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There's something about her appearance that rubs you the wrong way now.
You're still a bit disoriented by the weird moths, so you don't immediately realize what's wrong with her appearance. You just knew something was <span class="mu-i">off</span> about her. Then it clicked.
She's not fully monochrome. Her dull yellow eyes and her bright, almost neon hair are seemingly untouched by the monochrome filter that subsumed the rest of the world. You now notice, with your glasses, that the sclera of her eyes has this cloudy, speckled pattern to it.
That's not the only part of her that's colorful. Her skin is now a dark, ashy grey with splotches of orange and yellow scattered across her skin, like someone randomly splattered paint on a canvas. Her skin also has this...almost scaly look to it? It reminds of you of the skin of a salamander you played with as a kid.
You can't really say you're scared of what her 'true form' looks like. Her appearance is distinctly non-human, yes, but not <span class="mu-i">that</span> far away from a human. If you put on some really good makeup and some contacts on someone like this, they could reasonably pass as a human.
Only a blind person could miss someone looking like THIS, though. There's clearly something memetic about her appearance. Is it a Harvester thing? Does their skin shift to blend in with humans? It's hard to say without more data but it sure is interesting.
You think you spotted someone else who had skin like her amongst the crowd but by the time you look to check, they're already gone.
"ha, someone caught your eye?" Ashton chuckles at your newfound fascination with her. She still sounds normal but her voice coming out of this is a bit disorienting.
You remove the glasses. Her skin returns to normal, with the only splotches on her skin being some freckles on her cheeks. Her eyes no longer have that cloudy, speckled pattern in them.
Odd.
>You now know how to identify a Harvester on sight, as long as you have your M.A.D WORLD glasses.
"Everything looked monochrome when I wore these. You still had your hair and eye color intact. Weird, right?"
"huh! weird. did you see anything else?" She seems genuinely curious about what you saw with those things on.
"Buncha bugs on the ceiling. Moths." "wait, what?"
Ashton and the <span class="mu-b">Man</span> both look up at the ceiling. They narrow their eyes to try to see what you're talking about. The <span class="mu-b">Man</span> can vaguely perceive what you're talking about but to him? It's like how you see him. Only a vague impression.
Ashton shakes her head, almost disappointed in herself. "nope, can't see nothing. weird, huh?"
The conversation dies down after that. Your group finds a gap in the crowd and, seizing on this opportunity, the three of you dart to get out of the horde. Luckily for you, the room your group stumbles into just so happens to be your dorm room.
It only takes a minute or so for the crowd outside to vanish. The only people left outside are a few stragglers trying to catch their breath.
