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Post by NightshadeVII on Oct 8, 2023 15:49:18 GMT -6
(OOC: Sam heads into Dogz to let Kail and Moana know what he’s found. Also asks if either of them has a lighter.)
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Post by luscen on Oct 8, 2023 21:55:56 GMT -6
[CASMIR grapples briefly with the OLD WOMAN. He attempts to extricate himself and will try a sleeper hold on her if successful]
“Can’t imagine what’s keeping him,” the Hunter grunted in reply as he attempted to dislodge the old woman from his arm. She had a good grip, for her age; Casmir’s coat was buffering him from the worst of it, but her nails would have been digging into his skin without it.
Any other time, the Hunter might have been a bit more patient. As it was, though, he wasn’t of the opinion that the old hag was what she seemed, so he let his hands and arms go slack, attempting to back-step out of his coat and leave her open to get behind her and attempt to suppress her.
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Post by Salandis on Oct 9, 2023 2:25:51 GMT -6
[Half-OOC post. Moana notes that this door is locked, asks if Sam had any luck – and does happen to have a lighter, but the torch is better]
“Dogs in the dogz. Nasty shit.” Kail commented
“I don’t appreciate the pun.” Moana wrinkled her nose. She noted the door was locked, and was about to comment on what she had seen in the bathroom when Sam returned.
“The flashlight will be better than the lighter,” Moana added. “There was nothing in the bathroom – Well, an abandoned purse and a creepy written message in the bathroom. If we need more confirmation that this place may just eat people.”
She mentions seeing further staff room doors out in the main mall, now she was looking for them, but suggests going back to Sam’s discovery with a torch first. “And I have my wrench if we need to crush any bugs,” she grinned.
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Post by qhostqrowls on Oct 9, 2023 2:41:58 GMT -6
[Kail asks Sam and Moana what they found, suggests they explore the Happy Burger staff entrance, and begins to walk there]
Kail wrinkled his nose, glancing over the canine corpse with a look of disdain. He wasn’t exactly a picky eater, but dog-meat didn’t bring up particularly good memories either.
His disgust only deepened at the skittering of the insect, and he swore under his breath when the door proved to be locked.
Moana has slipped into the store at some point, and the wendigo conversed briefly with her, his eyes sliding to the door when motorbike-man walked through.
“You guys find anything more useful than a dead dog? Unlocked doors?” He questioned.
“I found a back area. It seems to connect some of the shops, but there was a stairwell and elevator as well. Would either of you happen to have a lighter?” Sam said.
“Nah, I got a flashlight though.“ Kail began to walk toward the doors, keen to leave the bug-infested kitchen.
“I didn't find anything, just a creepy message written on the mirror.” Said Moana. “I have a lighter, but the flashlight's probably better.”
“Let’s go check it out then.” Kail said, faux-cheerfully, his pace brisk as he headed towards Happy Burgers back door. A part of him hoped one of these joints was cooking with humans, but with how off everything was, he wasn’t all that eager to try out the food.
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Post by kilnarak on Oct 9, 2023 3:22:40 GMT -6
Stenson finds the storeroom is unlocked and makes his way inside. The interior is dark, but a quick search finds a working light-switch on the wall. With the lights on he can see a number of stacked boxes and bins marked for each shop in this section. Mostly it's clothing, but there are a couple of bins marked for the food court. Someone has left an energy bar atop one of them, wrapped in green and white packaging labeled "HEALTH+BAR." The boxes block line of sight to the back of the room, but maneuvering around them he finally finds an employee - a young man with long dirty-blonde hair is sitting slumped against the back wall, his head tilted down so that his hair drapes his face. His nametag reads: Zach. Should Stenson call for him, the man doesn't respond although he seems to shift a little. Perhaps he has fallen asleep here?
In the hall, Casimir is still busy with the old woman. The noises she has begun to make are guttural and animalistic, more sound and less word. She claws at Casimir as he attempts to grapple her, her nails shredding his sleeves and scraping his arms. He manages to slip her hold, losing his coat in the process. When he tries to get an arm around her neck, however, she jerks unnaturally out of his reach, roaring: "MY SON!"
In Dogz, Kail, Moana, and Sam regroup and share their findings thusfar. The bug-things seem to have made themselves scarce, and the scent of cooking meat has begun to become more a scent of burning meat - the corpse on the stove is becoming rather crispy, the red meat gradually blackening. Perhaps someone should turn that off?
