She continued backing away at a leisurely pace, keeping an eye on the man as he slowly trundled forward, posing absolutely no threat to them at this point. She could only make out, through the cover of darkness, that he was a big guy. Compared to a lean young man, a little girl and the only adult here, he probably could take them on bare-fisted.
"It's...honestly a terrible idea," she admitted to Cole. "You've got no reason to fight him. Outpace him, and the city's nature will move him away."
Then her rescuer suggested much the same, with a light suggestion that she caught on to: This is a terrible idea, please come up with something else because I'm too dumb to figure it out.
Well, the issue is, mental representation of the man she was thinking about, that she couldn't think of anything either! The only idea so far was "Fly away" but unfortunately she had made an enemy of the one person who could do that. Not even counting the day's issues...
But, like often happens nowadays, Yoshika thought on her feet! She shouted to the other two, "Time our shots! We'll fire at them constantly, one after the other, alriiight?"
It seemed like they were doing a pretty good job of getting away from whatever it was, though Curly had to glance over her shoulder for just a moment to make sure she wasn't about to get pounced on by whatever it was.
She slowed to a stop where Morty was quite thoroughly freaking out, but Lewis only stopped for a moment before gesturing to her and him to get out of her while they could. "Sorry about your banana, Morty. But if you wanna rest you can't do it here!" With that she grabbed Morty and slung him over a shoulder in a fireman carry and started running down the new path after Lewis.
Except somehow the teen was heavier than she expected, odd after only a few days ago she was carrying another robot just like her with ease, but there wasn't time to worry about that now. "Lewis, what are you expecting to do with that paper that makes it so important anyway"?
THE SLORG!
When Cole stopped for a moment, Jason managed to catch up a bit, and as the boy started to back up, he suddenly lashed his free hand out, aiming to grab at Cole's neck.
With Cole backing up, this had brought them within view of the windows from the noodle shop, getting Rachel to swear under her breath and duck her head down. "Oh great, there's a cliche hockey mask and machete motherfucker out there. Just our luck." After her quip, she noticed what Ben was up to and moved over to grab a spare bottle herself. "Ben, listen" she began, speaking up a little bit more but still remaining quiet as she went on with genuine concern in her voice, "if today's like I think it is, then the usual heroics thing just isn't going to work, okay? If that guy comes in here, I want you and your friend to just run for the emergency exit in the back and just keep going. I know you're gonna want to stand and fight him, but I don't want you getting hurt for no good reason, alright?"
With that said, she moved back over to the window to see how things were going outside, clearly tensing herself up, ready for action.
The kids only vaguely seemed to register what Lucas was saying between their crying and screaming, haltering and glancing from Lucas to Jack with uncertain expressions on their faces. There was no vent immediately by the kids, with the closest being around eleven feet away, on the ceiling.
Meanwhile, Silanea paused her barricade work as she heard Sans' point, her expression dropping a bit. "Crap, I didn't think of that. You're right, we certainly don't want to be trapping ourselves in if it can get in here regardless" Silanea said, mulling it over for a moment before giving a long sigh and looking at Hobbes with a dour expression. "With how fast that thing was, I don't think there's any way we'd all make it. Which means our only other options are to have everyone run for themselves and see who's unlucky, or... Have one or two of us stay so that maybe the rest can get away" she stated, in the tone of someone who certainly doesn't like the options presented, but knows there's no other choice.
After the Grinch's suggestion, she looked to him with a raised eyebrow. "Huh? Well, there might be glass bottles in the kitchen, and I certainly wouldn't mind something I could throw at it" Silanea said, and started to slither that way while motioning to Sans. "Sans, come with me so I don't go out of sight" she told him, then more quietly added, "what's this 'aluminium' thing he's talking about?"
When Curly glanced back and when Lewis briefly looked back towards Curly, they both caught glimpses of Slendy off on the path behind them, nearly blending in behind an off lamp post or standing between a few of the overgrown trees. Both of them would, with these brief looks back, have their vision start to blur and have a terrible pressing feeling, which fortunately passed as they looked away.
Thus it was Morty who ended up much worse off, as Curly picking him up over her shoulder had him facing behind her by default. He kept catching glimpses of it, and with each the blurring and pressing feeling just got worse and worse...
The food stocked there was in the condition one would expect from being abandoned for about a decade. Most of it was a beyond recognizable thin layer of once moldy food that had decayed beyond even that, but there was one bag of oreos that was still sealed; the oreos inside were completely stale and had pretty much lost all their taste, but it looked like they might be technically edible. There was also a can of peaches that was probably much better off since it was in a can, if Calvin could just figure out how to open it...
