Riley smiled softly towards Cecily, she hadn't seen her in what felt like forever, she was still trying to get over her sister's death and Cecily right now was the only person she really did feel close to right now. "I am to, to be honest, I got you though Cecily." Riley said towards her roommate as she continued to go up the stairs, while holding onto Cecily's hand. She reached for the holstered gun she had, and took it out just in case though by the sounds of Alicia a gun probably wouldn't even do anything at all. But she had a weapon regardless, she continued to run though the haze was really hard to see through right now.
Riley didn't stop running as she could hear the sound of a roar from the distance which made her worry what the hell was that exactly, hearing Pyira asking what it was. Riley right now she really didn't even care all she cared about right now was getting the hell out of here, as well as make sue that Cecily was safe and sound as well. "This is why I left Grimm behind in the first place nothing good at all happens here. And I don't know and don't care what that thing is I want to get the hell away from here as soon as possible." Riley said mainly to herself right now as they got closer towards the front of the building.
Location: Grimm Indiana (El Asilo/The Nuthouse! -> Outside of El Asilo/The Nuthouse!) Skills: N/A Skills: N/A
Not the most a avid player of video games, Keystone did recall the old-school Metroid franchise from when he was a kid. A little outdated even then, but most of those games had the same kind of ending: Defeat main bad guy, run like hell. The "defeating the bad guy" part was easy enough to comprehend. It's why you got all those missiles and ice beams and stuff. The "run like hell" part occurred because, for whatever reason, the death of the main bad guy (for whatever reason) triggered a self-destruct protocol that would consume the entire planet/complex/ship/biosphere/whatever. Lots of rumbling, lots of random debris falling for no other discernible reason except to build dramatic tension while the timer ran down.
This was exactly like that, except that the bad guy was still coming after them. And technically, one of their number was already dead (awful spry for a dead chick, though). And the debris that was falling could definitely cause them harm. Also, no ice beams. That last part probably got to Keystone the most. He really would have appreciated a good ice beam right then. Upon a nanosecond of reflection, this was nothing like Metroid. So to hell with whatever that thing was below them. They were getting the hell out of there. Except for one of them; the pretty lady with the features that marked her people from the great Subcontinent insisted on asking questions while something demonic was trying to eat them. He addressed this with a simple, "Shut your gob, an' run, woman! Bloody balrog gnawin' on yer arse!"
Keystone let Alicia down as they reached the top of the stairs. Even Caesar managed to pull ahead from his previously claimed space at the rear, covering their escape with his large bore firearm. It was an understandable misstep; between the haze and the shaking building, it was difficult to maintain one's bearings. One moment maneuvering back up a set of shaking stairs, the next moment piling into a now shaking hallway. The wrongness in the air seemed to increase, coloring the very haze around them with rage and blood. As the elder Mexican wasn't going to leave his daughter behind, he paused for just long enough to shuffle the black pack off of his shoulder and grab his keys. Then he was off again. As Alicia ran, so did he. Down the hallway, through the haze, past the discarded bits of random asylum flotsam and jetsam they passed on their way in. Caesar was better on his feet than many, being as earthquakes were nothing new to him, but this was massive. He wondered how that big, lumbering oaf Keystone stayed upright.
The second they burst out of the building, Caesar handed off the keys to his associate. They didn't stop moving, the pair of them headed toward the company SUV. "M'hija!" he called, holding out the storage pack he had brought for her. "Arm yourself." They could deal with questions later, preferably while in the vehicle, leaving this place behind.
*You can call for a roll before you post or you can leave a roll request at the end of your post and your results will be placed in the next update. You are allowed to get a roll during your post and place another at the end of your post.
Special Note: That Haze will remain until further notice, so make sure you keep to it. ^_~
Grimm, Indiana (Tinder House): Adelaide keeps trying the phone but there is no cell service and the landline has been cut. "I hate this town..." she muttered under her breath before slamming the phone down. Oh how nice it is to be able to slam a phone down. It is so much more satisfying than just the typical push a button and it hangs up. Robert in the mean time will get over to the crashed car. Thing is, soon as he opens the door, he is going to find there is no driver. There's blood but no driver. So the car just drove itself into a fire hydrant and bled itself? Things are starting to get really weird.
Zoie hears a scream as the haze starts to get a little thicker. About a block down from the Tinders place and sees some sort of shadow cutting behind a house and a woman standing there terrified screaming as she stands there. There is a heavy smell of burning in the air. Checking her gun, she starts walking in the direction she saw the shadow go around the corner, keeping it pointed down but ready to fire. "I hate this fuckin' town..." she muttered under her breath. (It seems to be a running theme)
On top of all this, growing plants seems to be fading away to what it would look like after a long drought, everything is dying - not fully dying mind you - you don't get to witness it wither and die. It just kind of fades like a movie scene from living to dead. Leaves to just stems, brittle. Green grass to winters pale taupe.
