head to spy on them with her blue eyes, light like crystal. They were a small pack of weird frog creatures that looked like some gangsters graffiti art come to life, and they were pretty relentless at that. Noise, oh fun, she thought to herself, wondering where she had picked up the name of the creatures. Her mind felt a bit fuzzy, but she could remember vague details of what was supposed to go down. Something about a pact...? A sharp turn down a different street granted her no sanctuary as she was forced to continue to run because there was no way she was fighting those things. What would she use? Her fists? Yeeeaaaahhh... To make things ridiculously worse, she had no idea in which part of New York she was, and she didn't know how she got there at all. There was the same city air and tall buildings and skyscrapers. Cars littered the street, though they didn't seem to particularly mind her running along which was something else that bugged her. No one on the sidewalks was reacting to what rushed passed them--a girl being chased by nightmarish Noise. Had she turned invisible overnight or something?

Get it together, Krasi, she scolded herself. You're not going to like it if you fail. Never have liked failing, never will. Failing at...whatever this is. Some sort of game, right? A game where one's life was at stake, obviously. She'd have to find another player and give complete trust to them in order to survive. She felt sorry for anti-social or distrusting people thrown into this situation. Sweat was starting to form on Krasi's brow and her hair was a mess making her dearly want to stop to fix it, but now was definitely not the time to be worrying over something stupid like that. As she ran down the street, she noticed that Noise was approaching from the direction she was running towards causing her to groan. She had put decent distance between her and the Noise that was already hunting her down. Her eyes scanned the area quickly and finally settled upon a guy near one of the storefronts. He seemed to be about as confused as her as to what was going on, and the approaching Noise certainly wasn't helping anything.

As she drew nearer, she realized that if he was like she was, then this might have been a mistake. He looked so thin and weak looking. Pale skin. Horrible fashion sense. Oh boy. "Yoooo, make a pact with me!" she called out to him as she approached him with all the urgency the situation called for. If he were a player, then at least she'd have a fighting chance and he would respond. If he ignored her like all the other people did, well, she was pretty much ready to give up. Definitely can't lose out in this game so early on. It'd be a shame. And then what would I tell Kuro? Ugh, I'd have to put up with more of his teasing, she mentally fumed, trying to keep her composure as calm as possible given the circumstances, but she was pretty anxious as fuck, impatiently awaiting to see if this guy were the real deal when it came to players of this weird 'game.'

No warning... No more words spoken... Just a single, final... Push.

The streets were the same. Just a murky, sad excuse for a city with all of its natural bustle and swarms of people milling about their every day business. Nobody would notice a slightly-too-thin boy walking with his head down and his hands in his pockets... well, nobody would if he was alive, at least. The revelation was still hitting him. Logan Faustus... was dead. Or at least, he thought he was. He could scarcely remember the details of his transition over to this so-called afterlife. Maybe I'm just a ghost... Wouldn't that be ironic. he thought to himself, reflecting slightly upon his past life.

Sure, he had hardly noticed at first. He thought people were just ignoring him when he went to ask them the time... but it was not so - he was entirely, completely invisible to those around him. Was it possible that he was dead? People saw ghosts, didn't they? Surely someone had noticed him in his present state... Or maybe they just don't want to. His apathy was growing. He remembered nothing specific but a quick push. That was really all that it took. The hands of someone he had called a friend. He winced at the very thought... maybe he suffered a blow to the head, and the memories were still hazy. Like some sort of far off dream.

Presently, Logan had his hood up, bracing himself against the crowds that could not see him. He stopped for a moment against a storefront, seeking some shelter from the world that would soon become his own haunt... if he were more mischievous. "Not much to do, I guess." He spoke aloud, and checked his phone, one of the few possessions he found that he had left. He looked up for the first time in minutes, only to see that scores of frogs - or at least, half-frog, half-tattoo monsters had surrounded him. They certainly did not look friendly, that was for sure. He looked frantically around for something he could use to bludgeon the beasts, but without a moment to spare, some voice broke his concentration, stating plainly, "Yoooo, make a pact with me!" Logan had hardly had time to let the voice sink into his consciousness before whispering to himself, "What the hell is a pact going to do against these bastards?" He tried to ignore the girl's voice. He tried to run, but as he took a couple steps out of the way, two frogs stuck their legs out, sharp and jagged as knives, to inhibit him.

