[network] @crescent; to die historic on the furry road [open]

[lancingintherain]

[usually, the worst thing about waking up is remembering how hungry she is. But this morning, as Day 45 breaks cold and overcast as usual, the worst thing about waking up is remembering that last night, her friend got literally eaten by a monster.

She has to warn people. She couldn't save Mami, but maybe she can help others. So once she's mostly talked herself down from numb grief and fear, she turns on her tablet's video function. At first, it's aiming at a wooden tabletop, but she tilts it to show a drawing. For having been drawn last night in the dark in the hazy, panicky aftermath of mortal peril, it's pretty decent:



She clears her throat and starts to speak, her voice low and breaking despite her efforts to keep it steady.]

Four days ago, I was traveling with Alphonse Elric's group. We were attacked by this monster here. [a gray-furred, four-fingered hand moves into the video to tap at the top left of the picture with one sharp claw.] It was... well, if you've seen Alphonse, you know how tall he is. This one was taller. It had... light, instead of skin. Like what we see on the videos, sometimes. I'm not explaining it quite right, but... we got away.

[she swallows, then takes a shaky breath and points to the drawing on the right.]

Mami Tomoe and I—she's a young human girl; some of you have met her—we were on our own, yesterday. This monster attacked us last night. We—I tried to...

[she breaks off, planting her hand flat on the table to stop it from shaking. When she speaks again, her voice is hard.]

...It swallowed her. It ate her whole. That's what they do. Now we know.

[she points to the bottom drawing.]

It said things to me, before it—before it ate her. Spoke right into my head. "I want it"; "I am here"; I wrote down what I could remember. And there's something else. All of the other monsters I've seen have looked, well, they've looked human, or something like it. But this one... oh, it's easiest to just show it.

[the video swings dizzyingly as she picks up the tablet, and she taps on the screen to turn the camera. At once, the view of the tabletop and wall becomes a view of her very inhuman face, framed by her pale, tangled hair and large ears. Her eyes are tired, and her muzzle is streaked with dark, dried blood.]

...It looked like me. Like one of my people. But it... it ran on all fours, like an animal. ...I don't know what any of it means. But one thing's the same—and if anyone who's just arrived is watching this, you'd better listen. [her voice turns cold, and she looks straight into the camera.] If you see a monster, you run, got it? You run away as fast as you can, and get inside, and block the door. There's no fighting them. No fighting them at all.

[OOC: HOT GOLLY DAMN, there are enough threads here to feed a whole village of cute, thread-starved orphans. I'm capping the number of threads where it is. No more replies please, you beautiful people.]

Comments

video, @lawbringer

[cloneprincess]

I'm sorry, ate her whole? Spoke to you psychically?

[ That all sounds... insane. More insane than anything else they've encountered here, if only because it doesn't fit with the general pattern of what they've seen. Maybe that's limited sample size; they've been encountering more and more monsters and new patterns would inevitably emerge.

That, or it's possible Freya was hallucinating. ]

Do you think you could explain what happened in order? Take your time.

video | @crescent

[lancingintherain]

Oh—Jane.

[Jane seems completely unfazed by her appearance, which is 1000% all right with her, honestly. Just talking about what's happened is tiring enough. But she takes a deep breath, and does her best, even if she looks down at the tabletop as she speaks.]

Um. It... it came out of the house. It pinned Mami down in the snow, and—and then I heard its voice in my head. It... it was more like hearing its feelings, than words. It didn't speak in sentences; just pieces of them, all run together. I wonder if it meant to speak to me at all.

...Anyway. Mami went limp when it touched her. Lost consciousness. I tried to get to her, to pull her away, but...

[she shakes her head. Her own memory gets fuzzy about that moment; all she can remember is fear and that voice and an impossibly wide mouth filled with sharp teeth.]

...The monster was quicker. It—I swear, it swallowed her. At least, that's what I saw. ...I don't know how much of that to trust, to be honest. But I'll tell you anyway.

