MISSION 2.A

[adsum]

Participants: Shin, Sidney, Hajun, Atsushi
Location: Fourth Floor
Date: 08/08 - 08/14

(ooc notes: I will state any possible content warnings in the subject line of the mod response when it comes up. If anything makes you uncomfortable, please tell me so I can back off and refocus the thread.

There will be no tag order, and a mod response will come after at least 4 player responses 3 player responses OR the next day, whichever is earlier. Please note this means that if you're absent for a day or more, the thread will move on, but I will pace things so that people aren't missing large plot beats.)

Comments

[adsum]

[ There is no sign of life from the body on the ground. It's a small body, a little girl from what's left of her face.

There is a pot of grits with bits of sausage on the stove that's mostly stuck to the bottom of the pot by now, but Hajun prevents a house fire by shutting off the stove.

Sidney glances out the window, just in time to see a man standing outside the door— there's a click, and regardless of any prior warning Sidney may be able to utter in that split second, the door swings open and a man with a rifle nearly runs into Shin. He stumbles back in surprise, lifting the rifle off his shoulder as a warning for apparent trespassers in his home, when his eyes fall upon Atsushi with his hands wrapped around that axe.

"M-murderer!!" the man stammers, swinging the gun past Shin and towards Atsushi, and pulls the trigger. ]

[thetyger]

[Oh shit.]

[notsosou]

[Shin is definitely not expecting someone to come in the door just as he's heading towards it, mutually stumbling to the side in surprise.

His blood's been replaced by pure adrenalin; as the gun swings past him he pushes at the long barrel with both hands along it's arc of motion. It doesn't occur to him to try and grab it, the only thought in his brain getting it out of the way of Atsushi.]

ORIIIII

[wolfetracks]

( FUCK

yeah no sidney is gonna try to yank atsushi out of the way, pulling him back by the collar. teamwork makes the dream work, yall. )

[rhymed]

[ Hajun is staring at the contents inside the pot, thoughts coming to an abrupt halt when the door swings open; from mundane to chaotic. His eyes widen, gripping the handle of the pot and dumping the contents inside the sink, rushing to the living room and witnessing the sudden attack.

Depending on how things work out, he's just going to draw his arm back and throw that pot straight at the distressed stranger. ]

[adsum]

[ first you kill my DAUGHTER, next you toss out my DINNER????

It would have been real funny if Shin moved the man's arm in the exact same direction Sidney yanked Atsushi away and he got shot anyways.

But, alas, the gunshot rings in the air and blasts a hole in the wall behind them, the man nearly dropping the rifle in surprise. ]

-—Explain yourselves, before I blast your heads off.

[ Despite the warning, the quiver in his voice betrays the fear also apparent in his eyes, face pale and hands shaking as he takes a step back away from Shin, rifle lowered somewhere around his midsection but primed to raise and shoot again if need be. ]

i finally get to break out the jazz hands yessssss 1/3

[notsosou]

[At times like these Shin's mind just goes brrrrrrr with options. Not necessarily helpful ones, but you know, options. Most of them featuring ways this could go extremely and vividly wrong.

He thought he'd gotten used to fearing for his life but there's something very visceral about a gun and he's going to be shot again, isn't he. He's been living on borrowed time and those bullets still have his name on them. He can feel them lodged in his lungs. His grip on his composure, such as it existed, slips it's cog completely despite himself.]

YOU SHOOT AND THEN SAY THAT!?

2/3

[notsosou]

[...]

3/3

[notsosou]

Blood! It'd be all over us if we were who killed her!

[The box is rattling under all the fear pressing down onto it. He can't afford that right now.]

[wolfetracks]

He's correct. We... aren't sure how we found ourselves here. But we didn't do this.

( because who the fuck's gonna believe they came through the mirror? but jesus christ, this is a mess. still, sidney is nothing but a calm man. )

He had his hands on the axe, yes- to take it as a weapon, should whoever did this be around still.

