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Post by Kurodaia on Oct 4, 2017 8:38:39 GMT -6
[Hui tries to free himself with the scissors. ]
The crash came too suddenly, he was rather surprised by it to be perfectly honest. The cuts made him groan but only to sort of be a little worried about the red liquid now dripping to the floor. He wouldn't be concerned if the room wasn't so disgusting. He would be fine, he figured if he could grab something.
He could feel the metal handles of scissors and seemed to frown as he looked at them. "Ridiculous..." He muttered when he tried to get enough concentration to attempt to wrap his fingers around the handle, or trying not to let it slip away. He slowly laced his fingers through the holes and tried to slip it between his arm and the bindings. He took a deep breath when it was somewhat positioned right, he could only pray to the gods he didn't cut himself in the process.
He proceeded to snip at the binding, awkwardly holding the scissors in his hand as he did so. Eventually trying to cut a little faster, given the smell of the room making him want to gag a little. It would have to wait, he had to focus on getting out of here.
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Post by qhostqrowls on Oct 4, 2017 8:47:18 GMT -6
[OOC: Faolan grabs the book and the scalpel, before yelling at Sara to come back and attempting to address the entire group]
Thanks to a loose screw and the help of his roommate, Faolan was soon free of the restraints, and he slid off the cold metal gurney and to the ground as quickly as possible, murmuring hushed words of thanks to the redhead, still highly aware of the horrible creature standing only a few doors down.
Mechanically, the doctor peeled off his bloodied gloves, silently placing them on the tray. The last thing he wanted was to be mistaken as one of the local 'surgeons'. Overwhelming panic clawed in the back of his mind as he struggled to stay in control, and he moved with the blank shock of a trauma patient. Just focus on the next thing, one step at a time. The splicer slid the scalpel from the table and carefully picked the notebook up. It was ripped and torn and stunk of decay, but it could be a map, it could hold any number of notes or clues on how to escape the hell-hole of a asylum. But before he had time to flip through a single page, the horrible mechanical screeching of the drill suddenly dulled, a door slamming shut. Seconds later, there was screaming and the wet sound of splitting flesh. Stenson. Kit. The blonde stepped out of the room, a hand clasped to his mouth as he took in the carnage. Ilchymis, innocent, fragile Ilchymis, was standing brokenly in the middle of the corridor. Sara was curled in a corner, blank eyed and sobbing, and Kit was screaming and clawing at the door, and others urged the grieving woman to leave. He heard Pandora yell out - felt a stab of pity at hearing the energetic woman's voice so shattered and scared. There were so many people here - so many of them were going to die. The blond turned to Sara, but stopped short as he watched the woman's form become engulfed in some type of fur cloak. Within seconds she was a wolf, and in an even shorter amount of time was hurtling down the corridor.
"Sara! No, stop!" His shout was choked and stuttered, but fear made it uncharacteristically forceful. He didn't know the spotted man who was slinking away in the same direction as wolf-Sara, but the shout was directed at him, too. If the woman didn't stop, he would trot after her for a short distance, still yelling after her. If she did stop, he would continue his attempts to address the group. "We can't sp-split up, we can't. None of us stand a chance alone. We...we have to stick together, form a group. Th-then we should leave, as s-soon as possible." A note of firmness solidified the last rushed sentence, though his tone was still far from commanding. There was safety in numbers. They'd all die if they just started running off.
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Post by Salandis on Oct 4, 2017 15:33:07 GMT -6
[OOC Raine Arms himself then follows Faolan into the hall, walking up towards Ari. Knows nearly no one caught this year. Jeeze Raine, you hermit.]
Raine studied the room quickly. His room mate had grabbed a scalpel, some notes, and had moved to leave. Raine knew a scalpel blade for a poor weapon: Too short, mostly, and liable to break. But the saw was honestly not much better, and scissors... feh.
He turned to the bed he had been in. Taking the restraint bar with the rusted edge, he braced one foot against the rest of the bed. (If the restraint bar is on a pivot design, he would work it free of the pivot: If it is part of a frame that raises and falls, he will attempt to break it at its corner junction)
Then he heard the screams. Stepping out of his own cell after Faolan, he tried to take in the scene. A sense of unreality seemed to linger around his thoughts, similar to the mental divorce needed to go into battle. He knew he had to stay calm, to make the best decisions to get out alive. But the warmth of the air around him and a sick feeling in his stomach promised him that much was waiting behind the calm. 'S'fine, as long as I can deal with it later, when ah'm alive' He thought, making himself focus.
Most of these were people he didn't know. A brunette with pale eyes was in the hall, having apparently entered it a few doors down. She seemed to be having trouble seeing with the lights flickering as they were. A redheaded woman was clawing at a door whose window was covered in fresh blood from the inside. Cassius and another person were attempting to pull her away, and a bed had been dragged into the hall. On the other side, a - an angel? but with a single wing seemed caught in the room adjacent, an indescribable look of horror on his face. And A wolf appeared to be running down the hall past - Ari?
"Ari!" Raine called, striding over to the younger man. It was clear they were in a cul-de-sac of some kind, and he was headed towards the only exit. "D'you have any idea of what this madness is aboot?"