Grimm, Indiana (Asylum Stairs -> Outside): The group manages to get the hell out of the Asylum but the sounds from inside are growing and as you step outside, it doesn't look like it did. The place looks more like a desolate wasteland now and there are leaves on the trees. Everything has already turned from green to nothingness. Roy steps outside and looks around. "How long where we in there?!?" he asked confused as they went in there and it was all pretty green before.
Alicia looks over towards Priya. "A Paradox," she said before tearing off outside. Soon as she hit the outside she looked around and then ran after her dad. "Shit, even I don't know that. Just know they rip things much stronger than me limb from limb for sport." she answered honestly. It was one of those things she had been taught to stay the hell away from. Rushing over to her dad. "Fuck that, C-4, please tell me you brought C-4 Papi," she said before her head whipped around as the building started to rumble and one could hear the door to the stairwell slam off its hinges and then about a split second later come out the side wall of the building.
*Special Note: Anyone that is currently in possession of one of this Rp's special little items or has held one since the beginning - your hands are starting to glow.
Mali's fears about the horror movie rules still being in effect were further reinforced by the crash outside. For all she knew, it could have been a simple accident caused by the fog and haze shit that just happened to have occurred right outside (nearly 70% of accidents occur within 10 miles of home), but coincidences didn't exist, and the mundane, rational explanation was the least likely reason for the noise. No, there was something sinister still at work, but the question was how to keep going about things.
Running straight into the danger to investigate would be the expected course of action for horror movie characters. But that's also how all the unimportant characters got killed off first and Mali certainly didn't have confidence that she would be considered important by any cosmic screenwriter setting this shit up. But on the other hand, running away immediately tended to make one easy pickings for the slasher villain until vital information is revealed about it. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
It was around now that Adelaide slammed the phone, only further reinforcing the horror film conventions they had the misfortune of stumbling into. Mali should have just listened to her gut and turned around when she saw the smoke and fog in the distance. But, there was no helping it now, they were all stuck in this situation now. Better to go do something and maybe live than to die doing nothing. Mali moved to push herself off the ground, but when she looked down she noticed her hands glowing.
For the second time in about 5 minutes she screamed, albeit, not nearly as loudly as when she saw the basement clown. In this case it was more out of surprise than explicit fear. There were only so many things she could handle at once. Real conspiracy theories? Sure. Ancient artifacts with hidden value coveted by said conspiracies? Why not. Silent Hill fog? Yeah. Weird haze shit? Maybe it's just allergies. Monster clown bitch? In the context of silent hill fog, barely yes. Magic bullshit on top of all this? Nah.
"Why are my hands glowing," she asked to nobody, expecting no answer in return.
Action Attempted: Figure out what the hell is wrong with her hands Skills called: Perception, History Reason for each skill: Maybe there's something about the glowing hands beyond the obvious for her to pick up on. And although she's not consciously searching her academic background at the moment, perhaps during her research in undergrad she came across historical accounts or myths that happened to be pertinent to the situation at hand Desired location: N/A
Robert was expecting the worst. Running as fast as his sorry desk-job ass could carry him, he went through everything and anything he had been taught, told or randomly heard about what to do in traffic accidents such as this one. Closing in on the car, Robert holstered his gun again and fumbled to get a hold of the door handle. This was messed up, all of it! He cursed himself for not having payed any attention to the Health and Safety briefings he'd been forced to attend to at work, only remembering small bits of instructions from his university years. Securing the scene and calling an ambulance, but Adelaide was the one with the phone. Robert was the one to get the person outā¦
As soon as Robert managed to open the car door, all expectiations he had for the scene he'd find were shattered. No bloodied driver crushed between the steering wheel, no rambling drunkard who couldn't handle the haze, noā¦"What the Hell?" Robert exclaimed as his brain began to comprehend what it was his eyes were seeing, or rather not seeing. "There's no one here! It's empty!"" Robert shouted back to the others as he turned to them, then looking back in the driver's seat. Blood. But how? And screaming? Robert stepped slowly away from the car, not officially spooked the fuck out of whatever was going on here. And the plants?
"If I'm not in a nightmare or anything right now, I'm don't know what. What the actuall fuck is going on? Adelaide? Anyone?"
Characters current location: Grimm,Indiana, Tinder house outside. Characters attempted actions: Robert wants to think of any possible reason how and why the car would have driven itself into the fire hydrant, or perhaps more fitting, why it isn't possible. Any and all skills being used: Driving (car), Law Why each skill is being called: Driving (car) to pull from his many years of experience of driving cars to know if it is possible or not, and Law to pull from his experiences in insurance fraud and see if he's heard of cases like this before. Desired location: Tinder house, still outside.
The moment that they had finally gotten out of the asylum Riley leaned forward and took a few deep breaths as she started to try and calm herself down a little bit. She turned her attention now to their surroundings, as she noticed that everything looked like it was either dead or dying, or very close to dying. Seeing the weird haze around them as she tried to think what the hell was exactly going on, it was like something out of Stranger Things, weird creepy haze and everything broken down. Riley looked over towards Alicia when she answered Pyria's question she wasn't sure what the hell a Paradox even was. Riley looked over towards Cecily and moved over towards her roommate she was glad she was alright.
