70. [DREAM/DREAM/DREAM/DREAM]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[So while the rest of Johto alternately panics, cries, or rushes around trying to capture as many of the soulstealing insects as possible, there are dozens of souls floating around in that dream limbo, drifting in and out of each other's slumbering thoughts and visions. Whether it's nightmarish flashbacks or just those dreams where you're at school taking a really hard test, and then Dracula shows up, and then everybody's naked ... anything is possible when it comes to what people see in their sleep.]

[But what appears in the darkness in this particular spot in the spaceless, shifting mass of dreaming souls... is a door.]

[It's old, and covered with boards and bolts, rusted near-through in some places. The lock is broken-- mangled and half-melted and wrenched out of the keyhole. The only thing on it that doesn't look ancient is a scrap of torn notebook-paper that's taped up on it at roughly eye-level. It reads only a single phrase:]</sub>

Fear of blood tends to create fear for the flesh.

<sub>[More importantly, though... the door is ajar. Through the gap come the scents of rust and metal-- and something organic, fleshy-- and a low, deep hum of industrial machinery. It's not a door that anyone in their right mind would want to go through. ... But for anyone who may have stumbled this far into the dreams of their fellow lost souls, either in flight from some other nightmare or just pure, wandering curiosity... there's just no other place to go but through the door.]




[Go on. Open it. After all.... it's only a dream.]</sub>

[ooc: SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG, GUYS. Thanks for being patient! If you commented on that planning post, there's something spooky planned for your character to do here so please feel free to tag or not tag as it pleases you!]

~*~

[ooc: This is the IC post for what was announced over here! Even if you didn't comment there, feel free to participate! I'm still happy to whip up Silent Hill scenarios for folks!]

Comments

[foolishwren]

Look like what?

Rotten and grungy?

[shiromadoushi]

Without any lights. And I don't think it looked this bad when I was here before... I wonder if it changed...?

[[Moves over towards one of the walls to peer at it through the darkness. Hrm. It would be much easier if he used the Ring... and it was already lit up...

He reaches under his shirt to pull out the glowing Item to help light up the hall a bit more.]]

[foolishwren]

It probably did. Welcome to the Otherworld. _{[She speaks in a grumble-- but when her ear catches the shifting of fabric, she looks over her shoulder, brow rising.]}

... What is that?

_{[Unfortunately, although the glow does add to the visibility a little... it, too, seems somehow muffled by this darkness...]}

[shiromadoushi]

[[Well heck. No use in mapping and the Ring wasn't helping much.... He was running out of resources!]]

Aaa-- it's the Sennen Ring. Something from home... I can't do much more than make it glow, unfortunately, but I thought maybe the light would help a little...

[foolishwren]

... Really.

<sub>[Huh.]

[She does look interested, but offers an apologetic shrug. At least she's warming up.]</sub>

'Fraid to say, this place isn't exactly kind to lights... every little bit helps, though.

... But for the record... you'd better be ready to put that thing out at a moment's notice.

[shiromadoushi]

I can hide it again, but-- aa-- I'm not sure how to get it to turn off... [[so apologetic]] It just went off normally before, I guess this is different...? But it was pretty blocked out when it was just under my shirt before!

[[oh he did not want to be a liability...]]

[foolishwren]

_{[... A dull stare.]}

... That could be a problem.

[shiromadoushi]

[[That was the Ring all over...]]

.. could you see it before I took it out? [[a little worried now]]

[foolishwren]

No... but I was shining my light right on you at the time.

_{[She pauses, unhooking her flashlight from where she'd hung it on her vest pocket and clicking it off to see just how bright his strange artifact shines.]}

This is more or less canon. :) Ring goes under the shirt? INVISIBLE!

[shiromadoushi]

[[With the Ring outside his shirt, the light bathed his face in an eery golden glow, but he quickly tucked it away when her flashlight went off.

Almost as if like magic, it was as if the thing had vanished. There wasn't even a Ring shaped lump [not that it could be seen since it was now dark.]]

HAHA

[foolishwren]

Hm... I guess that works ...

It's not a good idea to have lights here that you can't put out.

[shiromadoushi]

A lot of things that don't like the light? [[Though he was far more used to the kind of critter that came to eat you when it was dark. But he was pretty sure they weren't going to be dealing with Grue here.]]

[foolishwren]

No.

A lot of things that are attracted to it.

_{[Like moths. Except moths didn't pack pistols.]}

[shiromadoushi]

[[a nod. Made sense. You couldn't sneak with a light spell, so the chance of random encounters went up.]] So it's sort of a dilemma of not wanting to attract those things and wanting to be able to see where you're going.