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Post by Pearl Dragon on Oct 4, 2017 18:35:26 GMT -6
[New item, Raines metal bar, is about 4 feet in length, a rusted edge on one end and bent, broken in the other. It is about half an inch in diameter, light weight] The door to the room that held Stenson remained closed despite Kit's fit of desperate rage and pounding against the door. The sounds within carried on, uninterrupted as the strange doctor's attention remained wholly focused on its work. Through the window, the red continued to drip and block the scene from full view, but any who peered through would know that the nightmarish deeds happening inside were beyond irreversible. Stenson's cries and yells had now ceased, choked into silence so that all that was left was the muffled, wet buzz of the saw. Even the added table now jammed against the door did not seem to bother or distract its occupant. It would be up to Cassius and Faolan to convince Kit to continue on after the others, or try to explore the area they were in while the doctor was still busy with his current 'patient'.For now, the others were left to gather themselves in the dark, and some began to head towards the hallway. Sara, now in a lithe, wolf-like form standing at about 3.5 feet tall at the shoulder on all fours, and her original height of 5' 10" if standing, was the furthest ahead of the group. Although she no longer held a human form and possessed a new internal voice to boost her confidence, she would find that her strength, speed, and stamina remained the same. Sara's urgency to push on ahead would be somewhat of a regret, as the floor was still a rough amalgamation of cement and stone tiles that seemed to get even worse the farther along she got, chipped and broken in some places, even creating holes that sunk deep enough to twist an ankle if not careful. Although she did not fully break an ankle, she would be surprised to feel her right foot dip much further down into an open hole in the ground where two toes were then bent at painful angles with the boney popping of bone and knuckle in the midst of her loping sprint. At the farthest part of the hallway, the arching, tunneled corridor opened up into a wider space if she continued on her own. The strongest source of light seemed to be from behind her where the one dim light-bulb struggled to keep itself lit, although it was barely enough to take the edge off of the inky black area around and ahead of her. As Sara reached the end of the hall, the arched roof of the tunnel ended abruptly and rose into a high ceiling lined with old wooden support beams angled up towards the center like a triangular rib cage. There was an exceptionally small amount of ambient light coming from somewhere within the building, but from which direction it was hard to tell. The floor was still a rough amalgamation of cement and stone tiles that seemed to get even worse the farther along she got, chipped and broken in some places, even creating holes that sunk deep enough to twist an ankle if not careful. The space opened up before her, straight ahead, to the left, and to the right. The stench of decay seemed to break apart into varieties depending on what direction one might face. To the left, the scent became acidic and sour, straight ahead had a swampier smell, like stagnant water, and to the right was a dusty musk of dirt and cobwebs laced with an assortment of fleshy, underlying odors. Somewhere to Sara's right, deeper into the shadows, were the echoed sounds of someone or something still walking about, echoing around the enormous shell of the dark building. It would be hard to tell if they were drawing near or moving away, or which direction it was even headed. There were other sounds too that could occasionally be heard through the thick silence, slight creaks and scuffles, what could be described as far off moans and cries, and distant bangs all followed by another long stretch of quiet nothingness. Not far behind Sara, the others; Ilchymis, Sohl, Raine and Ari, were also making their way down the long hallway slower than Sara, nearing the darkest point of its center stretch. The darkness pressed in from all sides, and although Raine, Sohl and Ari would feel mostly alone, Ilchymis would not. At first Ilchymis would notice a simple movement in his peripherals, like a shadow passing by them along the walls, as if whatever it was had just sprinted past them at breakneck speeds. The movement would be quick, and as soon as Ilchymis turned to look at what it was if he chose to do so, it would dart back past them again and down the hall. The shape appeared to be bent and mangled, a barely visible shape that coalesced in and out of sight as it moved. Then, the further into the darkness they went, more shadows would appear and rush past in jerking, lurching movements, back and forth along the hallway in absolute silence. As their numbers grew, Raine, Sohl and Ari would now begin to notice them too, but still barely in the farthest reaches of their vision. If they paused or hesitated, the outlines would tighten their pattern to surround the group, still rapidly darting in and out of their vision. At one point, a pinching sensation was felt at the back of Ilchymis' arms and elbows, like a dozen ghostly fingers pulling at small areas of his skin by the unseen forces. Further behind was Pan and Faolan, the latter of which seemed torn between gathering everyone together and following the rest down the hall. Those who had tread quietly and slow enough down the hall would have noticed a long, worn sign stretching across the center from one wall to the other and hanging down from the ceiling. In the low lighting, the words "Nightingale Asylum" was vaguely visible in bold printed letters, except for the fact that 'ingale' had been violently painted over with heavy, dark brushstrokes so that the entire thing now read "NightMARE Asylum". Along the walls as well were more signs of vandalism, huge, thick words hastily smeared out in a reddish-black substance: "HELP US"...."COVER YOUR EARS"..."THEY'RE ALL TAKEN"....."I CAN SEE THEM IN THE WALLS".... all across the stoney walls on either side the further down they went.Back towards the cells, Hui did finally manage to cut through his restraints and was now free to leave the fallen bed. His door, like the others, was unlocked and opened slightly, but upon pushing it further he would find a heavy resistance near the outside bottom of the door. A bit more pressure and the sound of an old, decaying body sliding across the gritty linoleum would meet his ears. The door would open a quarter of the way before becoming stuck as a second body also blocked its path, a disgusting inconvenience. It seemed that he and two others, Cassius and Kit, might be the last ones left in the main area of the cells.[Map: Here For those farther back, see previous event post for the overall hallway map]
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Post by Sharei on Oct 4, 2017 19:37:14 GMT -6
[OOC: Kit allows herself to be lead away and then hears Faolan call out to Sara. Kit gives chase after Sara, catches her, and tries to convince her to stay with the group.]