"Are you okay CeCe?" Riley asked Cecily as she wrapped an arm around her before turning her attention towards Alicia who seemed to know what was going on. "I'm guessing you know whatever that thing is then? And don't give me some witty smartass comment either." Riley asked Alicia, she really just wanted to get the hell out of here she then paused when she heard the door slamming on the inside of the building and then a loud crash as well. Riley then noticed that both Roy and Alicia started to glow for some weird reason she really wished that something normal would happen now at this point.
Location: Grimm Indiana (Outside of El Asilo/The Nuthouse!) Skills: N/A Skills: N/A
"What in rancid, scrote-stabbin' 'ell is this then?" came the defiantly issued words of the group's resident Londoner. Perhaps it typified the overall feelings of the others around him in such a way that, were they incapable of a more eloquent expression to that effect, could use as a small solace that someone understood their pain and confusion. Or to put it more plainly: It looked like the season had changed, and that was taxing Keystone's ability to process. Luckily, beyond his comprehensive skills, the big man did know how to take an order, even one passed along in a nonverbal manner as simple as shoving keys into his hand. This made sense. Big man takes keys, big man uses keys, big man drives away. But before this, big man questions certain life choices he might have made in his younger years that could have resulted in a flashback. "Rest o' you're seein' this too, yeah?"
Caesar, meanwhile, is doing a more remarkable job of keeping his shit together than his junior counterpart. His brain is taking in the new information and spinning it into a series of "this is happenning" style circumstances, rather than debating with himself the wrongness of it all or succumbing to a horror of something that should not be. Perhaps there was a bit of a sociopath in him. Or perhaps his decades of seeing and causing so much carnage had left him with a psychological callous that allowed him to view spectacularly bad things with objectivity.
"C-4 is in Seattle. Chattanooga. Monterrey. Got small arms and cutters." In her bag, anyway. (To review:) He had placed two Glock 17s pistols, holsters, decent ammo, and a few sharp implements in case she got bored within. The back of the SUV contained the grab bag of standard and specialized equipstuff that Claire McManus had packed up for them, and Keystone still had his company duffel in the vehicle with a mix of martial gear and surveillance equipment. Of course, neither Caesar nor Keystone had any idea that they'd be running out of an abandoned asylum being chased by a giant Lovecraftian horror, or they sure as hell would have packed something a lot heavier. Lord knew Caesar had a collection.
"SUV over here," said Caesar, motioning to the vehicle that he very wisely fishtailed around earlier so it could be pointing in a direction that made getting the hell out a bit easier. Keystone hit the remote doorlock button on his set of keys just as they were reaching the company vehicle, allowing for the speedier entry of persons into said vehicle. How many were coming with them again? Caesar supposed that it was a tiny detail that would, throughout the normal course of the exchange sort itself readily. Such a thought was echoed in the sound of the stairwell door exploding out of the side of the building. Despite it all, the fact that someone was highly concerned in this moment that Alicia might respond in a sarcastic manner was enough to raise an eyebrow in the older man. Did she not know who the hell Alicia was? Or barring that, was she keen on walking? Even Keystone, who up until this point was living very much "in the now" with his desire not to be eviscerated by forces most unnatural, managed to blurt out, "Aw, sounds like someone's wantin' ta 'oof it!"
Inside car, start car, vroom. Time to motor. Leaving the scene.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Cecily nodded, taking in Riley's words - it brought back with a jolt the realization that her and Roy had actually had a question for Riley. It seemed so small though now, with whatever had just happened in there. Cecily felt like they had walked into the newest issue of Doctor Strange or Magik. They weren't in the gritty, crime drama focused stories of Batman or Jessica Jones anymore. Had this been what it was all building up to? Was Juno somehow messing around with the paranormal? But it didn't make much sense to her - she knew that usually in comic books, events like this weren't connected and coincidence was rarely that. But in real life? Coincidences happened all of the time. Not everything strange and unusual was connected in some form of a conspiracy. Of course, the person who would know about this would be Roy - or the woman who looked just like Alicia.
Outside though, it looked as if they had been inside the asylum for centuries. Cecily recalled the strangeness when they had arrived - everyone talked about the asylum as if it were in use, but it seemed to have been abandoned for ages. Was this some sort of exponential decay then? And to add onto the oddities, Roy's hands were glowing. "Roy... What even?" Cecily asked him, not really sure how else to phrase the question. The fact that they were still in danger was incredibly evident, but she didn't know what she could really do against something this unknown. She was the squishy scientist, not the tough as nails fighter in this group.
But... maybe there was something she could do. "If you guys have fuel or chemicals or anything, I can try to make a bomb," Cecily offered. This didn't seem like the sort of thing they could outrun forever.
