Downfall RPG

Who: Jasper (NPC), Juniper (NPC) and Rowan
When: Bedtime
Where: Jasper and Verity's suite

Jasper was in the closet. Had been since sundown. It wasn't exactly comfortable. Hotel rooms had no need for deep, comfortable closets like at home, but at least the floor was carpeted and comfy, and there were no clothes hanging down to poke his face and shoulders. His long legs were folded up to his chest and his eyes were firmly fixed on middle space, way beyond the opposite wall.

Juniper was sitting outside the closet, curled up in a similar sort of position, for all her limbs were a lot more stubby and she had more of them. She'd followed him when he slunk away after Rowan went downstairs and Verity hadn't come back, though she'd run out of things to say a lot earlier in the day, while Verity was gone but not missing.

That was how Rowan found them, though, looking for one, the other, or both to put them to bed. "Hey, monkey," he said to Juniper, looking from her to the closet and making an educated guess as to just why she was sitting there, and why Jasper was nowhere to be seen. Maple loved the closet when she was unhappy.

Had loved. "And hello, Jas!" he added, raising his voice a little so the boy would know he was talking to him.

( More logical than expected. )

For KJ, Carson and Joyce doing Important Things to the south of the hotel...

Who: Megan and Tony
Where: The bar
When: Early evening

( We're all still figuring things out, aren't we? )

Who: Rowan and Liah
Where: Their suite
When: Night

It was even darker trudging up the stairs than it had been galloping down them half an hour ago, the sun now completely set and the sky dark instead of just dim. No light whatsoever filtered into the stairwell, and Rowan was cursing not bringing along a flashlight or candle or something by the time he had gone even a couple flights, and sorely considering finding a window to leap out of to fly the rest of the way by the time he had gone a few more.

But he at least made it up to the suites without giving in to the urge, mostly by reminding himself that he needed every bit of flying power he had for tomorrow. He might not be able to fly in the dark very well, but he sure as hell could get up at dawn....

He unlocked the suite door and came back inside. Juniper wasn't in the front room; she was probably over with Jasper on his side of the rooms, where she had been since dinner when they all realized Verity had been gone too long.

( you'd better be fine )

For Megan and Etienne

Who: Rowan and Terry
Where: The lobby
When: Shortly after sundown

It wasn't like Verity to be gone this long. He had a brother to worry about, dammit. And though he didn't know it, he was missing a date with some very lovely alcohol. Rowan had even waited, not wanting to get started on anything until after Verity got back from his search party gig.

By the time the sun was fully down, and dusk hanging heavily on the dark city outside the window, Rowan was done pacing and worrying the kids. He pocketed a suite key, asked Liah as nicely as he could manage to watch the kids for a bit, and stalked off towards the stairs. Navigating them in the dark was a little tricky, but he had wings, didn't he? And there was a handrail, so every time he tripped, he just grabbed it and flapped his wings a time or two-- to the mild aggravation of his back, though not quite as bad as he'd been afraid it might be-- and he was okay again.

He tripped probably a good dozen times, because he wasn't exactly going slow.

( What do you mean, so what? )

Who: Tayne, Keith, Verity and Jasmine
Where: North of the hotel; Oakwood Mall
When: Day 14, late afternoon

The long trek across town had been relatively miserable for Tayne, who was starting to think this had been a bad idea, only a day recovered from being ill for three, despite the need for someone who could protect the group if need be. He'd loaded his bike down with crackers, some warm cheese that was starting to go hard, and lots and lots of water. At least half the water was gone, now, and a good chunk of the crackers and cheese, and there was still the search and trek back to consider. The silver lining was, he definitely was done throwing up: nothing had come back up, today, and if something was going to, this was definitely the way to make sure of it.

However, they had made it to the mall-- the building full of broken windows and ruined merchandise strewn across the floors-- and Tayne rolled his bike across the parking lot with some relief. At least maybe they'd let him sit down for a minute once they got inside, in the shade.

"And Terry really thinks Landon came out here," he commented dubiously, shielding his eyes despite the protection of the sunglasses as he looked up at the second story of the mall. "It looks pretty damn picked over, already...." Though maybe they could find a little something useful while they were here, if they didn't find Landon. Tayne was all about collecting everything and anything a body could that might eventually prove useful.

( You were warned to stay out of our territory. )

Who: Etienne and Rowan
Where: In front of the hotel
When: Afternoon

Who: Terry and Reiko
Where: The kitchen
When: Early Morning, Day 14
What: Just an encounter over breakfast...

[ The leader and the rebel. Isn't that like oil and water? ]

Who: Terry, Andre and Josh
When: Late afternoon, 6pm
Where: The depths of the hotel

( Let's just get their bodies out of here, and we'll worry about the rest later! )

Who: Tayne and Erin
Where: Erin's room
When: Late-ish morning

Tayne was starting to think that maybe this survey of the hotel, and correction of his feverish notes in the notebook about where to put lookouts and patrols, would be best left for another day. After his second flight of stairs, he was ready to sit down and rest again. If it was going to be like this all the way up, he would never get back down before dusk. And that would just be a waste of time.