Through the rage and the grief, Kit was dimly aware that there were hands on her. She thought about struggling against them, about shaking them off to throw herself violently against the door one more time. They had killed Stenson! No matter how much she screamed about needing to get in to save him it was too late for Sten, she knew that, but the pulse in her veins beat revenge, revenge, revenge! They would pay. She was just a human, fragile in so many ways, but oh how she would make them pay!
But then Sohl was murmuring softly in her ear. His voice was shaky and frightened, and something in it bit away at the red-tint in her vision. Kit allowed herself to be drawn away from the door without putting up any resistance. Her hands dropped down to her sides. She felt cold and numb. Her body trembled.
Don't look, he said, but how could she not? How could she turn away from the sight, when that was all that was left of him? Tears welled up in her eyes. We have to go, he muttered, but how could she leave him? How could she just let his murderer walk away? How could she not try to do something, when her heart was breaking like this?
There's nothing we can do.
Stenson was dead.
He was dead.
He'd died.
Ilchymis' whine reached her ears above the noise of the saw. Sara's sob and wail filled the air. There were people calling out, scared and confused - calling to them, and to each other. It felt like an eternity, but she knew that it could only have been a handful of seconds before the world filtered back in around her. The cold, clammy air of the asylum skated over the back of her neck, reminding her of where she was and what she stood to lose.
Stenson was gone, but others remained.
"Sohl." It was a single word, but her voice broke on it as she turned to face him. The grief welled up and threatened to choke a sob out of her. "We have to stay together. You n-need to know. T-This place-"
Sara! No, stop!
Kit's head whipped around as Faolan called out. The sound of an animal's nails scraping over the chipped and broken linoleum heralded Sara's burst away from them. "No!" she shouted, and all at once she was moving again. It was a simple instinct, fear, but there was no greater motivator. It allowed her to shove aside the terrible, raw wound in her chest in favor of the more immediate need to act. It wasn't fear for herself, though she was certain that she would experience enough of that before the night's end. No, she was afraid for Sara, for what would happen if she ran off ahead and got herself killed. And, of course, what would happen to her when they got out of this terrible place. Of all of them, Sara was the one who would undoubtedly suffer the most.
"Sara no!" she called. Kit was fast, and she'd always been fast, so her strides ate up the distance between them. "No! We need to stay together! Sara! Stop! You'll just get everyone killed if you go off alone!"
And to her surprise, Sara did stop. The wolf slowed and cast a look over her shoulder that Kit could only describe as pure sorrow. The redhead nearly tripped in a hole in the floor as she came to a stop next to the lithe canine, and as she stumbled to her knees she threw her arms around the wolf.
"You'll just get everyone killed! You don't understand - this place, its not natural, its not right. The dead rise, Sara, they rise and then they come after the others that are still alive. If you run ahead and die, you'll just kill the rest of us. We have to stay together!"
She wasn't being quiet about it. Her voice likely echoed down the hall to the people she had blown past. Some people, those she recognized, would know the details already. Let the rest of them hear, she thought savagely, let them know so that they understand.
"I know its terrible," she said and stroked the wolf's fur. "I know its awful. I - I know-" she said, and a sob threatened to come up again. She hardened herself to it, and let the numbness inside spread through her like a cancer. She couldn't afford the weakness of grief. Stenson wouldn't want her to die. He wouldn't want any of them to die.
"But we absolutely have to stick together. Separating - there's only death in that. Please, please, stay with us."
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Post by jarahamee on Oct 4, 2017 23:14:06 GMT -6
[Cassius finishes wedging the door closed from the outside with the bed after Kit and Sohl escape. He notices Hui's door jiggling and would help pull it open and then goes to join Kit and Sohl with his bone saw and knife handy]
Cassius finished wedging the door closed from the outside as best he can, barring it with a portion of the bed. As good as it was going to get. Sohl and Kit had already left with the others. So many others. Some he recognized as familiar faces. What was going on here? Was this... Halloween he had heard of? He banished all thoughts that weren't duty from his mind. He then realized the Beast was no longer speaking with him. The Beast...its presence hung in the back of his mind but it was silent, somewhere else, distant and focused like a cat... He could feel it among the others that had fled. After all this time, it was and had always been a traitor...
He heard more sounds in the distance, but there was no time to hesitate now. He was about to run to follow the rest of the group and then he noticed another door leading to the main room jiggling against a rotted body decaying like a foul and overripe pumpkin against the door, catching itself there.
He gave the corpse wedged against the jiggling door Hui was trying to push over a good shove and pulled the door up and towards him, before turning to follow Sohl and Kit out of the room and into the next area. His bare feet scraped on the filthy, cracked ground, and a piece of uneven linoleum cut his foot. He brandished his bone saw as he ran to join the rest of the group and help protect them. The sound of howling and crying was before him.
"We have to hurry."
He told no one in particular, or perhaps, himself...
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Post by qhostqrowls on Oct 5, 2017 1:30:03 GMT -6
[Faolan catches up to Sara and Kit, and drags Pandora along with him. Urges team trauma to continue down the corridor and will not leave unless they also do.]
Sara didn't stop, not even as his yells echoed down the corridor. The wolf continued to sprint down the corridor with a mad desperation, and with one final torn glance over his shoulder at the others, Faolan ran after her. She'd die! He had to get her to stay with the group, or even just one other person. Before he darted off, he noticed Pandora standing disorientated in the gloom, and motioned at the witch to follow. The small woman's frequent 'adventures' had led to many emergency room trips, and even now he felt that he had a kind of duty to protect the harebrained witch.
