@pizzadoff
enough time had passed since the tower had fallen that peppino had lapsed back into his old routines, no longer on high alert for danger or on the lookout for changes in his environment. while he was never totally at ease, he at least was not buzzing with anxiety each time he set foot outside his restaurant at night. the darkness was vast and mysterious as it once was, rather than in strange new ways that required him to spend much more time than he liked to assuring his surroundings were safe.
unfortunately, his relative ease as compared to the past few weeks worked against his favor tonight. because if he'd been just a little more suspicious, a little more wary, he would have noticed a pair of strange eyes peering out at him from amidst a pile of boxes.
the clone was desperate. it was running low on nourishment, no longer in plentiful supply thanks to the resources of the tower which had once been available to it. and desperation had made it aggressive, angry, and stupid. it KNEW that this territory had been claimed, and that hunting on ITS turf could only end badly if IT caught wind of the stray clone's presence.
but the stray clone was so hungry. it had nothing left, no fellow clones to hunt with, no shelter to rest in, no objective to keep its addled and malformed brain occupied with rather than agonizing over why in god's name did it exist why did it think and what WAS it and who was it and why god WHY DID IT EXIST
so. it would eat. if it could eat, it could survive. that simple drive was all it had anymore, so it surrendered to that simple truth.
peppino, for his part, had no fuckin' clue he was about to be jumped. his only warning was the sound of boxes shifting as the thing braced itself for the jump, and then —
LUNGE!
" yEEOOOWWOWWOWWW! "
