CLOSED ♔ there is a seed inside of me | it keeps growing

[behindcloseddoors]

♬ Demon Seed - Nine Inch Nails

WHO || Violet, Jess Leighton, ?? [closed]
WHAT || Violet's new life has a turn for the incredibly dramatic
WHERE || San Francisco, CA
WHEN || Feb 14th, 2013 [backdated]
HOW || Actionspam

For some people, the transition from their home world to this strange new one is made easier than for others, by the simple addition of one thing: access to people who care about their plight and meet them with understanding, instead of suspicion and fear. Violet Fiore was lucky enough to be one such pilgrim, arriving in the big city of San Francisco, California, where plenty of locals could easily recognize the signs of disorientation common enough in Veil arrivals. She was directed to the Lethe Clinic, a cramped building with tiny rooms but many smiling faces eager to help the displaced.

Jess Leighton was one of the workers there - all volunteers, of course - who took a special interest in Violet's case. The blonde human was quick to recognize that there was something unique about Vi's situation. Unlike so many of their "Shadow World" tenants who needed to be taught everything from modern day lingo to how to operate electronics, it was obvious relatively shortly that she knew about a world much like this one. While Jess admitted it was unheard of as far as she knew, she didn't treat Violet any different for it, and offered her the same amenities they gave everybody else: a bed to sleep in, some basic clothes, information about the world, the city, and what was known about the Veil, and a promise to help her find work so she could get out there on her own.

There are a number of other residents here, of course, some human, but others more bizarre in appearance: elves, a dwarf, even a pair of halflings. Most disturbing, however, has been that one of the young human women has been ill ever since Violet arrived, and as Jess has informed her, the local hospitals won't take her, for fear she's nursing some kind of Shadowkind disease that their patient's immune systems wouldn't be able to combat.

Today, Jess is leaning against the door to the sick girl's room, looking in, sweat on her brow as she takes a break from running around all day for once. She notices Violet approaching and sighs, closing the door quietly so as not to wake the resting girl.

"She's not getting any better." She shakes her head in frustration. "It's been a week now. Garriss was supposed to get a cleric to come by and see her days ago. And now I can't even reach him. I don't know what to do anymore."

Comments

[graveflowers]

[Violet's making a face at the map when she notices the bum. She had noticed before but simply assumed bum. But homeless people are so common that most people don't bother to skirt around them anymore, just ignore. And she's screwed with knowing where she is, so... maybe if she gets actual directions, she and the cleric she's going to find can make a pit stop before returning to Jess.

She creeps over, not quite hurrying, but she doesn't have time to take her time.]

Uh... you okay, dude? Person? Hitherto unspecified species of bipedel humany looking thing?[She can't tell, okay?]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ he lets out another groan, and rolls his face in her direction. the gray on his face seems to be giving way to a strange scaly red, and its entire face seems to be bloated, as if the skin were expanding. indeed, his entire skin seems to be moving, bulging out here and there. his eyes seem to have sunken into his face, made smaller, and as he opens one to look wildly about, it's a slitted yellow. he rasps out two words: ] Help... me... [ and then gives a cry of pain that sounds less and less human as it continues, and he rolls off the bench, hitting the floor with a thump. ]

[graveflowers]

[Holy actual crap. Hitherto unspecified species of bipedel humany looking thing it is! She kind of wants to vomit. Without thinking, she draws her bow and strings an arrow so fast she hits herself in the face (Dex 17).]

Holy Voldemort.

[What the hell is wrong with this place.] Help how? [Can he even talk now? The vomiting course of action comes to mind again.]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ he croaks out: ] Ki-- ki-- [ but that's all he can get before a tremendous ROAR issues from him as the blanket bursts into pieces around him, his body suddenly more than doubling in size, expanding and expanding into a red hulking beast with scary as fuck claws and spines everywhere. he slams into a wall, obviously disoriented, tearing at his face. ]

[graveflowers]

[Dear Today, kindly die in a fire. Sincerely, Violet 'Already Tired of this Shit' Fiore. PS: Hate you forever.

