[Her own hallucinations have been . . . worrying, to say the least. Disturbing. Heartbreaking, as she sees the ghosts of those she knows aren't here, as hands push her into bowing, stumbling, clumsily dropping her things and leaving her scattered and unorganized. And now this: faces blurring and distorting, smeared expressions and warped features that turn her stomach.
She's learned to ignore them for the most part.
But as she exits her lab, to her immediate right there's there's a jerking, twitching thing coming towards her, just outside the bounds of the bonfire. Five feet away, if that, and approaching swiftly. She stares in revulsion at the way it moves, limbs thrashing against nothing. Its expression is still, the mouthpiece twisted up in what appears to her a lopsided grin, its face split and smeared, warping even as she stares. Four feet, then, three, and before she knows it she's moving swiftly: her right hand striking out, palm striking hard against the creature's cheek, the movement more instinctive than deliberate, shock and terror surging in her veins.]
end;
She's learned to ignore them for the most part.
But as she exits her lab, to her immediate right there's there's a jerking, twitching thing coming towards her, just outside the bounds of the bonfire. Five feet away, if that, and approaching swiftly. She stares in revulsion at the way it moves, limbs thrashing against nothing. Its expression is still, the mouthpiece twisted up in what appears to her a lopsided grin, its face split and smeared, warping even as she stares. Four feet, then, three, and before she knows it she's moving swiftly: her right hand striking out, palm striking hard against the creature's cheek, the movement more instinctive than deliberate, shock and terror surging in her veins.]