lady horatio

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@Mokley Ooh, nice sound effects, Moke!

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Collab post in the works, friends! Just sent DJ a message, and will try not to go too much further than David and Jill exiting the bathroom, so it doesn't mess up any other characters' potential for action.

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@DJAtomika I gathered we had quite a crowd! The best I can tell, the room looks like this: João huddled behind the table, flanked by Jeremy with his torch and Gary with the fire extinguisher. I'm not sure of our girl D. actually came inside or is just ready with her gun, since Gary took over extinguisher duty.

Please, anybody else chime in if you think your characters would react! Otherwise, DJ, would you like to do a collab post? Jill won't take kindly to being touched, but since she does sort of stumble her way out, it would be easy for David to grab her and assist—though if he's holding the door (which I didn't realize he was; I should do another reread!), he may not want to shut the others in.

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@Rabidporcupine@Lady Squee@Not Fishing@Briza@Zoro@DJAtomika@Girlie1Bomba@Mokley

My post is up! But if anyone was specifically waiting to grab Jill and hustle her out the door, let me know and I'll edit. :)

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Jill did not react to the first round of yelling. Or rather, she did react—by flinching and staying exactly where she was.

To be fair, she was getting a lot of conflicting messages, and her heartbeat had become very loud in her ears, and her breath was coming a little short. It was becoming hard to know who to listen to, and so far—aside from the verbal assault from the woman who thought this was some kind of prank—she hadn't suffered any actual injury from inside the relative safety of the stall.

But that final yell, accompanied by the promising roar of what sounded like a a blowtorch or a firehose—hopefully some kind of tiger-deterrent—had a level of confident surety to it.

Eyes on the door, she told herself. Don't even look at anything else. You can figure it out after you make it to the door.

And so she dropped from her perch, fumbled the lock open, and bolted.

She made it through the noisy crowd, stumbling as she tried not to knock into anyone (and almost failed). She only caught a glimpse of the tiger, of the foam bursting out of the fire extinguisher, of the actual torch being brandished by one of the men, and then she was free.

She only made it as far as the inner part of the diner before her knees gave up, and she dropped to huddle in the nearest corner, arms held protectively over her head.

"Shit," she muttered. "Hell, goddamn, goddamn it!" The swearing only made her feel mildly better, but it was either swear or cry, and she just couldn't do that here. Her heart was pounding in double-time, there were too many people, and the medication she tried so hard not to take was still in the goddamn bathroom with her phone and duffel bag.

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Thank you, guys! I was a bit stuck, and the changes and input here in OOC have been very helpful. :) I'll try to get a Jill post up for you today—within the hour, if I can get it done before going out to dinner with my family; otherwise, later tonight.

Edited to add: Though I can wait, if Jeremy, Gary, or D would act in the next few seconds as the door is thrown open and Joao and David rush in—I know the other three were on standby to come at the tiger with fire and such, so if they're right on Joao's heels, they'd probably be acting faster than Jill.

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@DJAtomika Ahhh, panic attacks, you say… It seems Jill and David have something in common.

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Jill is gonna be real offended if she finds out anyone mistook her for a literal child.

Still enjoying watching all of this play out. :P

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My post is up! And for the listeners outside the door, Jill's curse was more of a hiss, so it's not likely anyone heard it this time—unless somebody's got some supernatural secrets they're not sharing. ;)

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The door clicked open, and Jill's heart raced, her eyes darting up in fearful hope—that quickly crashed as the door slammed shut again.

Somehow, she just knew it had not slammed shut behind anyone. She was still alone in here, with something scary enough for her rescuer to have instantly changed his mind.

Under other circumstances, she might have weighed the risks and taken her chances—she was damn fast, when she needed to be—but she still had the scars to remind her why it was usually a good idea to keep a wall between yourself and anything that walked on all fours and was bigger than you.

She scrabbled for the cell phone in her back pocket, no longer worried about some emergency dispatcher writing her off as crazy. She would take any heat if someone would just come and get her out of here.

There was a desperate fumble, the feel of a plastic case slipping through her fingers, and a small crack as it hit the floor.

Jill almost lost her footing and had to make another grab for the walls as one tennis shoe slid and nearly went into the toilet. "Shit!"