"Hey, that's a good idea! And we won't be wasting shots by going at the same time!" Calvin of the Fanboys agreed as he kept moving. "Alright, so me, then you, then Melanie, then back to me, alright? Let's give it a try!" he said enthusiastically, pointing the camera back at the pursuing animatronics and taking a flash photo.
As the three started doing this in tandem, it seemed to work in getting the animatronics to fall behind them more, and after a minute or so, it became clear that they had been lost entirely through the city shifting. "Man!.. It worked!" Melanie said between deep breaths, then looked to see how Wander was doing with his broken arm, finally letting go of his other arm.
"Good thinking there, little not-vampire girl" Calvin commented to Yoshika, offering her a high five.
You are reading this.
For the Horde!
Ben frowned at Rachel as she asked him to just run when the bad guy showed up. "Is this because I'm a kid?" Ben whispered, sounding somewhat indignant. "That just because I'm only ten years old means I can't handle myself? That I should let the grownups handle it? Everyone here keeps looking down on me, trying to protect me, because they don't trust me to do important things! I'm tired of being told I'm too little to make a difference. I'm staying here and helping."
He sighed, angrily. "Besides, I wasn't gonna stand and fight if big and nasty came in. I'm not stupid. I was just gonna squirt him in the eyes and try to get away. You don't want me getting hurt? Well I don't want you getting hurt, Rachel. I refuse to let that happen."
edited 3rd Jan '17 8:04:25 PM by AllHailThrall
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.
Happy Box Hater
Shrimp Place
Lucas could see he wasn't getting through to the kids, which was just as well since they were far from the ven... WHAT IS THAT!? The vent was dark but his eyes had adjusted enough for him to see one definitive sign of danger: Movement. He pointed and yelled out as loud as he could "S-SOMETHING'S MOVING IN THAT VENT! GET AWAY FROM IT, NOW!"
He grabbed Tommy and Seirwuosuhr and started trying to lead them as far from the vent as he could manage. While some tact might have been useful, that wasn't working before and time was in short demand. So he had to hope they didn't struggle against him.
Why is a yam attacking me?
feeling blue
Sans simply followed Silanea as she instructed, carrying the chair with him all the way. He couldn't help but let out a chuckle as he heard her ask what aluminium was.
"aluminium is the stuff cans are made of, it's basically a type of metal," he explained as he went along with her, "and if somebody needs to stall for time and die here, i'll do it no problem," he added, making sure to say it all loud enough for everyone to hear him, his casual tone of voice contrasting heavily with what he was suggesting.
He then heard Lucas' yell and quickly glanced back at everyone, already preparing himself in case something came out of there.
edited 3rd Jan '17 8:16:52 PM by FullMoon
I just want to help!
He didn't know why he felt like he had to do this. Fight a person like this, someone armed and apparently at least somewhat prepared to fight, while he had his bare hands, broken ribs, and was still feeling dazed and disoriented from whatever had hit him previously.
The other two...weren't particularly interested in his plan to try and fight this person to retrieve his weapon. In hindsight maybe it had been a little much to ask of a couple of girls.
Still. He'd come this far. And a chance, almost invisibly slim as it was, would be better than none.
When the man snatched out as though to grab him, he didn't try to dodge away from the hand, but instead, dove forward, abruptly lashing his hands up, and abjectly clawing at the mask over the man's face, trying to twist it sideways and upwards, enough to block his vision. Even as he did that, successfully or not, he tried to stay to the side away from the hand holding the blade, hoping he was at too awkward of an angle to be readily stabbed at.
Arcade sighed in resignation when Silanea mentioned someone staying behind. Of course a suicidal fight was the only solution.
"If anyone has to stay here, I'll do it," he volunteered "It wouldn't be the first time I've abiit nemine salutato my mode of life out of a sense of duty."
At Lucas' cry he readied his frying pan and positioned himself behind an upturned table.
edited 3rd Jan '17 8:26:11 PM by Skooter910
I say that aloud too sometimes, just: "man, no life."
Shrimp Shack
Hobbes heard Lucas' yell too and began to panic. He thought about jumping out of a window and booking it on all fours but reminded himself that he'd be leaving children to die here. Besides, it was like that joke Calvin told him about being able to outrun a bear. You don't need to outrun a bear - you just need to be able to outrun those around you. Hobbes was fairly certain that as a tiger he could run much faster than all of these people around him. And whatever green thing the Grinch was. So he stepped closer to the vent and decided to bash whatever came out of it with the chair. Others began to speak up about staying behind and Hobbes was relieved.
