i said a-MONAAAAY......CHANGES EV-REEEY-THAAaaang....[Closed]

[summertimeblues]

Who: Richie Tozier (summertimeblues) & Red (persistor), Boxer (desistor), Sandra the Unseeing (tutorb), and J.J. Leroy (underwhelms), possibly others
What: Mission stuff!! And a catch-all for January if need be
When: Early January
Where: Olympia, visiting Wyver for the lovely mountains and lakes and the profit they hold
Warning(s): Potty mouths, perhaps dirty humor, maybe a violence...also J.J. is a terrible embarrassment to dw rp and Canada as a whole, I'm threading with him so you don't have to. You're welcome.



Rod and Bexer - Disturbing the Dead

[Not a month ago, Richie would have outright laughed if you told him to hitch up his suspenders and drag his ass out for a tomb raid. The whole thing would have seemed ludicrous. Childish even, searching for buried treasure in taped off ruins. That's the shit you pulled when you were fourteen and bored and you hear a rumor that the old mill's light turns on by itself at the stroke of midnight.

But call him curious. Or suitably bored. Suitably irritated with how daily life in Olympia now means he's serving liquor to men and women who can't shut up about what a pack of ingrates the good folks of Wyver are. That insipid survey that'd been floating around ground his gears further. Though the two situations hardly co-relate, rising dissent versus hunkering around in caves for trinkets, some irrepressible madness was stirring in him. A need to dissent himself, the likes of which he'd abandoned in his early thirties when he cast off the picket signs and weekend marches. Get his head out of the puckered asshole Olympia was becoming and throw a middle finger to the air.

Also, his wages as a barkeep were fair, but he was used to far, far better. This had money involved.

He contacted Red on a whim for company (and for a moment doubted the choice — she was a mute, would that make it harder to navigate together? They'd have their phones but maybe she'd be stuck doing hambones and finger snaps to call his attention if there was a bat nest he might trip into) and she'd responded quick enough that there was nothing more to discuss. The pair were to meet at the mouth of the mountain and make the trip into the crypt together.

Except the pair's more like a trio.]

So I've gotta say, of all the coincidences I could have imagined, I wouldn't have sat you two down on a love seat if you paid me ten dollars to think it over. Don't I look the fool.

["Wally" is human now, the light from the flashlight catching his fleshy ridges and the leather of his jacket, but he's dragging the sword with him. The sword that he lives in, clinking over ancient stone as they pass into the dark world of the dead. The world's most solid hologram, folks, step right up and take a poke yourself! You won't believe your eyes!] I take it that you hitched wagons before all of that. Or you're a Super Freak the likes of which Rick James couldn't conceive. Congratulations Red, I'm impressed.


Sandy Crabs - A Day in the Life

[The second rebellion takes place on a deceptively more forgiving stage. There's no ghosts or trap doors, but there's pitfalls here all the same. This one is bordering on (or in fact, is) illegal. Something a sensible adult wouldn't have done, and he wouldn't have dared as a grown man in California. There was no risk worth taking it for. In Maine, maybe, but the snooping they'd had to do laid firmly outside of the realm of man and institutions. This was legitimate espionage.

Richie's only been here how long, now? Two, edging on three months? He can't decide if this sudden bout of daring is a healthy change or a stupid one.

This time, he enlists what he can only imagine is the perfect accomplice for the job. She's travel-sized, smart, a verified psychic, and easily hidden into small spaces. Hello Sandra, we're very impressed with your resume and we'd like to welcome you on board. Happy to have you on the team.

They slip through security with relative ease. Sandra's got a neat trick there: blind she may be, but unseeing is a damn lie. She confirms or denies the presence of approaching bodies, and only through her cheats does Richie slip through doors and around the right corners until they hit the office they need.]

You oughta do this full time, babe. You're a dab hand at playing dispatch for thieves. [Richie shuts the door behind them with his heel, and gently props the old gal on the sprawling desktop as he takes a quick gander around.] Maybe we can get you some wheels. Motor you around and you can zip in where man may not follow.


