Downfall RPG

Who: Liah, Rowan and Juniper (NPC)
Where: their suite, then the roof
When: afternoon

Every curtain in the suite was open at the moment, to get every bit of light in that it was possible to get. It was cloudy today thus far, but to Liah that didn't matter. What mattered was having their surroundings as well-lit as possible when it was possible. She'd eaten lunch a little while ago and was currently trying to keep from being sleepy by braiding Juniper's hair. The child had given in to her request gracefully enough, and Liah was sitting on the couch with Juny sitting on the floor between her knees as Liah wove her dark hair into an elaborate French braid. She was taking her time with it, both from the need to be careful not to pull Juny's hair as well as the fact that what else was there to do? She might as well make it look nice.

( practice makes perfect )

Who: Rowan and Zane
When: Day 8, 1 pm
Where: The roof

( Had he really asked if his flying was supposed to look like that? )

Who: Rowan, Liah, and OPEN
Where: Seventh Floor
When: Midday-ish

With the power out and a lot of rooms still empty, Rowan thought this would be a great time to see what there was in the hotel, behind all those locked doors. If anything. And since keys were so obsolete now, he brought Liah with him.

They'd just finished going through suitcases in room 704, and come out with, treasure of treasures, batteries, and a heavy-duty flashlight, plus more jewelry that Rowan had swiftly pocketed, and a couple books that looked halfway interesting. "Now this is gonna be useful," he said cheerfully, holding up the flashlight. The books and batteries went in the laundry bag of shit they'd collected so far, which included a discman with a cd booklet, some packets of Welch's fruit snacks that he was sure Juniper would get some good use out of, and a packet of colored pencils.

Liah was completely unamused by the power being out-- no elevator, all those stairs to walk up and down every day-- but she'd known it was going to happen eventually. At least they still had water. She'd made good use of the shower as soon as she'd gotten up, wanting to be clean and prepared in case they ended up without water, too. As a matter of fact, her hair was still damp as she and Rowan rummaged around for anything useful they could find. "Yeah, it will be," she said. "Wish we could find several more." Because it wasn't creepy at all to be wandering around a huge-ass hotel in the dark. The lowest levels of the place didn't even have windows, and at night? Everyone was going to be shit out of luck unless they had candles or a flashlight.

She sighed, trying not to get overly cranky as she and Rowan stood in the seventh floor corridor. "Where to now?" she asked.

Who: Charity and Rowan
Where: The rooftop
When: Afternoon

She felt worse today. Charity knew that she was going to feel like shit for as long as her arm was healing, but she'd hardly been able to eat this morning. Hopefully it was just the pain and her body recovering, and not anything worse. Like another infection. Zane said he'd cut off most of the first one, but if it got into her blood... either way, hiking up to the top of the hotel was probably not the best thing for her abused body right now. But being cooped up was getting to her, and she had to move. Going outside wasn't an option, so instead she went up, up, up as far as she could.

By the time she got to the roof, she was positively exhausted. Charity curled up next to the AC unit for support and closed her eyes, pretending for a moment that she was on a boat as the wind hit her face. The distant screams of monsters could almost be gulls... oh, who was she kidding? Her life was upside down. People could do extraordinary things, but everyone was dead. Almost everyone. Then why were they still alive? Her mind drifted to Father Ray, to how calm and confident he'd been. Like he had some secret insight into the whole ordeal... was he right? Was this plague some God's work, or was the miracle that any of them were alive at all? She brooded quietly to herself, almost half dozing in the solitude of the roof.

( Are you an angel? )

Who: Rowan, Liah, and Juniper (NPC)
Where: Their suite
When: Early morning, a few hours before dawn

Rowan had the bed to himself, but the door was open. The night before Juniper had started off with Liah, and snuck in with him at some point during the night, and he wanted to leave that option open for her. So far, she hadn't taken it. Rowan certainly hadn't woken up for it. Twelve stories high, and behind thickly-paned, sound-reducing windows, the night-noises hardly bothered him at all. Since coming here, he'd gotten the best sleep since... well, since it all happened. So at least the place had been good for something.

There was no way he wouldn't wake up when his little sister screamed, though. He woke with a start and sat up in bed, bringing blankets with him, since they were all tangled up with his wings. "Juny?" he asked into the dark room, but Juniper wasn't there.

In Liah's room, Juniper clung to the older girl's pajamas with all four arms, and her tail coiled around Liah's leg. She wasn't awake, but she was still screaming.

( She just started screaming. )

Who: Rowan and OPEN
Where: The game rooms of the hotel
When: Late morning

Sneaking away from the usual bunch for a bit, Rowan had a few ideas he wanted to work on with his wings-- and this time, he really didn't want anyone around to watch him potentially fall on his face. Or smash into things. Or generally make an ass of himself.