[foolishwren]

Yeah. That's why it's a good idea to be able to switch quickly.

[shiromadoushi]

Might be better to keep it hidden then...

[foolishwren]

Yeeeeaaaah, might be. For now.

<sub>[... And then there's a sound up ahead. It's not a nice sound. In fact, it's a very unpleasant sound. Like someone breathing, but rapidly.]

[Appropriately, Heather immediately hisses "shhhh!" and clicks the flashlight off.]</sub>

[shiromadoushi]

[[Bakura goes very still, hand over where the Ring is hidden as if trying to still it, listening intently for any clues what the noise was from. Random encounter? That creep from earlier?

...he should have picked up a stick or maybe part of one of those trashed cots, shouldn't he have? Crap.]]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[Somewhat random encounter-- although, Silent Hill doesn't quite work like a JRPG...]

[The breathing gets closer. There's a frantic, almost-mechanical quality to it, and it sounds hoarse and sharp. Beside Bakura, Heather slooowly takes a step or two forward, although she's thrown an arm out in front of him. There's a quiet rustle-- she's taking something out of her vest.]</sub>

[shiromadoushi]

[[Bakura for his part, takes a very small step back, bracing himself for either an attack or, what he figures is more likely, gunfire (because what else would she be reaching for?)]]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[Oh, it's better than the gun!]

[Whatever it is shuffles closer... and closer... and by the time it's close enough that Bakura should be able to pick out something resembling a humanoid form in the darkness, Heather has finished drawing out whatever it was she was pulling from her vest.]

[IT'S PARTY TIME]

[She snaps the flashlight back on, illuminating... well, this.]



[... Not that anyone will get to look at it for long, because before it even has a chance to raise the gun it holds, Heather is... um... kind of swinging a heavy chunk of piping (where the hell did she get THAT?!) at its head with the same kind of force and mild ferocious glee that a kid might swing a bat at a tee-ball.]

[There's a loud and sickening SNAP.]</sub>

[shiromadoushi]

[[... oh wow. Even Bakura can't help but be startled a little, heart jumping at the snap.

Respect for Heather just went up a lot. A girl who can hold her own against zombies?]]

That was amazing...

[[Lurking creeper + hospital zombies (made sense, they were in a hospital setting), experienced PC, makeshift weapons + firearms, traditional slow, mindless zombies, attracted to light, physical method to defeating the zombies... creeper possibly connected to zombies? Post apocalyptic setting? The creeper didn't fit in that context. Isolated town infected or cursed was more likely. Zombie was in work clothes, so likely a quick infestation or a curse where the affected weren't aware of what was going on. State of the hospital suggested it'd been this way for a while. Still didn't explain the stalker. Hrm. Complication or boss battle? Maybe he was the one who caused the curse into existence to gain power to achieve his goals...? Or possessed by the town. That was always pretty common, the one person still living who was the mouth piece or puppet for whatever was causing the darkness...

...

Maybe he should stop running scenarios and figure out how to actually help instead of being the escort mission.]]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[Oh, she can hold her own against much worse than zombies...]

[While he's speculating, Heather is busy making sure the thing doesn't get up again. For all the survival-horror game tropes he's pushing around in his head, the creature... doesn't look virtual. Its body spasms as it's beaten down, and there's already deep, dark bruises spreading around each blow. When Heather brings a foot back and delivers a vicious kick to its throat, it finally shudders and goes still. It doesn't fizzle or fade away in a nicely-sterile manner, it just... lies there. A pile of useless dead flesh. A dark, shiny stain starts to spread from underneath the nurse's head, which is bent at a grotesque angle.]

[As for helping... Heather is working on that as we speak. :Ib]

[After giving the creature a couple more kicks to make sure it's dead and not just playin, she bends down and picks up its gun, giving it a shake to get the blood off of it before snapping the chamber open to peer inside and see how many bullets were there. Whoa. :I This nurse was PACKIN'.]</sub>

How's your aim?

[shiromadoushi]

[[That is almost exactly why he's running the tropes so he doesn't wind up committing that gruesome scene to memory. It's quite a different thing watching a horror movie and seeing that happening right in front of you...]]

Aaa.... I've never... [[his voice peters out a little.

So useless...]]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[.... :I Bakura. Y u so useless.]

[Heather linefaces a bit... before groaning and rubbing the back of her neck. Yeah, she's not totally sure she wants to hand a gun to someone who doesn't know how to use one, and who will in all likelihood be walking behind her a lot.]

[She sometimes forgot that not everybody had been taught how to handle a firearm from an early age...]</sub>

Christ... okay.

Can you handle a knife at least...