Priya could only stare and blink at Alicia given her response. A Paradox? What the hell did that mean? āIs that a joke of some kind? I know what a paradox is and given the fact you said you were dead but are clearly alive is a paradox in and of itself. Look justā¦.maybe once whatever thing is chasing us is put in the rearview we can hash it out later.ā Priya had every intention of running from this thing, or driving or flying or whatever. But it seemed the others had different ideas. C4? A bomb?
āOh so we are going to talk about having weapons, possibly illegal, and creating a bomb right in front of a police officer. Makes total sense.ā She rubbed her temples. She knew (or maybe she didnāt know) that whatever was after them was dangerous. Possibly enough to slaughter them all, given the amount of fear showcased. And the Asylum itself seemed to house some evil.
āJust do it and do it fast if you have to. This goes against my code, but Iām not about to look a gift horse in the mouth if it takes care of whatever the hell that thing is. And then we are leaving. The sheer amount of paperwork that Iāll have to fill for all of this is already giving me nightmares.ā And to top it off, people were now glowing! "Ok what the actual fuck now? I need an aspirin or something. Why are you glowing? You know what, don't answer now. Just...take care of the thing." She followed Roy to the SUV. Hopefully he intended on giving them a ride out of here.
*You can call for a roll before you post or you can leave a roll request at the end of your post and your results will be placed in the next update. You are allowed to get a roll during your post and place another at the end of your post.
Special Note: That Haze will remain until further notice, so make sure you keep to it. ^_~
Grimm, Indiana (Tinder House): Now, why Mali was glowing was hard to say. There was a reason but that reason takes a lot of information she just didn't have. Though she did know something about history so there were a few things she could put together and thankfully they would come to the forefront of her mind right then. Many older artifacts were made from materials that could be considered toxic. Just look at lead make-up from the 1700's. Shit could make you glow and well she had had her hands on something old recently had she not? Or was it still on her? A certain multi-sided object that kept popping up. Well fuck, Mali might just be radio active and not in the Imagine Dragons way.
Now Robert is faced with his own little problem right then. Just how can a car run on it's own. Now Law isn't a big player here but there have been lawsuits filed or more on the nose insurance claims claiming that their car just malfunctioned. Nine times out of ten these are bullshit but sometimes they are true. A gear shifted, a transmission fucked up, the accelerator stuck. But still there is a driver. But this is 21th century. Remote control is out there. So sure, some fucker could have rigged the car to drive on it's own. But that doesn't explain the blood....
Zoie was still tearing after whatever the hell was it she saw. Rounding the corner and going out of sight. What was happening was anyone's guess but shots were fired. That much was for certain.
Grimm, Indiana (Outside): Alicia stopped and spun around. "Yes, I know. No, I don't have time to explain. Are you people always this talkative when shit is hitting the fan?" she snapped before looking back at her father. Who the hell were these people and how the hell were they still alive? All this talking, all this demanding. Alicia's empathy wasn't exactly there right then. She knew they were scared but she didn't have time to think about that. It would suck if one of them died but then again... Maybe it would help her find someone she really wanted to see right then. Someone stronger than her. Someone who had been around a lot longer. Someone who had dealt with this shit a lot more.
Roy looked at Cecily. "I don't fucking know!" he said as he tried to wipe his hands down his pants. It was like trying to remove red dye from your fingers, it wasn't going to come off just by rubbing. "Hell yeah girl, build a bomb. I'm all for it," he said as he looked over towards the building and it shook as another roar came from it and smoke trails started to billow up from some of the cracked windows. One could swear they heard a woman scream out in Russian. O.o (Yeah you heard me. Russian woman screaming.)
Alicia looked around the grounds. "Think you can do something with that?" she asked as she pointed to the car that Roy and Cecily had come in. Looking around some more she spotted the grounds shed. "Fuck, bet they have chemicals in there," she said as she started pulling weapons out, opting for a rifle and loading it before running towards the shed. She glowed slightly as her eyes glassed over and Cecily would feel the woman in her mind. What am I looking for?" she said in her mind. Cecily would see what Alica was seeing. Send dream? Day dreaming counted.
Location: The Asylum - Outside Skills: Cool Headedness, Knowledge of Chemistry
Cecily realized that Priya had no idea who she was, at all, and seemingly lacked a little bit in sense. "I'm a member of the police department in Justice," she told Priya. "I thought Roy told you? I'm the current coroner." Of course, Priya's lamentations didn't really warrant taking up too much more of her time - she just found it weird that Priya was freaking out about Cecily creating a bomb, as if she were just a random citizen off the street. Furthermore, they knew that nothing good was happening in that building and per the rules of Stranger Things, they needed to act quickly and not sit around waiting for paperwork.
She nodded slightly as Alicia pointed at the car, but before she could really do much else she felt someone inside her mind. It was incredibly uncomfortable at first, but her cool headedness kicked in and she calmed down, seeing what Alicia saw. "That bottle there on the left," Cecily indicated quickly. "The fertilizer should contain ammonium nitrate. All we need is to light it and get someone with a really good throw to lodge it towards the asylum," she instructed Alicia. Once she finished telling Alicia what to grab though, Cecily's skin felt like bugs were crawling all over her and she jumped slightly, reflexively scratching at her arms as if that would somehow make the sensation go away.
