Tired of givin' up the ghost
I could almost tell what it was. Not quite. Well, that was until the static cleared just enough that my concentration, fighting an uphill battle against the pain, was able to just narrowly penetrate it.
It had a clear oblong shape, and much of it was encased in a metallic-looking mesh that was silvery in color. A microphone...?
This whole setup...could it be?
If what had happened with that poor bystander's phone earlier was any indication, electronics were rather on the unreliable side today. But there had to be at least a few radios out there that would hold out long enough for people to listen in on them, right? Which meant...
I leaned away from the mic and turned once again to face what was probably Rick, trying to pick out anything audible under the assumption that my hearing was recovering at the same rate as my vision.
"...sten up. You gotta - you gotta go out there, y-you gotta find those pages and you gotta guard 'em with your life because *urp* they attract monsters, but they're the key to this, okay? It sounds stupid and crazy but this is how these things work, okay?"
He was already on it. He was already on it!
Somehow, I found the energy to give a whoop, throwing a fistpump into the air above me. The joy-powered burst of effort quickly gave way to me doubling over again clutching my gut with one arm and once more supporting myself against the panel with the other, from having obviously irritated it ("Ow, fuck."), but hell, a decent amount of the city was going to know the day challenge.
Why I cared so much about a dangerous challenge with a mystery reward I had no idea, but hey, it felt nice to have a bit of a victory after the semi-recent dearth of good things happening with me.
"And before you ask, yes, I'm aware that communication tools generally don't work in horror movies, so I'm just gonna KYUUURph broadcastin' this until I die or the kid next to me turns into a... demon... I dunno, okay? Find the pages!"
I happened somewhere near the end of that to remember something important.
"H...hey. How's that weapon you mentioned coming? On the off-chance that you...need it early..." I piped up nervously, at what felt like normal speaking volume but was just skirting the edge of audibility by my impaired observation.
moved to Oceanstuck because this handle was starting to bother me my tumblr
Bubba Grinch Shrimp Co.
"You're not coming in loud, you're not coming in clearly,let me just fiddle around with this radio somewhat sincerely,"
the Grinch said while giving the radio a look and a glance,
prying and fiddling with it as he hoped for a chance.
He used his Grinch smarts, he used his Grinch hands,
he used his Grinch brain to adjust the frequency bands!
THE SLORG!
As Rick's voice became more fervent, the static coming through seemed to grow, cutting off more of what he said. But through some repetition and persistence, one thing he was trying to get across came through clearly: Something about the pages was important. Why the pages were important or what one was supposed to do with them was pretty much completely lost, but anyone listening had most certainly picked up on that part.
Inside the radio station, there was then a loud POP!, and Rick's hand got a stinging jolt as sparks flew out of the radio he was working with. The radio was now dead in the proverbial water.
"B-but, yesterday I was in a place where the sun was going loopy. And the day before that, it was a place that was just metal hallways" Tommy protested more, rubbing at his face.
His attention was then caught by the screaming of Seirwuosuhr, whom after backing out of the bathroom building with Jack, slipped out of his grip and ran for it after whatever going on in there had terrified her so.
"See!" Tommy yelled, and ran off to go after her.
"C-come on, you can't-" the other Hobbes stammered, before going into a coughing fit and clutching himself.
"What? How are you certain?" Silanea asked Jack, before looking back at the coughing Hobbes and lowering her eyebrows, preparing herself.
The other Hobbes kept coughing, staggering forward a step. Then, quite suddenly, his hand lashed out and grabbed Arcade's arm; the other Hobbes stood up, showing his face starting to stretch out as his skull elongated. "Then I won't talk about it!" the Skin-walker declared, before lunging forward and plunging large, sharp teeth into Arcade's shoulder.
"Damn!" Silanea yelled as outside, Seirwuosuhr screamed and ran off, and the Skin-walker kept biting into Arcade's shoulder. Silanea rushed herself forward and threw a punch into its head, which only flinched it a little and then made it growl. Its other hand, the claws of which were now several inches long, came up and preemptively slashed at Arcade's arm that it wasn't holding in case he tried something; meanwhile its tail curved up behind it at the ready, slowly becoming covered in spikes with quick, sharp squelching noises.
