Evening has begun to sneak up on the residents of Altsoba, those who remained in hell. The air takes a certain chill to it, with the light showers and wind of earlier having died down. The news crews have stationed themselves in front of recognizable landmarks, reporting on the chaos that engulfed the town. However, they also share news of the outside world. They speak of natural disasters hitting India, leaving thousands dead and thousands more without shelter. They speak of mass shootings in England and Australia. They speak of the end of the world as we know it.
@Pundii: Liam gets a reply from Amelia quickly, and it's a good thing he included his name in the message, as she'd just got a new phone. The reply comes back really quickly, as the news anchor hardly ever sleeps these days, it seems. The reply reads as follows:
"On it, you cunt. LOL. Aussie slang, right?!?! Heard rumors someone is pretending to be me in Altsoba -- look into that for me, okay, sugar bum? -A"@Witch Cat: Who knew that spirit guides were so computer savvy? I certainly didn't! Once she gets in her room, Belial Beliar causes the laptop to open. Instantly, it pulls up an article, an obituary for Emmy Blythe Hanson and Lara Eulalia Hansen, aged 93 and 86. The pair of them were survived by their adoptive son, Detective Walter Hanson. As the article goes on to explain,
Emmy and Lara were both white witches. Unfortunately, that seems to be all Belial Beliar has to say on the subject, as nothing else helpful appears.
Cecily Ashworth
Location: Altsoba Police Station
Interacting With: Scarlet Warrington
@Sohtem, Danica Graves
@Lady Amalthea
The Police Station wasn't in the best of shape. With the sheriff and a few other officers at Town Center, the already limited department had become incredibly strained. With the coroner having been found dead among the others that morning, lead forensic technician Cecily Ashworth had been staffed with running the morgue, despite lacking the degree to do so. And with only five police officers remaining, they had decided to one again allocate the running of the station to Cecily.
It hadn't helped when Detective Hanson suddenly collapsed, burns appearing on every inch of his body. Her well thumbed copy of Doctor Strange sat in the corner of the room, and Cecily had done a few quick searches on Google for Dean and Sam Winchester. It appeared they remained fictional, despite all of the other occurrences of the day. For example, Vivian Adder's melting corpse had been covered entirely in sulfur. The body of the waitress at Jake's, Sutton Smith, had been found. As far as Cecily's tests confirmed, the burn marks on her had occurred ages ago.
And yet, Sutton had been perfectly fine the day before.
It was, in a word, confusing. Swamped with papers and files, Cecily manned the front desk of the station, having brought a bit of a mobile lab over with her. A rolling cart, filled with lab supplies and chemicals, stood next to bags upon bags of evidence. Thankfully, the bodies themselves were all in the morgue, in an effort to not be entirely too alarming to anyone who came by.
"Is this an emergency?" Cecily asked, seeing Scarlet come in.
"Because we're really understaffed and I can't just fire up J.A.R.V.I.S. to handle duties for me, you know? We can't all be Tony Stark...Or Bruce Wayne, even. I'd kill to have an Alfred of my own...But then, I guess, that defeats the point of having an Alfred..."Rising to her feet, Cecily set down the pile of files she'd been handling. They were covered with her notes and annotations, as well as those of Detective Hanson, prior to his collapse. Reports continued to flood the department, but there wasn't much they were able to do. They didn't have any answers for the public just yet.
Forcing a grin, Cecily put her hands on her hips. At a time like this, she wouldn't mind hiring private security--even if it had a silly name, like
Machete Security Services. Having an extra pair of eyes -- or ten -- would have been lovely.
"Love your dog, by the way."Glancing up, at seeing Danica's entrance, Cecily went through the same speech again. Even the comic book references remained the same, as she ended up repeating herself mostly verbatim each time someone entered the station. It was easier for her that way, let her focus more on her work than those who entered the station. Most of them were just concerned about property values, as far as Cecily was aware.
Detective Hanson
Location: Altsoba Methodist
Interacting With: Amy Chang
@Lady Amalthea, Jessica Sorreast
@Sohtem, Other Nurses
Hanson tried to growl, but with the burns covering each portion of his body, it came out more like the squeak of a dying kitten. His eyes were narrowed at Amy, his fingers twitching lightly as he attempted to move. At her comment about being a shapeshift, Detective Hanson chuckled slightly, only to cough up blood in pain.
"Fuckin' hell..." he croaked.
"You ain't no shapeshifter, lady...I've done shit...And you ain't like that..."His eyes shut for a moment, as the nurses gave him the sedative. The roaring pain dulled slightly, yet more and more burns appeared. His skin became blackened and charred, his organs desperately fighting to keep him alive. Hanson had become the marshmallow held too close to the fire--at first, turning a lovely golden. And now, becoming a sickening black.
"John Moses...Burn his bones....You fuckin' think I can be burnt alive without it being some ghost shit?" Hanson spluttered. The nurses were out of their depth, turning their attention to the doctors. Whether or not Detective Hanson would live depended on their actions, on their choices. They didn't have the time to move him to any sort of special facility focusing on burns.