Jimmy Johns Leeroy - Preaching in the Material World

[After all that recklessness, he's ready for something a little more sedate. A trip to the country, so to speak. Luckily there's an option to earn some money there too, and as much as he misses swimming daily in pools or long California beaches, he can only shudder remembering that horking motherfucker that tried to bite his face off on the boat trip in. The lakes might be inland, but even so? No thanks.

He opts to get quartz from the Edrathe Ruins instead. Sets off early in the day so he has a bit of time to see the sights as well, admiring the graceful lines of ancient monuments and having a quick lunch on a snowy knoll. The weather has been downright amicable, even if there's no melt. While the sun is still high and he has plenty of hours to make it back to town, he treks into the dark.

It's some time before he comes across what he needs. He's careful to chart his way through the cave. While not labyrinthe, it's dim and deep enough that he feels caution is necessary. Richie hums, wedging the light between his shoulder and cheek as he pries the crystals off the wall.

There's a splashing sound from further ahead.

He freezes. Whips the light around with a hunchback's pirouette. His hands are still on his knapsack and the rocks so he has to tuck them away before fetching the light proper. Richie waves the light this way and that, but only sees the esophagus of bedrock stretching longer and longer down. How deep does this go?

What's splashing around in the dark down there?

For once, he opts to stay silent. He's alone out here, he's sure of it...]


((if you want to do something in our fair month of January, please feel free to shoot me a PM on this journal! Happy to throw up closed starters anytime.))

Comments

[summertimeblues]

[There's something living down there, all right. Given a half-second, that single splish in the distance has turned to rumbles, thundering footsteps, panicked breath and the scuttle of something big. Something dangerous, inhuman.

That's not the shape careening towards him.]

What in the—

[The boy (isn't that the Canadian kid?) rockets too close, just as there's a wet squelch deep in the shadows behind him. Alien chittering. Too quickly his mind leaps to that Sigorney Weaver picture, the black-carapaced beast from another planet that had picked off a space crew one by one by one.

Every goosebump from scalp to sole hits their peak at once. Richie nearly drops the pick he'd been working at the wall with, nearly drops the light too. He lets the former tumble into his sack and turns his light the other way as he joins the boy in the run. Better to live another day than to catch a glimpse at cavely wonders.

He catches up soon enough, still sprinting as he calls out.]

What the fuck is that?!

[underwhelms]

[ Who knows, really. JJ probably should care more; the more information they have the better they can fight whatever it is that they're dealing with. Unfortunately, he's in no mood to do any recon. He's probably running too fast, heart beating fast and limbs feeling the exertion of every step when he should be pacing himself so that he doesn't run out of breath.

He's glad that he's not alone, just as much as he can feel the guilt of dragging someone else into this mess. Maybe Richie has a family that's waiting for him—friends and loved ones. ]

I don't know!

[ He's lucky he's an athlete if nothing else, lugging his bag of crystals with him as he charges ahead through the cavern, it's harder to see without the light of their flashlights to guide them, and there are a few terrifying moments where JJ can't tell where the path leads ahead and where there's just solid rock. But they haven't gone crashing into a wall yet, and there's no option to stop.

The path eventually splits, not a particularly noticeable fork, but the wider clearing opens up wide before narrowing again into two different paths. There's not enough time to really consider which way to go, the thundering and shriek echoing behind them, the sound so awful that it feels like it pierces right through his flesh to grab onto his bones to stop his escape out of sheer intimidation. ]

Hey!

[ His brain thinks, just run. Just run, and if Richie can keep up, good for him.

Too bad he doesn't have time to think, and one of his hands is curling into the fabric of Richie's sleeve before he even registers what he's doing, grabbing on tight, and practically yanking at him in an effort to keep them both together, stumbling, running, and desperate toward the narrower path. ]

This way, this way!

that icon is so dramatic but the sparkle makes it hard to see true pain

[summertimeblues]

[Family? Not so much. Not for a decade. Friends he's got a few of, but none that are awake. And speaking frankly, if they woke to hear about him biting it in the middle of a Blade Runner meets Lord of the Rings fusion kingdom, they'd be upset but reasonably unsurprised.