[she pauses to take a deep breath, to steel herself and to let Miranda absorb what she's just said.]

text, @totheark

[0thingsonmymind]

itwants you?

*Or the girl it ate, maybe.*

how light in steadof skin?

text | @crescent

[lancingintherain]

[she's more than happy to swap to text, and the video cuts immediately as she turns on voice-to-text mode, all the while trying to place where she's seen this person's username before. The second "question" they ask is a lot easier to address than the first, so that's what she goes with.]

Like the ripples that show up when people try to make videos of the monsters. When the screen goes white and gray and the picture doesn't show up properly. Do you know what I mean?

Who are you?

@hotstud_xxx; audio

[rubikscomplex]

[He should really be more concerned with the information being relayed. The fact that one of those things swallowed a girl whole is interesting as well as horrifying. Presumably she's being carted off to the morgue for safe-keeping. The fact that the creatures are now speaking is even more interesting. But there's one over-riding thing here. Something that he absolutely needs to comment on.]

Holy shit, you're a furry. And your 'people.' Are you an otherkin?

@crescent | video

[lancingintherain]

[it takes her a moment to place his voice, but when she does, she feels her face get warm, and clenches her teeth. This guy. Her ears fold back, and she gives the tablet a sharp look.]

What? I—no. I'm Burmecian. And good; you've noticed the fur. I feared people might miss it.

[delicious sarcasm. House, did u miss the part of her story where she mentioned a monster eating someone or]

@starspangledhero; video

[fifty]

It ate her? [America can only think back to Sealand, who had died and come back. No one had been there except Sealand, so he can't know, but he can only imagine the monster eating him, too. God, a kid, Sealand's just a kid, the girl who got eaten here is just a kid.

He's not incredibly surprised by Freya's appearance, at least; he's friends with an alien at home, and he assumes this is a similar deal.]

Did it keep chasing you after? Are you okay? [It looks like she was bleeding at some point, but there are a lot of things that could cause that here.]

@crescent | video

[lancingintherain]

[oh, hey, it's Alaska Guy. Although she's never spoken to him, she's eavesdropped enough to know that he's a friendly dude... even if she still doesn't know what to make of this whole "nation" business.]

Oh—you're America, right? I'm... I'm fine. [with bigger things to worry about last night, she'd forgotten her nose was bleeding. This morning, she's completely oblivious to how messed-up she looks live on camera.] ...After it... after it attacked us, it vanished into the storm—like it was never there.

[she remembers something, and her eyes go wide.]

You're... friends with Sealand, the little boy, aren't you?

@zd; text

[swatsflies]

[He has Shumi and Moombas where he's from and will assume she's some how related to them. Maybe she's what the female of their kind looks like?]

You have blood on your face.
Are you okay?
It's not still going after you, right?

@crescent | video

[lancingintherain]

Oh...

[she blinks in surprise at his first line, finds the crusted fur with her fingertips, and starts scraping the blood away as she answers him. Where has she seen this username before...?]

...No. It isn't still after me. It's gone. The monsters, they—they break off pursuit once they've caught someone. At least, this one did. ...Other ones might still wait until morning. I don't know.

voice; @haurchefant

[silverfuller]

I am sure you are far lovelier than whatever this beast was.

[And yes he saw that she looks decidedly non human. But flattery aside.....]

Any monster can be fought, can it not? We'd need only find the right weapon....

[Saying that his voice sounds more cold. He's not sure what a "human" is, but he understands "young girl" and any creature that runs off with the young, well.... That's a creature that needs to be destroyed. Deep inside he feels his sense of honor sneer at the thought of just running from a threat that preys on the innocent.]

video | @crescent

[lancingintherain]

[she blinks at that first thing he said, caught off-guard, and frowns. Oh my god mysterious dude are u for real. she ignores the flattery, hoping he'll leave it at that—this is so not the time for it.]

No—not for now, at least. We've tried almost everything: weapons go right through them, and fire just— ...it doesn't work, either. Nothing stops them. Nothing we know of.

