Downfall RPG

Who: Corey and Dhaval
Where: Dhaval's room
When: Midday-ish

The storm made it a lot harder to go out like he usually did, but Corey still did it. He came back much sooner than usual, though, and soaked to the skin despite having taken his usually effective coat to keep the rain off. He'd come back with a few more apples, and a few more bags of chips-- useless things, but maybe the kids would like them-- but not much else. Blitz smelled like a wet dog, despite being mostly a cat, and had been very unhappy about it, though she'd been quite happy to get dried off with one of his towels, playing with it like it were some kind of cat toy.

At least he knew what he was going to do with his enforced idleness. The day before he'd sensed three more monsters "waking up" in the hotel, and he could tell those weird eggs had hatched. Now that he had time, he was going to see what was going on with 'em.

The stronger sense brought him to a room on the first floor, where he rapped firmly on the door, though he couldn't imagine who was in there. It looked like it was nothing more than a storage room.

( Oh, great, scary guy. )

Who: Dhaval and Tayne
Where: Their room
When: Early morning

Dhaval woke with a soft smile to the sound of rain on the windows. It was just such a comforting noise. If everything else fell away, there'd always be rain to wake up to. It was almost completely dark in his room, but he wasn't sure if that was the hour or the weather at work. He blinked a few times, noting his arm was around Tayne and that Rashmi was still making little snuffling noises, so probably asleep. As he lay still and listened, the raindrops grew harder and more frequent until it sounded like a proper deluge, and he smiled to himself as a distant growl of thunder rolled by his ears. He wasn't sure why he loved storms so, but nothing struck him as as lovely to watch, as comfortable to listen to, and so quietly exciting. There wasn't much electricity in the air inside, but Dhaval could still feel a light prickle at the back of his neck. Lovely.

( Does make it a little harder to enjoy a good storm. )

Who: Tayne and Dhaval
Where: Their room
When: Early afternoon

It'd been a successful trip out. Tayne had brought home some fresh peaches and tomatos from someone's backyard that hadn't gone bad yet, a couple small tomato plants and baby trees from another backyard that he managed to transplant into the back of the truck he'd borrowed, and a dead monster he could butcher and stuff in the fridge.

Getting the monster corpse taken care of, and leaving the uprooted and dirt-packed plants in the back of his truck where hopefully they'd be okay until later, Tayne tromped upstairs for a shower and a change of clothes. He was all bloody, after all. Tromping back down the stairs afterwards, he of course had to check on the eggs on his way to track down Dhaval.

It had been a pretty long afternoon. Dhaval had put a few hours in at the gym and was still a little damp from his shower. His hair was tied back and he was in only his undershirt, a bit tired but feeling better, despite his still-useless finger. That was the longest he'd gone at a stretch without stopping in at the closet.

( What, you don't like the name Stanley? What about Thunder Tenbears? )

Dhaval and Taylor hang out for a bit.

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

( We might have pretty big babies soon. )

Who: Tayne and Dhaval
Where: Dhaval's room
When: Early hours of the morning

Tayne's feeling of safety only lasted until the dreams finally began. After two and a half days of helplessness and ill treatment, of worry and stress hard after several days of illness, he couldn't hope to escape a nightmare or two. Until almost midnight he slept without dreaming, curled up against Dhaval and letting his body recover.

Not long after midnight, though, REM sleep kicked in at last and everything was disjointed images, harried emotions, images of big cats torn to pieces and his comrades' throats cut in front of him while he watched, bars of cages that kept shrinking until he couldn't move, a trembling tension he couldn't escape from. When the dragon-head breathed a powerful gout water at him, instead of fire, he woke up with a cry and scrambled up and out of bed.

Everything was dark, and he stumbled over first desk, then chair, then wall, feeling trapped and growling in the back of his throat in an attempt to stave off the terror.

( That turn into less predictable things. )

Who: Tayne and Dhaval
Where: Dhaval's room, outside, then Dhaval's room again
When: Late afternoon

The first thing Tayne did when he got back to the hotel, after getting Terry as comfortable as possible with help from the other guys still able to stagger about, was take a shower and throw the clothes he'd been wearing in his make-shift dirty clothes hamper. They smelled terrible, especially to his finally-returned senses.

The second thing he did was raid some of the new supplies to make a can of soup, because goddamn was he starving, and he didn't trust the remains of bread and meat from the last batch he'd made and caught, and he probably needed something gentle on his poor, empty belly, anyway.

Right after that, though, he made his exhausted and hopeful way to Dhaval's room. There were still the eggs, but he thought maybe Dhaval would like to come with him for that, and get some of the thin, cloud-obscured late-afternoon sun.

He knocked on the door, leaning on the door frame while he waited to see if the guy was there. He smelled there.

( Oh, because getting you tipsy and running my hands over you has nothing in it for me? )

Who: Dhaval and Corey
Where: The lobby
When: Early-ish morning

Dhaval was onto the third book Tayne had brought him. He was trying to take it as slowly as he could, but he felt starved right now. Back in the world that was, he'd stopped by the library on the way home from work twice a week, and when he wasn't typing away on his computer, he was buried in some novel or other. The selection he had now was rather random, of course, a couple generic spy novels, a children's book (probably miss-shelved, and luckily an old favorite) with unicorns, something about dragons, something else about pirates, only in space, and an Agatha Christie. Most of them he wouldn't have picked out himself, but Dhaval required words the way most people needed food, and he had to fight not to devour what he had.

