ACTION ✖ no rest for the wicked

[bloater]

[The fourth floor is foggy tonight, the air dense. Floating debris trails from the inside out, accompanied by a musty, earthy scent that will begin to creep through the cracks of doorways along with visible and thick clouds of spores. In good time, each room will fill up -- the hallway outside is worse for it, dark and especially dusty. Visibility has been compromised.

Something big is stirring. The host site staggers down an aimless path, unaware of anything but itself, for now. The sounds it makes are inhuman, as if each heavy step causes it to choke out a steady string of hellish growling and grumbling. Fungal plates as thick as armor are growing all over its oversized body, a body that has expanded over time and looks like a thing that is rotting on the move, chunks of infected flesh dripping off its bloated frame.

Whatever it is, it is very alive.

At the first hint of noise or stirring nearby, this thing will charge. Many residents would be wise not to approach it, but it's not going away until someone puts it out of its misery.]

Comments

[molotov]

[Molotov lives on the fifth floor, but she's headed downstairs when she notices the change in the air. Something is wrong, she knows that, and she's wise enough not to just head straight down the corridor, but she can barely see through the blackness and the dust.

There's almost no noise as she takes hesitant steps past the landing, squinting to try and see what lies ahead. Molotov thinks she's being as silent as possible, pausing every time the noises start, but her nails make the faintest scratching noise as they pull along the wall, guiding her way.

She's not even halfway down the hall before she makes out the shape of the... thing. Her eye opens wide, and she gasps, already trying to turn back.]

[indirectcause]

[Ben, as is the usual story of his life, was only heading up to his room on the next floor, when he notices all the weird dust creeping through the fourth floor hallway. He frowns, confused, peering through into the dusty cloud to see that SHAPE shifting through the dark.

At least he's not been from home long enough to have completely lost his Things That Could Kill You survival instinct. He starts slowly backing away, trying his best not to make a single, solitary sound.

God fucking damnit this place.]

[willrememberthat]

[Guess who was just coming up to visit you, Ben?]

Ben!

[It's a hushed whisper accompanied by Clem hurrying over to him. She automatically grabs for his arm.]

What... what's happening?

[indirectcause]

[He startles at the sound of Clem's voice, and then realises...oh. This is even worse now. Determined not to repeat his mistakes of the past, he shifts to make sure she's behind him, before replying, equally quiet.]

There's something in the hallway.

[willrememberthat]

[She squints. It's more that she can hear it instead of see it, but if she stays still, it's clear there's something moving. It doesn't sound friendly.]

We should go.

[Just... not too fast, so they don't draw attention to themselves.]

[indirectcause]

[Whatever it is, it's not a Walker. At least, he HOPES it's not a Walker. He nods mutely gesturing her to step back, following her carefully, trying to keep him between her and it.

He wants to run, so much, the desire is clawing at him. But he can't- and he won't abandon Clem again. Never, ever again. Slowly but surely, he starts to edge back. God he hopes it can't smell them.]

[bloater]

[The only warning Molotov gets is a freakish scream, distorted and loud.

It plows towards her with an alarming amount of speed for its size, stumbling on with true purpose. It seems to know exactly how to follow her despite a lack of eyes, targeting her, but it can't catch up in an instant. To make up for that delay, a baseball-sized chunk of its body goes flying through the air.

Good aim, for a mushroom monster. If she doesn't move fast enough, this could be a direct hit. Once that body-bit lands against something solid, spores will explode into the air to choke the life out of anyone that breathes them in.]

[bloater]

[It patrols closer to them. The bloater hasn't caught onto their presence yet, but it's snarling something hideous and moving in their direction.

Pick up the pace, children.]

[willrememberthat]

[She keeps a firm hold on Ben's arm. Not because she thinks he'll bolt (again), but because they have to stick together. No one was getting hurt in order to protect her.]

C'mon, c'mon...

[molotov]

[Molotov is already running by the time the thing hits her shoulder with... something. It hurts, the force impacting her, and she shrieks, immediately stumbling and inhaling. She can feel herself choking, starts coughing hard, but she thinks it's just the suffocating dust.

She doesn't stop moving though, even if she's slowed down -- she's going to reach those stairs. She has to. It isn't an option anymore.]

[indirectcause]

[He continues on his way, but the snarls make him turn quickly...right into one of those decorative vases that litter the place. It drops to the floor with an ominous CRASH. Ben stares at it for a moment.]

...I'm not even fucking surprised any more.

[babyaliendaddy]

[Unwittingly, Tucker had knocked his journal open when he stumbled to go open his door and get some goddamned air, so he didn't notice he was broadcasting when he saw the thing moving down the hall. Like a giant ... monster ... mushroom.]

What the fuck!?

[He can hear his voice going up an octave, but fuck not sounding like a girl.] WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING!?

[bloater]

[Shortly after that crash and Ben's resigned statement about his place in life, something explodes directly on top of the broken vase, scattering the shards around and poisoning the already cloudy air with deadlier spores. It shrieks its displeasure and goes vying for both Ben and Clem, grasping in the dark for the first body it can catch up to.

You've pissed it off.]

