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Post by kilnarak on Dec 9, 2023 23:09:06 GMT -6
When Kail takes the box and replaces it, one of the smaller, hand-sized spiders on the web reaches toward it, flailing it's two forelimbs for a moment before it returns to it's web. They can still feel the eyes of the massive spider on them, but didn't move when they replaced the box, nor did she move (beyond her eyes shifting to watch them) as they began to follow the path away into the dark. There are more little spiders on this bridge, but they mostly cling to the sides.
When the sticky path they walk on stops sagging and they feel firm ground under their feet, both Kail and Moana can feel tension drain from their bodies. After traveling a little ways in the dark, Kail passes the bug box to Moana - upon touching it, she gains knowledge as he had initially: this is the Insect Cone, it appears to be perpetually filled with flying locust-like insects. When left open they emerge one at a time, but when shaken and opened, the insects will swarm out and ravage whatever they're aimed at.
They walk for what feels like a long while before they see a lighter patch of darkness ahead of them. It further resolves as they draw closer into the shape of a door. The closer they get the more detailed the doorway becomes - they can see one of the main mall hallways through it - across from the door is a pay phone and what appears to be a kitchen supply store, Lecter's Kitch. Passing into the hall, they turn to see that they are exiting a furniture store called Dreams. The interior looks... dark but normal. Certainly not the web-strewn path they had just crossed...
-
Casmir continued to crawl through the hole, holding his flashlight pointed before him to keep an eye out for threats. After the path began to turn, he noticed that the angle had become a bit slanted downward, and a bit further that it may have been getting narrower. Worse, his flashlight was beginning to flicker - but the angle of the tunnel would make it difficult, maybe even impossible, to go back out the way he had come. With nothing else to do, Casmir could only continue forward.
He could hear things through the walls. First a soft, crunching noise, shifting in intensity. He can hear the wet sounds of a flesh-beast somewhere on the other side of the wall, a clatter like metal striking metal. Over it all he hears the static, crackling in his ears, sometimes broken by snippets of choir music.
The hole has definitely narrowed by now, it's difficult to drag himself through, but the angle at least allows him to slide awkwardly down. Finally he sees a light at the end of the tunnel, faint and reddish reflecting off the walls. He moves toward it as best he can, only to find the angle of the tunnel abruptly shifts more sharply downwards and he finds himself falling. It's a short fall at least, but he lands face first on a metal floor. He can feel the floor give slightly under him, and when he picks himself up he finds that he is lying on the floor of an elevator, there is an open maintenance door in the top leading into the empty shaft above. The main doors are closed and the small metal chamber is bathed in a dull red light, but the buttons are lit up. It appears to be on the first floor.
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Samael steps into the dark staff hallway, holding up his phone to try to light his way. But the light doesn't reflect off of anything, the darkness is perfect save for the sliver of lighter-dark where he has jammed the door open. He can't see the walls, the ceiling, the floor - but he can feel the floor beneath his feet, can brush the wall with his fingers. It's an uncomfortable path, but where else is there to go?
As he continues into the dark, even the light from the door behind him eventually vanishes. It's difficult to tell the passage of time - he could have been walking for hours, or perhaps only a few seconds. The next time he reaches for the walls he finds only empty air to either side of him. It's cold here, and it's uncomfortable to notice it - another curse felt by this living body that he rarely even noticed normally. He considers turning back, but the open space around him makes it difficult to tell just where he had come from. Could he even find the door out again?
He continues in a direction - uncertain if it's forward or back - until abruptly light blinds him. He blinks behind his mask and when he opens his eyes he finds himself standing in the mall. The light coming in through the sliding glass doors is dim, but even with his back to it, it's blinding compared to the dark he has just emerged from. Ahead of him he sees one of the main hallways of the mall - an intersection between what appear to be furniture and home-goods stores. Directly ahead is a rusted looking shutter; one corner of it has been propped open, leaving a space beneath that one could crawl through to get in to where the fountain is.
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Stenson bolts for the kitchen, shoving the swinging door open so hard it slams into the wall. He doesn't need to look back to know the gore-monster is close behind him - he can hear it close behind him, can feel spatters of wet blood and gristle striking his back as it lunges. He grabs the door and tries to shove it closed on the beast, but it strikes back against the door hard before he can barricade it, shoving him back. He had a moment to decide whether to try to hold the door against that force or to try to get to the ovens - he can already see tendrils of it creeping in through the open space it has created. Even if he holds the door it will get in, oozing through the opening.
He decides not to hold the door, instead sprinting to the ovens to turn on the gas. If he could get enough in the air, enough to create an explosion that would catch the creature in it...
