Erin Michael Murray (erinboa) wrote in downfallrpg, @ 2010-03-18 01:12:00 |
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Entry tags: | # death, # group, 2015-08-29, dhaval, erin, tayne, terry |
This Is How It All Begins
Who: Dhaval, Erin & Terrence (npc), and then Terry & Tayne
When: 8:15pm
Where: The lobby
The hotel wasn't much further, mere feet away, and as Erin neared the entrance he began to limp, his weight pulling him downward toward the street. He let out a cry of pain, his dark eyes wide under scattered and mud-caked hair. He looked like he'd crawled up out of the gutter, torn clothes and bleeding from his thigh. "Is anyone there?" he called out, his voice cracking in his throat as he neared the door. "Please... is there anyone in the hotel?" The door to the hotel was closed, as he knew it would be, and as Erin reached it he rested his fists against the wood, panting, waiting. He strained, keeping his concentration on what was important, on keeping the shape he'd worked so hard to maintain for the last several minutes. "Is anyone in there?!" he called out again, knowing there would be somebody inside.
Dhaval was headed to the gym. He'd spent far too much time sitting still and he could feel muscle softening already. Besides, there was nothing else to do, barely enough light to read by even directly under the cracks in the boards. And nothing to read. He wasn't feeling too inspired when it came to his own work right now, either. So he'd stripped down to his undershirt and struck out. A good hour's workout at least would do a lot toward clearing his head.
The voice caught him quite unaware and he jumped, at first looking around for anyone in the lobby. It took another moment to put together the words, fuzzy and indistinct as they were through the door. Another survivor? This was almost his job. Maybe it should be. He could get a special little hat and a badge. Well, at least it was one thing he could do. A soft-spoken man in a wheelchair was a good way to calm people down. He wheeled over to the door, forgetting to check for his gun, which was in the pouch he'd left on the desk. He was lonely and bored and rather stir-crazy already. "Yes, right here," he ventured as he opened the door, knowing his soft voice probably wouldn't carry.
Finally. The door came open and Erin immediately stepped inside, taking care to limp his way in... just in case this man in the wheel chair wasn't alone. He looked around briefly, wincing as he stepped away from the door. "Thanks, man," he said, doing a good job of breathing heavy, straining, seeming helpless. "There's... there's a group living here, right? I saw... I saw the sign hanging up, on the roof... it says... I mean, well... you're not alone here, in this huge place... right?" He leaned down to touch where there was blood on his thigh. It was a minor wound, but it still stung. It wouldn't matter soon, though. Underneath the words and the actions, Erin's brain fought against the overwhelming control being exercised over him, the things he was doing so far out of his hands that he didn't think he'd ever quite escape it...
"You're, uh, completely welcome." Dhaval's eyes widened, taking in the state of the poor man. "You'd better get in and sit down. There aren't any beds on this floor, but you should get off your feet..." He was in terrible straights, wasn't he? "And there are plenty of drinks. You look like you could, um, use something... though they aren't really cold any longer..." He shook his head. "And yeah, I'm not the only one. Not by a long shot. I'm just... I'm stuck on the first floor, you know. For obvious reasons. So I'm the only one here, but I'm sure I could... yell up the stairs for a while, maybe? Get someone down to help you..."
Erin nodded, licking his lips as he watched Dhaval for a moment. "Yeah, I... I think that might be best. Just... go and get someone, maybe, I dunno... I need... maybe a bandage or something." He hissed in a sharp breath and did his best to look like he was in a grand level of pain, the sincerity easily read in his expressive features. As Dhaval turned in his wheelchair, Erin watched him -- and as soon as the other man's back was turned completely, Erin's eyes glazed over, predatory and cruel. Now! a voice commanded, thundering through his head, his vision shaking as a pain lanced through his body. He gritted his teeth, a sound much like choking rising in his throat as he fell to the floor. Legs weak and rubbery, Erin collapsed onto his side, the jeans he'd been wearing ripping down the seams on the insides of his thighs. The change was relatively quick, overpowering, the feeling much like when one has held their breath too long, and is finally letting out a heavy sigh... Erin's body was exhausted as the change completed itself, but as he began to rise again, this time it was on the heavily weighted and intricately patterned tail of a snake.
There was a pause before the attack, but before Dhaval could understand or even really see what had happened, Erin struck. He lunged forward, quicker than even he knew he was capable, a searing pain in his head pushing him forward, making him aggressive. He found the other man's body and encased it in coils, the force of his attack taking them both down to the floor. He wrapped around the man who had been stupid enough - or sweet enough - to let him into the hotel, and as they settled onto the floor Erin began to squeeze.