"Okay, now I understand why some people hated Xavier..." she muttered, still feeling that horrible sensation and twitching a little bit in an effort to stop it.
A whole lot was going through Robert's mind right at that moment. A butt-load of thoughts, all connected and yet totally separated from one another. Firstly he was trying to logically think how the car managed to simply crash into something on it's own accord. He'd heard and worked on stories like these plenty times before, mostly people bullshitting their way to their insurance money. But hey, it was still possible, car's could be faulty right? But that bloodā¦Robert was still backing away from the car, all possible answers coming back to that one clue; How could the blood be explained? Someone dropped blood on the carseat before letting it loose?
The more he thought about it, the more the least likely possibility became the more reasonable one. But that was impossible, right? It didn't help that the other thoughts clouding his mind were him questioning himself why he was there. This was a mess, a total clusterfuck that he'd rather not have anything to do with! Finally turning around and making his way back to where he'd left Adelaide, he was regretting taking this job more and more. Sure it was more exciting than his normal desk job, but this was more than he could chew.
"Adelaide?" Was all Robert managed to get out as he had turned around, before he heard more gunfire somewhere off in the distance. The direction Zoie had gone. "Shit, this is just greatā¦" Robert said to himself, turning around once again to look in the direction Zoie had gone. He couldn't see her anymore, she was gone. "ā¦Damnit Robert, this is a bad ideaā¦" He muttered, pulling out his gun again and making a run for it. Shit was going down somewhere out there, and he sure wasn't going back into that house. With his luck it'd collapse on itself and imprison him under rubble. He didn't like his odds out in the haze either, but he'd take his chances, following wherever Zoie had gone. "Adelaide! I'm going after, could be in trouble!"
Characters current location: Grimm,Indiana, Tinder house outside. Characters attempted actions: Robert's going to follow Zoie and whatever path she took away from the house. She could be in trouble. Any and all skills being used: Stamina Why each skill is being called: Stamina in order to run the distance required without getting too winded. Desired location: Grimm, Indiana, following wherever Zoie went.
Calm down, calm down, calm down. Think. There has to be some reason for this shit, right? Nothing happens for no reason, what could have caused this? Racking her brain of anything that could help. Lots of historical accounts of clothes doing bad things to people. The infamous mad hatters, driven insane by mercury poisoning, women going up in flame because of their dresses, lead poisoning from the white pigments used in make-up. Was that happening to her? It occurred to her then that the connecting thread of all those problems, other than fashion was that they were all byproducts of post Industrial Revolution manufacturing and long since resolved by modern regulations. So she probably wasn't hallucinating because of mercurial poisoning. Probably.
What else glowed? Glowsticks? Glow in the dark t-shirts? She hadn't been fucking around with any chemicals that would cause a delayed reaction like that. And even if her hands were glow in the dark now, it wasn't nearly dark enough to elicit that reaction. Radiation? No, the whole glowing schtick was just a visual shorthand made by comic artists and cartoonists that never got disposed of; the same way a horse's trot didn't sound like two coconuts halves being hit against each other but everybody used it anyways. Right? Science was never her strongest suit. Could that little polyhedron doohickey be radioactive?
She didn't think so? It was carved from bone. Radioactive materials weren't organic. They were metal and shit. Right? Mali really wished she had paid better attention in Chemistry. Well, if her hands were glowing and it was because of the little Relic she'd been carrying around with her, then logically, the glow was transmitted by physical contact, and by far the place she had spent the most time touching it wouldn't be her hands. It was stuffed in her bra, so her chest must be like a lighthouse if her hypothesis was correct, in any event, it wouldn't hurt to inspect the thing an see if it looked any different now than the last time she'd seen it. After double checking that nobody was looking , Mali reached down into her shirt and fetched out the prime suspect for the glowing case.
Actions attempted: Check out the polyhedron for anything suspicious. Make sure her tits aren't aglow Skills Used: Perception Why: She's usin those eyeballs real hard Desired Location: N/A
Location: Grimm, Indiana, Outside of Grimm Asylum Skills: N/A
Riley smiled slightly when Cecily answered her she was glad that she was okay, as she stopped and stared at Roy as he continued to glow wondering what exactly was causing it made her wonder why though which was confusing. Riley cracked her neck slightly as she looked at the SUV there, wondering how many guns they actually were carrying with them in the first place. Alicia still wasn't really giving answers, like how to actually kill it whatever this thing was. And judging from how things were it took a lot more than just bullets to kill it seeing as everything looked completely old and decrepit. Right now all she had was a handgun which wouldn't really do much probably sure she did kill a serial killer but this was different.