But Kail is already moving, leaving the dead-end of this kitchen to head for Happy Burger next door. He sees the same cozy interior, and the same blood-trail behind the counter, leading through the kitchen to the door at the back. Once in the staff hall, his flashlight picks up a few spatters of blood that Sam had not been able to see in the dark - there is a smudge of a handprint on the door just to his left, and then a drip-trail leading down the corridor to the door labeled 'Stairs.' The poster on the wall actually appears to be another map, this one with the staff areas visible.
There are also holes burrowed seemingly at random along the walls. While most seem to be at floor level, a few are higher up. They're big enough that someone could stick their arm in, but not big enough to crawl through. Really, they look about the same size as the rat-bug he saw in the Dogz kitchen.
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Post by NightshadeVII on Oct 9, 2023 17:27:02 GMT -6
(OOC: Sam informs Kail and Moana of the rat bugs he saw here earlier and suggests they might be able to burn them if need be, as he has some oil. He then checks if the door to the stairwell is unlocked.)
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Post by Pearl Dragon on Oct 9, 2023 18:14:39 GMT -6
[Stenson absently takes the health bar, and finds the slumped figure. He transfers the taser from his backpack to his pants pocket and then tries to wake the kid up with a "Hello? Sir? Are you ok?"
Once again, the next door standing in Stenson's way was unlocked and opened easily. He was then greeted by an unusually dark room, at least for someone like him who is normally used to his night vision. Groping about in the dark, Stenson's hand felt a light switch and he flicked it on.
He looked around, taking in the shelves of boxes marked with whichever store they belonged to. From the top of one bin marked as food court supplies, a rather bright green wrapper caught Stenson's attention. He walked over and plucked the thing down, reading the label. "HEALTH+BAR". Interesting, he'd never heard of this brand before but maybe it was just one of those come and go healthy snacks that always cycled through the food market before being replaced by some other "healthy" snack bar.
Placing the bar absently in his pocket, Stenson followed the rows of boxes around, still trying to look and listen for any signs of an employee. The lights were out, so he was not sure he would find anyone, but he was also on the lookout for another phone.
Just then, a figure slumped against a wall nearly caused the officer to jump in fright. "What on earth..." Stenson whispered to himself, feeling silly for letting the one thing he was looking for to startle him. Although, he wasn't exactly expecting to find an employee in this state - slumped on the ground and laying in the dark. Were they sleeping? Was that even a natural way to sleep, head tilting down in that manner? More and more, Stenson was beginning to suspect that something about this place was incredibly off. Either this kid was just sleeping on the job, or something was very wrong. Sliding the backpack from his shoulder, he dug the taser out of the front pouch and into his other pocket, now feeling that whomever it belonged to wouldn't mind him using it in case there was some attacker lurking nearby. He was now also unsure about this employee, at least after dealing with the deranged older woman as well as seeing the completely oblivious bystanders only feet away in the store. People here were not behaving normally.
"Hello? Sir?" Stenson tried, his hand lingering beside his pocket and the other held in front of him almost as if he were trying to reach towards the kid. However, he remained where he was. "Are you ok?"
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Post by luscen on Oct 9, 2023 23:41:10 GMT -6
[CASMIR snatches his gun before the OLD WOMAN can grab him again. Taking aim, he fires a round between her eyes.]
Casmir had managed to get the crone to let go of him, for the most part; rivulets of blood ran down his forearm where she’d managed to catch him with her nails. The Hunter didn’t spare a moment, however, using his footwork to slip behind her. One good sleeper hold and she’d be out like a light.
Or, so he thought. The old bag’s head swayed around his grab almost like a snake, her neck undulating in a way that it definitely shouldn’t have been able to do. With another guttural, hoarse bellow, she turned on him again.
Fortunately, the Hunter wasn’t easily surprised. The moment she’d evaded his grapple, he was already crossing the short distance to his bag, swiping the gun from it and taking aim at her. Without deliberating a moment, the scarred man gazed coldly down the iron sights between her bulging eyes, and fired.
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Post by qhostqrowls on Oct 9, 2023 23:57:21 GMT -6
[Kail advises against burning the bugs just yet, and investigates the blood trail, holding both the knife and flashlight]
Kail swept the flashlight across the dark hallway, scrunching his nose up at the numerous bug-holes in the wall. Irritatingly, his eyes weren’t seeing through the dark like they usually did, and he couldn’t track the blood through scent, either. He’d have to use the flashlight to follow it.