"Pandora? It's Faolan. Just follow me, okay? Let's go." He urged, words coming out in a rush before he ran after Sara, trying to dodge around the jagged edges and potholes scattered across the linoleum.
"Sara no!" Someone else shouted, as equally horrified at the shifter rash rash decision as he. Kit sprinted past Faolan, and thankfully Sara did respond, slowing to a trot and looking back at them with hurt, scared eyes. Out of all the people, Faolan thought with a stab of anger, why her? The scientist was still heavily traumatized from her near-death experience, and Faolan was very, very scared that the Asylum would completely break what was left of her spirit. Kit, too. The woman seemed doggedly prepared, grieving as she was, for the bloodshed that was about to happen, but just how long would the poor woman manage?
"Kit's right, Sara. Y-you'll die if you go alone. We have to stay together, please." He pleaded over the redheads shoulder, urgency seeping into his words. "Lets go a-and catch up to the others..." he hesitated, tone softening as his hand hovered at the woman's shoulder." I'm so sorry, Kit. But we have to keep moving. We...we don't know what's going to come out of that room." He said in a whisper, worried that he might be pushing it too far. But they really did need to leave.
As much as he was horrified and repulsed by Stensons death...he was more concerned about what undead version of the officer would emerge to hunt them down. A hulking gargoyle monster, or another murderous skeleton? Faolan didn't want to stay and find out, because the gurney wedged in front of the door certainly wouldn't hold forever. Not against that surgeon, and definitely not against Stenson, should he rise.
But something broke in Faolans eyes even as he looked at the pair huddled on the floor. Why was he even bothering? Everyone would die a painful death no matter how many groups they formed and how many weapons they had. It would be like last year. A sick feeling of dread and guilt curdled in his stomach, sour and fearful as his shoulders slumped, and he clutched the notebook a little tighter. The desperate, panicky need to survive was the only thing stopping the doctor from completely breaking down. He was too frightneded to catch up to the other group by himself, so would do whatever Kit, Sara and Pandora decided to do, whether that be continue down the corridor or stay where they were. Should they choose the last decision and stay, he would continue to try and get them to move.
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Post by kilnarak on Oct 5, 2017 2:11:18 GMT -6
[ Ari is shocked to see Raine. He has a bit of a panic attack, then tries to drag Raine with him to catch up to the others. ]
Ari came to a startled halt at the sound of his name, unexpected in this nightmare. He jumped, glancing back over his shoulder to see Raine, stared with some shock at the red-headed man. Here was a face he recognized, although it took his panicked mind a moment for that recognition to dawn. Other people moved past him while he stared at Raine, including something large and furred and wolf-like - something that made him flinch away uncertainly, his fingers spasming and dropping the scalpel to clatter to the floor.
And then Raine was right in front of him and he took the last few steps nearer the slighter man, catching at his sleeve - the fabric felt real. He wasn't hallucinating. "R-Raine!" His reply was belated, given how long he had stared. His fingers twitched, held tighter to the Irishman's sleeve. "You-You're here! You're... you were here before, too," he remembered abruptly, thoughts of that time making his thoughts flinch back. He had burned. Would he burn this time? A twinge of pain from his wrists made him withdraw his hands, draw them back to his chest, covering the wounds with his palms.
"D-Don't you... remember? Th-The other times? It-It's like a... a sick game - we have-have to do what it wants or it'll-it'll kill us and... and if we stay too long it'll kill us too." Had they ever escaped this? He couldn't remember but he felt doubtful. It kept happening again and again and again and would they ever escape? Despair dug claws into him, held him frozen in place, trembling.
That was what it wanted. Abruptly he realized his stopping had put them behind most of the others, that they were being left behind. And there were things moving on the walls. When he tried to look at them, there was nothing there or his eyes slid aside. He could do that too - had been able to before, anyway. Now... now he couldn't feel it, it didn't work.
He reached for Raine again abruptly, catching at the other man's arm. "W-We need to-to move..."
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Post by Marshmallow on Oct 5, 2017 6:46:02 GMT -6
[OOC: Ilchymis snaps out of his shock enough to follow Sohl and the Others down the hallway. Stops briefly to watch the moving shadows, gets spooked when something pinches his arms, and runs to catch up with Kit and Sara (and Sohl by then).]
People were talking, moving. Ilchymis had stopped paying attention. All of his focus was inward, trying not to notice the sight, or sound, or even the stench of this horrid place. With his hands still clasped over his ears, everything was a muffle. Save for the acidic whispering in his own head, that is.
His stare was vacant as he stood, frozen, in the middle of the floor while the others milled about and, one by one, began to pass him by. He didn't know most of them. But he saw Kit, and then Faolan, and his glassy gaze followed them as they chased the fleeing form of a wolf around the corner. A keening sound started to rise in his throat, but still he did not move.
It wasn't until Sohl stepped back into his field of view and placed a hand on his shoulder that the construct returned to himself. His hands were shaking as he lowered them, and tears still ran in thin streams down his cheeks, but the wretched sobbing had stopped. For now, shock held his tongue and forced him silent. They needed to go. Sohl quietly urged him to move, offering his hand. Ilchymis sniffled, nodded, grasped that hand tightly and finally forced himself to stumble into motion, following his friend down the corridor after the others.