Dhaval was still thinking as he turned. He had no way to contact anyone upstairs but to scream a lot. Which he really didn't find appealing. He hated raising his voice. But his silly, rather arbitrary preferences weren't nearly as important as getting some poor, injured man help, and he scolded himself mentally as he went. If no one answered his calls, he could put the man into his own bed for the time being, wait for someone to come and see him, maybe. Pepper visited sometimes, and if nothing else, people needed to come down to eat.
The attack, of course, caught him utterly off guard. Dhaval wasn't a naturally suspicious soul and he'd never really suffered for it before. His maneuverability was so limited that even if he did catch on a moment before the strike itself, he couldn't begin to turn. He heard a nasty crunch as he was dragged out of his chair. He'd been cautioned many times that those wheels could break fingers... though more likely because some helpful moron decided to push him along without asking than due to a giant snake monster pulling him to the floor with his arms immobilized. The pain hadn't quite hit yet, something he remembered from more severe disasters, and right now all that was working was the bundle of instincts in the small, primitive mammal bit of his brain-stem. Dhaval's upper body was quite solid after years of almost fanatic dedication to his physical therapy, and he held the coiled body away long enough to yell for help and try to bite. He didn't get his teeth into anything, of course, and the body around him was too tight to keep away for long. Snakes were high on the list of exotic animals he'd loved and read about obsessively as a child, and little factoids like "continuous muscle fibers" and "independently mobile jaw and skull elements" were oddly clear as everything else faded from fear and a lack of oxygen.
Erin wasn't thinking - can't fucking think straight dear god help me! - as his massive coils tensed hard, harder, squeezing, unrelenting... His arms, powerful as they were in this form, had Dhaval trapped as well, ridiculously strong for a man his size. The power he held was limited though; it would last long enough to get the job done, but then what...? Would he be able to get away? Did it matter? What the hell was he doing?! There was a cry for help, and Erin's body tensed on instinct, pressing in harder as Dhaval released precious air in order to make that call. The man wouldn't be able to draw in a new breath to replace the one he'd given up, and as the two laid on the floor, Erin squeezed in short bursts, his muscles tensing, crushing, trying to stop the blood flow.
But then, the sound of footsteps came, almost out of no where, and as that sound registered in Erin's mind, another body entered the scene. Terrence, who had been coming downstairs for something to eat, had heard Dhaval and come running. He was cursing himself for not having brought his gun, but knew that whoever had called needed him now. Hopefully his slowly changing body would be enough to help him through -- whatever this was...
Terrence hadn't been prepared to see what was in the lobby though, a giant snake creature wrapped around the guy in the wheelchair who'd been hanging around the hotel for a day or so now. "Shit!" he called, his heart thundering in his chest. Snake... shit...
Another moment passed, but Terrence knew he had to do something. He lurched forward, doing his best to swallow his anxieties over the creature's form long enough to try and work his hands in between the prey and predator. "Let go!" he shouted, yanking at the upper body of the snake creature. When nothing happened, Terrence rushed to grab a wrench that had been left on the ground. He brought it back, weapon raised as he prepared to bring it down...
Erin was up and off of Dhaval the second Terrence had let go of him, his warring mind and instincts enough to alert him of the imminent danger this man provided. A struggle began between the two men, Erin's hands reaching out to grasp at Terrence, trying to hold him back. The man felt like stone, though, and was strong -- stronger than Erin now that he was losing his energy. He'd expended most of it already, and was growing weary. He didn't have long before he would be either chased off or beaten down.
Terrence moved to hit Erin with the wrench. There was a clanging as it hit the ground. And then, the sound of a skull cracking open followed it as Terrence was thrown off his feet. His head hit the wall, he fell to the floor -- and stopped moving.
Dhaval couldn't possibly focus on anything but trying to breathe. He didn't think he could possibly fight, but he could hold on. The meditation techniques he'd learned at some of his classes gave him a little more control over his breath. He just wasn't nearly strong enough to struggle usefully. His vision was getting spotty and he was barely aware that someone had come to help.
Then the monster was off of him. Dhaval gasped. He could see and breathe again a moment later, but he wasn't any more useful. He might be able to manage a few steps without his walker, but only on a good day, and starting from at least a sitting position with good hand holds to get him up in the first place. And even then he'd just fall the hell over. He pushed himself up the best he could on his hands, but all he could do was gasp out another cry for help and try to crawl toward the fallen man.