“Look how many burrows they made, there’s gotta be hundreds of the little fuckers.” Kail said, speaking in a low murmur. “They ain’t bothering us yet, and I don’t wanna be trapped here if they get in the walls and the whole place goes up in flames. We can just stomp ‘em for now.”
Kail walked carefully down the hallway, following the blood trail. He went to push open the stairwell door with his shoulder, one hand holding the flashlight, the other the knife.
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Post by Salandis on Oct 10, 2023 1:29:34 GMT -6
[Moana does go back and put out the dog, returning to the group exploring the passage and relaying to them the sound of a gunshot that she had heard.]
Moana started following Kail, then paused. Her sense of smell was pretty terrible usually, but right now it was something that had gone a little beyond unpleasant.
She gently rested a hand on Kail’s shoulder. “Wait just a moment,” she said. “We left a dog on the stove, and if that starts burning…” She trailed off. Between the weirdness of the mall and the fog outside, a building fire would only make things worse. “Keep going, I’ll be right back,” she said, ducking back out into Happy Burger, hurrying back into Dogz. With quick efficiency she turned off the stove at the wall, used the wrench to knock the corpse into the nearest sink, and turned on the water.
It wasn’t until she was heading back around into Happy Burger that she heard the gunshot. “Shit,” she hissed, bolting back into the passageway, following the light back to the other two. “That was a gunshot,” she passed on to Sam and Kail. “If that was Casimir we either help or we stay out of sight for a while. Personally, I don't want to see what this place has for security.”
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Post by kilnarak on Oct 10, 2023 3:18:05 GMT -6
Before the group had gone far, Moana turned back to go make sure the stove in Dogz didn't catch fire. She finds the restaurant much the same as they left it, and heading into the kitchen, she catches sight of one of the big bug-things. It appears to simply be a big beetle, about the size of a large rat; it's carapace is thick and shiny black. It must have come out not long after they had left and was part-way up the oven, perhaps intrigued by the burning dog-corpse. At her entrance the creature seems startled, and it quickly scurries back down the stove and then under it, hiding in the space beneath.
The stove clicks off easily, although knocking the dog off of it is a bit harder. Bits of it have seared to the burners and when it finally comes off, it's in charred crumbling chunks. Once she has knocked it off and into the sink, Moana reveals a charred black pouch beneath it. Taking it, it feels like some sort of leather, and when opened, it appears to contain a number of thumbnail-sized gems. Had it been stolen from a jewelry store? And why had it been hidden under the dog?
When he checks the door, Samael finds it to be unlocked. The room it leads into is dark and the lightswitch by the door does not work, but there is ambient light above illuminating a set of stairs leading up to the second floor. The light filtering from upstairs is dim, enough to show the bare outline of the stairs but it's not much to navigate by.
Kail's flashlight does a better job illuminating the room. It sweeps over the stairs, but instead of focusing there, he points it back to the ground to follow the drip-drop trail of blood. It leads around the side of the stairs and into the dark space beneath and behind them. Usually such a space might be used for extra storage, or a place to hide trash bins. This space is empty save for a body, curled in on itself in the corner against the wall. It appears human, but it's skin is discolored purple-gray with rot and blood. There are numerous small holes in its skin and tattered clothing, and looking close Kail can see the worms that had dug them, ghost white and wriggling beneath the skin as they feast. They look more like pale earthworms than the maggots that might more commonly be found feasting on a dead body. In it's gnarled and bitten fingers, the corpse appears to be clutching something, something that gleams silvery in the flashlight's beam. A silvery length of jewelry chain? It's difficult to make out as most of it appears to be clutched tight beneath the corpse's fingers.
In the storeroom behind Hollister, Stenson addresses the young man slumped against the wall. The man - 'Zach' - doesn't answer, although he does seem to be trembling slightly. Is he not asleep after all? Aside from the trembling, he does not move or make any sound. At least he hasn't attacked like the old woman had, but he doesn't look like he'll be of much help either. Perhaps he's injured? But then why wouldn't he look up and acknowledge Sten? Something is definitely wrong here.