"That's very decent of you!" Hobbes said admirably of the others but did not offer to stay behind himself. He had done his fair share of dying today, he felt.
Calvin
Stale Oreos were better than no Oreos, Calvin figurerd and took a fefwf bites out of some of the cookiees. He followed Plague Knight's advicie and kept silent and hidden, although that was more to avoid the knight giving him a beatdown than it was about hiding from any danger. Even with his best friend having been ripped open, Calvin still hadn't quite grasped the concept that every waking moment was dangerous today.
edited 5th Jan '17 7:01:53 AM by FantasyLiver
Whatever Morty was about to say next was cut off by a strangled yelp and a grunt as Curly hefted the boy up onto her shoulders and bolted in the other direction - and then Rick bolted after them.
From his (admittedly rather bumpy and jarring) vantage point, Morty thought he saw - well, it was some horrible thing, surely, it couldn't be any worse than the burger stall of horrors or the murderous Chuck E Cheese whatevers, so the waves of horror that were washing over him were battering rather harmlessly on the solid rock of pure pants-shitting primal dread that had haunted him all day and even longer. Somewhere behind him, he saw flashes of blue and white as Rick took off after the group.
"W-wait for me, you *urp* you - you're not supposed to split up in these kinds of situations!" he shouted, doing his best not to look behind him.
edited 4th Jan '17 11:08:55 AM by Locoman
Grinch - Shrimp Co.
"These monsters are hoping for us to spread thin,With all of us being separate they surely would win!
Those who stay behind can't help those who take off and leave,
and those who run won't be helped by those that they grieve!
I say we stay here, and I say we stay together,
I saw we all stick like we were birds of a feather!"
Then the Grinch he stood up and ahead the Grinch went,
he grabbed a bottle of sauce and threw it at the vent!
"Whatever is up there, go on and get down here now!
Show yourself so we know who, what, when and how!"
edited 3rd Jan '17 11:26:28 PM by nman
Jack stared slightly wide-eyed at the window where the... thing, had been pressed against a moment before. It was... horrifying, was the only word he could put to it. Even the monster from before didn't generate the same spike of fear in him from its appearance that this one did. That thing was what nightmares looked liked, and a tiny hysterical part of the former spirit's mind was thankful that Pitch hadn't been there to see it. "So... I suppose that is the doppelganger. It's, uh, interesting looking."
The screaming of the two kids snapped Jack back out of his staring, and he put on a brave face as he turned to face them. He strode forward, keeping his back straight and grinning, holding his sign. "Hey, hey. Don't worry. Yeah it looks a little scary, but it can't get us in here. And I've faced worse before. We'll all protect you."
When the other kid started screaming about the vent, the Guardian's head snapped up to look. Stepping around the three, as Lucas moved them away, he placed himself a bit away from the vent, but between it and the children, and slowly began to fall back; His gaze flickering between the two.
Noodle shop
For a moment, the thief stared in shock at the scene behind the window. There was a man with a large, long knife, and a mask — a mask which reminded Garrett of those worn by Keeper Enforcers to hide their no-longer-human faces. And that boy... It was Cole — trying to fight the man, throwing himself at this knife-wielding giant! The fool boy! Has this day deranged his mind?!
"What are you doing with these?" he whispered to Ben and Rachel, pointing at the bottles they were holding. "Is there anything sharp in this building, anything that could serve as a weapon?"
Tired of givin' up the ghost
Curly wanted to know what the deal was with this page. I had a pretty clear hypothesis that you've probably gathered by now but for god's sake the less oxygen I spent talking right now the better.
"I'll explain when we're not in mortal danger, ok?"
Somewhere behind me Rick was yelling at me for trying to split the party. He says to the guy who has been leaving people behind all day and been just fine, even saved by it. Well, at least he took me up on the suggestion to get the hell out of there.
I risked a brief peek behind me to see if he'd brought Morty with him, to find that apparently Curly had done it for him. Hey, as long as he wasn't about to die wait Curly was making him stare at it.
"Looking at it lets it teleport right to you," I said, realizing I'd forgot to mention that while rushing out of the booth a bit ago. "Curly, don't hold him like that. He's directly facing it."
I made a sharp turn around a corner.
moved to Oceanstuck because this handle was starting to bother me my tumblr
Web Spidus
While I was workin' on the barricade, everyone and their grandma was freakin' out over a vent. Maybe the spook snuck in while we wasn't lookin'? Some even say that they'll fight the spooky. Now that's mighty brave of 'em, but the spooks are purdy strong. So I stopped and looked for a place to hide while they was confrontin' that spook.