[bloater]

[She'll feel acid biting into her skin for its precision, a rather painful burning sensation accompanying that choking one; the spores are seeping into her airways and spreading the fungus inside her. The next bomb lands not against her, but against the first step to the fifth floor. It's almost impossible to see through the fog now or to breathe properly at all, and the bloater's hideous song is getting louder, closer.

That thudding sound echoing in the hallway means it's trying to go faster. It knows it's slowed her down.]

[bloater]

[Oh, you're a loud one. Low-hanging fruit.

With a hulking roar, the bloater zeroes in on the source of sound. It's coming right at Tucker, limbs twitching greedily. Better not let it trap you back in your room.]

[molotov]

[She's gasping for air, her lungs and throat shutting down as she keeps moving toward where she knows the stairs are. The pain in back has her crying, but she can bear it -- if she can lose an eye, she can deal with acid burns. She has to make it up the stairs, has to get away from this thing, whatever it is.

She stumbles again, trips and falls, but she manages to reach the stairway, her hand landing directly on the thing that was thrown. She ignores the amplified burning, her glove disintegrating against her hand and into her skin, and summons all her strength. Pulling herself up by the bannister, Molotov struggles to climb upward, watching with horror at the vague shape following her.

All she has to do is get home. Her door is fortified. She'll be safe. Brock can patch her up.

Home.]

[babyaliendaddy]

[Awwwwwwww shit. Tucker starts looking around wildly in his room, yelling out.] Sword?! Sword?! Where the fuck is my sword?!

[And this seems like a good time to get his armor on, so he's just gonna slam the door in the Mushroom Monsters face while he literally jumps into his gear and tries to find that damned uber-blade.]

[defyingfrigidity]

[Unfortunately for Elsa, her room is on the fourth floor. And unlike how she was a few months ago, she doesn't like spending too much time in it. Partly because it still doesn't feel like her room, and partly because she was trying to break those old, unhealthy habits.

She had been planning an evening with her sister, and since Anna's room was a few floors down, Elsa's the one that volunteered to visit. The lower floors had more attractions, after all, so there was no point in Anna making the trek up to Elsa's room, only to head all the way back down.

Since it's still early in the evening, no news of the bloater's arrival has gotten out when Elsa leaves her room. She pauses, brows furrowing at the new scent in the air and the surrounding spores. Something was happening, something was wrong, she could feel the hairs on the back of her neck prickling...

Glancing to her left, she sees the lumbering monster some ways down the hall. So very unused to seeing horrific things such as this, the queen can't help but let out a strangled yell of horrified surprise.]

[willrememberthat]

[Yet Clementine still squeaks in fear. Next is just a muffled scream against Ben's arm before she yanks him after her with all her might. TIME TO FUCKING RUN. Whatever it is, it's not something she wants to play with.]

[indirectcause]

[Shitshitshitshitshit.

It sure is time to run. Clem, why did you have to go and grow, if you were smaller he could have just picked you up and carried you. He'll just stumble on behind her]

Fuck it's coming, move!

[forsometimenow]

[Jennifer was exhausted. The dwindling amount of medics had left her feeling obligated to be in the clinic more and more- and it was without Simon helping nearly as much, since he was in the castle as much as possible to help out there. She was so tired she didn't even notice that she'd emerged onto the fourth floor instead of the fifth, where her room was.

She stopped, looked around at the unfamiliar name plates, then sighed and paused a moment to catch her breath before going back up the stairs.]

I... really... need... to do more cardio.

[dgaf]

[ Effy gets the occasional bad trip (at least what she dismisses as a bad trip) and those images and sounds are often as real to her as everything else. And as much as being in a magical castle has caused her to believe in the physically impossible a rotting mound of rotting flesh and god knows what else seems more the stuff of bad dreams and bad trips than reality.

She's standing by the side of the hallway, covering her mouth with one hand to keep the terrible smell at bay, staring hard at the monster and keeping still, for now.

Sometimes if she blinks, the visions go away, and sometimes if she pretends they're not there, then they're suddenly not. She goes to stand up straighter then, chin tipped high in defiance, and starts to walk further down the hallway, expecting to walk through it as if it's nothing but her imagination. ]

[willrememberthat]

[Any decent door could hold off a walker (or several walkers, even), but this is not that. The way its feet hit the floor makes it very easy for Clem to imagine it barreling through any of the castle's doors they might hide behind.

They just have to run, run and--]

Zig-zag!

[Because she's pretty sure it shoots things. Ben's too tall for this.]

[bloater]

[The bloater is relentless, following Molotov through the stairwell and tailing her each step of the way. Each time it seems like she might escape, it throws another chunk of its disintegrating body at her -- another piece slams against the corner at the top of the fifth floor.

It has an endless supply, unfortunately.

If she keeps moving fast enough, she might escape its clutches and its favorite pastime: ripping skulls open at the jaw. She may choke to death first, though, with so little room to maneuver away from the polluted clouds.]

[bloater]

[Lucky for them, its sheer mass means it's not as fast as other kinds of infected-- but it does have those irritating spore-bombs and it will keep throwing them. One more zooms after them and just barely misses Clementine when she abruptly darts the other way.

The bloater does not sound happy, its roaring intensifying. It's already preparing to chuck another piece of itself, going after Ben this time with its aim.]