The hall stretched ahead of them into more darkness. In the distance, near the corridor's end, he could just make out the forms of Faolan, Kit and Wolf-Sara. Kit's voice filtered back to them, echoing and bouncing across the decaying walls, and a sick feeling wormed through his core at her words. The dead... rose? That couldn't be... That was blasphemy! Just what was this place?
Then, in the darkness around them, a flicker of movement caught his attention. Ilchymis faltered, releasing his hold on Sohl's hand as he came to a stop in the middle of the long hall. His eyes scanned the darkness around him, growing wide as he saw them. Shadows, twisted blotches of pitch black against the gloom, scurrying and lurching up and down the corridor. They clustered in close, and Ilchymis ducked aside of those that passed him out of reflex. No one else seemed to take notice - couldn't they see them?
At his back, unseen even by his own eyes, the masked spirit bristled. It raised up on its talons, mane billowing and head low. When a shadow moved too close to Their ward, it swiped at them threateningly. Ilchymis was deaf to Its voice, and all seemed blind to Its presence, but these... things surely knew It existed. And It did not care for their attention. In spite of its limitations, It still tried to urge Ilchymis along, away from the swarming silhouettes.
As Ilchymis watched the endless procession of shadows, trying to discern their twisted shapes, something... touched him. A pinching on his arms, the ghostly feeling of dozens of unseen fingers on his skin. "Don't!" Ilchymis abruptly yelped in alarm, spinning wide-eyed to face his unseen assailant. "D-Don't touch me!" But there was nothing there, just the darkness, and the distant flicker of light behind them. The shadows still moved along the walls. Folding both arms across his torso, rubbing away the lingering sensations of that phantom touch, Ilchymis turned and jogged forward to catch up with Sohl and the rest.
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Post by tsukikoko on Oct 5, 2017 7:33:16 GMT -6
[OOC: Sara is pulled mostly back to her senses by Kit, gives Pan a bunch of wolfy kisses when she shows up with Faolan. At the suggestion by the doctor they should keep moving, she indicates they should maybe go straight ahead away from the shuffling footsteps but won't move without the rest of the group.]
Sara had not really thought about what she was going to do past placing herself between her friends and whatever monstrosities this place had in store. Her run was half-crazed, heedless of the dangers underfoot. Shadows closed in from all sides, laughing and deadly, descending upon her once again. She couldn’t let her demons- no, the Asylum’s creatures- no, the vampire- no, the… she didn’t know, couldn’t decipher what was real. All she knew was she had to stop it, stop whatever it was. She had to. Please. A voice called out to her, but it was distant, barely registered through her internal cacophony of bloodied flashbacks and panicked questions. Why were they here in this place, prepped for slaughter? Why had Stenson not covered himself in granite, had he suffered the same loss of powers as she? Was she dreaming, or had she caused this somehow? Where was Aaron, was he here too? Had he met the same fate as…
The shifter screwed her eyes up tight, shaking her head with frantic vigour in an effort to rid herself of the horrific thought and it was at that moment her foot sank into a hole in the ground. Her foot caught, the momentum carrying her forward regardless. Two toes twisted. She felt the crunch and pop of bone shifting into positions they should not. White hot fire shot up her leg and with a pained yelp she tumbled forwards, only just managing to scrabble her feet back underneath herself and avoid crashing to the floor. Having regained her footing, the wolf limped on, still urged by the snarling in her head and the shuffling she could now hear to her right as she approached the much larger open space ahead. [Do not falter. You must find the danger.] But the injury had allowed for one thing, a spike of clarity. Another voice, familiar and real, broke through Sara’s haze of panic. "No! We need to stay together! Sara! Stop! You'll just get everyone killed if you go off alone!"
You’ll just get everyone killed.
The words reflected Sara’s own internal thoughts so closely, that she pulled to a stop and looked over her shoulder with a miserable, plaintive whine. Her strange amalgam of wolf and crocodile tail curled between the shifter’s legs as Kit sprinted towards her. Arms came around her neck as the younger woman fell to her knees and seized Sara, holding her tight. The fierce embrace ripped the shifter from her traumatic hallucinations, grounded her in reality - though admittedly one just as terrifying. Kit’s words filtered through to her, struck the quivering wolf through the chest with the implications of just how dangerously stupid her actions had been.
You’ll just get everyone killed.
The dead rise.
You’ll kill the rest of us.
Oh god she- she could have killed… she could have come back to… to kill them? Why did Kit know this? What had happened, where- where were they?
There were hands in her fur now, stroking and soothing, trying to still the tremors still wracking Sara’s body. But it wasn’t the words or the gentle pressure moving through her fur that finally recovered some measure of the shifter’s right mind; it was the sob, choked off before it could begin but still causing a hitch in the younger woman’s chest that Sara felt against her. Kit was terrified too, grieving, but still trying her best to keep everything together, had come charging after Sara to stop her from getting herself killed at great risk to her own safety. The shifter’s head turned towards the woman holding her, a tumultuous mix of emotions stirring inside her; guilt, sadness and a strong, desperate desire to help her friend, take away the pain she was feeling. “Please, please, stay with us.” came Kit’s pleading request. Another whine and Sara began to nuzzle the woman’s face and hair, the tip of her tongue gently licking at Kit’s skin as she passed her cheek. The wolf continued this for a few seconds before pulling back and with a strange, peeling crawl her wolven head began to retract until Sara’s human face appeared. The rest of the skin remained draped across her body, giving her a rather obscure look. The shifter was crestfallen, her features crumpled and bordering on tears, her eyes shimmering as they threatened. “Ohh Kit… Kit I’m- I’m so sorry… I just… I couldn’t just sit and watch someone else d-die. I.. I wanted tat protect people b-but.. I weren’t- I weren’t quick enough for Stenson. I was bloody useless.. and then I.. Christ.. I’m sorry.” She didn’t know what else to do, couldn’t think of anything other than to apologise. The younger woman’s eyes darkened, clouded over with misery, “I wasn’t able to be there for him either,” she said with a pained exhale. “It… it happened so fast. But it’s not your fault Sara. This place… it will make you feel useless. It wants to ruin you. It doesn’t play by any rules, and it’s really not your fault. I had to tell myself that over and over the last time.” The last time? This had.. happened before? A shudder shot down Sara’s spine at the thought; she wanted to ask, wanted to understand, the words burned on her tongue. But it wouldn’t have been fair to make her relive whatever had happened. Instead she simply leaned into Kit, her strange human-wolf limbs holding the other woman against her.