So he'd snuck downstairs and into the game room. Or card room. Or whatever the hell it actually was. The roof was high enough, and the room big enough, and the place full of enough heavy furniture for what he had in mind. First order of business: getting lift without having to run around like a moron. That wasn't going to do him any good if he needed to get away from something quickly, or if he was going to launch off a roof, right? Of course not.

So he took off his shoes-- heavy combat boots, he decided, were not very helpful when it came to flying-- grabbed one of the edges of the heavy poker tables, and started flapping the wings. With nobody around to rush him, and no monsters to make him rush himself, he could experiment with angles and direction of the beats and... stuff. That was the plan, anyway, right up until the deck of cards sitting on the table scattered across the room in a frenzied cloud, buffeted by his wings.

"Fuck," he grumbled.

Who: Rowan, Liah, and Verity
Where: The hotel, finally!
When: Early afternoon

The hotel was even bigger than Rowan had hoped. Twelve whole stories. There were only six rooms per floor, but it could've been worse. Rowan was staring at the floor map with something like glee. "You guys would kill me if I said I wanted to live on the top floor, wouldn't you?" he said with a snicker.

They currently stood in the lobby, after a long trek across town, lugging a motorcycle and a couple stuffed-- though thankfully wheeled-- suitcases after them and keeping an eye out for monsters. They didn't actually see any monsters this time, thank god and Mother Mary, and now they were here. Rowan was liking all the big rooms. Maybe he could practice flying inside, using the pool room or the gaming room, or the dining room even. It would be safer than hunting out someplace outside.

And there were full suites on the top floor, with couches and pull-out beds, kitchenettes, and balconies. Rowan was already hoping none of them were taken, because there was no better place in a hotel for people with kids. Even if they were at the top floor.

( And room-finding! )

Who: Rowan, Terry, and Juniper (NPC)
Where: The little house
When: Mid-morning

( it was always cold, no sunshine )

Who: Rowan, Liah and Juniper (NPC)
Where: The house, the master bedroom/bath
When: Night

With an extra body in the house, things had had to be shuffled a bit. They could have let Terry sleep on the couch, but with all the noise and with the double points of entry there, Rowan didn't really want to do that to him. But Verity and Jasper needed the double bed in their room, since there was two of them, and that left....

"You sure you don't mind sharing with us, Liah?" Rowan asked, a little self-consciously, as he was waiting for Juniper to finish washing up in the bathroom.

( I think you're forgetting how well I know you )

Who: Rowan, Liah, Terry, Verity, Zane
Where: The house the trio and kids have been staying at
When: Mid to late afternoon

( Hey, open up! It's Rowan! And company! )

Who: Verity, Rowan, Terry, Paige, Zane
Where: An abandoned parking lot with plenty of barbed wire fencing
When: Late morning, coming up towards noon

Verity was very jumpy. He was sure Rowan was as wary as he was being out here, but he didn't think his companion was jumping out of his skin every time the hot, heavy air moved a plastic bag too loudly. He wasn't sure because he kept looking every direction but at Rowan, hoping to not have to see the younger man's quite deserved scorn. He tried to calm down a bit, but the walking stick he'd found (a good sight easier to swing around than the poker) kept springing up almost on its own. He wished he'd been able to sleep a little more. He might be feeling a bit less, well, insane. Resting the cane on his shoulder, he took a deep breath and another look around, still avoiding looking at Rowan. Maybe if he pretended hard enough to not be a dork, it would become true.

He spotted what he'd been looking for then. Verity had spent a lot of time since he'd witnessed Rowan's attempts last night trying to decide what the best place would be. They needed space, they needed something big enough to jump off of and small enough that Rowan's probably weakened legs wouldn't break in the likely event of impact. And they needed someplace as secure as they could find. Rowan would be busy. He'd seen his friend's concentration before. And that meant Verity would have to try and make sure that he didn't injure himself. Which really didn't leave anyone to watch for monsters, and Liah had to be home to watch the kids. This whole adventure was ill-considered and irresponsible, and Verity felt terrible for going at all.

That said, he wanted to see Rowan fly. And now he saw an opportunity. "There!" First thing he'd said in a while. He pointed with his trusty stick. The parking lot was only about a quarter full, the cars mostly concentrated in one corner. The fence was high and topped by barbed wire. And the gate had a fairly complex latch on it. "I think that's the best we'll find. We can try there." He pushed his rather sweaty hair back as he pointed, looking over at Rowan with a bit of a grin. He couldn't help being excited.

( And falling flat on your face. )

Who: Rowan and Verity
Where: That little house of theirs
When: Right around sundown

It had just gotten to be too much, being trapped inside that little house with two kids and two adults-- sort of adults. Adolescents. Whatever you called people their age. Rowan realized quickly that he'd go insane if he had to stay in there all day, so in between chores or meals or trying to entertain the kids, once the sign was done and put up in the front bay window, he'd started sneaking out into the backyard for a breath of fresh air and to stretch his legs.