While he was up there, though, he might as well finish this floor. He was pausing at each room, marking them as occupied, and by whom if he recognized the scent. After taking a little breather on the platform at the top of the stairs, he started at the first, room 201, and stopped short. Snake-smell. He knew that smell. This was the room that snake-person was in, who had attacked Dhaval and killed Terrence.

( Everything okay in there? )

Who: Tayne and Taylor
Where: Taylor's room
When: Morning

After dropping Dhaval off in the bar, and leaving a note on Verity's little announcement on the wall downstairs, Tayne climbed up to the second floor. First floor. The one-hundred floor, whichever number it was in floor groups. He stopped by his own room first, picking up his notebook and a pen, and then, since it was right there and easy to get to, by Taylor's room. He hadn't seen her since before he got sick, he didn't think anyway, and he did want to see how she was doing.

Besides, he didn't really want to tackle the next flight of stairs right away....

( So, you're gonna be a momma, eh? )

Who: John & Rowan
Where: The hallway and then the kitchen
When: Early morning, September 4th Day 14

He'd stayed in his room on Day 13 of the end of everything he'd known. Drake had managed to get him to this place, with two people who seemed friendly enough, and the man who'd met them, though a little pale and tired, had been a wonderful sight. Normal people. A hotel. Lots of rooms to explore. He was sorry there wasn't any power. John had always liked riding in the elevators and sneaking into rooms marked 'staff only'. 'Always' was a relative concept. Since his recovery from the accident, he'd reverted to a few activities he'd enjoyed when he was eight. Going where he wasn't supposed to go was one of them. He'd done that during his first week at the facility and Christina, his 'lifestyle coordinator' had been very upset with him. He and Mr. Squiggles had curled into a ball in his room and cried and refused to have dinner as a form of self-punishment.

Until dessert had been revealed: chocolate ice cream. John couldn't remember the last time he'd had ice cream.

He'd chosen a room on the twelfth floor, because he wanted to view and no one thumping above him. Drake had also wanted it for the view, but he was thinking strategies and stuff and that just made John bored. He hadn't unpacked his bag, afraid that at any moment, this safe zone would become a war zone and he'd have to flee. Well, Drake would get them out. He said he knew how to climb the outside walls. A part of John was terrified, but the other part was equally excited. he could be like Spiderman... Leaving Mr. Squiggles in charge on a pillow on the bed, John opened the door to the hall, thinking that with the sun up now, he should explore a little. He'd eaten one of his energy bars, but more food would be good, too.

( You got a weird way of freaking out, yo. )

Who: Carson
When: Day 14; Early morning, at dawn
Where: Her room
What: Carson's power starts to manifest a little to her unpleasant surprise

( Nasty wake up call. )

Who: Dhaval and Tayne
Where: Dhaval's room, then outside the hotel, then the bar
When: Morning

( ...You know anything about all the tiger hair that's still in my bed? )

Who: Verity, to all
Where: Right by the kitchen
When: Just after dawn

The handwriting begins neatly only to become bigger and sloppier as the blathering note goes on. There are also some pictures of cats and racecars in the margins, courtesy Jasper and probably Juniper.

Dear Everyone:

This is from Verity. You've probably seen me. The short guy with aspirations to mad science. Couple things:

1. I have an alarm system for downstairs up and running! It's kind of improvised. I think I've got enough to cover all doors and windows. Well, all doors anyway. Since we have scary people shooting at us and probably big monsters that want to eat us, I figured we might want big noises in place after bedtime. I'll probably want to set the alarms right before I go to bed, but that's not much after sunset. Can we maybe have a sign-in and sign-out sheet by the front door so I'll know if someone's still out? That's probably a good idea anyway.

2. I've almost got emergency lighting for the stairs ready. Battery packs don't last forever, so real emergencies, please. If you go out, keep an eye out for those flashlights you shake or crank to charge. We should really stock up some more on those. For now there're only enough for one or two per floor.

3. I'm weighing my options on some bigger projects right now. I think we want a windmill on the roof for a little bit of power. I think I can rig up an elevator that'll work with pully systems. Not sure if I'll use the regular one but try and make it manual or drop the existing elevator into the basement and start from scratch. Need to do some math for a while first. I also want to try and get some pipes into the building for communication between floors. I'm just not sure how well that'll work. Victorian houses only had three or four floors, pretty much. Easier. So walkie talkies should also go on the list, I guess. But those eat batteries, and batteries are in short supply.

SO. If you're good with tools or just with your hands, maybe drop in and help me with stuff? Or drop off ideas. I love ideas. Ideas are great. My hand hurts now. Gonna stop writing.

In much neater handwriting: Mr. Verity Aloysius Meany

Geeze, Jas, the first thing you write in weeks has to be my middle name? Why would you do that? Just for that, Jasper's middle name is Thaddeus. Ha.