Sara wanted to provide comfort, but there wasn’t time. Prickling instinct clawed at her spine and skin, the voice in her head warned that they couldn’t sit still or they would die. She needed to be stronger, needed to think logically, figure out some way to help everyone escape this horrific place. If this had happened before and Kit was still here then maybe… maybe there was hope for Stenson. But if the dead rose… and he was… Oh god. “Kit.” she said, sudden urgency in her voice, the ever-present terror and guilt throttled just barely by her need to keep people safe. “We ‘ave tah go. There’s somethin’ down the reet path. We ‘ave tah move before it does.”
But then another pair approached, the male voice of whom she recognised instantly and when she turned, the other that she was utterly horrified to see in this dreadful place. “Pandora!” The shifter was moving forwards, having released Kit; frantic, motherly terror and protectiveness powered her towards the young witch. The furred cloak pulled back over her head, coated her once more in that beastial form as she all but pounced on the witch. She began to lick and nuzzle at any part of Pandora she could reach, caught between fear for her safety, relief the girl was alive, wishing to comfort her and wanting to get her moving, quickly. Faolan was also making the point that they needed to keep moving, she couldn’t agree more. Now that she was up, Sara could see others moving down the hallway towards them, close but not close enough and with Ilchymis acting as though something might be touching him. She began to push at both Faolan and Pandora with her muzzle, urging them to the entrance to the larger room, then did the same to Kit as she passed. Fuelled by anxiety Sara then began to limp back and forth at the threshold, unwilling to leave her group but wanting desperately for the others to hurry that last little stretch, scared for every moment they all stayed in one place.
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Post by MP on Oct 5, 2017 9:35:10 GMT -6
[OOC: Sohl offers Kit his condolences and reads the signs along the walls. He covers his animal ears while he follows the group with Ilchymis.]
Sohl listened in solemn silence to Kit's instructions, keeping pace alongside her. Even when she broke off suddenly and bolted after the fleeing animal - Sara - his fear remained under control. He returned to where Ilchymis huddled and put a gentle hand on his shoulder, offering a quiet hand. When the construct’s fingers curled in his, he led them after the others with careful steps. It was easier to collect his nerve, to straighten his spine now that the screaming had calmed. Even with Stenson gone. Even knowing they'd failed him. Sohl's fingers tensed involuntarily in Ilchymis'.
“It’s okay. You're okay,” he murmured to the construct. Kit’s words echoed ahead of them. Talk of the dead. Of a last time. “Just keep moving, no matter what. If we get separated, stay close to Kit or Sara or anyone here, alright?”
He glanced at the straggling figures around them, memorizing the faces there. It wouldn't happen again. They'd stay together, stay a pack, and it wouldn't happen again. Poor Kit.
He glanced at her as they neared. Took in her crumpled expression, the desperate steel in her tone as she spoke to the tawny wolf. It was a strength - a necessity - that he understood. Almost Icarim of her. And maybe that was what they needed right now if everything she'd said was true, but...she was his friend. As Stenson had been. And she'd just lost the officer in the most brutal way imaginable, without even a goodbye or shred of meaning. Sohl released the construct’s hand just long enough to walk by her shoulder, his eyes on the broken tiles.
"Kit," he said softly, and hesitated. Words of condolence and apology crowded in his throat. Human words. But she behaved as an Icarim. And his own kind had never seen the use in ‘sorry.’
“Stenson...he was...wuyirwit.” The word was an almost musical warble, the truest praise he could think of. “It means, um…there's this very bright bird, and he...” Sohl trailed off, shaking his head. It was Stenson, and not the comparison she'd cared about. He glanced sideways at Kit, his eyes empathetic and earnest. “Just...he’d be proud of you. Whatever I can do, okay?”
He ducked his head and fell silent then, slowing his pace as they walked in case Kit needed the space. Ilchymis was beginning to trail behind them, and after a moment Sohl turned to collect him. He reached out, meaning to take his hand in case the broken floor was the trouble, when suddenly the construct flinched and yelped.
“Don't! D-don’t touch me!”
Sohl jerked back with a startled ‘sorry’ and stuffed his hands in his pockets instead, walking alongside Ilchymis instead as they hurried to catch up to the others. After another moment it occurred to him that perhaps Ilchymis hadn't meant him at all. Sohl glanced around them. Thought for a startling moment that he caught movement. But instead he saw...
COVER YOUR EARS.