The creature barrels through the door with a ragged roar, splatters of gore coming off it's body and painting the room. It follows Stenson, and as he is trying to flood gas into the room it reaches him. It rears up and something like a mouth sinks slivers of bone like teeth into his shoulder, taking a big bite and ripping away - bits of his own gray flesh and red blood join the mass of gore making up the creature. The pain is immediate and sharp. On its own it's not enough to kill, but two, maybe three more strikes like that...
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Post by NightshadeVII on Dec 10, 2023 1:41:29 GMT -6
(OOC: Sam tries to go through the opening in the rusted-looking shutter.)
Just as the dark path was beginning to seem tedious and endless, it all changed. Light blinded Samael and somehow, he found himself somewhere else entirely. By now, he had no interest in questioning how anything happened in this place. It didn’t play by any known rules, that was all he knew.
Orienting himself, he didn’t see any stores that had been marked important on his map. The only thing that really caught his interest was the rusted shutter. It isn’t a fountain. He remembered those words, now that he was presented with a clear path ahead, directly towards this not-fountain, whatever it might turn out to be. So, there was a choice. He could continue stumbling blindly through the mall looking for an exit, or he could try to see whatever was going on with this fountain. Perhaps it was the source of it all?
Either way, the choice wasn’t a difficult one and Samael quietly headed towards the rusted shutter. He should be able to squeeze through.
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Post by luscen on Dec 11, 2023 1:14:01 GMT -6
[CASMIR tries to pry open the elevator doors. If he can’t manage bare handed, he’ll use the Viking sword to attempt to pry them open.]
Casmir wasn’t prepared for the sudden drop- he’d already been feeling pressed in, with the various unsettling noises rumbling past his ears setting him on edge, so when his elbow couldn’t find purchase, all he had time for before plummeting downward was a curse in Polish.
He hit the metal surface of the floor at an awkward, face-first angle; hard enough to rattle his brain, but not soft enough that nothing was broken. A harsh red light shone down from maintenance shaft, revealing an elevator that had apparently been in service. The Hunter squinted at the floor register, seeing the number one lit up. Perhaps he should question how one went into a bathroom hole on the first floor and wound up on the same floor in an elevator, but he was past caring.
There was no sign of the hole Casmir’d fallen out of, which meant going back was out of the question. But perhaps he could find a path through and back to Jones. First thing was first, though; he hoisted himself up to the main doors, feeling along them to see if he could perhaps pry them open and get his proper bearings.
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Post by Pearl Dragon on Dec 11, 2023 16:09:12 GMT -6
[Stenson turns all the knobs on the current stove to max to let the gas start building in the room. He fights against he creature to look for the next nearest stove that may have knobs he could continue to turn on, and will make a mad grab for those, twisting them on as well.]
There was no time, his hope to barricade the door was dashed as the creature nearly landed on top of him the moment he made to swing the kitchen door closed behind him. It threw its weight against the door, shoving Stenson back and immediately oozing into the room through the available opening. In a scramble, Stenson moves to the stoves the moment he spots them. His hands find the knobs on the front and he begins to turn them each to maximum. The stench of the propane gas hit his senses almost immediately as the burners hiss out the invisible vapors. He turned just in time as the creature fell upon him and bone-like splinters plunged into his shoulder from what might only be considered a mouth of some sort.
Stenson let out a cry of pain, adrenaline now dumping into his system as he attempted to pull away from the thing. His shirt sleeve was in tatters, hanging in bloodied ribbons from his shoulder. He lingered, staggering and fighting against the creature's mauling protrusions and tried to spot any other gas line or element he could make a move for next. In a restaurant this size, perhaps there was another stove. If he spotted any that he did not open the knobs too yet, he would struggle in that direction and start turning any within reach.
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Post by Salandis on Dec 12, 2023 1:41:17 GMT -6
[Moana is happy to be alive. Suggests exploring to Kail, will go right (or take lead from him)]
Moana handles the insect cone gently. “I’m still not convinced they won’t chase after us at some point,” she remarked quietly. “That was hella tense for nearly no action though. And this thing might be useful.”
As they found themselves in a furniture store she shook her head. “Dreams. Yeah, sums up this place alright.” Were they even on the same floor as they were before? Nothing looked familiar, but then the last two floors had been explored in mostly darkness. “Let’s see if we can find where we are,” she turned to Kail, smiling warmly. “At least we have some kick-ass weapons to work with now. We’ll proper fuck up the next flesh monster we run into.”