"Not splitting up was the idea, Rick!" Curly shouted back at the scientist as she continued to run, until Lewis mentioned this monster could teleport right before turning down another corner "That would have been good to know earlier!" That almost explained the weird feeling she got from looking behind her earlier, maybe.
She skidded to a stop just before the corner to quickly try sliding Morty into a piggyback position so he wasn't facing backward as she started running after Lewis again. Assuming a quick "Hang on" was enough warning to get the terrified teen's cooperation for the adjustment
THE SLORG!
Rachel frowned and looked back at Ben. "Ben, don't you get it?! Your watch is gone! There's no going hero and turning into a super powered alien to save the day right now! Right now you're exactly like any other ten year old kid; you're normal. And I don't want to see you getting hurt since you're a kid, and because we're friends!... Or at least, I thought we were" Rachel said to him quietly, shaking her head.
"Me, I'm used to normal; all today did was get rid of my gun. And I already consigned myself to maybe getting myself hurt for other people when I joined the militia" Rachel added, and was about to look back out the window when Garrett spoke up. "These? Deterrent" she answered, the pointed towards the kitchen in the back, "I saw some knives in there, but they looked rusted and dull; I didn't think they'd be useful"
Meanwhile, outside Cole's gambit to Push Jason's mask out of position was difficult with how firmly it was strapped in, but he did manage to budge it by about an inch and effectively blind the man. Staying away from immediately getting stabbed was also going well, but that still left Jason's other hand, which made a sweeping grab that got a handful of Cole's hair; however, between some of it slipping between his fingers and the rest tearing from Cole's head, Jason effectively lost the grip while Cole fell to the ground. Then Jason gave an angry growl as he paused to get his mask back in position.
"I see... He has a weird way of speaking" Silanea said, then turned and looked as everyone freaked out about the vent opening. Nothing happened, save for bits of moldy sauce dripping off it, Silanea stared at it and tried to work something out. "Vents... These are like, tunnels, in the ceiling?" she muttered, following the shape of the vents around with her gaze.
"I don't think it's still there" Silanea told them, her attention then snapping to another vent grate and adding. "Movement, that one!" she announced, then turned her eyes to another and added, "now there!"
Backing up a bit, she kept looking around at the vent grates and thought out loud, "It's stalking around us like a predator circling in on prey... I think it's playing with us."
As the group rounded a sharp corner, what they saw ahead of them now was one of the city balconies, with the cloudy sky-like dark abyss beyond. They didn't see any sign of their pursuer around at the moment.
Above them, the clouds parted to let the moon shine through, casting long shadows on the ground...
edited 4th Jan '17 9:45:25 PM by FirockFinion
You are reading this.
I just want to help!
The slightly mad scrambling actually achieved something...for both of them, as he let out a shrill yelp of pain when he lost some hair to his attacker's grasping before hitting the ground, wincing at the impact to his hurting chest.
Still, the man apparently was having to pause to adjust his mask, so that had bought him a second of time. Not enough to plan anything too elaborate, but fortunately, his body seemed to know what to do. Which was good because his mind was reeling entirely too much to be able to process much of anything.
He lunged forward, wrapping both arms around the man's shin, still staying away from the side of his body with the blade. With one quick motion, he both shoved his shoulder hard into the back of the man's knee, while yanking backwards with both arms at the lower leg, trying to throw the man's balance off and get him on the ground...with any luck. What came after that, he hoped he would be able to figure out when he got there.
If he got there.
Happy Box Hater
Shrimp Place-Why is there sauce in the vent?
OK, everyone was aware that it wasn't safe in here anymore. Problem was that the thing was way faster than something in such a confined space as a vent should be. If it was moving like that it probably could also shift things like joints in it's body, cause its form when they saw it outside didn't look like it would be good at crawling backwards. In fact, in such a diverse city it would probably have to be able to change its form almost completely to have a high chance of doing its doppelganging effectively.
He had managed to bring the children away from the vent, but he became very aware how many vents there actually were in this area. Too many. It obviously had the mobility advantage over them, and they were sitting ducks in here. If they wanted a chance they needed to get outside of this building. The windows were an available option, luckily. Lucas carefully examined the area by the windows for any section not near vents. He was looking for a possible escape route. If the monster did come down from the vents, Lucas would throw his stick as hard as he could at the windows to form an escape route.
edited 4th Jan '17 10:22:55 PM by pillowmantis
Why is a yam attacking me?
Grinch - Shrimp Co.
"There's no need to panic or cry, and no need to fear,There are plenty of reasons why it's not coming in here!"