His hands went to his ears reflexively, flattening the tasseled edges to his head, momentarily muffling the world. Shame crept along his cheeks as he remembered his awkwardly halfway state. Sohl ducked his head as he passed Sara, wondering if the markings were there too as he followed her prompting gesture. Go away, go away, when will you go away? Pointless as it was, he kept his hands lightly over his ears, hiding them, waiting to feel the pointed edges return to the normal human shape.
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Post by Kurodaia on Oct 5, 2017 9:59:26 GMT -6
[OOC: Hui's door is opened now by Cassius. He is left behind by the group. He considers going the other way but treads quietly, opposite of everyone else.]
Feeling the door open a lot better now, he looked down at the corpses. Whoever had helped him, he would have to thank them, if he found them again. The man continued to watch the bodies, he considered some methods of hunting tactics but he knew somewhere in his mind, he was only partially shift for a reason. He couldn't hear the others but the two bodies made him want to investigate down the hall. [bottom side]
He walked quietly, body pressed against the wall. He listened carefully as he made his way down. Trying to stay in the dark, but also keeping whatever senses he could open. His eyes were bad in the dark so he relied more on his hearing but even so his only weapon right now were his eyes. He felt odd admitting the normal half an hour wasn't going to happen this time, it would give him 5 minutes of run time and even so he would have to be ready to book out of there.
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Post by NightshadeVII on Oct 5, 2017 15:01:46 GMT -6
{OOC: relived to see Faolan, Pandora follows the doctor down the hall. After getting wolfy kisses from Sara and hugging said woman, Pan agrees with Faolan and Kit, on the fact that they have to stick together and keep moving. She will take Sara’s suggestion of moving straight forward, but stick to the group.}
Someone called out her name. Someone... spoke to her. She recognized that voice, didn't she? Blinking once, twice, her head turned in the direction of the voice, beckoned by the promise of recognition and the purpose that would bring. Yeah, she recognized that voice, she had to. Barely visible in the dark, she managed to get a glimpse of corn golden hair, feline eyes. Faolan. The doctor hadn't even finished his sentence before, she began jogging in his direction, hoping to catch up. “-It's Faolan. Just follow me, okay? Let's go." The young witch didn't need to be told that twice, immediately, she ran after the doctor, catching up with some trouble, slowed by her own stumbles. It felt good to run, natural, more like a second nature than something she had to actively get herself to do. Barely seeing the holes in the floor, she relied on the blonde before her, following behind him as if he was a lighthouse. He didn't seem hurt, at least not as far as she could tell in the dark. That was good. He had to be okay, he had to. And she intended for him to stay that way. Her gaze returned to the hall ahead, just as a woman sprinted past, calling out Sara’s name before embracing a creature, that looked like a wolf, yet still not quite. Then she saw the tail. That unmistakable, amazing crocodile tail. This was Sara. She was here. For a moment, her steps faltered, became more like a heavy lope as her heart sank again. Sara was here. She shouldn't be here. Like Faolan and everyone else, she needed to get out of here.
Worry began to take over the brief happiness she had felt recognizing people, twisting it and darkening it. Questions began to swirl, forcing her scrambled thoughts to collect themselves and begin to make just enough sense. Why where they here? What was the purpose of this? Why where people getting killed? This place reeked of death and other horrors, she didn't need her former atunement to magic to feel that. It was like a cold hand, reaching out with its skeleton fingers, dragging down her spine, clutching at her heart, squeezing it just slightly, just enough so she could feel it beating against her rib cage. Far from plesant, the young witch felt something come together in her mind. It was like an epiphany, the feeling you get when you finally find that pice of the puzzle, you’d been missing. But it still didn't make sense. In the end, it was just a stupid idea, some kind of make believe that couldn't be true, no matter if it made sense or not. Shaking her head, the witch snapped out of her own mind, just in time to see Sara, still in the form of a wolf charge towards her. The moment the shifter pounced at Pandora, the witch had already opened her arms, not caring as she lost balance for a moment, took at step back. Her arms wrapped around Sara. Fingers running through fur, clutching desperately at it, hands shaking. And all the while, she remained careful not to hurt the shifter. As a warm nose, and a warmer tongue came in contact with her skin, Pandora just hugged Sara tighter, burying her head in the wolf’s chest. For a moment, the fleeting happiness of reunion made the witch chuckle quietly, smile just a little bit. The knot that had been tying itself in her chest loosened for a moment. And she shook, as if her entire system was trying to shake the event off. It didn't work. It wasn't over yet. Not wanting to let go of Sara, yet knowing they needed to continue, the young witch reluctantly released the shifter. Now, that she was no longer hugging the wolf, she closed her eyes, breathing deeply, filling her lungs. The air filling every vein, branching out. Mentally, she focused on her feet, letting them grow heavier, grounding her. Get yourself together now.
Slowly, the witch opened her eyes, looked around the little group gathered. “I know, I might not have a say in this...”, Pandora began, glenching and unglenching her hands, “but Faolan is right, you’re both right... we have to stay together and keep moving.” I won't let you die. No matter what this place was, she wouldn't let these people die. That was all she cared about now. As a reflex, she looked around, seeing the direction which Sara had been heading in originally. It was so dark, barely anything was visible. Once again, she felt that soft muzzle against her, urging her forward. “This way?”, she asked, looking from the hallway to wolf-Sara. On her own, Pandora would have had no idea where to go, half-blind and disoriented in this place. It was more than likely that she would just have walked in circles until something found her. That was why she complied with Sara’s gentle nudges, trusting the shifter. In the dark, she tried to see if Faolan and the red-haired woman, she still didn't know, would follow. Now that a group seemed to be forming, she would stick with it.