"So, how do we know explosives actually kill this thing or whatever?" Riley asked and then stared back at the asylum she could have sworn that she heard some Russian? Riley didn't know the language but she was pretty sure it sounded something like Russian as well, looking over at Cecily and then at Alicia as she made her way towards the shed that was nearby. "I'd rather just get in a car and drive as far away from here as possible right now.." Riley said mainly more to herself as she made sure her handgun was ready just in case whatever it was that was most likely coming out soon.
Location: Grimm Indiana (Outside of El Asilo/The Nuthouse!) Skills: N/A Skills: N/A
Fine. Just god damned fine. The plan was simple: Get out, get in SUV, and last but not least: go away. The going away was a fine idea, for whomever suggested it to Caesar and Keystone. Fine idea indeed. But somewhere the wires got crossed and instead of going away, they decided to stay here and wait for the big, scary monster to rise from the bowels of the earth and eat them like so many assorted cheesy crisps. Thinking about it, that wasn't the preferred way for Keystone to die. He wasn't sure how, exactly, but that wasn't it. Caesar didn't overly care. His time on the earth was shorter than the others gathered around him by far, based purely off of age, and he'd done so many questionable things in his lifetime that he probably deserved a horrible, ripping death. He got to see his daughter again, though. It made things worth it.
Keystone had a lot to live for, however. He had a family and a home, good career; most importantly, Keystone had the keys. So the rest of this collection of reprobates and assholes could suck in a lungful of his retreating exhaust, because he was legitimately the fuck out of here. At least in his mind, he was. Flooring it down the road and hopping the first flight back to London with his son and whomever else was supposed to becoming with him. The old man even gave him an order to do exactly that. Sadly, Keystone's conscience wouldn't let him do what he was contemplating. It was going to get him killed someday. Maybe today. He might as well join in on the festivities. "Bloody 'Paradox', oi? Like that cat-'n-the-box what's not alive nor dead?" Not amazingly on the uptake with things, but he did complete the minimum educational requirements in the UK.
The big Brit hoofed it around to the back of the SUV and opened the hatch. He did have the keys, after all. Claire had packed what she called a "grab bag" of MSS standard and specialty gear. Nothing mil-spec, obviously, but many things useful in the industry of asset and personnel protection. Caesar was already loaded to bear for a street to street clash, but just for the hell of it he grabbed two shotguns - one a copy of his personal sidearm from home and another, corporate issue pump-action, slugged out and loaded to bear. Common practice was to utilize them against vehicles; a 12 gauge slug could drop an unshielded engine like a cigarette butt. Ammo replaced and he turned to face whatever was coming after them alongside his daughter. He wasn't about to leave her.
Caesar's London counterpart wasn't as comfortable with a firefight as he was. No, Keystone was more of a brawler, crossed with a Shaolin monk. Up close and personal, he was a beast. Otherwise, he learned enough about how to use a pistol to pass the requirements for every MSS employee. That is to say, passably, but no extreme marksman. Moreover, pickings for him were slim, considering what he already had. He grabbed a spare pistol and a couple of mags, for whatever good that might do him. Lord knew the surveillance equipment in the front wasn't going to he of help.
The two held ground, waiting for whatever was going to happen to happen. They had guns, Alicia was doing ...something, and someone they just met reminded them that they were doing bad things in front of law enforcement. "Join the club, hura bonita." rasped Caesar, eyes intent on what might or might not be happening in front of them, "Anyone speak Russian?" That meant someone was in there with that thing. Something had to be done. "Civil dentro del edificio." he called, indicating to Alicia (or other Spanish speakers) that someone was still in the building. Whatever they were doing, she had the plan.
Priya threw her hands up in frustration. āYeah, Iām the crazy one, questioning why people know how to build a bomb in the first place and why it is somehow ok for a coroner to be the one to orchestrate it. Iāve dealt with a lot in the past couple of hours, so bear with me as I process this. Iām fully aware that something crazy is happening inside as it just ripped a door of its hinges so Iām not saying donāt build the fucking bomb. Iām questioning why because someone around here needs to hold on to logic.ā
Soon, a scream was heard. It sounded foreign to some capacity, along with the smoke creeping out. āThereās someone inside? Is she..?ā Surely if there was someone, whatever was attacking the asylum had gotten her. She shook her head in disbelief. Things were spiraling and she had to put her questions aside for now. āDamn it.ā She followed Alicia to the shed, feeling the gun on her hip in her holster.
āTell me what to grab and letās go. I may not know how to build a bomb, but Iāll at least make sure everyone doesnāt die or explode themselves.ā She would wait for instructions and process just what the hell was going on in this town. She should have stayed in New York. At least there wasnāt as crazy as Grimm, Indiana.
*You can call for a roll before you post or you can leave a roll request at the end of your post and your results will be placed in the next update. You are allowed to get a roll during your post and place another at the end of your post.