Also outside, Lucas wasn't seeing any obvious vents or windows on the walls, but... Up on the roof, he could make out the shape of some kind of ventilation unit, and he couldn't see any way to get up there.
The girl's head flinched down as she suddenly got drenched, though that seemed to do little to change her overall appearance other than make the red stains on her dress stand out even more. With some excruciatingly loud bone popping noises, she leaned her back and neck back in a sharper angle than humans reasonably should be able to, letting out a loud, piercing shriek from her ghastly face.
Calvin's wagon was suddenly knocked over, leaving him fallen to the ground as Seiga and Viola made their escape. The ghost girl fell down to all fours, though did so backwards, and crawled towards Calvin like this at an inhumanly high speed, all her joints popping loudly and still screeching.
When Eve made her charge, that's when Jason suddenly decided to throw Cole forward as if to use him as a weapon. As Eve had hoped, the glass sharp plunged deep and broke into Cole's chest, killing him outright, but he had also been shoved right into her with unexpected counter momentum, knocking her over onto the ground as Jason took a large step forward.
Just as Cole's body disappeared and stopped hampering Eve underneath it, Jason stabbed his machete down, sticking it right through Eve's chest, through her heart and out her back, where it wedged into the ground.
Meanwhile, from a ways away Melanie continued to watch from their hiding spot. "Well there goes one- oof, make that two. That was brutal" Melanie commented as she watched the scene play out. "Well, they'll still respawn I think, so that's the good news" she added, only halfheartedly apologetic to Yoshika.
"You saw that place he was at, the bumper car ride? I bet his page is there. We've gotta get a hold of it" Calvin of the Fanboys pointed out.
"Dude you saw what was happening. That's motherfucking Jason; if we just try to go in there he'll pop up behind us or get one of us through a wall or something. What we need is a plan, or... A distraction! I got it!" Melanie said, snapping her fingers. "Here kid, do me a favor and take this bag, and make sure you don't lose it. I'm gonna want that stuff back" she told Yoshika, handing the younger girl a shoulder bag that contained her disposable cameras, the signed horse head mask, and various other things; she then looked to Calvin, "Calvin, give her the pages you got, then let's go make out."
Calvin looked, to put it bluntly, rather surprised. "What?"
"I said let's go make out! Haven't you ever seen a Friday the 13th movie?" Melanie asked him rhetorically.
"Of course I have, but I don't see what... Wait a minute" Calvin muttered as he started to piece it together.
"Yeah man, it's Jason. Two young adults starting to make out is like hanging a big neon sign that says, 'we're over here! Come kill us!' It's the perfect distraction!" Melanie explained, motioning with her hands around the imaginary neon sign.
"Wh- but- I'd rather not die horribly" Calvin retorted.
"Ah come on, when are we gonna get the chance to live out a horror movie scene like this again?" Melanie asked, then smiled cheekily as she added, "and I'll let you get to second base."
There was a brief pause as Calvin thought it over. "... Fine, but only if you take your bra off. I'm not doing this if it's gonna be PG-13" Calvin argued.
"Deal" Melanie agreed.
Calvin stood there, let out a quick sigh through his nose, then dug the four pages he had out of his pocket and placed them into Melanie's bag, along with his own cameras. "Remember, you're looking for a page like one of these, it should be a picture of the masked guy. It'll be in either a significant place or a hidden place, so start in the control booth and anywhere else that sticks out" Calvin instructed Yoshika, then started to follow Melanie as she was walking off to look for the 'perfect make-out spot' as she kept muttering to herself.
edited 10th Jan '17 1:39:23 AM by FirockFinion
You are reading this.
Gon, retreating
Dammit. That's not good.
Gon witnessed the demise of both Cole and Eve at the hands of Jason. Observing at how good he is in close quarters, this meant the idea of attacking him from the back may not be a wise option.
He began to get a sense of deja vu, reminding him of what happened in Los Angeles.
For now, he quietly slipped out, looking for another weapon to use as he tried to recon the area. Or better yet, a good distraction to keep him off balance.
edited 10th Jan '17 1:48:36 AM by Ominae
Screw the Lion!
The small group managed to successfully walk away from the strange little girl for a bit.....only to find her again by some circus tents.