"No dice there..." Logan whispered quickly, backing up against the wall once more. "Whoever you are, I'll make a pact with you! Gimme some help...!" This was more talking than he had done in weeks. Almost a month. While he was still...

Before he could finish the thought, some wicked glowing lights seemed to curtain around him, giving him strength. Before, he had felt so... hollow. So empty. It was as though his muscles had new blood coursing through them, and his mind was clearer. Things immediately started to make sense to him as the lights seemed to go on, bathing him in a nirvana of new energy... before they stopped.

The feeling faded, but a tingling was in his hands. He felt his pocket growing a bit heavier, and he reached in, pulling out a button that he didn't know he had. Immediately, he began to think of uses for it, and though the frogs were encroaching on him, he knew somehow that he was not alone.

"Wherever you are, pact-girl... Let's go."

"I dunno, but look, there's people getting in line behind is," Amanda pointed out, apparently not noticing the decal either.

"We should try some other shops then," Nemo replied happily.

"Yeah, once I get my coffee," Amanda agreed. She wanted her caffeine. It didn't take too much longer, and soon the blonde girl held her cup of coffee. "Hm...where to next?"

The light marks your chance at salvation. With power, erase the Noise.

A column of light seemed to envelop Krasi as the boy agreed to make the pact with her. It raised not only her physical capabilities, but her very soul as well. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling, knowing she wouldn't have to run anymore. Standing tall (or rather, short really) and firm, she took a moment to fix her hair before taking out a rather fashionable button from her skirt pocket. She also noted that her phone was in their as well, a light blue LG Optimus bought for her not too long ago, the color custom done to match her eyes. That wasn't the focus of her attention. There was a white hand, possibly gloved, featured on the pin. She couldn't think of anything from pop culture that would make it 'need to get' except maybe a slight relation to the late Michael Jackson. Raising her hand slightly to get a better look, she noticed a street cone nearby flying off which startled her. Was this their way out?

"I think we fight with these puppies," Krasi spoke up, getting closer to the boy while being careful not to activate whatever mechanism allowed the button to operate. She noted that the small packs of Noise from both directions were closing in on them fast. "Let's get rid of these things, and then we'll find somewhere we can hideout safely. The name's Krasi Antares by the way," she added with an oddly cheery tone. The Noise was upon them. Krasi held out her little button threateningly and waved it to the side. "Errr, shoo! Go away!" As a result, a table and set of chairs resting at the corner of the sidewalk, fortunately devoid of citizens, was sent flying into the group of Noise that had come from the direction. Passersby didn't even seem to notice which was probably a good thing now. It had bothered her before, but there'd be mass panic if they could see what Krasi could see.

"Nifty little things, these are," she said to her supposed partner. "You might want to try yours out quick; these things have been proven to be awfully persistent." The girl's eyes rested upon a parked car and she waved the pin through the air again. The Noise she attacked before were starting to recuperate from the rather surprising blow they had taken. They were expecting easy game, but the formation of the pact put a dent in whatever plans they had. The car went hurtling through the air and crashed right into the small group. A few disappeared in a what seemed like static from a television. Did that mean they were gone for good?

Erase the Noise...

"Well, if that's not 'erased', I don't know what is," Krasi whispered to herself in awe. Once again, the flying car seemed to not impact the pedestrians in the least bit.

Nemo took a sip, surprised by how hot it was. Another experience that needed to be learned, he supposed. He took a glance at the pins he had.

"So these things are what, magic weapons?" the boy named after a fish queried.

OOC: Haha, Nemo's actually Latin for "lost one," or something like that.

"They're pins," Amanda clarified, pinning her icicle one onto her overall strap. "I guess they're magic weapons, though, too. Not very stylish."

"I suppose that's not the concern. How'd we get 'em?" he asked, pulling out a black one with a skull-like design on it.

Amanda laughed, shaking her head. "We're dead, completely invisible to everyone else, and you're asking how we got these pins?" she chuckled for a few more seconds, before shrugging. "Guess whoever runs the game gave them to us."

"Well they're pretty awesome, I was wondering if we could get more," Nemo protested, looking at his.