The gunshot is harsh and loud, echoing in the spacious hallways of the mall. The old woman lurches back as she is shot right between the eyes, her head snapping back with the force. She does not fall, however, and instead sways in place a moment before she rights herself. There is a hole between her eyes, bleeding black ichor, and something pale squirms in the newly made recess. She staggers there a moment, then with a garbled shout lunges at Casimir again. Her nails score his flesh, a much more painful strike than those previous. Even if she is still standing and dangerous, the gunshot does seem to have done significant damage to her - her movements are reeling and off balance, and black ichor oozes from the bullet-hole and from her open mouth.
In the wake of the gunshot, a hush sweeps over the mall, the music stuttering into hissing static. The lights flicker, then fully shut off, bathing the interior in darkness. The hissing static fades into a whispering noise that seems to sweep through the Mall, the words unclear but their tone sinister. Everyone hears it and has the sense that the source of the whispering is not the speakers but instead that there is someone close behind them. Then with a harsh click, the lights return to the main areas of the mall and the music resumes, perhaps a touch more garbled now than it was before. The presence everyone had sensed is gone.
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Post by qhostqrowls on Oct 10, 2023 4:38:06 GMT -6
[Kail uses his knife to try and get the silver item out of the corpses hand]
The wendigo paused at the gunshot, and the ensuring silence. It wasn’t a natural hush, and he shook himself like a dog as the whispering passed as of to rid himself of the tension in its wake.
“The Hunter is on his own.” Kail shrugged as he answered Moana, figuring she’d have a similar sentiment, and slipped into the stairwell.
The stench of death was like a slap to the face, but he followed the trail to the end, narrowing his eyes as he looked over the worm-riddled body.
“There’s a body back here,” He called, his voice hushed, and crouched by it to get a closer look. The blood had seemed relatively fresh, but here was a body that looked like it had been rotting for a week.
He’d touched enough corpses that maggots and other flesh-eating insects didn’t bother him. But with how weird everything here was, and how muted his supernatural abilities seemed to be, he wasn’t keen for any skin to skin contact.
The youth leant forward, reaching out with the knife to try and fish the silver chain out of the curled hands. He pulled his hand back into his sleeve, covering his palm with the excess material in case he needed to pry the fingers open.
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Post by Pearl Dragon on Oct 10, 2023 13:56:27 GMT -6
[Stenson retrieves his flashlight, notices the trembling and tries the kid's name to see if that might wake him. He is startled by the sudden gunshot and brief power outage, and very creeped out by the whispering too. Once the lights come back on, he is thoroughly freaked out and grabs some new folded shirts from a nearby stock box, tossing them at 'Zach', while saying his name louder. He is hoping this will be enough to get the kid to wake up and either show he's just sleeping, or otherwise confirm that he is hurt/unconscious in some manner.]
Stenson waited for any sort of response from the young man, but calling out seemed to do nothing at all. Digging about again in the backpack, Stenson then pulled the small flashlight out and clicked it on for a better look at the individual. The beam trailed across the figure and Stenson noticed the nametag 'Zach' before also noticing the shivering motions. Oh, something was definitely wrong here.
"Zach....Zachary." Stenson said, hoping maybe saying the man's name would rouse him from his stupor.
Just then, the sharp crack of a gunshot rang out from somewhere within the mall. Even being far away, the sound was so sudden in the silent tension of the storeroom that Stenson's entire torso seemed to jump in surprise. The flashlight he held slipped from his grip at his startled reaction and clattered to the floor at his feet. He swore under his breath and stepped to block the flashlight from rolling under one of the nearby shelves when suddenly the entire storeroom was plunged back into heavy darkness. With his already startled reaction, the power outage did nothing good for Stenson's quickly fraying nerves. He was now officially creeped out by this entire situation, and was more unsettled by his inability to see in the dark. The most he had was the narrow beam of light shining unhelpfully underneath the shelves while the dark smothered the area all around it.
Stenson froze in the suspenseful dark, arms slightly out by his side as if in balance, as he struggled to take in what was now happening. The upbeat pop music that had been droning throughout the mall had died to a static hiss, though it sounded far away from his position in the storeroom. The silence otherwise, however, was now deafening. At least until a whispering rose and could be heard above the distant static. Stenson felt the hair on his head stand on end from the sound of it, and chills ran down his shoulders and back in goosebumps as every nerve suddenly screamed at him to turn around. Whatever it was, he was suddenly VERY sure it sounded like it was right behind him. This at least broke him out of his frozen stance.