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Post by Salandis on Oct 5, 2017 15:45:31 GMT -6
[OOC: Raine drags Ari to catch up with the group, agrees with Faolan that folks should keep moving, and advises them all to watch the walls to help find an exit.]
Raine frowned down at the shifter. He was here before too? This place was surely not one he remembered, and he had been a great many places. He took hold of one of Ari's hands, gently turning it to see the open wound.
"Yer not healing." He said, as though confirming something to himself. And in a way he was: It made sense, really. He had no connection to his... gift. Ari wouldn't have access to any of his extra-normal abilities either. Most of them were in that boat.
"We need to-to move..." Ari was all but dragging him forward to the rest of the group. Raines mind seemed to be spinning, as the comments from the others here - loudly spoken, in the echoing concrete darkness - began to register. folks coming back from the dead? people dying horrific deaths? And he did remember a place before, a different place, with Ari... but that had been a dream?
For a shattering moment he stood still as he remembered holding a sword, and exaltantly driving it through Sarkany's neck.
Anger started to wind through his veins to join with the fear already there, and he gripped the rod more tightly. "Yer right, we need tah keep moving." And now he was pulling Ari forward over the uneven ground, heading over towards where the rest of the group had formed around Sara. Looking back, he saw Cassius and a few others rapidly catching up. His eyes flicked over the words written in what must be blood on the walls.
"We do need tah keep moving." He addressed his former cellmate, but spoke to the group. "Keep an eye on th' walls. Not fer ghosts," He grinned in the flickering light "But in ah place this old, a thick brick wall means an outside wall, yeh ken? We'll want one of those, if'n we want tah leave."
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Post by Pearl Dragon on Oct 5, 2017 16:42:30 GMT -6
Ilchymis' spooked sprinting brings him quickly to his friend's side. The shadows that had been closing in around him broke loose from his sudden dash, scattered like birds into the wind, but if he looks back, he will notice them darting forward and back as if in pursuit but never quite closing in. They did however seem intensely interested in the phantom attached to Ilchymis. With every defensive swipe it made in their direction, a dozen grasping hands would then stretch out from the walls and the shadows to grab at the protective spirit. A few of the hands succeeded, gripping the hooked talons and beginning to pull it back towards the mass of shadowy, twitching figures before their grip would slip and loosen. Perhaps lashing out was a bad idea....the longer Ilchymis remained in the hallway, the more hands reached and clutched at the other entity attached to Ilchymis, impeded only by the construct's constant progress down the hall as a few of the hands lost their grip and retreated from the ever so slight ambient light ahead before more hands would reach out to take their turn. Amidst all of the reaching and grabbing towards the boy's entity, only once, in the strange, silent pursuit, did a single invisible hand suddenly grab Ilchymis himself. It was a rough, ice-cold grip that latched onto his left bicep with a violent sudden yanking motion, which almost instantly disappeared the very next second, leaving a red hand print upon the boy's skin. They were becoming hungry...greedy....and they wanted Ilchymis to stay with them...stay with them....
Sohl stayed with Ilchymis, still rather oblivious to his friend's plight. Soon they would catch up with the others at the end of the hall, although with his ears pressed down, he would fail to hear much of anything beyond where he currently stood.
Ari and Raine also work to catch up with the others up ahead, joining them at the end of the hall.
Cassius successfully moves the heavy, stiff bodies far enough to the side for the man on the other side to escape. His foot, however, was smeared with the gelatinous, greenish-black ooze that coated the corpse he had just slid aside, which was then carelessly sliced on the edge of a chipped piece of linoleum. The decayed gore intermingled with his own open, bloodied wound. As he made his way to catch up with the others, his foot would begin to throb and ache...
Kit and Sara have paused at the end of the hall, possibly waiting for the others and debating on going straight ahead towards the damp, stagnant smell of swampy water. Their reunion is touching, their voices ringing out into the open space to echo from the high ceiling and back down into the different directions ahead of them. The sounds of footsteps stopped....shuffled...and then continued from the right side. Whatever it was, it was steadily growing louder now...
Faolan and Pan have also caught up with the group at the end of the hallway, where they too might hear the steadily approaching footsteps somewhere to the distant right, closing in.
Hui was alone now, remaining behind to find his own way. As he edged along the wall on the farthest end of the room, he would continue to hear the doctor working tirelessly on his victim. Every now and again, a loud cackle would issue forth, muffled by the door, before falling back into the buzzing silence. At first glance, the wall itself appeared to be solid, no doors or openings. However, on the ground there seemed to be a few old bloodstains, dragging across the floor and towards a peculiar section of the wall. Being pressed against the wall as he was, he would notice the mortar around the tiles in this area were missing, forming a dark, thin rectangle that was about 6 feet high and 4 feet across. With the simple pressure of his hands, the space shifted inward slightly and formed a gap leading into a secret area. Meanwhile, through the excitement of his discovery, Hui might notice that the buzzing of the saw had suddenly stopped....
Now....
The group could proceed forward, left or right, once they'd settled on a decision. The only bit of ambient light that was available would reveal what appeared to be cluttered benches and tables and something lying still on the ground somewhere ahead in the forward direction they were considering, a smear of dark liquid on the ground to their left that trailed into another walled in area, and the silhouettes of tall columns to the right. The way further beyond those was cloaked in dust and darkness. [Map: HereNot much has changed since a direction has yet to be settled on, other than a slight extension of the dark 'fog' obscuring the map]
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