snowblindrpg | [log] Event: Howl [open]

[log] Event: Howl [open]

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

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[ The stalling doesn't help. Already, Al's voice starts to lose volume to Zack's ears. It's like he's fallen underwater and everything that's being said goes distorted. No matter the hold he has on his thoughts, they're already beginning to splinter. They fray away under the influence of that new voice that tells him he has to- He has to...

And then Al runs and it's game over.

'Take him back!'

'Don't let him escape!'

Boots thunder after Al suddenly, taking on long, unhesitating strides and a yell follows in their wake, full of something sinister and a far cry from sounding anything like the one it belongs to. ] Get back here!

[And just like that, Zack isn't really Zack any longer. A part of him recognises that it's his friend, but the majority of him only knows that it's a cultist and he has to get away or he's going to be taken back.

He tries to run faster, but the clanking of his feet on the ground is such a giveaway to his location, impossible to muffle.]

N-No! Stay back!

[ The clanking makes for an easy enough sound to follow- at least at first. Enough that Zack's starting to catch up despite the missteps here and there. They only seem to prompt him to try harder, to fight through the darkness if it'll get him to the prophet- they need the prophet. He has to get him back-

The world begins to echo suddenly as it shifts or maybe it always was. But suddenly, he's hearing clanking all over instead of in just one direction and he stops for a moment to try and pinpoint it again. ]

[It's nearly impossible to keep going when he can't see the way ahead, and Al is desperate not to get caught and taken back by the cultists. He's not going to let himself get backed into a corner or, even more stupidly, fall and severely hurt himself because he can't see where he's going.

So he eventually just stops, spins in place, and readies himself for a fight. He stays as quiet as he can, simply listening as hard as he can for a possible approach. Maybe he's already lost the pursuit?]

[ He steps with care as he continues along through... wherever he just ended up. Blind as a bat, the only thing he picks up for a while are his own footsteps echoing as the scrape and toll of metal against metal just cuts off. Did he escape or is he still there? There's only one way to find out and Zack's not about to back down. He needs to find him. He needs to take him back. By any means necessary.

-A flicker of red light on his right sends him rushing along that way and regretting it soon after when he goes too fast and bangs a shoulder against a wall he can't see. But the light's too close now for him to let that stop him. He picks up where he left off, fully intent to try and ram Al to the ground. ]

[He listens as intently as he can, and watches for that glow of red light coming towards him. It's not exact, but Al tries his utmost to launch a punch directly at his pursuers face as they get in close.

Don't hurt Zack.

It's a tiny voice in the back of his mind, one that makes him pull his punch and maybe enough that he misses and gets knocked back, but it's not enough to stop him trying altogether.]

[ It might not have been enough to stop him, but it's definitely enough to prevent him from knocking some teeth out in the process. Doesn't change the fact that Zack runs right into it and SOLDIER or not, Al's strong. He grunts loudly as his back hits the ground hard. Zack doesn't immediately get back up despite the way he's cursing. ]

When I- get my hands on you...!

You don't want to do this!

[He tries to reach out toward the sound of that voice, wanting to grab Zack and hopefully pull him in close to an immobilising bear hug.]

[ Sheer stubbornness has Zack up maybe faster than most people. But that doesn't mean he's prepared for two large arms to suddenly come around him like some sort of humanoid bear trap. Cold metal meets his swelling cheek and while his first instinct would be to writhe, it's the echo of a memory that gets him to freeze. Gets him to stiffen as it washes over him and this time when he curses, there's an entirely different tone to it. ]

Out. Knock me- out, Al!

[ Already, he can feel the tug of those other thoughts pulling. Twisting into the midst of that thought, trying to pull it apart because no, no. He doesn't want that. He needs to stop him. He needs to take him back- Zack bites down on his lip hard enough to taste blood, but it doesn't stop them. Soon, he knows he'll be writhing again. ]

[He doesn't want to do this.

Even with the danger that he's in, he doesn't want to hurt a friend, but he knows it's the right thing to do. If their positions were reversed, he knows that he would thank Zack for knocking him out and making sure that he couldn't hurt anyone.

So he tightens his hold significantly, crushing Zack against his chest with the aim of cutting off his air supply.]

Sorry-- I'm so sorry.

[ At first, he's not sure if Al will even do it. But even that thought's buried easily by the others starting to swarm his mind. It's enough that it's hard to say whether he heard Al or not when he apologizes. He's already starting to thrash again, his hands trying to reach and grab and pull at those arms. But he just doesn't have the reach.

Doesn't matter in seconds anyway because next thing he knows, Al's squeezes him like a python and Zack's just struggling to gather enough breath as he tries and fails to push out from the shoulders. His breaths come in frantic puffs against Al's metal frame now, growing shorter by the second and his mind starts to go fuzzy.

He's out before he knows it, body limp in Al's arms. ]

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[log] Event: Howl [open]

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LOOK AT THEM BEIN ALL CUTE WITH THE DEATH HUGS

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