Special Note: That Haze will remain until further notice, so make sure you keep to it. ^_~
Grimm, Indiana (Tinder House): Alright, now where were we? Oh yes, checking for glowing tiddies. No, her breasts are not glowing, just her hands. As she pulls out the dice object to look it over, it too is glowing in the engravings. It seems that is one mystery solved - well at least the one to why Mali's hands are glowing in a sense of she touched it and now it is rubbing off on her as it were. Why the dice is glowing and her hands in tandem are glowing, well that is anyone's guess. And it leaves a lot of questions. The main one from Adelaide being, "why the hell are your hands glowing?" as she steps back outside and spots Mali before her eyes turn and she watches Robert go running off. "Where the hell are you going?!?!" she yells.
Robert is going to have no problem what so ever rounding the corner to catch up with Zoie. Thing is, this is one of those times he would have wished he failed his roll because it would have kept him from seeing what he saw next. Zoie had run after something dark, like a shadow. Something not fully there but solid if touched and yes one could touch it. Bullets could touch it.And they did but it only angered the creature and before Zoie knew what happened she was yanked up by her wrist. Something dark grabbing it and hoisting her into the air, the gun falling from her hand as more darkness surrounded her neck and cut off her ability to scream. More darkness came. To her other hand, to each leg. Suspended in the air by solid shadows holding her as she gasped for air and a look of terror spread across her features. It was only for a moment as Zoie was ripped limb from limb, neck from chest, and her torso dropped with a thud to the ground, blood soaking the dirt below.
Grimm, Indiana (Outside): Taking a deep breath Alicia turned towards Priya. "Chica, shut up. It kills, bombs are good, talking slows us down," she said in a calm and even voice, odd for her to those that really knew her but it was who she was now. Priya would feel a sense of calmness and understanding as Alicia spoke. (Empathy) It wasn't that Alicia was avoiding questions, it was that there was something more important going on and curiosity could wait. Curiosity killed the cat not because it asked or sought out information,but because it was too busy talking to see death standing behind it. As Cecily gave her what she needed to know she started grabbing things from inside the shed and handed over some of it to Priya before rushing back out.
It was about at that time she too heard the Russian and her brow went up as she continued to run. "That's... fuckin' hell that bitch is getting hers," she said with a bit of smugness to her before rushing over to Cecily and laying things down. "We ain't got a portal, running won't help. It will just catch us," Alicia said before looking at Keystone. "Yes! Exactly! The fucking cat! He is a real asshole and likes Russian.... Mother fucking! SHRODY!" she cursed as she spun around and looked at the building as dark tendrils seems to wrap around where the hole in the wall was, as it it was trying to rip the bricks out and widen the opening so it could get through, the building shaking and rumbling.
Location: The Asylum - Outside Skills: Cool Headedness, Knowledge of Chemistry
Hearing Alicia talk about a portal, Cecily had to wonder if she meant that literally... But given that Alicia had invaded her mind a few minutes ago, she supposed other classic superpowers could be possible too. She blinked slightly as people started talking about Schrodinger's Cat and she was so tempted to lay out everything she knew about that thought experiment and the common misconceptions the general public had about it, but now wasn't the time for that. With all of the supplies she needed, Cecily constructed the bomb quickly and efficiently, making one with the same ease that Tony Stark made the Jericho Missiles. "Alicia, light this and chuck it at the building. You'll only have a few seconds after lighting it before it'll blow, so you can't hesitate," she informed the supposedly dead woman. She could question how Alicia came back to life or faked her death later.
Handing over the bomb carefully to Alicia, she made sure that the other woman had a firm grip on it before letting go. The scene going on in front of them looked like it was straight from Stranger Things - the tendrils wrapping around, the building shaking, the haze that still hadn't gone away... Cecily's heart was pounding and she was somehow able to keep calm and collected despite everything going on, but that didn't mean she wasn't full of adrenaline at the moment. Whatever that thing was... she had an inclination that they wouldn't be able to save whoever was still inside that building. They needed to blow up whatever this thing was now, before it got free.
Robert had gone too far to stop once Adelaide shouted after him, whether or not he was within hearing distance or not. He may not have known Zoie or cared much about her well-being in what Robert would call his everyday-life, but out here? Through the haze, specks of blood and gunfire filling the void of his previous existance which now held a terrifying excitement? Yeah, he probably would have run after her in order to make sure that this living person was fine. And so he did, as fast as he could in his day and age, thankful that years of athletics was still paying off to this day.
Or he would have thanked himself, had it not been for what sight befell his eyes what lay behind that last corner. He got within eyesight of Zoie, about to shout something after her, something about confirming she was okay and/or what was going on. But he did not expect this. His mouth was left hanging down to his chest, his eyes fixated in horror as he watched what theā¦thing did to Zoie. Was it a monster, a shadow, a figment of his imagination that was running on its last juices after too many years behind the desk? Regardless of what it was, Robert could only watch as Zoie was ripped apart, piece by piece as if she was some old ragdoll played too hard with.
Robert had seen some grousome sights in his life, especially the few times he'd been pulled to sights of house fires were the bodies were yet to be scooped up by the fine men in white hazmat suits. This? This was on a whole new level of What The Fuck!?. And in a good response to the sight of the shadow monster and Zoie being ripped to pieces, Robert did the only thing he could think of to do.