And yet, no one could deny that Detective Hanson was being burned alive, without any fire in sight.
Mephistopheles
Location: Number 7 Grant Road
Interacting With: Daniyal Lohi & the Entity
@Witch Cat
The demon snapped his fingers, and instantly, the carpet vanished. Stepping over to the corpse of Daniyal's mother, he reached into her pocket, pulling out a pack of gum. Unwrapping a piece and popping it into his own mouth, he offered a stick to Daniyal.
"Daniyal, Daniyal, Daniyal..." The demon, called Mephistopheles, shook his head at the young witch. As everything flew at him to create a barricade, Mephistopheles neatly stepped back, the salt falling just a few feet short of him. The shuddering of the house as the Entity awoke hardly phased the demon. He glanced up slightly, as if only slightly inconvenienced.
"I mean you no harm, Little One," Mephistopheles chuckled.
"I'm here to thank you, really. You started all of this, Daniyal. The first seal. The girl, Caitlyn--you murdered her in the most despicable of manners. You cut off an entire future generation. She was supposed to marry that CNN reporter, you know."Mephistopheles paused, delicately beginning to pace back and forth in the small sport of the room unmarred by salt.
"You did more for our cause than Hanson ever did. All of demonkind thanks you, Daniyal." Mephistopheles nodded curtly, winking a bit at the boy.
"Consider yourself owed a favor. You know how to call us."And in a moment, the black smoke escaped from the body it inhabited. Mephistopheles fled, leaving behind the shell of a human. The man fell to the ground, already long dead, adding to the stench of death and decay within the Lohi household. At least the police are far too busy to bring Daniyal in for questioning.
Mrs. Hudson
Location: Aunt Sue's Inn
Interaction With: Samantha Hunter
@Nallore
Mrs. Gladys Hudson glanced up from her penny dreadful, and smiled sweetly over at Samantha. Scuttling over to her, she snatched her glasses off of the counter, placing them firmly on her head.
"What can I do for you, dear?" However, she didn't need to answer the question. Mrs. Hudson remembered each and every guest at the inn, allowing for her to keep less than perfect handwritten records. She practiced the
memory villa technique, determined not to let her mind fail her in her old age. Her sons had been a handful, and as far as she was aware, they weren't all too keen on having her move in with them. An old folks home was out of the question as well.
"Room one is open, dear," Mrs. Hudson said, handing over a key to Samantha, as she went over the terms of payment. Recognizing Samantha's camera, her face lit up, as the old woman got practically giddy.
"You must be one of those reporters! It's funny, isn't it? This happenin' here?"Mrs. Hudson flexed her hands, before pulling out an old book. It was the log of Aunt Sue's Inn, dating back to 1933, when it had first opened its doors. Several dingy photographs adorned the front cover, and Mrs. Hudson eagerly showed them to Samantha.
"Our little town's never been too fancy...But I suppose that's what you get from the name, Altsoba." She set the book aside, as soon as she determined that Samantha had been impressed enough.
"You know what Altsoba means, don't you? It's a Navajo word. Means all are at war; all is war...Fitting, isn't it? Kind of funny, the way the universe does those sort of things...Will you be wanting our laundry service, dear?" Mrs. Hudson finished, her scatterbrained ramblings moving from one subject to the next, with no true understanding of how fitting the town's name really was.
Location: Town Center
Interacting With: Mitsukuri Katsumi & Zachary Carpenter
@BlueSky44, Darren Andrews
@Pundii
From time to time, Jade couldn't help but wonder how Zachary became sheriff. The man seemed to have no backbone at all, merely content to follow what others did. She frowned, feeling another waft of despair and hopelessness come over her.
Snap the fuck out of it, Jade! She shook her head a bit, attempting to concentrate on the task at hand, even if she wanted nothing more than to head over to Jake's and get as much booze as they'd legally sell her. And then some.
Of course, Darren's incessant flirting was a bit of a welcome distraction. She couldn't deny that the man was fit.
"After this shit is over, you can ask me out for a drink," Jade countered. She didn't see the point in messing around. Cutting to the chase was a far better way to handle things--the way her father had taught her to act since she was small. Grimacing as repressed memories of her childhood floated to the surface, Jade fell silent for a moment.
"Let me guess: you don't have a permit for this," Jade frowned, eyeing the small armory in the back of his car. Waiting for his explanation, Jade sighed a bit, before switching out her rounds as he asked. The book, though, caught her curiosity. In all of the horror films she'd seen, a book generally wasn't a very decent weapon. Advice from a (wo)man of the cloth would prove to be far more helpful.
"So what, we're going to fight this thing with a copy of Harry Potter?" Jade inquired, walking with Darren towards the rare book shop.
Once the group neared close enough, they'd be able to make out the signs of a break-in. A break-in that started only moments ago, and in fact, was still in progress.
This girl, if they watched, pried open the door of the shop after smashing her wait against it, doing everything she could against the firm lock. By the time the group would get near, the girl would already be inside.
What the hell is going on here?