[adsum]

[ The man seems to waver, but sets his jaw because they're lucky he even gave them a chance instead of letting the bullets fly. ]

"Aren't sure how we found ourselves here"— that doesn't make any sense! I told her to lock the door, and I was only gone half an hour. I saw no tracks outside, and I would not have missed so many people [ he hasn't even noticed Hajun yet, god ] passing me by. Why would whoever— whatever— did that leave the axe behind?!

[ Also since Atsushi dropped, he'll be npc'd and killed at the first opportunity. Just as a head's up. Sorry. ]

[notsosou]

[F's in the chat for Atsushi...]

[How do you even explain 'we came out of a mirror somehow'. Shin... suddenly has some horrible suspicions stack up on top of each other like a jenga tower. The blood started in her room. If the murderer came out of the mirror before them... and the door was locked... and there were no tracks outside...

...the chances of them still being in the house were already high enough to be concerning, but now they skyrocket. It's a suffocating feeling already without the current situation coming from the other direction, but he regains enough of a grip to wrench himself back into place, fast enough to disconcert. It's disgustingly easy to fall back into the waiting arms of someone who wouldn't be freaking out.]

Hey, doesn't that mean you could have missed one person?

[Please let him be wrong and whoever it was have jumped out a window or something, but also please look at this topic mister gunman, forget about us maybe someone who wasn't a group got past you. Forget the axe, the axe doesn't matter. It really doesn't.]

[wolfetracks]

( whatever sidney's about to say dies because uh. 'sou' has an excellent point, jesus christ. as if he wasn't already on edge. either someone did get past the man, or they aren't alone. instinctively, he draws a hand down his face regardless of his glasses, hiding a worried frown.

well.

fuck. )

[rhymed]

[ Hajun isn't within the room, but he overhears the conversation. Striking him odd that any noticeable tracks weren't spotted by -- from what he assumes -- a skilled hunter.

He let's go of the pot handle, instead he searches the drawers for a towel to use as a safeguard before he grips the shard of glass he's hidden in his pocket. It'd be better if one of them would at least mention that, aside from their knocked out friend, he's here...

Or maybe it's better if they didn't. He'll use the kitchen as a means to arm himself, searching for a knife or something.

Also F Atsushi someone save him he's a little boy. OH GOD THAT BOY DEAD. ]

[adsum]

[ The hunter seems to come to the same conclusion that there might be something left in the house, and somebody please tell him Hajun is there before he makes it to the kitchen with his loaded gun and trigger happy finger. ]

...You three. Come with me. Stay in my sights.

[ He nods for them to walk back into the house before him, under threat of the gun, so they don't try to bolt while he's combing through the house. Atsushi is a dead man, he scrambles to his feet and is the first down the halls. ]

[rhymed]

[ This sounds like a lot of trouble! Good luck, gang! Hajun's gonna try to find a knife as an extra precaution! ]

[notsosou]

[Three? Wait, hang on... Hajun stop looking for weapons and get over here so you don't get murdered.]

Four. There were four of us... Where'd...

[His head swivels as he turns to look around the room more, skipping his gaze over the body like a stone. He lost track of where the bowl cut guy went in the face of everything proceeding to happen so much and all at once. What is he doing? ...is it something suspicious, or did he get got? These are not great possibilities.

Also not great... walking forward into danger at gunpoint. His arms half-raise up to his shoulders automatically, looking calmer about it than he feels. It's like he can feel a red hot spot burning into his back. And then Atsushi runs.]

...!

[He doesn't have a name to call out here.]

ya amitys tired af

[wolfetracks]

If he's hurt...