Case in point: he'd caught up with the younger man but is winding himself much too quickly to hold the pace. He wasn't that old but he's hardly a sprinter. Soft jobs led to soft bodies sooner or later, and Richie had been lucky thus far that his wasn't showing outwardly. In motion?

The fork in the road has him doubting his chances. The harrowing shriek behind doubles down on the drop in morale. The kid's snatching his jacket before he can think twice, and they're pulling to the right.]

I got it, I got it! Stop yanking!

[Let go already, shit.

Up ahead. There's a small wedge in the wall, and some mad instinct shrieks at him (not unlike the kinds he'd get at home, come to think of it, and later he might wonder) to cease fleeing. It's just wide enough, and the pair of them both lean slim.]

In here! [Hypocritical, but now its his turn to force manhandling as he all but shoves the Canuck into the split, and squeezes himself in soon after. It runs long enough that they can shuffle sideways another two or three feet. Maybe four. Please don't let whatever's chasing them have long arms.]

[underwhelms]

[ And to think, JJ took hold of Richie's arm to make sure that he wasn't left behind! He doesn't really care about Richie's protests however, and he doesn't have any of his own when Richie shoves him toward the wedge in a manner similar to a bully shoving a nerd in a locker. How ironic, considering that JJ is very much a jock, and Richie, a loser.

He goes, thinking of nothing but survival, even while his overactive imagination conjures images of a thousand slender hands reaching forth from the creature behind to follow them into the crevice, broken and disjointed, but unrelenting all the same. He hopes that isn't what happens, trying to keep levelheaded as they both slow down—they can't very well continue to barrel forward and risk smashing their heads against the rock in their haste. Turned to the side, he keeps his breaths as even as possible as the pair of them squeeze as far as they can go, the wall behind JJ damp enough to chill him from where it's hard against his back. ]

What...

[ It's only then that JJ risks a look back, and the rest of his sentence is stolen from as another shriek echoes through the cavern, but that's hardly the worst of it.

A dark, scythe-like arm smashes against the opening of their little hideout, hard enough to get JJ's ears to ring, and he yelps at the impact, unable to help himself.

His eyes squeeze shut against the scraping of that arm trying to penetrate the opening, but he's still able to breathe out a question, ] What... now?

[summertimeblues]

[maybe jj should learn to respect his elders before he gets chucked out as chum for their new monster pal

The battering ram hitting their sanctuary has Richie banging his elbows as he tries to throw his hands over his ears. The sound rattles through the fine tinny caverns to shake at his brain, sending him to grit teeth and clench his eyes shut as the onslaught continues.

What now? Good question bud, let him ponder that a little bit.]

I'm not sure. [A mutant squeal cuts in. The monster's in dismay at the lack of treats. He can hear it snuffling, see it scraping at the rocky edges. The pair of them are blessed by Jesus Christ himself that whatever loose rock there was has already been scraped away. The mouth of their crevice is bordered by impassable bedrock, rigid and seamless.] Feel around your way, huh? Maybe there's an exit through the other end?

[underwhelms]

[ Sure, maybe there's an exit. And maybe there's also a pot of gold and dancing leprechauns.

—Actually, JJ isn't cynical to have thoughts like that. He takes Richie's advice and runs with it, turning further from the entrance where the creature is hiding. He tries to shove further into the crevice, the stone walls around them growing more and more oppressive with every inch. There's not much space for him to escape to, though he tries squeezing in all the same, extending an arm out to try and see if there's maybe something he can push to give them some leeway.

But there's nothing. Except for the brief moment where his arm gets stuck, though he manages to yank it back without much trouble.

The thing thuds against the wall, startling JJ enough that he bangs his head against the wall with a quiet whimper. ]

No... There's no back exit. [ He whispers, turning wide, spooked eyes back toward Richie. He's obviously scared, but by some miracle isn't freaking out. ] Do you want to try? You're a bit smaller than me.

[ Is he?? ]

[summertimeblues]

[While he gropes in relative silence the beast outside stops its caterwauling and fusses, talons clicking and screeching on the rock. Shifting from assault and presses its ugly, spongy-wet face close. Only then does Richie think to switch off the flashlight.