On this last slip outside-- which he'd figured would be his last, since night was on its way-- stretching his legs in a walk around the thankfully fenced-in backyard turned into stretching his wings. And now, though the sun was sinking down and he was hearing some distant monster-animal-whatever sounds, he was still out there, beating them, running with them open, running with them beating, and otherwise just experimenting.

Because dammit, he was going to figure the damn things out and make them useful.

( That results in falling down. )

Who: Rowan, Verity, and Liah
Where: The living room of their little hidey-hole
When: Midday, after lunch

After Liah had been dragged out of her bedroom, hamburgers had been made and shared around, and everyone had finished eating, Rowan stuck the kids in the kitchen again with the chore of washing and drying the dishes. Even Juniper knew how to wash dishes and not break them-- they all pitched in, at their house, after all-- and Jasper was old enough to figure it out, if he didn't know. And it kept them busy while the "grown ups" talked out in the living room.

Rowan didn't even bother sitting down. The only place he could was the couch, and he didn't want to take up the whole damn place. So he motioned for Verity and Liah to sit, instead, and said, "So. Liah. Me and Verity heard gunshots out there, when we were bringing in the bike. It was a ways off, but-- well, we figure it means there's definitely other people out there. Somewhere."

( strategies, weapons and signs )

Who: Rowan and Verity, with Jasper and Juniper (NPCs)
Where: The house, and just outside it!
When: Late morning, 1030-ish

During the night, even once Rowan had made it back to his and Juniper's room sometime after midnight, Rowan hadn't really gotten much sleep. Between the ever-present ache that the advil had only taken the edge off of not taken away entirely, the awkwardness of trying to deal with the wings, and the jerking awake every time he heard one of those howls or animal screams close enough to the house to hear clearly, even the five hours or so after dawn that he did manage to sleep felt like just an eyeblink. He hadn't even noticed when Juniper left the bed sometime not long after dawn, because he'd just been so exhausted.

But now he was actually awake, and felt vaguely guilty for sleeping so late when who knew what was out there and there were other housemates to worry about. It was only after he'd used the bathroom to take care of a few necessary things and splashed some water on his face that he realized he hadn't heard a single monster-noise since he'd woken up. "Huh," he told himself, and then he headed out to see what'd happened to the rest of the house while he slept like a goddamned rock all morning.

( And discovering we're not alone! )

Who: Rowan and Liah
Where: That little bitty house
When: Late-ish

Juniper had fallen asleep during Pirates of the Caribbean-- which the previous owners of this house did, indeed, have-- which had to mean she was really tired, since it was her favorite movie. So once the movie was over, it really hadn't been all that hard to get her teeth brushed-- using someone else's toothbrush and toothpaste, which she complained bitterly about-- and get her into borrowed pajamas that were way too big for her and had cut holes for her extra arms-- and put her to bed. In fact, the complaining she'd made was pretty much too sleepy and incoherent to really even count as complaining.

So Juniper was in bed, sound asleep. And there were creatures howling and screaming outside in the streets. And suddenly Rowan felt like being in a darkened room with just a sleeping little girl was way beyond anything he could stand at that moment in time. Not that the rest of the house was much brighter-- it seemed prudent to keep as many lights off as possible, so as not to attract any of those noisy beasts, so actually the only lights on were ones nowhere near windows, like bathroom lights and the kitchen light. And all the curtains were tightly shut.

( dreams of flying and distractions )

Who: Verity, Rowan, and the younger siblings
Where: The house they're holed up in, the kitchen
When: Early evening

Who: Rowan, Verity, Liah, and Jasper (NPC)
Where: The north edge of Detroit proper's residential districts
When: Late afternoon

They'd done what they could to shore up the three exits to the building, then settled in to just... watch. Juniper was asleep, which was just as well, because Rowan didn't think he had the energy and presence of mind to be as strong as she needed him to be. He and Liah had split up to watch the streets from behind different sets of curtains at different parts of the house, ostensibly to cover more visible ground, but more likely, Rowan expected, so they could deal with things in private. He'd certainly spent a good half hour just sitting and shaking, not paying a whole lot of attention to what was going on out on the streets, and a little more investigating the big, feathery, awkward wings he'd grown.

He was almost done with that when he heard a new sound: the sound of a motorcycle. Not an idling one-- not that there were any in the street, that he knew of-- but an active, moving one. Someone or something was riding a motorcycle down the street towards them.

Rowan immediately abandoned his gentle tugging on feathers and prodding at slightly-sore flesh and glued his face to the small opening between the bay window's curtains, waiting for whomever-- or whatever-- it was to come into sight.

( Less cockroaches than I'd have expected. )

Who: Liah, Rowan and Juniper (NPC)
When: mid-afternoon-ish
Where: the streets of a suburb outside Detroit proper, then a house

( I'm hiding from deformed mutants in a dumpster... are you guys ever gonna get here? )