She's really hoping that it was a double LL at the end of that stutter, because she is not sucking face with ugly over here. Thank god for muscle memory though because even though she's seriously debating the pros and cons of combating him by blowing chunks all over him, her body takes over and she lets her arrow fly, nocking another as soon as the first leaves her fingers. (She rolled an attack of 22 and if that hits, the damage is 6.) Kill, yup. She'll try to do that for you, buddy.]

[herebemonsters]

[ fyi: a 19 or higher will hit! so her arrow definitely finds the mark, sticking in his side. he lets out a bewildered "HRNGH" and turns to look down at the arrow, following it back up to stare her down, and seeming to find his footing now. enraged, it rips the arrow out, and crushes it in its grasp. the arrow breaks in half... and then it lets out an appallingly loud croaking noise that echoes through the subway station at a painful volume. (vi must make a fortitude save of 16 or higher, or be stunned for one round!) ]

[graveflowers]

[Perfectly good arrow, ruined, jerk. But luckily Vi's fort. save of exactly 16 saves her from that deafening noise, but wow, she is going to have one hell of a headache tomorrow and it makes tears come to her eyes which are not good for shooting. But she does it anyway because her self-preservation skills hasn't got her to running away yet. (Attack 16, damage 8?) She's just clinging to the shred of hope that the Gremlin has an Achilles' heel she can repeatedly inflict violence upon. Once she finds it.]

[herebemonsters]

[ the arrow strikes again and this time he doesn't bother to yank it out, instead leaping towards her and swiping with its terrifying claws. it misses with one hand but the other rakes her across the back (dmg 4). she'll need to roll a fortitude save (dc 16) or... well nothing seems to happen. ON THE SURFACE. tell me anyways.

people are running and screaming now, trying to flee the subway at any cost. she'd hear several yelling things like: "THEY'RE HERE! THEY'RE IN THE SUBWAY!" ]

[graveflowers]

[(Fort save 12. Whoops.) This is the actual worst that she can remember, which isn't saying much, but is still the worst. Claws are the worst, always the worst. There are only so many scars on woman can have, you know.

The shouting reaches her dimly, like the echo is all she hears, but it's enough.]

Oh. They're here. As in plural. [Well that's just specta--] Oh crap, Jess.

[Jess all alone and human and defenseless and if there are huge demon beast monster gremlins here then... Violet fires off another haphazard arrow (attack 14, damage 3) and jumps back in case he wants to try tenderizing her before filleting (dex 22).]

[herebemonsters]

[ the monster whirls angrily as the arrow whaps into it at close range. it swipes at her again, but barely misses (atk 14) and lets out another ROAR in her direction. she's near the stairs, at least, and she can hear a train approaching on the tracks. ]

[graveflowers]

[Choice: take the stairs and possibly get mauled while running, probably fall OR enact, quite possibly, the stupidest thing in the entire world and use herself as bait.

Well, Violet isn't known for her good decisions. Screwing the stairs, she sprints for the train (dex nat 20), hoping it isn't early and that all her violent ADD imaginings are at least somewhat accurate. She might possibly die on this horrible executed completely spur of the moment plan, but she is taking this bitch with her.]

Come on, ugly, follow the tasty side dish! I had enchiladas for lunch, mmm, queso.

[She looses another arrow, hoping to keep him interested, even if it goes a little wide. (Attack 3) He is the bull and she is the matador and the train, hopefully, will be it's messy, bloody death.]

[herebemonsters]

[ well, it certainly seems to be taking the bait. it leaps towards her, landing on the very edge of the platform and reaches out a clawed hand to SNATCH THE ARROW out of the air where it goes whizzing by. it makes a fist and snaps that one too, giving her a drooling leer as it starts stalking closer. they're both precariously balanced near the ledge of the tracks... and that train sounds like it's only seconds away... ]

[graveflowers]

[Really fast beast monster. Whatever, still running on the adrenaline of this horrible decision. What she wouldn't give for grass and flowers...

Balancing on the balls of her feet, she steps back until she can feel nothing underneath her heels. (Balance 25) Imminent death is imminent.]

Come on. A little closer. Here kitty, kitty. It'd be swell if you could talk, otherwise I'm gonna have to monologue a little more. [She grips her bow a little tighter, pressing her heels down on air.] Just a little. I think your train is here.

[Violet throws herself at the ground (dex 12) and right into a wall, hoping reverently that the monster would try to grab at her and just topple over in front of the train. As far as tactics went, it's shoddy, but she's winging it.]