Right at that moment the front door came in, and as Terry and Tayne came through from outside the scene was taken in all at once. There was Terrence on the floor, blood spilled out around him, Dhaval gasping for breath and crawling toward Terrence... and then... Terry's eyes widened further at the image of what was, in a way, pure horror. A large snake-like form nearby, writhing and twisting as though in agony.
Erin's hands were in his hair, nails digging into his head as he struggled against the voice in his head. He rolled over and over, pushing himself with the lower half of his body, groaning as he fought the control being exercised over him.
"What's going on?!" Terry shouted, hurrying inside as he drew his gun. The scene was hard to take in all at once like this, and with Dhaval and Terrence (two men he knew) down, his instincts told him that this snake-like being was the source of the distress. He pointed his gun, stepping out around so that he could be seen easily. "Don't get up!" he shouted, his voice booming through the lobby. "Don't you dare move!"
The truck was parked outside, engine still running and headlights still on, flooding into the dim lobby and illuminating the whole scene. Tayne followed Terry in at speed, already growling at the scent of blood and fear and something big and scaley-scented. He hardly even saw the snake-person, or monster, or whatever it was-- but he went straight for it, all the time. This time he even recognized the change as it happened, but not quite in time to save his clothes. At least he was in the hotel this time, so anything in his pockets could be saved....
The tiger leapt over Dhaval and landed by Erin, teeth bared in a snarl as he stepped over the long body and stood directly over Erin's chest and face. He was heavy enough to hold the snake-person's arms down, if he needed to, but he was expecting the threat to be enough for now.
Not in a very reasonable place just now, Dhaval first took the shouted threat to apply to him. Not that he was moving very successfully. He was strong enough to drag himself along the floor with his arms, not that he'd ever wanted to really try before, but a broken finger was definitely impacting his movement. Dhaval was well accustomed to pain of all kinds, and he was familiar with his body's reaction to an abrupt, crushing impact like that. He already felt shaky, cold, and sweaty, all on top of the breathless bruising in his chest.
Just as he realized that Terry's voice, barely recognized, wasn't demanding that he stay still, a tiger jumped over him. He thought he was hallucinating. Dhaval loved tigers dearly, his favorite of all the wonderful, exotic animals he'd loved to read about as a kid, piles of bright-colored coffee-table books sustaining him through those long periods after surgery when he didn't have the presence of mind to even follow a TV show. If he was passing out after being grabbed by a snake monster, it made perfect sense for his mind to throw him a tiger. He stopped trying to move and stared.
Great, Terry thought to himself, Tayne's a fucking tiger. He didn't know what to do with himself, what to do with the snake-man. He seemed to be held down well enough by the tiger, but who knew how long that would last -- or if it was merely because the snake wasn't fighting back. He took in a long breath and glanced down to Dhaval, hoping he hadn't been seriously injured.
"Are you alright?" he called to him, moving around the fallen man to get a better vantage point on what was happening. The snake-man seemed to be, for the moment, terrified out of his mind. Wide, and very humanlike eyes stared up into the tiger's face, a panicked cry escaping him as he appeared to begin working himself into a frenzy.
Erin had absolutely no clue what was happening to him right now. Aside from the weight of a fucking tiger bearing down on him, he couldn't make sense of anything that was happening. He'd been sitting on the pavement... and now... "Get off of me!" he shrieked, holding his hands up. Tears began streaking down his face, coming out of reddened eyes.
"Tayne!" Terry shouted, gesturing as he started to lean down into the scene, "I need you to help me... we need to get him someplace we can keep him! Until... until we figure out what happened!"
Tayne flicked his tail to show he'd heard Terry, his feline mind trying to grapple with the problem. He wasn't entirely the tiger, after all, but he wasn't entirely human, either, and cats hated snakes. Even giant ones that smelled like men, too. He could smell the fear, and it made him want to bear down with teeth and tear out the throat of the threat.
But there were words, from more than one person, from the snake, and he managed to pull himself back, stepping stiffly back from the snake-man enough that he wasn't standing over him. He butted the thing's shoulder with a warning rumble, one that said fairly clearly, Move, at least to someone paying attention.