He began to ran.
Faster than he had ever ran in his life, Robert spared no breath or pain in his effort to get the fuck out as quick as he humanly could. If not to save his own skin, he had to warn Adelaide and Mali of the impending danger they all were in. It must have been in his confused horror that he only made it a few feet, finding gravity to be a greater danger to him at the moment as he tripped forward. Falling face first towards the ground, he used all his strenght to catch the fall. He couldn't stop now, not when he was still so close toā¦It, whatever that was. He had to keep going, keep running.
Characters current location: Grimm,Indiana, fleeing from the shadow monster. Characters attempted actions: Robert's going to get back up and continue his flight from whatever tore Zoie to shreds. Any and all skills being used: Stamina, Endurance Why each skill is being called: Stamina in order to run the distance required without getting too winded, and Endurance to push through whatever pain he's having now after having fallen to the ground. Desired location: Grimm, Indiana, running back to Adelaide and Mali
Location: Grimm, Indiana (Outside of El Asilo/The Nuthouse!) Skills: N/A Skills: N/A
The older Mexican heard the remarkably calm words of his daughter, and while he found the tone perplexing, he could not help but growl approvingly at the sentiment expressed by Alicia in the form of "bombs are good". He even nodded a little along with it. Bombs weren't his favorite way of handling things, being as he was really more of a hack and slice kind of guy, but even he had to admit that a well placed explosive, given the proper amount of legitimate artistry involved and the number of discernible pieces the bad guys separated into, was kind of pretty in its own way. Or to put it differently, in the recent words of his formerly deceased daughter, Bombs are indeed Good.
Communications concerning what Keystone assumed was an assessment of the works of a physicist that he was just barely aware of, let alone versed in the works thereof, were even less fruitful. be that as it may, the discussion of it, or at least commentary, served as a focal point for the large man's brain as a defense mechanism against the utter wrongness of what he was watching, that being the partial destruction of an exterior brick wall from the inside by something best kept in a horror movie. All the same, it still sounded like Alicia was speaking gibberish; that or talking from a point of view of the world's most inside joke ever. "Bloody 'ell that, Schrody? Pet-name-basis with dead blokes then, 'ave you?"
Though his words were aimed at Alicia, his eyes were rooted to the monster that had chased them out of the Asylum just earlier, that he was still pretty sure they should be hauling ass away from in the SUV that very second, but for whatever reason they decided to abandon logic and join the ranks of the nigh suicidal. Keystone looked to his senior partner in this endeavor with immense curiosity as to how he was taking this all so well. Then again, this was the guy who, if stories served to be accurate, killed someone by using their intestines as rappelling line, simultaneously escaping gunfire and getting to the next floor down in a crowded building. Something that looked a little Ancient God-ish wasn't as mind-throwing to a guy with a serious callous for mayhem.
Meanwhile, Caesar's thoughts were on (aside from the obvious, anyway) the comment that she made about the voice in Russian coming from inside of the asylum, as if she knew the person to whom it belonged and seemed pleased with the fact that said person sounded like she was getting the business end of something electrified. Well, for one reason or another, he wasn't going in there after this mystery person. Besides, the main threat was that big, ugly thing ripping apart the wall. So... fine. If nobody had any objections, he was going to open fire at it. It seemed fitting, considering all the trouble that it went through to be menacing and everything. And his junior partner, Keystone - what was he going to do, punch it? Caesar seemed to weigh this for a while. The guy was actually really good at that. Could be something there. Nah, shooting is better. He wanted to keep the big guy alive for his own interests anyway.
"Stone!" he called, chambering a round in his Mossberg, "You want to help slow it down?" It was less of a question than it was an order.
"Yeah, on it, Boss," he said, a hint of confusion and moderate amount of terror streaking through his words. In truth, he was glad someone else was calling the shots until his brain could fully process the moment. He raised his fifty-cal pistol and aimed it at the hole.
Both men seemed to be covering the all-female improvised demolition team, readily flowing into a supporting role. Though they began their careers as other things, they were private contractors now. This was kind of what they signed up for. Except the part about international conspiracy. And ancient, secret societies. And people coming back from the dead. And fending off demons. Okay, absolutely none of this is what they signed up for. Caesar should have retired a while ago and Keystone would have been happier playing Cockney Batman, beating up drug dealers and performing bodyguard work in London, like usual. But here they were.
Characters current location: Grimm, Indiana - Exterior Asylum Characters attempted actions: Shoot the bad guy Any and all skills being used: Shotguns Why each skill is being called: Proper operation of the pump-action shotgun, hopefully to insert a slug into the previously mentioned bad guy. Desired location: N/A
Characters current location: Grimm, Indiana - Exterior Asylum Characters attempted actions: Shoot the bad guy Any and all skills being used: Pistols Why each skill is being called: Proper operation of the .50 pistol, also hopefully to insert ammunition into the bad guy. Desired location: N/A