It doesn't make a sound. Doesn't have to, it has them corned and all three know it.

The kid comes up with nada. Figures. When he retracts his arm the monster is back at playing battering ram and Richie's balls try to hitch back up behind the bone. Even so, he catches the rip. Richie shoots J.J. a dirty look that can no longer be seen, only sensed.]

One whole inch smaller, my god, what a world of difference.

[Their pursuer sounds off in delight. The scrabbling resumes. Richie flinches and presses closer, shoulders bunched and rising.] What's the point if we can't both leave? We have to think of something else.

[underwhelms]

[ That is one ugly creature. JJ had never been particularly frightened of insects, but he has to admit that after seeing one magnified like that, he's not sure he'll be able to look at its smaller counterparts the same ever again.

(Is it even an insect?)

They're cornered, and JJ's so high strung that he doesn't even hear Richie's snarky response, almost like he can't process anything that won't get them out of this situation. ]

I guess you don't have any secret, hidden superpowers? [ He flinches when he hears the scrape of the creature's scythe of an arm against the wall. ] Maybe... Did you come with anyone else? Someone for backup?

[ JJ tries to think of anyone that could help that isn't miles away. Sure, he'd told Misa that his plans for the day, but he wasn't about to get her involved. ]

[summertimeblues]

[That putrid sound has his teeth set on edge. His reply comes through a hiss.] Nothing outside the boudoir, sadly. I'd work my magic if the lady wasn't such a damn dog!

[As if to prove his point the thing opens its maw wide and tries jawing its way through the opening. Rows and rows of teeth glitter in the pale beam of J.J.'s flashlight. It looks like the business end of a lamprey. A ripple of disgust runs through Richie.]

Fuck. No, I came alone. Like an absolute turd. [He gives a guttural groan of dismay.] So stupid to think this would be easy. All I've got is a swiss army knife. Best I could do with that is carve half my initials on its nose before it swallows my arm up whole.

[If it could even penetrate that chitinous barrier. The illusion of softness earlier seems to have come from a slimy film. The muck its been nesting in, no doubt. Heaven help him, he might lose his lunch.

His mind races.]

Can you...shit, uh, goddammit. Listen, let's turn off your flashlight. Maybe if it loses sight of us it'll fuck off back to hell.

[underwhelms]

[ Normally, JJ would not be particularly keen to turn off his flashlight when there's no other source of light while they're trapped in a tight, dark space with a giant creature coming at them. Being in the dark where they can't see if its advancing toward them... What if it has tentacles?

But at the same time, they don't really have a lot of options. And even if it were to slither toward them, it's not like JJ has any weapons that he can fight back with, except for his modestly sized hammer.

He clicks his flashlight closed and the world disappears around them.

—Or rather, that would have been ideal. Except that the darkness makes all the thuds and screeches of the creatures all the more loud, and suddenly it feels like its the body of the beast that's surrounding them instead of rock, the click of its teeth and the heavy movements of its body reverberating around them in the, louder than their shallow breaths. JJ closes his eyes at how unrelenting it is, because it's not like it matters anyway.

It's only out of instinct that he goes silent, it doesn't do much for the thundering. At least not at first, until a quiet eventually falls over them, though JJ's ears are still ringing from the sheer magnitude of the noise.

It's gets so quiet eventually that JJ has to wonder if they've just died, or entered some void. Is Richie even still there? ]

...

[ Breath still caught in his throat he just reaches out to see if he can grab the other man. Hopefully the shock hadn't scared him to death. (It can't get much worse, but being trapped here with a corpse would definitely do it.) ]

[summertimeblues]

[They are swallowed in darkness. The absence of light has the bangs and screeches swelling up like helium in a limp balloon, stretching two to three to four times as big. Those gnashing teeth are at his ear, the strikes on the rock outside rattle his bones. Richie, like J.J., is frightened into absolute silence.

