Sadde and Bell in Worm
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Sadde feels... strange. They poke that feeling this way and that, trying to make sense of it, and tentatively conclude their crush on Chelsea, with whom they hang out somewhat frequently, is the cause of it. And the fact that she's bi and Bella isn't. And she's so nice and pretty and cute and she gets them, and sure, Bella gets them, too, but it's—different somehow, even if they can't quite put a finger on what the difference is. It just is.

They don't have fights. There isn't conflict, per se, in the relationship. Just a sort of... unease. A loss of synchronicity. They're sure as soon as Chelsea goes (must she? She could stay...) everything will come back to normal, even as they fall further and further in love with her.

Unrelatedly, one day Lorica's patrolling and gets a report about a building near her where no one's answering any doors.

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Lorica, of course, goes to check it out.

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The building is in one of the richer areas of town, for a change, near the shopping district. It's an apartment building, expensive-looking, the kind with a fancy fence and a doorman and automatic doors and pretty art in the lobby.

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Annnd is the doorman there?

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Apparently not! The little cabin where the doorman should be is empty.

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She flies over the fence and sees if the doors will just let her in. Failing that, field kit and electronic lockpicking and resisting the temptation to upgrade the door.

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The doors will not, in fact, just let her in, but they do yield to electronic lockpicking.

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Right then. Anybody around anywhere? Go bots go.

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No one visible in the public areas: hallways, lobby, mezzanine, gym, pool, sauna, garage, tennis court, playground, employee areas, all empty.

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Bots hear anything in the apartments?

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Breathing. Slow, even breathing.

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Lorica contacts the Brockton Bay Fire Department and then she pulls the fire alarm.

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The fire alarm goes off. The only change in the even breathing is that it is now muffled by it.

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Lorica hacks the alarm off again and calls in to HQ that there is some kind of sleep-or-something effect in this building, she may be a unique immunity and does not currently require onsite help but she'd like remote supervision and Glam backup.

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Her request is acknowledged and she is asked to hang on for a bit. After a couple minutes: pop appears Glam.

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"Nothing happened when I pulled the fire alarm. Whoever did this may or may not still be onsite."

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"Send bots and copies to scout the area and cover more ground?"

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"Yeah, there's some around a perimeter. You wanna do lockpicking or just outfit the flock with 'em?"

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"It's probably best to have as many eyes on all doors and floors as possible, if whoever's still around."

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"Yeah. So give the bots lockpicks please."

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Poof. Except no poof because no sound accompanies the appearance of the lockpicks.

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And bots start opening apartments.

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Their immediate entrance halls are all empty. All doors and windows are also closed. The breathing sounds come from the places that are presumably the bedrooms.

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Bots go to bedrooms.

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Bedrooms: contain people! All of them contain exactly two people: one lying on the bed, apparently asleep, and the other dead and skinned, their skin used as a bedcover on the sleeping one.

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Lorica takes forensic-quality images of each scene and says "Jesus fucking Christ" and relays for instructions because this is a little above Ward pay grade and does not match a known local cape.

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