( if something can do this to a little girl and go unnoticed in 30 minutes, what could happen to another person while everyone else is distracted? after the things he's seen at the manor and in yogen, he could believe it. he just hopes he's wrong--

--and then atsushi bolts, past his grip before he can stop him. )

Hey!

cw: death, gore

[adsum]

[ No, Hajun has the right idea of hanging back and arming himself, because he's the one who gets to see clearly the moment Atsushi passes by the kitchen: something large and black meets Atsushi head-on, a jaw clamping down over half of Atsushi's head and crushing the skull like a walnut, one eye left staring while a jaw snaps his arm into three pieces, a jaw and another taking opposite sides of his torso and tearing his ribs apart, jaws that pull organs out of the body, ripping them open, blood and bile thick in the air, jaws that devour, jaws that howl, jaws with gleaming teeth bared at the arrival of new prey.

Hello. Meet the Big Bad Wolf. ]

[notsosou]

[THAT'S SURE NOT ONE PERSON. THAT'S NOT EVEN ONE WOLF.]

[Shin is silent. He was silent when someone was decapitated in front of him, when two people bled to death in front of him, and he's silent now, a glaze to his teal eyes. The buzz of his thoughts has flattened to dead air.

He takes one slow step back.]

[wolfetracks]

( unfortunately, sidney is rather used to monsters- though this is a bit above his paygrade, he'll admit. but there's an axe still, unfortunately stuck in a child and he hates that it feels necessary to disturb her further, but sidney is going to grab that axe regardless of what the hunter may want or do, because it's the best bet he's got and he's not sticking an axe in shin's programmer arms.

but that- why was there a weapon left behind, then? if the beast is like this, why- no. later, if at all. right now, survival.

seeing the look on shin's face, sidney steps in front of him slightly. )

[rhymed]

[ Hajun peers up when he overhears the sound of footsteps rushing past the kitchen. His heart stops, eyes growing wide as he watches the giant black blur chase after Atsushi and tear into him; full of spit and teeth, clenching muscle in it's maw and pulling on it relentlessly. Tearing into his stomach, white -- what he assumes to be bones -- poking out from mounds of flesh that has his stomach twisting with disgust.

That pot that man had his food in? His vomiting into it, unable to bear witnessing a death so gruesome. Knees shaking, he ducks behind the kitchen counter -- fuck, he's gotta do something... but he also can't think?

The fridge... maybe he can distract the dog with something in the fridge. Where's the beef -- ]

[adsum]

[ There are packages wrapped in wax paper bearing the words "rabbit" or "deer" inside the fridge, as cows are not native to forests, but there's meat if Hajun wants to tempt the wolf closer to him. Each of its many heads takes turns biting at what's left of Atsushi, sometimes pulling towards Hajun, sometimes towards Sidney and Shin, towards the hunter behind them who raises his rifle and fires a bullet through one of the wolf's many eyes. The other eye, the heart, he fires as fast as he can reload, shouting over the blasts: ]

Fight with me if you can! Run away if you cannot!

[ Otherwise, they would accomplish nothing more than getting in the way, with the wolf snarling and shaking off the gunshots, snapping Atsushi's jaw and scattering bone and teeth as it steps forward and makes a lunge for Sidney who is the closest. ]

[notsosou]

[Shin blinks and glances up as Sidney steps in front of him, expression unreadable. There's gunshots, a shout...

What's that saying? You don't need to run fast, just faster than the slowest person? He feels familiar bile even thinking it, but there's nothing keeping him here... everyone else is far more capable of fighting anyway... Except, where did that axe come from?

He's darting backwards, behind the gunman and out of the line of fire. This already worked once before, although there's so many eyes. He takes out a laser pointer, not caring about the colour, and attempts to shine it in the wolf's eyes through all of the motion going on. He's frantically trying to think. ]

Bullets aren't working on this thing... we need something else!

[Is there a fire going anywhere in the house?]

[wolfetracks]

( as it lunges, sidney brings the axe down as hard as he can before jumping out of the way. it's been too long since he's moved like this- he's tried to keep in shape since quitting his old job, but it's not the same thing. especially after months in this hell, where the best they have is standard classroom equipment.

but if this thing is shaking off bullets- where did the beast even come from? )