Then slowly, the creature follows suit. The black blankets them so strongly that there is no difference between closed and open eyes. Blind, like he'd always feared he'd become, and those pretty plastic lenses he'd dotted to his eyeballs every morning couldn't help him now.

A hand folds around his arm. Richie almost gasps. The short inhale could have doomed them to another round of smash bang boom, but even in shock his mind is so focused on the mantra of stillness that breaking it would have been impossible. A knife to the gut would have passed with little more than a grit of the teeth and his eyes rolling behind the lids.

In response he moves his arm back, but not too far. Doesn't want to brush the jacket against the rock and break the spell. Just enough effort to let the kid know he hasn't been gutted yet.

Still, the beast is quiet. Suspiciously so. Richie stays frozen for a moment longer, pondering. Then he raises the arm in the front. The flashlight has remained poised in his grip. With a slinking predator's care, he nudges the button. Clarity returns.

At the mouth of the cave, the creature is still standing vigil but it makes no move, no splitting shrieks. It is immobile. Then, a full two seconds after Richie has switched on the light, it shifts its head. Its form is revealed more readily now. The head is a smooth and armored affair. Not unlike that thing from the Sigorney Weaver flick, though this shell is a muddied brown. More importantly, it's a largely unbroken one. Its cocking its head to angle a single hole at the side towards them. If there was a matching dot on the opposite side, then those would be the ears.

It's not using its eyes.

Richie holds his breath. He raises his front arm again. The light moves up, up, flashes over the top of their crevice and then angles backwards to illuminate J.J. It's awkward, but it's as prime a position he can get to do an overhand pitch with these narrow walls.

He whips it forward and looses the flashlight. It sails past their assailant and cracks against the wall opposite.

The beast loses its mind with a piercing scream and scuttles to the other side. The racket resumes, but this time it's striking at barren rock walls.]

[underwhelms]

[ In the nothing of their little spot in the cave, JJ has to wonder if this is it. He's wondered that a few times now, because El Nysa knows no shortage of beasts, and no wonder the citizens are so paranoid and easily provoked when they have to contend with all of this, but this time he can't think of an option for escape. The creature is massive, and they only have one way out—it's too fast, they can't...

The light explodes in his eyes when Richie turns his flashlight back on, and it's only because the silence that encompasses them feels eternal that JJ doesn't make a voice, his voice already gone in the scant minute that they've been mute.

His grip tightens on Richie's free arm, and he's not sure if Richie can see the way he shakes his head, desperate and horrified, trying to draw him back as if that might pull him further away from the risky decision he's about to make. It obviously doesn't have any effect, and JJ just watches in horror as Richie pulls his hand back

(He bites his tongue to contain a shout.)

It doesn't change much, the gap is still too small for the vileling to get through but as JJ watches the flashlight fly he's convinced this is it for them, as if the creature's outrage at Richie's audacity might be enough for him to crush solid rock in an attempt to get to them. And for a second it feels like that's what is happen, the world around them shakes again, the silence shattered, and it's for no reason other than his pure terror that JJ just gives up, ducking his head to press it against Richie's shoulder like it might spare him.

Maybe it does, because the rumbling doesn't stop like it had before, but instead it softens. Little by little the sounds of the beast drift, almost like its retreating.

Had the flashlight really scared it off?

Pulling back, JJ takes a second to give Richie a puzzled look, a confused exhale as he looks back toward the gap to see light where the body of the vileling had covered it before. It feels like hope, but JJ waits there with Richie, completely silent until who knows how long has passed, but he can't stand to stay still any longer and let the opportunity slip. Carefully, with a long look sent in Richie's direction, he creeps toward the entrance of the gap, his tiny hammer clutched desperately in his grip.

It's bigger than he could've ever imagined. The sheer size of the vileling nearly startles him into dropping his hammer, but thankfully the way it's trashing angrily at the opposite wall is enough to fascinate him.

He doesn't know what it is, but he's happy to take Richie's hand and start edging toward the cave entrance. ]

[summertimeblues]

[He's reminded quite starkly of the difference in age between them as J.J. takes false refuge in his shoulder. He nearly tells him to keep quiet before catching himself — the chiding would defeat its own purpose. In lieu of that he tries to stay as steady as he can, not shrug him off or move to startle him.