"I'm fine." Was he not seeing things, then. "Well, uh, not fine. But he's a lot worse." Dhaval pointed to Terrence, to whom he'd not been introduced. Unfortunately with his right hand, the ring finger jutting upward at a horrid angle, scraped bloody by the movement of the wheels. Had Terry really called the tiger... Tayne? They'd only really talked the once, but Tayne had stuck in Dhaval's memory. As had every survivor he'd really met so far, anyway. Was turning into a tiger any weirder than, say, Pepper? Well, yes, but only a little. Dhaval shook his head hard, hating that nasty sensation his overwhelmed body was sending through him.
Terry nodded to Dhaval, acknowledging that he seemed alright for now. He didn't lower his gun, though, glancing between the snake creature and Terrence... oh god. "Shit," he said, his voice lost in the sudden fear that gripped his chest. Terrence wasn't moving, and there was blood spilled out around his head. They hadn't lost anyone so far... "Get up," he said roughly, turning his attention back to the snake. "Get up off the floor."
He glanced to Tayne, and gestured down the hall. "There's a room behind the service desk we can take him to. We need to get him somewhere until we can get this figured out." Terry looked to Dhaval, gesturing for him to stay where he was. "We'll be back to help you... in just a minute."
Erin had made his way up, recoiling from the huge cat that had previously been threatening him. "Wha-why do you have to lock me up?!" he yelped, glancing from Terry to the dead man on the floor and back again. "I didn't do that!"
The denial and fear did nothing at all to convince Tayne that this snake-person wasn't guilty. The hotel resident he didn't know was down, and Dhaval was out of his chair and bleeding and breathless, and the only possible culprit-- the only likely culprit that he could see, hear, or smell-- was right there on the floor with a giant serpent tail. So Tayne wasn't going to take no for an answer, here.
Aiming to get him moving back towards the lobby desk, he growled warningly and advanced on the snake-man again, one stiff step at a time and tail lashing threateningly. His posture one of a cat who wasn't going to stand for any funny business. Erin was getting locked up, and he was going to go now, or else he was going to get tiger-teeth in his long, scaley tail.
Dhaval attempted to gather himself up, but he knew perfectly well there was nothing he could contribute. He couldn't do any more than wait for help. At least he could advise them a little, though his memory of the past few moments was very spotty. If Terry hadn't confirmed that he was really seeing the tiger, he'd have been pretty sure he'd made up the transformation, too. "He, um, he can change. Normal looking to... to that. I don't know what else, but..." If they were confining the man, then they might need to know that.
Erin scrambled upward, using his hands to try and get up. He seemed off kilter though, like he wasn't sure what was going on or what he was doing. "I... I don't know how to use this thing," he said, complaining with a cracked and panicked voice. "I haven't..."
But Terry interrupted him, stepping forward to gesture down the hall. "Come on. Move, now. Down the hall, that way." He gestured with the end of the gun, hoping that the snake person would comply with his demands. He didn't want to have to shoot someone without cause... though judging by the fact that Terrence still hadn't moved...
Very quickly, and as soon as Erin was inside the room, Terry pulled the door closed and locked it behind him, using the keys in his pocket to find the appropriate one. He hoped there was no way for the snake creature to get out, that his two forms had been revealed and that they were all he had. "We need to check on Dhaval and Terrence," he said, looking to Tayne as the keys were tucked back into his pocket.
Tayne nodded his head shortly, and turned and bounded back into the lobby. First he went to Dhaval; what could he say? He had his priorities, and someone he knew who was obviously still alive was his first one. He was fairly sure the other one was dead, anyhow. He slowed to a trot, then a measured pace, as he approached Dhaval, head low and ears perked and tail in a friendly wag, showing he meant no harm and just wanted to investigate. He smelled blood here, too, and tension that bespoke of pain.
"Tayne." He almost didn't believe it. He was close enough to a tiger to touch, and if the kind man he'd helped board up the windows was really behind those brilliant eyes, he was completely safe, too. Right now, he wouldn't have been surprised to find he could walk again or that he'd just been handed tickets to a complete tour of India to meet uncles who actually hadn't died years before he was born and were waiting with open arms. He was sure he smelled of blood and fear, which a predator would be inclined to attack, and even his sandalwood cologne (he had no idea why he was still wearing it, but these little fragments of his old life were important) would probably be irritating to an animal's sense of smell. But he wasn't the least bit afraid. He made himself turn to Terry and smile. "Thank you..." But he hadn't even finished speaking before his eyes were back on the tiger.