Definitely not an ordinary little girl, the knight thought. Must be one of the hazards of the day. While this thing looked like a little girl, for all he knew it might be just as, if not, more dangerous then that monster with the acid blood from earlier. Thankfully, all it did was seemingly teleport from its previous to here, slightly closer to the group. It was highly doubtful it is a different little girl, possibly. Plague Knight figured if the teleportation and slight repositioning was some type of pattern, he surmised the group could continue walking away from it and letting it get closer until they can either negotiate or, if it came to it, attack it at close range -
"Get lost loser!" Calvin suddenly shouted before tossing a water balloon at the girl.
"NONONONO NOOOOO!" Plague Knight pleaded, but by the time he reacted the projectile already hit he creepy girl, drenched the thing head to toe.
"Boy, you phenominal IDIOT!!" the alchemist shouted at Calvin before joining Seiga and Viola in running, leaving the boy behind as Seiga accidentally kicked the wagon over. At first the knight felt bad for leaving Calvin behind like that, failing to stay and defend him like a knight should........but then he remebered Calvin repeatedly hitting him before, and suddenly the knight felt justified in leaving the boy to his fate which he brought upon himself.
"You implied that you have some knowledge of what we are facing, correct?" Plague Knight asked Seiga as the three ran. "Care to elaborate?"
"Well before, I did it with reckless abandon. Now I can't control myself!" ~ Jesse Cox, 2014
Arcade would have liked to say that he was preparing himself for the fake's attack, but that would be a lie. He let out a scream in surprise and dropped his makeshift weapon when its claws slashed at the hand holding it. Realizing that he was very much screwed he brought his knee up as hard as he could into the creature's stomach in an attempt to at least push it off slightly.
I say that aloud too sometimes, just: "man, no life."
Real Hobbes - Bathroom
"Told you I was real!" Hobbes shouted somewhat triumphantly as he went on all fours and dashed the fuck out of the bathroom where shit was about to go down. He and See were both safe and that was really all he cared about. He then ran towards See.
"We should go now!"
Spooky Area
Calvin just screamed and put the wagon on top of him, hoping it would provide some form of protection against whatever was coming at him. Then he tried inching forward underneath the wagon.
Still backing away, Jack flinched and began to shuffle back faster when the doppelganger changed; Latching onto one of the men's shoulders. His eyes widened, and his heart started to beat faster. Fear flooded his veins, and he stood paralyzed for a moment. This gave See even time to scream, and pull herself free from his grip, running off The Guardian turned to pursue her. "See, wait!"
As he began to move, he spotted Lucas standing nearby, and he quickly tried to grab the young kid's arm, and pull him along as he went after See. Regardless of if he went along, Jack had no choice but to go after the little girl before she got lost in the city, or worse, ran into another monster. Hearing a familiar voice behind him, he turned and spotted the tiger, the real one, heading towards See. He growled, and shouted back over his shoulder. "Leave her alone, Cat. You've caused her enough problems today."
Even injured, and not moving as fast as normal, the former spirit's long legs would hopefully quickly eat up the short distance between him and the child, and keep ahead of the tiger. If he could, Jack would move himself in front of See, and try to gently stop her, or at least halt her running.
"A spaceship? That's impressive" Curly continued to watch for signs of anything besides them nearby, other than the occasional scream of yet another victim of the day. "So you're his apprentice or something then? Don't think I've heard of anyone else getting to the city with someone from home"
edited 10th Jan '17 10:24:45 AM by BlitzTrain
Noodle shop
Garrett furrowed his brow. "Did you make out what this thing was saying?," he asked the other people present. "I thought I heard something about... finding... pages?" He shook his head, and muttered to himself: "This might be important... What the hell could this mean?... A book?... Every single day involves books..."
Meanwhile, Rachel requested a screwdriver, or even a knife if one was available. "Right," Garrett said, then headed into the kitchen and began rifling through the drawers. He chose two knives which both looked like they'd be fairly useful for the purpose, then headed back towards the storefront so he could give them to Rachel.
In between breaths, she gasped out "They don't stop, *pant* they have to kill who did them wrong, *pant* their malaise curses the ground for generations!"