She stepped out into the corridor, unaccountably sorry they hadn’t had to fight anything (adrenaline is weird) and looked around to see if anything looked familiar. In absence of Kail’s suggestion, she’ll turn right.
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Post by kilnarak on Dec 12, 2023 15:49:16 GMT -6
Samael has to crouch to get under the shutter. He can hear sounds behind him - a scraping, banging sound from the left; and from the right he can hear a familiar pair of voices. Ahead there is noise as well, a soft chanting from somewhere on the opposite side of the fountain from him. The voice is... vaguely familiar, but just now he can't place from where - it's quiet and hoarse and he can't make out the words.
Immediately in front of him is the fountain - a singing mermaid surrounded by leaping dolphins. Red-tinted water arcs from the top of the dolphins' heads and streams down along the body of the siren and the rock she sits upon. There are bodies around the fountain, and two are visible from where Sam crouches at the shutter. On the left there is the body of a muscular woman with dark skin and slightly lighter blonde hair. Her mouth is smeared with a mix of bright red lipstick and darker red blood, which has flooded down to discolors her blouse and the body-hugging skirt she is wearing. He recognizes her: the Maneater Amazonia, Shah, from the fighting ring in the Underground. The body to the right is also familiar - a slender young man with pale blonde hair and paler skin, who is draped face down over the side of the fountain, bleeding sluggishly into the water. If Samael was alive here, Ru must have been as well, although now he most certainly is not.
-
Inside the elevator, Casmir tries to pry the doors open. When just his fingers don't do the trick, he takes his sword to try to lever it open. He doesn't make any progress, and he can feel the motor in the door holding it firmly closed. If he was just a little stronger, maybe... But for the moment prying open the door seems impossible.
He is left breathing heavily, and his sword is a little bent after the attempt. There are still the buttons on the wall beside the door. They are lit, and aside from a button for each floor, there are also buttons for open, close, and a bell icon that is perhaps an alarm. There is also a keyslot to the side of the panel for emergency personnel.
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The gore monster slashes at Stenson with claws that look like shards of broken ribs as he staggered toward the second stove. The blow is thankfully shallow, opening a cut above his hip - any deeper and it may have struck something vital. The agent is able to reach the second stove, and hastily turns the gas all the way up. He can smell it slowly fulling the air from the first oven he had turned on.
Perhaps there were other gas lines he could break - he could see pipes along the walls behind the stoves - but it was probably a better idea to get out quickly. There should be enough gas in the air with two ovens on - a little more wouldn't hurt, but the creature hunting him surely would.
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Moana leads and Kail follows as the pair leave Dreams. They can hear noises somewhere to their left, metal clattering across the hall, scraping noises. Whatever it is that's making the noises is across the big hall, however, and hasn't emerged out of the store (or elevator) that it is inside of. They consider that direction a moment - maybe it would be something to fight, at least, since the spiders hadn't proven non-confrontational - but after a few moments Moana suggests they instead turn to the right, away from the noise.
They begin to head east, toward a turn in the path. They glance into the glass fronts of the stores they pass - furniture, home goods, kitchen goods - it's almost difficult to tell what is inside of them. The nearest few seem to be coated with black ichor that drips from the holes in the walls and cracks in the ceilings and pools on the floor. Aside from Arhaus which seems to be stuck, the doors still slide open when they draw close, spilling ichor to puddle in the hall.
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Post by NightshadeVII on Dec 12, 2023 16:13:15 GMT -6
(OOC: Sam explores the area, looking for signs of what killed Shah and Ru. Also attempts to identify the third figure. He will also study the fountain.)
For a moment, Samael stood in silence and took in the scene before him. He was used to death, dealt in it, was born from it himself, it was his reason for existing, but this… this was unnatural. This was not what death was supposed to be, for anyone. He couldn’t help but feel disgusted, couldn’t help but wonder if he could have somehow prevented this. This place was sick, rotten to the core.
But maybe he could still prevent this from happening to others. At least he had to try. Quietly, he began to explore the area, studying the corpses to see what might have killed them, but careful not to disturb them. Shah looked the same as always, and it was hard to imagine that she had just died like this. And the young man, wasn’t he one of his coworkers? It looked like the Ru that August kept mentioning. Apparently Samael wasn’t the only one made mortal by this place. He offered silent apologies to the two, despite knowing he could not undo their fates, he still wished he could have been there and just maybe made it kinder for them.
Focus, he reminded himself, there’s still work to do. After looking over the fountain, looking for anything useful, anything to work with, he slowly made his way around it, towards the third figure, that vaguely familiar voice, trying to find out who else was here, if they were dead or dying.