[she recognizes his voice, but only from recently. Exhausted and emotionally drained as she is, though, she can't remember much else about him yet.]

...You're new, aren't you? I remember your voice.

@TW; voice

[maskintape]

Shit. I-- shit.

[ Okay, Tim. Play it cool. Be sane and reasonable and focus on the monster that FUCKING ATE SOMEBODY. Don't be an idiot. ]

The tall one -

[ TIM NO ]

- did - did it have a face?

[ TIM NO ]

video | @crescent

[lancingintherain]

Tim...

[OH WELL LOOK WHO IT IS. She's had a while to work through him lying to her and running away, and after that video Jay had posted, she's mostly just glad he's still alive overall. They'd escaped from a monster that ran on all fours, too, hadn't they? But before she can bring that up, he's talking about... oh, the other one. Cool.]

I... it... I can't remember. It was hard to look at it. I... don't think so.

[she leans forward, her elbows on the table, looking intensely at his username for lack of an actual Tim face to make eye contact with.]

Is that monster one you've seen before?

TELL MY WIFE I SAID I'M DEAD [backdated action thread, day 44]

[fataliteas]

[Mami hikes her backpack a little higher up on her shoulders and picks her way through the snow. She's reached the point of being so worn down that she feels hollow, and there's an awful sort of relief in that. No more sadness, no more fear. Only dull, familiar pangs of hunger and the fog of sleep deprivation. She's been quiet since they've parted ways with Alphonse and the rest — not so much withdrawn, or secretive, as empty. Going through the motions.

So when building 44 comes into view and she speaks up, her young voice is ragged at the edges and hoarse, strained. As if her vocal chords had begun to forget how to produce articulate sound.]

If we find shoes in my size, I'd like to preemptively stake a claim.

[lancingintherain]

[Freya stops to take her snowshoes off when 44 emerges through the fog—especially after the monster a couple days ago, she feels safer knowing she can run. As she unties the bindings, she looks grimly at the snow and frost covering the snowshoes and the wrappings around her feet. She can barely feel them by now, and she thinks about Clayton's missing toes as she glances up at Mami.]

If we do, you're welcome to them. We don't wear the same size.

[jokes. Awesome.]

We have got to find you some proper clothes soon, though. Even that coat you've got isn't warm enough.

sneaking this in before Ed dies during the day of 45. bc i'm trash.

[forfeits]

W-What? Mami's dead?

[ just days ago they had been a group, been safe save for the few monsters here and there, but this news is shocking. someone he had (not quite) gotten along with, and yet still a friend. ]

Where are you? Maybe we can try to get to you. I don't think anyone should be alone right now, especially here. This place just makes us see things, makes things that will make living here harder, like the monsters. Just -- just stay safe. They're just... they could be trying to make you panic even more.

[ or perhaps this place really has garnered the ability to make chimeras, maybe it's dragging things from their home worlds here. he won't say that now -- he can't. ]

We haven't run into anything else yet, but we'll run if we do.

YESSS

[lancingintherain]

[she shakes her head firmly, then leans her elbow on the table and cups the lower half of her face in one shaking hand. She can't bring herself to look him in the eye. Here was someone else who had been counting on her to have Mami's back, to look out for her, because he'd been Mami's friend and comrade, too...]

No. Stay right where you are. Don't you come after me. I... don't put yourselves in danger; please.

@LELRIC; audio

[armoured]

[He listens to this as if Freya is stabbing him physically with every single word she says.

It happened with Tadashi, with Steph, and now with Mami too... He lets them leave the group and his protection, and then they die without him there to even try and stop it. He failed again, and this time Mami paid the price.

His voice sounds choked, half distress over Mami and half worry over her.]

You-- Were you hurt too?

[He should say something else, something about Mami, but he can't bring the words to his lips. It's too painful, so that's all he can say, however inadequate.]

video still

[lancingintherain]

[she feels a rush of deep, awful shame when she hears Al's voice. Al—who wanted to protect all of them, but who had let her and mami go anyway, with the implicit promise that they'd stay safe. That she, the stronger of the two of them, would keep Mami safe.]