[herebemonsters]

[ she's right about one thing: the creature flings itself at her wildly, and its claws land again (dmg 5), raking across her shoulders as she rolls beneath it...

it didn't seem to realize it was jumping straight into a pit, however, and when she isn't there to stop its fall, over it tumbles onto the tracks with a heavy thud.

moments later, the train comes slamming into station, and it tries to get up, bumping into the side of the gap frantically, but to no avail.

SQUASH. ]

[graveflowers]

[Ow.

Seriously. Ow. Violet may have a little extra oomph because of her mom's godliness, but it didn't make her feel less pain and ow.

Upside of the pain, is the nice squishy noise the train makes and the tile against her back as she lays sprawled on the ground. She should get up. The people were screaming "they" as in plural, as in more than one.

But ow.

She needs to get back to Jess. She needs a better weapon. She needs a Mack truck. Mostly, though, she needs to get off the floor and get moving. Which she does, slowly and dizzily, heading towards the stairs. All in all, decent plan. She needs to work on the execution. And invest in some friggin' proper armor.

As she walks, she sends up a little prayer/thought/feeling to her mom:] Give him peace. ...and maybe make him a really angry shrubbery.

[layonhands]

[ she's heading up the steps when there's the sudden thunderous sound of many footsteps coming down at her... rapidly. a crowd of people actually, and some of them have weapons in hand and raise them when they see movement...

but a blonde woman in blue robes yells out: ] Stop! It's a girl! [ and they brake to a halt. she yells out: ] Are you alright?

[graveflowers]

[That question is oddly comforting. She must not look a crummy as she feels. Violet flashes the woman a wobbly thumbs up.]

A-Okay, el capitan. [Liar.] But I might have killed a train. Hey, can you give me a ride? I think I have another monster to kill before it eats my friend.

[lissatrinall]

[ a willowy woman brushes past her down into the station, sparing her a side long look. a wisdom check of 15+ will note her unusual facial features as well - they seem somewhat pinched at the cheekbones, and her nose seems oddly flattened along the bridge. she flatly ignores vi's question. ] She's been scratched. There's a chance she's been implanted.

[graveflowers]

[With wisdom 15 she absently notices, but is too busy mentally flipping out to think about it. Actually, she might be outwardly flipping out, too.]

Implanted? Like what, some kind of parasitic demon baby incubat-- are you fucking joking? [Sigh.] I take back the shrubbery. [She winces, rubbing at her forehead.] Any way we can delay my dispatch until after someone gets Jess to safety?

[lissatrinall]

That depends. [ she's trying to look over the edge to examine the carcass but it's apparently not working out so well with the little left of it. she turns back to violet instead as the others make it down the stairs and gather around them. ] What color was it?

[graveflowers]

Red. [She's not even worried about the possibility of turning into Hellboy, she is worried about Jess, which is clearly more important right now.]

[layonhands]

Oh thank Pelor. [ the blonde woman reaches out a suddenly glowing light towards Vi's torn up shirt ] May I?

[ she rushes to add: ] The red slaadi implants take a full week to gestate. It's the blue slaadi bites that can turn someone within moments.

[graveflowers]

Yay. [Okay, it's great that she's not a giant frothing Vi-Beast, but she doesn't want to gestate anything. She doesn't even like real babies. Gestating is not on the menu. So, she doesn't look or sound all to happy to be slowly gestating.] Go for it. And then we get to saving Jess?

[luthir]

[ a straight-faced long haired blonde, ostensibly an elf to anyone who doesn't crit fail a spot check, and wearing light but impressive looking armor looks over to her, exchanging a look with the other women, even as the cleric lays a hand to violet and she feels a surge of strength returning to her (all hit points restored!) ]

How far is your friend?

[graveflowers]

She's at the Lethe. That was, um, that was, that was nice. We should be friends. [Sorry, her weirdness is not to be blamed on the blood loss. Wow, that feels better than nectar and ambrosia. Can she keep him? (Spot check of 13 and mostly she's checking out his armor. As one does.)

In any case, she feels the need to explain further.] I was supposed to find a cleric, hey, but I'm a moron and I got lost, so I don't actually know where I am right now, thus I don't actually know how far she is.