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Post by Pearl Dragon on Dec 13, 2023 14:52:44 GMT -6
[Once the second stove was turned to max, Stenson looks for the main gas line. If he can find it, he will try and break it with a heavy object within reach, and/or otherwise do his best to keep out of the creature's grasp.]
Stenson made a pained grab for the next closest stove, turning its set of knobs to max just like the first. The gas in the air was becoming pungent now, but still, he felt it was not enough. Sweat beaded across his forehead and his head swam in and out of focus, breathing in the fumes as he worked. He scanned the walls last, looking for the main gas line. If the stoves didn't do the trick, then that would.
The moment he spotted the gas line, again looking for the signature red warning label or flame symbol, he would grab the heaviest metal object he could reach and dash its sharpest edge across the pipe, aiming for any joints or weak spots that might cause it to break or at least puncture. He would do his best to keep out of the creature's grasp while he did so, dodging and climbing clumsily across surfaces and counters to try and keep some distance. His breath worked in and out in labored huffs, struggling to get what little air he could out of the gaseous room.
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Post by Salandis on Dec 14, 2023 3:06:07 GMT -6
[OOC On hearing the clatter of metal, Moana changes her mind. Telling Kail to look sharp, she instead heads towards the noise]
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Post by luscen on Dec 15, 2023 16:10:13 GMT -6
[CASMIR straightens his sword out, again, then attempts to open the door by pressing the button marked "open." If that doesn't work, he will press the "1" button and then consider using his skeleton key on the emergency access to get himself out as a last resort.]
Casmir frowned down at his blade, noting the slight bend now present in the middle of the blade. Brokk certainly wouldn't have been happy with this sort of mistreatment of a fine sword... And the door was still firmly shut, besides. The Hunter grunted and slipped the sword back between the elevator doors, pressing against it just enough to attempt to straighten the blade, again, then returned the weapon to its sheathe and looked around.
His eyes fell back on the panel with the floor designations, and with a small sigh of resignation, pressed the "door open" button, taking a step back and waiting for the entry way to let him out into whatever part of the floor the elevator was on. Hopefully, he'd be able to get back to Jones soon, but the longer this took, the more risk there was something was going to happen to the Agent in the blonde's absence.
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Post by kilnarak on Dec 18, 2023 16:00:47 GMT -6
As Samael moved around the fountain, he found that there were certainly more than three people here. He found two more dead - another young man draped over the edge of the fountain like Ru, his throat raggedly torn open and his blood staining the water. Unlike the other two he was unfamiliar - he had long dark hair and warm brown skin marred by darker spots; at a glance they might be mistaken for holes made by the worms, but in actuality they appeared to be markings on his skin. The fourth man is sitting against one of the thick pillars surrounding the fountain, bracing the floors above and the skylight; he is physically larger than the other two, muscular, with tanned skin and dark hair in a messy bun. His face is a mask of blood dripping down from his open eyes, nose, slack mouth, and ears.
Rounding the fountain, Samael finds the fifth individual to be a familiar sight. Cassius' ghost-pale son, Agent Alessio Caro kneels on the opposite side of the fountain, teeth grit as a chants over a roughly drawn blood circle on the floor. His arms are held out uselessly at his sides, blackened and burned from the elbows down. He is focused on the spell he is attempting to cast, his expression a mix of pain and fury, and he does not seem to have noticed Samael just yet.
Abruptly, a blast of harsh static blares over the speakers - it sounds like a song and also like screaming. It hurts Samael's mind to hear it, and it appears to hurt Caro's as well - the pale man flinches, the syllables of his spell hissing sharply past his grit teeth. There is a strange shift in the light, as if it is passing through water. Glancing up, Sam feels as if the skylight has gotten closer - there are, of course, still two more floors above - he can see them, but the skylight... it's strange, it feels like it has moved.
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As Stenson is looking for the gas line, the gory creature lunges for him again - perhaps it is trying to engulf him. He manages to mostly avoid it, but once again the sharp bits of bone in it's amorphous body slice through his clothing and score shallow cuts in his skin. He grabs a kitchen knife from a counter and strikes the gas pipe as hard as he can. The blade of the knife rips a jagged hole in the pipe before becoming lodged in the metal.
Abandoning the tool, Stenson scrambles back from the pipe and the monster. The gas fumes are making him light-headed. He needs to get out of here quickly.