He'd wheeled himself out into the lobby to read in a bit of sunlight. He didn't want to ask anyone to take him outside, and though he mostly felt better physically, he was a little weak, low on energy. He needed more sun, something to keep him warm at night. Well, preferably someone... He was trying not to drive himself distracted with worry, but Tayne was all he had to focus on outside his attempts at writing and the books he had to ration. He looked half asleep where he sat, eyes flickering quickly back and forth on the page.

( You knew?? )

Who: Erin and Dhaval
When: Late morning
Where: Erin's room/hallway

( it all seems so perfectly plain. )

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: Tayne and Dhaval
Where: Dhaval's room
When: 4AM or thereabouts

It had been a hard night. After tossing and turning with restless, haunting dreams, Tayne had gotten up to throw up painfully again, bringing up the few crackers he'd managed to force down before bed. One moment, he was too hot and pushed the covers back; the next, he was shivering and trying to drag them back up and nest himself in them. The dreams didn't stop. At some point in the early morning, he managed to wriggle out of his clothes and find refuge from the dreams in a form that didn't dream: the tiger.

But even that was restless and he couldn't sleep more than fits and starts, plus his claws kept catching in the blankets, and he wound up pawing his door open and prowling the halls.

The familiar smell on the ground floor brought him to Dhaval's door, and he let out a little rumble of recognition and a whine of unhappiness, pawing at the door and sniffing at the bottom.

( For purposes of cuddling, he was pretty sure he still preferred the two-legged Tayne. )

Who: Pepper, Dhaval, and Tayne
Where: Dhaval's room
When: Mid-morning

It was once again mid-morning, and Pepper had returned from her usual dawn jaunt in high spirits, satisfied that her little secret back 'home' was still safe. Now her mind turned to more immediate problems; namely, Dhaval. She'd spent a good part of the day before checking up on him, and she wasn't about to stop now! No, her friend would probably need more water and some badgering to see whether he needed the doctor. Zane, that was who she had to find if he was still sick, yes.

Humming tunelessly to herself, Pepper refilled one of the pitchers in the kitchen and strode over to Dhaval's door. It never occurred to her to knock - Dhav had never mentioned it bothering him, and it wasn't like he slept naked or anything - so without hesitation she pushed the door open and ducked inside. "Morning! How do you feel?" In the darkness of the room, Pepper didn't notice right away that anything was amiss.

( Oh, I forgot to mention.... )

Who: Dhaval and Tayne
Where: Dhaval's room, outside, then the room again
When: Late afternoon

( Dhaval had the sudden, novel idea that perhaps he could convince Tayne to behave. Using his... wiles. )

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

Who: Tayne and Dhaval
Where: Dhaval's room, then the bar, then the room again
When: Late afternoon, early evening

The very last steak of the day, Tayne paid extra attention to. He used every trick he'd learned about cooking them over the course of the afternoon, to make it taste its best, and then he gave the last couple dishes a scrub, put the last few loaves of bread in the fridge and the cupboard respectively, and turned everything off. The eggs had been taken care of, turned once that morning and once that afternoon, taking a break from cooking to get the battery out of a random Toyota in the parking lot, the truck engine had been revved and the space heater charged.

All that was left was his evening of food and drinks with Dhaval.

( What a... thing. )

Who: Taylor and Dhaval
When: Mid-afternoon
Where: Dhav's room

( I'm a plant. )

Who: Dhaval and OPEN
When: Early afternoon
Where: The fitness center

Dhaval wheeled straight to the hand weights, bracing himself with his good hand and hopping onto the bench, supporting himself on his feet for a split second. He landed a little hard, but at least the bench was low enough that he didn't need to call Tayne or some other helpful soul to hoist him out of his chair. For weightlifting purposes, he could just stay in the chair, but even braked it was slightly wobbly and precarious, and he preferred not to.

He spared a moment to glare at his broken finger. He was basically down to one reliably functioning limb at this point, and feeling even more helpless than usual wasn't any more comfortable than the snapped bone. He almost felt silly for coming, but if he had to rely on his weaker left arm, he wanted it to be in the best possible shape. As soon as his finger stopped twinging so nastily, he could probably get himself into bed, at least. As it was, it had taken five minutes just to get his hair tied back, and he could hardly ask for help with that.

At least he didn't have to change up his routine much, just cut it in half. Upper body and core strength training had been a big part of his life since the accident, and he knew what to do without having to dwell on it much, letting his mind quietly wander back to the problematic story he was laboriously writing left-handed on a found legal pad.

Who: Dhaval
When: 7:00 am
Where: His room
What: A solo meditation

Who: Tayne and Dhaval
Where: Dhaval's room
When: About seven

( You're perfectly armed against any deer and wild boar you encounter. Just don't try and steal any hunters' sons from wolves. )

Who: Dhaval and Tayne
Where: The lobby, then Dhaval's room
When: Night, after the other thing

( And don't you dare use your bad hand, man, or I'll hafta swat you. )