Then, because a proper murder requires some good acting on her part, she looked down to Plague's backside and then back at the overturned wagon. "You left the kid behind?" she shouted in shock.
...But, not like they left her with any choice. Yoshika made her way to the bumper-car rink as requested, and then tried to see if she could get into the control panel, crouching and doing her best to keep quiet.
I just want to help!
At the bumper cars, only a second longer
The pain was unbearable, debilitating, there couldn't be anything else but it, it was too much, too much too much...
The girl dove at him, and the man pushed him forward, and there was one last, barely even noticeable addition to the pain, a sharp jolt and a wet sound inside his body less than inside his ears...but then it was as though it was gone, everything was gone, where did it go, what happen-
Outside a particular shrimp restaurant
The sensations of confusion and pain gave way to those of grit and chills, and within a second, Cole raised his head from wherever he was lying, blinking a few times, shaking his head to try and clear his head. He was lying more or less facedown in the dirt, outside of a strange smelling building, with lots of racket and noise going on around it, inside it...near it anyway.
He stared towards it for a moment, blinking slowly. He didn't hurt anymore, not really. Faint phantom fires still burned thoughout his body, still reminded him of the pain that had just been there mere instances ago. But they weren't real. Not like him, right now. He was real. Only real so the hurt would stick, so the despair wouldn't fade, wouldn't go from weakness to power. Only real to be in pain. That's what the Writer wanted. Pain. Nothing but their pain, but their destruction.
Maybe he could...maybe he could do that. Maybe that could help. Maybe with enough pain from him, the Writer could be satisfied, he could let the others go. Maybe that was the most compassionate thing a human who was no longer Compassion could do.
He slowly, carefully started to get to his feet, head hanging, limbs nearly limp, barely holding him up, starting to lurch towards the building. It seemed as though he were heading for the nearby unblocked entrance, though he was moving rather slowly even as he did.
edited 10th Jan '17 4:23:38 PM by ColeMinor
feeling blue
Seeing the kid run off outside after hearing the girl scream, Sans began giving chase, being careful with the glass shards on the ground.
"kid, come on!" said Sans, sounding very clearly annoyed.
Upon going outside, however, Sans came to a stop once he spotted a familiar figure on the side. The way he was basically slumping towards the building almost made Sans think he was some zombie at first, but closer inspection revealed that it thankfully wasn't the case.
"... cole?" he said, sounding surprised, mostly because of how the kid was looking right now.
edited 10th Jan '17 4:29:35 PM by FullMoon
Happy Box Hater
Bathroom-Following the little girl now
From the sounds of it, the situation inside had just gone sour. Lucas could see that barricading would be a waste of time, seeing as there was apparently a vent on the roof. He didn't know if there was a way to salvage this.
Then he realized that See was doing the worst possible thing: Running off alone. He went into a building on his own earlier, and that didn't end well. Lucas was about to start running after her when Jack started trying to make him... run after her. As he was going to do that anyways, he went along, still holding the handle of the broom.
Jack wasn't exactly being nice to the tiger. It was understandable, but Lucas didn't like the idea of putting him down for doing what he thought was the right thing. But he knew there wasn't time to stop and calmly work through personal issues. And so he ran.
Why is a yam attacking me?
someone
Eve|Buggered If I Know
It cut through her like she was hot butter. She had a brief impression of hitting the ground, a weight on top of her. Then there was blackness.
She was lying on the ground. She didn't recognise anything, so she hadn't been here before. She felt numb, unfeeling, as if she was floating. She had killed someone.
Of course you did. Demons exist to kill humans.
She's not a demon. It was kindness. He was going to die even more painfully anyway. Almost unconsciously, her hand drifted to where the hook had punctured her lung.
What about your choice? Freedom, and all that. Didn't you decide not to kill people?
...
What about your partners?
"Train, Sven, forgive me."
Do you really think they would?
"please."
What about the person you killed?
Cole?
Do you really think he'd forgive you?
no
What about your friends?
...
What happened to the last friend you had? Not Train, or Sven, they're your partners. The last actual friend you had?
He died.
You killed him. Torneo asked you too, so you killed him.
yes
But I've changed since then.
Clearly not.
...
Eve lent against a nearby wall, and clutched her legs to herself. She would look normal, but behind her eyes, something had shattered.