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Kail hefts his sword, nodding to Moana as she tells him to look sharp. The pair of them turn to make for the sound of metal on metal. They cross the main hall - a glance to their right shows them the rusted, battered shutter that is propped open enough to crawl through. They can also see a few splatters of blood on the floor, as well as a bit of movement - someone walking? It is their destination but the clattering sounds are across the hall, coming from... an elevator?
Unlike the other elevators they passed, this one does not have an out of service sign. In the dark hall, the up and down buttons and the floor indicator above the doors glow like beacons.
They hear an odd scraping sound coming from within, and then, after a few moments, there is a *ding* and the doors slide open to reveal Casmir, his fingers on the "door open" button, a battered looking longsword in his other hand.
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Post by Pearl Dragon on Dec 19, 2023 14:17:41 GMT -6
[Boom]
Stenson gripped a nearby sizeable kitchen knife and immediately swung it in an arc, piercing the pipe he'd spotted as the kitchen's main gas line. If the stoves weren't already putting enough gas into the air, the sudden whooshing hiss of the gas line's punctured surface was sure to do it in mere seconds. Already the noxious smell of natural gas drowned the air around him, and he stumbled backwards from it as the vapors rushed out to fill the room.
His head swam dangerously as he moved in a drunken sway away from the pipe, away from the blob. He barely felt the creature's gnashing bone-like teeth grazing his flesh again as he pulled himself opposite from it.
He could try and escape, but as he turned to look around, the entire kitchen turned with him. His balance tipped and he fell sideways into a metal counter, sweating profusely and bashing his arm and elbow painfully off of the cold, hard surface. He felt sick and feverish. There was no way he could make it out, and as his vision blurred in and out of awkward focus, he looked at the blob creature approaching him. Reaching down, Stenson closed his eyes and took in the sounds around him. The hiss of the pipe, now effectively sealing their doom, and beyond it he could still hear that heavenly music. It seemed to fill his senses in that moment, and he wanted to stay with that music. To leave this place and see her. Who she was, he could only guess. Maybe it was Kit, maybe it was Kitty. Maybe someone else entirely.
His hand closed around the handle of the magnum at his waist and he pulled it, shaking, from his belt. He opened his eyes again, looking blearily at the broken pipe and pointed his gun at it.
The music sang to him in its heavenly notes. In his weakened mental state, he didn't even consider the magnitude of what would happen next. Only that he hoped it would help "her" in some way.
Stenson took aim through the dense gas before the blob could claim its prize and pulled the trigger towards the pipe.
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Post by NightshadeVII on Dec 20, 2023 16:34:11 GMT -6
(OOC: Recognizing Alessio, Samael asks if what the agent is doing and if he can assist)
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Post by Salandis on Dec 23, 2023 14:15:11 GMT -6
[Moana greets Casmir, heads towards that slightly open shutter towards the fountain]
Moana paused, almost in shock, as the lift door opened to reveal Casmir holding a sword. She raised the torch, could feel Kail tense beside her, and then she forced herself to relax. Of course it would be him that was still alive. Or maybe he had just been ditched by the others. Still...
"Still all you there?" She asked warily. "I think we can get through to the fountain from here. Might even have a chance at killing it, if it's some kind of siren beastie." She thought of the colossal spider she and Kail had just walked away from. "Going to need a hell of a lot of cleanup here afterwards though."
She would try and head that direction herself, keeping some (perfectly natural) distance from the hunter until he at least sounded human. Who knows what kind of stuff this place could do to the unwary?
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Post by luscen on Dec 23, 2023 21:24:44 GMT -6
[CASMIR greets MOANA and KAIL in his usual cheery fashion. He asks them if they found anything else useful, then proceeds to head to the northern shutter, towards the fountain while walking at their side.]
The doors slid open and Casmir gripped his blade, body tensed and ready to spring. That tension, however, was quickly disrupted by the sight of the two teenagers standing in the hallway on the other side, Moana hands very obviously twitching on the handle of the plasma torch. The Hunter could also see the glimmer of a blade in the wendigo's hand, the quality of the sword obvious to anyone with any passing expertise with swordcraft.
"Still you, there?" the maori-esque monster asked. Perhaps it was just his paranoia, but the scarred man almost though she sounded hopeful that he wasn't.
"As far as I can tell," he grunted, stepping out into the main floor and looking around. Apparently, judging by her further explanation, he'd somehow found himself on the opposite side of the shutters. The end was in sight, figuratively speaking, and yet Jones was trapped on the other side of the blockade. How would he get the Agent over here?
"Did you two find anything else useful on your little romp?" he asked, stepping even with them- for obvious reasons, none of them wanted the other at their backs, so he'd play nice, for now. "Maybe have an idea of what this fountain even is?"
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