[and she'd failed spectacularly, with the dead friend and bad drawings to prove it. She keeps the video on, but can't look at the camera or the screen.]

...No. I'm not hurt. I'm fine. [and mami isn't.]

Al, I should have—I didn't—... I'm so sorry.

text; @standardissue

[deus_ex_phs]

[Kunsel stares.

He'd registered her hands, but had only had enough time to register them as off before his attention was arrested by her face. An inhuman face. The face of a monster, like something he'd fight in the slums, or out in the Wastes. He freezes in that instant, something a SOLDIER should know better than to do, but for the moment he's safe. It's just a face on a screen.

A face with a too-familiar voice.

It's her voice that finally jerks him into action - but not to give immediate response. Instead, it's to read every single response she's given so far, harvesting every piece of information, judging every nuance of her voice, weighing everything while his mind races and tries to process what he's seeing.

It's several minutes before he finally responds, sticking to text to give him time to think between each response.]

Freya?

Are you alright?

action; he is so sorry....

[heroproceeding]

[ Zack's been sitting on the edge of a thought since he woke up that morning, one he was preparing himself to put into words perhaps later on. In the meantime, the plan was to go flitting through the network to catch up and make sure his friends are doing alright. That's stopped short when he notices that Kunsel seems to be staring pretty pointedly at his own tablet in surprise. And that gets Zack investigating. By investigating, he's completely ignoring personal space as usual as he tries to peek over his shoulder. ]

Hey, Kuns, what are you looki- Whoa! [ He jolts back. ] What is that? Another monster someone ran into? [ Guess who's too busy staring at the end clip of the video to look at what Kunsel's already written in? Nor check the username? It's an interesting clip. Usually, they're really grainy and staticy... This one's completely clean though. ]

id: fastoon, voice

[clockblock]

[There's a lot for him to take in about this broadcast.

For all that he's removed himself from the troubles of this community, wearing blunt pragmatism and emotional distance like a familiar cloak, he's sorry that a young girl had to suffer....a fate like that. It's distressing, and confusing, that these creatures have some ability to speak, to communicate through violating another's mind. In that alone, there's almost too many implications to wrap his mind around. Yet what he can't help but focus on beneath all of that is Freya's appearance.

She's not human. She's like him.]

This is important information. We can put it to good use.

[His tone is firm, yet quietly thankful in the way that comes only when it's understood just what the price had been. Despite what happened to her friend, she did well. She survived to warn everyone else. That's worthy of respect. But even as a disgraced general, he can't quite say so plainly.]

.....there's something I need to ask you, though.

@crescent | video

[lancingintherain]

[oh, hey—it's that guy from the thing. The space sailor-architect-soldier guy. She'd been scratching flakes of blood from her fur and staring, haunted, into the middle distance, but she immediately sits up straighter and looks into the camera when his voice reminds her that she's on video.]

...Sir. Um. ...Of course. What is it?

video, @Enoch

[warriorscribe]

[There's so much to take in. That Freya is a rodent-person hardly registers, it's so insignificant compared to the shock, the heavy, cold feeling like his innards have turned to ice, at hearing a young girl was eaten alive.]

I-I'm so sorry, that must have been terrifying, I-...

[And then he looks back up at the picture, at what the monster said, entertains the question of why for just a moment and all of him stops. He doesn't think. He doesn't even breathe. And then, with a shiver, he continues.]

Wait, "Hello, I am here"? But...

[Why would a monster say that? Those aren't the words of an attacker.

Maybe he still has the town's ghosts on the brain, but if anything, they sound like the words of a prisoner.]

[lancingintherain]

[she tries to sit up a little straighter when she sees him show up on her tablet, but she's still the total opposite of what she was like the last time they spoke. She's quiet and hesitant, all the fire gone out of her.]

That's what I heard. That's what it said. ...There was more, too, but I can remember the rest.

You haven't heard one of them speak, have you? Or—or anything like this?