Then he pulls off. Richie returns the puzzled look with a meaningful chin jut to the crevice entrance. Let's boogaloo junior, and stay light on the feet.

They creep out as one, a four-legged coward armed with a two hammers and buckets of sweat. The light is just enough to highlight the twisting centipede body as it surges and ripples, clawing at nothing and expecting fruitful blood. It goes on and on, traincars of spiny legs and humped segments. Fucking Christ, if he wasn't scared of bugs before Richie sure to fuck scream at the top of his pitch the next time he caught a centipede in the can.

The kid's hand snags his own again and he's reminded all too abruptly of the day they finally went down to the sewers. Seven small ones, knocking at the knees and grasping at each other as they prayed to make it out alive. History repeats and repeats, and never are the lessons learned. Richie squeezes that hand back, just to keep steady, and makes delicate tracks to greener pastures.

That nightmare lingers in flashes and screeches for longer than he'd care to witness, but it does fade. By sight it disappears within thirty feet, when they are forced to make a turn. By sound it takes longer, they've gone through two forks and a thinned portion through which both of them must stoop by the time the sounds die. They still creep and refuse to speak, but their pace quickens.

Soon enough, they are greeted by thin winter light. Richie huffs, grin spreading wide in delirious relief.

The two break free at last. Richie hits the sun and snow like a shipwrecked sailor stumbling onto the beach. He barks out laughter, holding his face in hand. He even drops to his knees, then his back, rolling his mold into the crisp snow as he chuckles out the terror.]

Jaysus son o' wood-shillin' Joseph, oh aye, that was a near nick to the danglers! We were strung up toighter than a cat's gut on a tenny-racket, weren't we laddie? Begosh an' begorrah!

[underwhelms]

[ JJ's gaze is steady ahead. Once he's got his focus on the escape in front of them, the image of the creature mutates in his mind; becoming larger, its trashes becoming distorted writhing, rows and rows of teeth grinding against each other due to sheer volume. The vileling is fearsome enough on its own, but his mind makes it all the more terrifying. They'd already run from it, been trapped by its weight, and ventured out behind its back but he still can't dare to look back.

He's not sure if he'll be able to step foot in a cave for a long time to come.

They take step after step toward the exit, not that JJ can see any of it, too focused on what they'd just witnessed. The only that keeps him moving forward is Richie beside him, else he might've just stopped, hands over his eyes as he tried to process just how close they'd gotten to death. He'd run away from that thing—run, like he was a cartoon character trying to escape a rolling boulder, and not a monster that had likely preyed on human flesh and blood before. Could've swallowed him whole in the darkness of that cave, his body crumpling to pieces under the force of its teeth, alone and unknown to anyone.

They find sunlight again, and JJ's eyes are wet as he falls to his knees beside Richie, gasping for breath. For a second it feels his heart is going to burst, his entire body having gone numb during the slow crawl of their escape, and now struggling to absorb everything that happened. But he doesn't cry (score), and it takes a few breaths before his mind catches up with the fact that they're free; that they've made it, and lifting his head to shoot Richie a puzzled stare. ]

Are you okay?

[ Did he crack? Did he crack?? ]

[summertimeblues]

Okay? Son, I am living. [Richie rolls upright, his grin broad and breathless. As if to make his virility unquestionable, he scoops a handful of snow in his bare hand, scrunches it, then pelts the boy in the shoulder with it.] If you believe in any god you best be thanking him for sparing your pretty skin, kid, because we almost fucking bit it in there. Shit, did you see the size of that thing? Nightmares! God!

[underwhelms]

[ Seems to JJ like Richie's just cracked, but the longer he watches the older man, the relief and smile on his face, the more he can't help the tug at his own lips, tentative and disbelieving at first before it cracks into a wide grin, chuckles turning into honest barks of laughter and he's curling back toward the ground again too. ]

That was insane! Are we really alive? We really got past that thing!

[ He can't believe it. Maybe their magic is their luck? ]

It could've crushed us!