[TOP SECRET]
THE SLORG!
That horrible noise came up to the overturned wagon quickly, then abruptly stopped. After a moment, there was a thump of something on top of the wagon, and it stopped as well, being forcibly held down, trapping Calvin underneath it.
There was a good five seconds of silence, then, thin strands of black hair started to creep under the four edges. The wagon started to very slowly start to tilt up, and in the gap starting to open on the front side, Calvin could start to see the ghost's face turned sideways to peek under at him.
The Skin-walker let out a grunt and took a step away from Arcade, though took a few small chunks of his shoulder with it. Its tail whipped around and slapped across the back of Arcade's legs, stabbing the spikes on it into his flesh.
"Get him out of here!" Silanea tried to yell to Forrest over the screaming, since he seemed to be the only other person who hadn't already run for it. She then moved forward, clearly intending to fight the Skin-walker, who faced her and crouched down at the ready.
Seirwuosuhr couldn't outrun Jack, though didn't seem to notice anyone else calling for her until Jack was suddenly in front of her. She halted, though was crying and hysterical. "I don't like this place! I wanna go home! I want mommy!" Seirwuosuhr wailed, bawling out her emotions like only a little kid could.
"See? What's happening?" Tommy asked as he caught up with them, a little out of breath.
"I don't know what it means, and I don't particularly care. All I want to do is take these kids to somewhere safe to hide and wait it out" Rachel said, accepting the offered knife and carefully placing the end of it into the screwhead before turning it to unscrew it.
Once she had the panel open, she quickly swapped the batteries for the one in her walkie talkie, and tried it again. "This is Rachel of the militia, can you hear me news station?" Rachel asked into it, receiving only sputtering static. She switched it to the militia channel and tried again to much the same effect, then sighed. "Nope, not the batteries, it's just buggered. I guess I was wrong" she muttered, putting it away.
"Alright, let's get out of here" Rachel told Ben and Caro, then looked at Garrett. "If you're coming with, just stay quiet. If not, then good luck to you" she offered to the thief.
As Yoshika crept onto the bumper car rink, all seemed quiet until she heard a loud thump followed by heavy footsteps. Fortunately it was right as she was passing by a bumper car, so she could use it for cover as Jason stomped around the rink, his head turning back and forth, clearly searching.
It seemed increasingly likely that he must've known she was in there somewhere, just not where exactly, and was going to find her if she wasn't careful... Until suddenly he stopped and straightened, before turning to face towards somewhere outside the rink. Somewhere in the distance that way, Yoshika could faintly make out a slight yelp from Melanie. "Jeez Calvin, your hands are cold!" Yoshika could barely hear from where she was.
Though his pace remained the same speed as always, Jason marched off that way with an as of yet unseen determination in his posture, his usual heavy stomping becoming more silent for no evident reason.
You are reading this.
I just want to help!
Cole stopped his slow movement, though he kept his gaze on the ground, just sort of weaving a little where he stood, as though his legs could barely hold him up. "He wants us to hurt...that's all this really is...he wants us to hurt, he wanted me to be real so the pain sticks more. Wants us to suffer, wants us to..."
He started to pick at the bandages around his hands, perhaps a little harshly, as though trying to rip them off. "I need something...I need something sharp, I need to...if I do enough he'll leave you alone...he has to...it has to be something I can do to help...if he wants to hurt I can hurt for him, if it will save you all I'll do it, I'll save you, I swear, I can, I can do it, I can I can I can..."
"Fuck!" was all Arcade could say as he felt the monster rip chunks of his shoulder out. This level of pain was nothing new (he'd fought deathclaws for fuck's sake) but the lack of chems was. He fell next to the pan and grabbed it with his left hand, after dropping it once due to the blood on his right hand. Instead of grabbing the handle, however, he grabbed it by the pan. When the creature slashed at his legs he knew that he had no chance of getting out alive, so he decided to just expend what little energy he had left in a last ditch effort to buy the others time.
He was going to do something stupid, and that was saying something given that he had followed a complete stranger into the Wasteland. He gripped it tightly and used his other hand to grab the monster to keep both of them as still as possible, then attempted to ram the handle into its eye, or whatever passed for an eye at least.
edited 10th Jan '17 7:28:34 PM by Skooter910
I say that aloud too sometimes, just: "man, no life."