The Grinch said cheerfully to his new friend Silanea,
Whose name the Grinch realized was quite hard to rhymea.
"Metal is strong, and if it's in there it's small,
It could be trapped in there and stuck in the wall!
It could be too big to slip through the vents in the grate.
It could be trying to scare and trick us to let it escape!
And that's assuming it's this monster or that,
and not simply a cute and innocent little rat!"
edited 4th Jan '17 10:14:46 PM by nman
But, she still had Ellen, who probably didn't share this strange desire and probably didn't have time to have it explained. So...she turned tail and ran.
More like a leisurely jog, you understand, but it was still faster than earlier.
She didn't offer any parting words to Cole, or to Ellen for that matter, only waving for her to follow as she escaped the scene.
She'd come up with a plan that worked, with no input from anyone else.
Yoshika wasn't even sure how to react to that, so she ignored that notion for a while when the guy congratulated her. Hey, this was that one guy, right? That one guy from yesterday that she met after she died? Well, that's nice.
Since the jiangshi wasn't sure she'd ever have the chance to do it again without breaking someone's arm, she launched herself for a full-body high-five...after carefully placing the boltcutters at her feet, because she only had two hands.
Now that that was out of the way, she asked, "Have you guys been to the library today? What's the deal there?"
Just another guy
Viola I Outside the Noodle Shop I Now Without Meatshields
Who would've thought that his plan actually works? Bring both the killer and himself down, he bought valuable time for us to escape. Not that we necessarily needed more of that, with how slow said killer's pace is. Still, I give it an average score for effort.
I followed after Seiga, leaving the boy to his fate. If he actually succeeds, maybe he'll return to us, with a new weapon on hand. If he doesn't...
It'll be a shame to leave such a useful, self-sacrificing person behind, but oh well.
"A post per day keeps the GMs away!"
Happiness is a cup of tea
Shrimp Co.
Oh dear lord, that monstrosity was inside already?! Specter Knight sighed as he leaned against the wall, nearby a window. The situation was hopeless, and that abomination probably knew it, given how it was currently toying with them.
"You're being foolishly optimistic, mortal.", Specter Knight replied to the Grinch, "If the noises are coming from a rodent, we likely would have heard them before that monstrosity noticed us.".
Besides, it's probably able to circumvent the grates..., he didn't add.
Somebody once told me the world was macaroni, I took a bite out of a tree
Arcade shot a withering glare at the tiger, then shook his head and looked back at the vents. He supposed if someone tried to beat him with a piece of wood he would probably share the minimal amounts of gratitude on display.
"Even if it's something other than the doppelganger, a fight with any creature is something I'd like to bypass while our only weapons are scavenged debris," he said, picturing the average rodent from the Wasteland.
edited 5th Jan '17 11:14:33 AM by Skooter910
I say that aloud too sometimes, just: "man, no life."
The couple of minutes I'd spent lounging around before getting this cursed paper hardly qualified as a satisfactory amount of rest, but I'd take whatever kept me from collapsing from fatigue at this rate. Tempting as it was, I knew better than to try looking back to make sure the others were following, so instead I stashed the page away to keep from dropping it and trusted the sound of running footsteps behind me.
Ahead was a run-down little tunnel that probably had some romantic purpose once. On a better day I might have run in to do some...redecorating, just to amuse myself. As it stood, wading through it seemed like a waste of time and energy, and possibly a means of setting off an unnecessary trap. I would've ignored it, except...
As I was about to pass the structure, the sound of running feet was suddenly replaced by the cries of someone who couldn't take any more of this. I spared barely a glance behind me where Morty was having a meltdown against the wall of the tunnel.
From the sound of it, Rick didn't seem to be helping either.
I feel you, kid. I feel you.
As I weighed my options, I realized I had stopped running unconsciously. Well, damn. Let's hope that wouldn't dick me over. While it pained me to admit it, staying here would probably just get us all killed. And then we'd have to come back here anyway since I'd lose the paper if that happened. And surely, being the guy with the page made me more of a target anyway, didn't it?
While looking around for some path to duck into, I said quietly "He's not gonna calm down from you hassling him. You either drag him out of here yourself or let him sit there..."
And then much more loudly, while pointing in Curly's general direction and then at myself, "WHILE I ESCAPE WITH THIS SUSPICIOUS-LOOKING DOODLE I JUST FOUND!"
At those last few words, I bolted for a medium-width path on the opposite side of the road from where those two were having their predicament, hoping that Curly would take the hint and follow me so that I had someone to toss the page to if it came down to it.
moved to Oceanstuck because this handle was starting to bother me my tumblr