2.2: And it Wavers

There were others who had been watching the battle between the madwomen, not knowing what to make of it. A few videotaped the event absently, not really paying attention. Ever since the one madwoman had started to the streets, this sort of thing had become common. The videos probably wouldn't even get the most hits anyway, so they wouldn't be paid the finder's fee by the news station anyway.

It was common, disturbingly so, these days. But there were a reasonable number of people who had not yet forgotten about the last time. It was odd how willing society as a whole would forget her when she was gone, remembering only that there was an oddness to the City for a while back there. They would be astounded when she returned for a while but would quickly readjust to thinking that it was normal. Perfectly normal. It was always normal. Always just normal. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing other than that, even when it was pure madness, it was just normal for so many.

He envied them, sometimes, rarely, maybe never.

She certainly never did, even when it meant that she was lying face-down on the street, bleeding irresponsible amounts of blood, watching it pool momentarily, lingering in the near-death moment. One more death scene for the sake of the public. How many times had she performed this ridiculous bit of acting until all of the video feed was halted? Long ago...how long it had been now?

He watched her, even as Shaen left her, crumpled and barely living in a pool of her blood.

Of course, unlike the madwoman that was leaving, he could see the one who was staying still was clearly living.

Though that might have just been his perception given his background information.

Time felt the attention of the public wander away from her and she moved to right herself, feeling only one set of eyes that she had opted to trust in Shaen's most recent absence. The blood that had been pooling had already begun to congeal, but she had more where that came from. After all, that was one of the benefits of being one of the lady's converts. It also helped that she had threatened one of the memory-modifiers into locking the drawer with her name...it had been precious easy in those days to find one close to Her who didn't like being as such, really.

Normality shifted ever so briefly as the watcher slid from his position, silently joining Tina Metri.