Akuma Shogun
Suddenly, one of the tiger men turned into a spook. I forgot what happened next, but the snake lady told to me to run. And that's what I did. I put my runnin' skills to use and followed the real tiger man and whoever was followin' him outside.
Calvin - Overturned Wagon
Calvin let out a word that would have gotten him grounded for a week by his mother before he pushed up on the wagon that was already being pushed up by the monster, hoping that would knock it off of him. If it succeeded, he'd start booking it as fast as he could for the nearest building.
If it wasn't successful, he'd just stay under the wagon and lash out with his feet at any tendrils of hair that came at him. But also the freak-girl's eye. That looked like a promising target. Calvin was frightened out of his life but his desire to annoy still was at the forefront of his mind. If this thing was going to take him down, then he'd try and make it as irritating of a chore as possible.
Hobbes - Running Away From the Bathroom
See halting meant that Hobbes was able to catch up. Baring his fangs at Jack but not growling, for fear of frightening See further, Hobbes spoke.
"Well excuse me for not wanting to die a second time today! And if you hadn't noticed, both the kids are alive!" Hobbes shouted at Jack before picking up See and continuing to book the hell away from the bathroom.
feeling blue
Hearing what Cole was saying and what he intended to do, Sans just stared at him for a bit, the only movement being the occasional blinking. Eventually he sighed and walked over to the spirit, giving him a hug.
"i swear, every time we meet up you're freaking out about something," he complained jokingly, "what happened with you?"
I just want to help!
Cole didn't really respond to the hug for a moment before slumping to the ground, almost toppling over Sans as he did, just ending up kneeling on the ground, doubling over as though in pain, wrapping his arms around his stomach. "I...I just wanted to help...I just wanted to help...they just...they just keep hurting me...I wanted to stop a war...I wanted to get a weapon, he...h-he carved into me, threatened a girl, she...she tried to help me...she...she is probably dead...he probably k-killed her...cut her apart as he cut me...I just wanted to help...i-it...it hurt...it hurt, it all hurts...he made me a human and then he hurt us all...she made me a human and then she let us hurt...they just...they want to hurt us...all they want is to hurt us..."
He just rocked himself, still folded up, though since he wasn't bloody or bruised whatever pain he was feeling was most likely not physical, at least at this moment.
"I...I-I j-just...I just wanted to help...I just...just wanted to help people..."
For the Horde!
Ben nodded at Rachel, putting his own walkie talkie away. "Right. Lead the way, Rachel," he told her. It was clear his heroics would be no good here, and he decided that he would stay close to her and try and keep out of trouble for the time being. At least for today. He handed her the plastic forks that were in his pocket. "I grabbed these in the noodle shop. Maybe they'll help," he told her.
edited 10th Jan '17 7:49:05 PM by AllHailThrall
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.
feeling blue
Sans kept hugging Cole, though he made sure there wasn't anything that wanted to kill them coming over. Especially considering that freaky abomination was still out there.
"look, today sucks for everyone. i know you really want to help people, but fighting is not going to work today. nobody has powers, who knows how strong those freaks are... today it's better to run and help people escape, trying to fight is only going to get you hurt like that." He sighed. "stay with us, ok? we need all the help we can get to make it through this day alive, and you're one of the few people here i can trust."
Eve|Being confronted with a beautiful work of art
Eve's eye widened in horror. She didn't know what to do. This monster was presenting her with a bleeding-out body like he was looking for approval. And Cole was screaming. Eve staggered back. She wanted to lash out, but she couldn't afford too. She had failed. Cole was going to die. Even if she managed to get him out of there, he would bleed to death, and there was nothing she could do to help him.
There was one thing. But she couldn't. She owed it to her partners. But Cole was dying a painful death, so she readied herself and the glass. She stepped forward again, still out of machete reach, but closer than she was. She tried to keep her voice steady, even, gentle, like facing a wounded animal.
"Cole, look at me. Calm down."
Then, if she wasn't stopped, she'd step forward quickly and stab Cole, aiming for his heart, before getting out of Jason's reach as fast as she could.
[TOP SECRET]