[log] Event: Howl [open]

[snowblindmods]

Characters: everyone
Location: The sort of location M.C. Escher wishes he'd thought up.
Date: nights 211 & 212
Summary: I hunt for you with bloody feet across the hallow'd ground
Warnings: potential for violence, death, and psychological horror; please note in subject lines if any specific warnings come up!

like some child possessed, the beast howls in my veins
I want to find you tear out all your tenderness

Comments

Ecks - Prophet

[ecks]

[Ecks knows what must be done. She must take the light from the maws of monsters, but they and the lights that are people are all that she can see in the unending blackness, and her first efforts to find her own way resulted in a painful fall.

When she is alone, she typically stands in place, waiting, a hand on whatever surface she can find to steady herself. The blue ones will help her if only they can find her. When one comes close she'll raise her monotone voice to catch their attention (why do they not always see her when she can see them?). When a beast or a red dot starts to come her way, though, she'll stare at it a while, watching its meandering path, before she begins to stumble away from it, feeling her way as carefully as she can, unable to move with any meaningful speed without walking into another unseen danger.]

[rubikscomplex]

[When House sees Ecks, there's an unnatural uptick in sympathy for him. He generally wants to stop the golem getting hurt, but this is a new level, and the doctor can feel it clawing at the edges of his mind. They need to take out the anomalies to move forward, though... or whatever these are. He needs a Prophet. There's already been one close-encounter he'd nearly lost a few fingers from.]

Am I supposed to take your hand, or what?

[ecks]

Doctor House.

[She pulls her lips back into an approximation of a smile, but it disappears again quickly as she stretches out a hand toward him, not wanting to move her feet until she has the reassurance of his guidance.]

I can see you, but I can't see you. I can't see the floor and I fell earlier.

[rubikscomplex]

[He takes her hand in a firm grip. He doesn't like holding hands, but this will have to do for now.]

I see your death price wore off.

[ecks]

You hear that my death price wore off.

[By now the correction to the version that's literally true is a joke, so she smiles after she says it, baring her teeth in an expression that's almost entirely unlike the more natural smile she's been learning.]

I'm afraid. Stay with me.

[rubikscomplex]

[... is she making jokes? Why? House gives Ecks a Look that she can't see.]

Don't try to be funny. And I'm holding your hand. Just point toward any creatures you see. We need to get the lights.

[ecks]

The lights in their mouths.

[She ducks her head, disappointed that he did not like her joke. Her eyes are blankly scanning, though, always, and she stiffens after a second, her gaze burning downward through the floor.]

Down.

[rubikscomplex]

[House sighs and looks around for the nearest drop off point, then starts walking toward, it, pulling her along.]

Gravity's gonna change on us somewhere along the line. Be prepared for that. Have you had to deal with it here, yet?

[ecks]

I fell earlier.

[She already told you that, Sciencedad. She keeps her face turned toward the creature, which is coming closer and closer to being directly under their feet.]

I think that it is a snake. It is a snake but it is not a correct snake.

[rubikscomplex]

Falling covers too broad a category. I thought you meant you tripped. Be more specific. [Only specificity will do, Ecks!]

What's not correct about the snake?

[House doesn't realize that the snake is mirroring them, which is a problem that will probably become apparent when they reach the edge and it comes up to meet them. Maybe. Possibly.]

[ecks]

The snake's mouth is on the wrong end, and it does not have any eyes.

[She cocks her head, watching it writhe along beneath them upside-down, getting out ahead of them now. As they near whatever edge House has chosen, she watches it curl seemingly in the abyss, twisting its front around upright to face them, hooking its body over that edge. Embedded all down its spine are wet, blinking eyes]

Oh. There are the eyes.

[rubikscomplex]

[House freezes.]

How far away is it?

[Orientation shift means that thing might have beaten them to the edge. It's about 30 feet off.]

[ecks]

[Imperial measurement system, what is that? Ecks struggles for a moment to think what he will understand based on the discussions she has seen the humans here have about measurements.]

Five or six human body lengths.

[rubikscomplex]

And it's moving toward us. When it gets close enough, I want you to go for its eyes. Distract it. I'll grab for the light. [It's a strategy that's mostly worked up to this point.]

[ecks]

You cannot see it?

[It's coming right at them now, and Ecks tenses though she doesn't let go of him yet.]

The light is on the wrong end. The mouth is on the wrong end. You have to get the light from the back of the snake.

[rubikscomplex]

[He doesn't want to do this and doesn't bother to answer her question.]

Fine. When it's just one length away, let go of me and attack. I'll run for the other end.