Terry watched as Tayne headed to Dhaval, his eyes turned toward what appeared to be Terrence's dead body on the floor nearby as he approached. He took in a deep breath to steady himself, feeling a bit sick to his stomach. It wasn't easy watching those monsters tear each other - and strangers - apart, but... this was somebody they knew. Terrence was somebody he'd been with since the very day the world had come to an end. They'd stumbled into the hotel together, a small team... "Shit," he said, feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt at the situation. If he hadn't gone out with Tayne today, would this have been prevented somehow?
Slowly, Terry went down on his knees to inspect Terrence's body, to be sure the other man was really dead. When he was satisfied that there was likely nothing to be done about it, that Terrence was beyond saving, Terry got back up again to back away. One hand went over the lower half of his face and he stared, trying to sort through everything.
Finally he turned to face Dhaval, realizing the other man had yet to be really checked on. It wasn't that he was less important, but that Terrence was dead, and that... "Are you hurt?" he asked, allowing himself to leave the dead body on the floor. He stopped near Dhaval and bent to pick up his wheelchair, putting it back upright before kneeling down. "What the hell happened?"
Nudging at Dhaval's elbow, trying to get him to sit up properly so he could get back into his chair with Tayne for support, Tayne managed a brief, rumbling little purr. He couldn't sustain it, though, and just nuzzled into the uninjured hand, before ducking under that arm to lend him his bulk to get up with. He wasn't sure just how much strength Dhaval had on his own, but he had plenty to spare, and Dhaval needed off the floor and into something that would give him marginal mobility, at least.
He'd just... petted a tiger. Pretty much by accident, but that hardly lessened the experience. The fur under his fingers was warm and of a strange, wonderful texture, not at all like any dog or cat he'd ever met. He needed his uninjured hand to reach over and lock the brake on his chair so it wouldn't roll away. He didn't have a heavy-duty chair and it wasn't the most stable thing on earth, but at least it wouldn't do worse than skid. He'd have to thank Tayne for the hoist specially. Dhaval hated to be a bother, and lately he was almost wishing he was the flimsy, wasted lightweight people assumed he ought to be. He was too heavy for even Pepper to haul around easily. Dhaval's upper body was very strong and with Tayne's help it wasn't too hard to get back up. He spoke rapidly, louder than was his usual wont, to Terry. He didn't want to think about the finger. "Um, I'm not bad. I mean, all things considered. Nothing serious. Nothing too bad. Bruised. And I think my finger... Um, well, that's one of the perils of the wheels." Perils of the wheels. Sounded like a story he could have written a week ago. "And... Um, I'm not really sure. When I opened the door he just looked like... like a kid who needed help. Bleeding, um, scared. I told him to, well, sit down and went to see if maybe I could holler someone downstairs... And then I was surrounded by... snake..."
Terry glanced toward Terrence, and then to Dhaval again. "It sounds like this was planned..." But then, why was the snake boy so unwilling to admit that he'd attacked them? He'd seemed so shaken up... It was difficult to grasp. "What about... Terrence? What happened to him, Dhaval?" He needed to know, at least to understand the scene better. And then, he would need to talk to Joyce and Landon as soon as physically possible. The rest of the survivors needed to know, but Terry needed to know what they were doing with this snake creature.
Since there wasn't much he could add to the conversation the way he was-- he felt a vague sort of frustration, at that, but couldn't quite figure out what to do about it just then-- Tayne just leaned against Dhaval's legs and wheels in a comforting feline fashion and listened, flicking his ears towards the room where the snake-man was locked up. He was going to keep an eye, an ear, and his nose on that guy...
"Maybe? I... I really don't know." Dhaval looked over at Terrance and swallowed. He'd barely been able to take that in. "I couldn't really... well, see much. I was... being strangled, and all. I guess he heard me call? It... he, I guess must have knocked him back..." The man had come to his rescue, Dhaval realized with a sudden shudder. He'd be fine if Dhaval hadn't managed to yell, probably. Of course, Dhaval might be dead, but he wasn't really a loss, as helpless as he was. His good hand moved absently to the handsome ruff of fluffy fur along Tayne's neck. He wouldn't have done it if he'd had a thought to spare, but the soft warmth was a lovely comfort.
Terry moved to stand after Dhaval had finished telling him all he knew, frustrated about it but not sure what to do with it. "Tayne, you should try to turn back if you can... I need you in your human form. You have a pack with extra clothes, remember? It's in your truck outside. You should go and get that, okay?" He moved away, headed toward the hall as he said to Dhaval, "I'll be back in a bit. I have to get the others, let them know what's happened."