Nearly falling forward to bend down and grab the flashlight, Stenson stumbled a step or two, scooping the small metal light source up in one hand before fumbling into nearly dropping it again. He twisted on his heels, bringing the crooked flashlight around to shine behind him and on whatever he thought might be there. However, by the time he'd managed to straighten and steady the frantic beam of light, the whispering had quieted, and the storeroom lights began to pulse back to light before returning to their normal steady buzz overhead. Somewhere out in the mall, the static had returned to a less-than-great quality of pop music, almost as if the speakers were now struggling to keep their clarity. Not to mention, he thought he heard another shout from somewhere in the mall, the old woman perhaps but if that was her then she had strayed far from sounding even remotely normal...
Stenson turned again, with a new sense of urgency. He reached over, grabbing a box of clothing stock and pulled a pile of folded shirts wrapped in plastic from the box before under-hand tossing them at 'Zach'. They were light and soft enough that if the kid was genuinely hurt, they wouldn't do any further damage as they pelted his face and torso, but would definitely be enough to hopefully startle the kid awake if he was simply asleep and twitching about from some nightmare.
"ZACH. Hey ZACH, come on, WAKE UP! We need to go, bud." He said loud and clear, no longer wanting to be gentle with his demands. He waited for any sort of stir or response. If the young man was just sleeping, this was sure to wake him up, or otherwise confirm Stenson's suspicions that the kid was indeed hurt or unconscious for some unknown reason.
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Post by NightshadeVII on Oct 10, 2023 18:51:12 GMT -6
(OOC: Samael heads partially up the stairs to see if there might be anything of interest, but keeps within earshot of Kail, just in case.)
As the gunshot faded to silence and the light flickered back on, the world returned to itself slightly more off than it already was. It seemed it didn’t like being disturbed. Perhaps whatever was going on here was trying to preserve some weird status quo. And it seemed that this Casmir, which he assumed was the loud blonde, from how the two youths spoke about him, was trying his hardest to disturb that.
As his gaze landed on the corpse, Samael lingered for a moment. What a place to die. Curled up on itself like a roach, it was a graceless death, cruel and distressing until the very last. Wrong. However, the presence of the corpse only served to confirm his suspicions that his powers were bound; normally he would have been able to sense the corpse before even seeing it, and he would be able to tell if the spirit lingered, malicious or not. But instead, he felt nothing, the corpse might as well have been a cheap prop to him, and that thought was so fundamentally wrong to him. With the realization came a feeling of uselessness or lacking purpose. He watched as Kail reached out to try and fish the item from the corpse’s hands, keeping an eye out in case something should happen.
Keeping within earshot, Samael began to take a few steps up the stairs, seeing if there might be anything useful on the floor above.
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Post by luscen on Oct 11, 2023 1:12:35 GMT -6
[OOC: CASMIR takes the brief moment of darkness to slip north into THE GAP store, to try and evade the OLD WOMAN. Wary of more danger, he sneaks through the store to find another exit, and make his way to STEN.]
Casmir scowled as he watched the crone stagger, then right herself, a fresh bullet hole bleeding black as her eyes rolled back under their lids. It seemed that the standard methods wouldn’t do, here.
With a wordless howl, the old woman leapt, clawing the Hunter’s bicep with her nails as he grabbed the bag and rolled beneath her. He considered another shot, but hesitated; unlike a normal hunt, he only had twelve rounds. If he emptied them all here…
Just then the music went dead, the lights shutting off abruptly and leaving a deafening silence. Casmir immediately took advantage, darting north into the nearest store and moving as quickly as he could while keeping his noise to a minimum.
An eerie, unsettling presence seemed to be looming over him, even as he fled. ’Don’t look back,’ he ordered. ’Keep moving!’
He could hear inaudible whispers following him. Someone didn’t like the fact he was messing up this quaint little mall. Even as he had the thought, the lights flickered back on, the music following, sounding warbled and distorted. Casmir looked up, seeing he’d fled into the Gap, clothes and racks offering him plenty of cover if the grandma chose to follow him.
’I need to find Jones.’ The Agent seemed a bit “normal,” despite being a Super. He’d need the backup, and any experienced fighter would be a bonus to the Hunter’s own survival. So, wary of more surprises, Casmir made his way to the back of the store, looking for another exit.
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