[That should... probably work.]

[ecks]

Acknowledged.

[She can't see the ledge, can't see the ground at all, but she has faith that Doctor House would not guide her too close to dangerous terrain when he intends her to let go of him.

She stalks toward it even as it slithers toward them, gripping his hand tightly -- then tighter still before she lets go altogether and darts forward, hands clenched into fists. The snake is an enormous thing whose girth makes it waist-high even as it remains flat on the ground, eyes embedded all down its back. It's for the nearest eye that she aims, bringing her fist down hard. What Ecks doesn't see is the seam all down the snake's side, extending from where its tail splits into a mouth at the very end. The seam ripples, baring teeth. The entire snake is a mouth, and the light shifts behind those teeth.]

[rubikscomplex]

[House sees it, finally, when its virtually underfoot. He doesn't stop to be worried, leaving Ecks to punch its.]

Jesus Christ, what the hell?!

[That's really the only appropriate response to what happens next in House's opinion. Because that's a lot of mouth. That's too much mouth. That's an amount of mouth that makes no practical or biological sense. How does it even digest its food? there's no room for a stomach. There's no room for anything except teeth.

He sees the light sliding back and forth down the creature's mouth-body and tries to time grabbing it right. House latches onto one of the... lips, and hopes that's enough to hold it still while he grabs.

Or he's probably not going to have an arm after this.]

cw eye trauma

[ecks]

[There's room for a lot of teeth, though. The creature screeches as Ecks's fist lands squarely in the middle of one of its lidless eyes, both ends of its body thumping against the ground -- and its mouth opening wider as an unearthly shriek emanates from within. Then it snaps shut again; if House hasn't grabbed the light and gotten his arm out, it's going to start thrashing to throw the pair of them off...and to try to separate him from that arm if he's too slow. All the while, Ecks clings to it as best she can, punching at the eye again and again until she is covered in its blood up to her elbow.]

[bywolves]

[ He knows that the red needs to be avoided, but - he's curious. He's afraid, sure, but he's always quietly afraid, so this isn't new. He heads right for the first red dot he sees - he doesn't have his weapons or anything but he knows he can defend himself just fine.

When the red dot he's chasing starts to stumble away, Royce speeds up. He's having a hard time getting through what he thinks might be mud, or quicksand? He can't tell, and he's all disoriented, but it doesn't matter. Whoever this red is, he can grab them and ask them for answers.

And then gravity reverses itself and he's dumped out on the ceiling-turned floor, away from the quicksand, landing in a heap. His arm twinges painfully, and Royce lets out a pained noise, trying to pull himself back together. ]

[ecks]

[Ecks slides into the wall as she stumbles upon a slanted portion of the floor -- or as the floor slants. She doesn't land so hard as it sounds like the other person did, but when she tries to push off the wall and find her footing again she finds herself laying on the wall instead and lets out a small, distressed sound of confusion as she realizes that she was never on the floor at all, that this is the floor now.]

Stay away.

[The other being near frightens her...and it makes her angry. How dare the Prophet run away, how dare she come back only to refuse to be what is needed? Ecks's voice lowers to an uncharacteristic growl.]

Come back to me.

[bywolves]

[ Oh. Well, that's terrifying.

It isn't his terror, he's lucid enough to realize that for about two seconds before it overwhelms him. He won't be caught. He can't go back, he won't. Anxiety drags up in his chest, and Royce pulls himself to his feet and takes a few unsteady steps back. ]

No. [ Is his answer, as he's moving away. ] I wont't.

[ecks]

You must. You are needed.

[She feels out the new floor with flattened hands before she brings first one foot and then another up under her, pushing herself up to stand, then to shuffle toward the red dot.]

I will help you. I will teach you to stay where you are needed. It will only hurt for a while.

[bywolves]

[ Nope. Nooope. Royce stumbles off in the opposite direction, but he's clumsy without sight. He can't see the wall that he runs into, and it has him a bit winded, collapsed against it. He looks over his shoulder to try and find her, but all he can see is the infuriating red dot. ]

You're crazy. [ Royce snaps. ] You won't take me in. Leave.

[ecks]

[Her tread is unsteady, so careful not to fall as she stalks after him, patient as she sees the red dot of him bob and hears the desperation in his voice.]

You are needed. You must come back. You left us and that was wrong but I will make it right.

[Her advance on him is slow but inexorable. One of those patchwork hands reaches out, feeling for him as the other finds the wall and traces along it. Should she touch him, she will burst into motion, digging fingers into any part of him she can reach.]