Downfall RPG

Who: Andre and open to all
When: Sunset
Where: The dining room

Andre had tried to keep things short. It had been hard to fight his natural instincts to "speechify" and go on for a long time, but he knew this wasn't the time for that. Besides, as much as he didn't want to admit it, he knew that some of the people didn't necessarily share his beliefs, and in the current situation, he was learning that he needed to focus more on comforting than converting. There would be a time for that. When they were ready, they would come to him, and he would lead them to the Lord. His head still sporting a small bandage from getting busted open- it had looked worse than it actually was-, he closed his Bible and recited from memory.

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever."

He crossed over to the table he'd set up earlier, decorating it with a homemade cross and several candles he'd managed to scrounge up from the storage room that the hotel had obviously saved for fancy dinners. "At this time, as you feel led, I'd like to offer everyone an opportunity to remember those who are no longer with us. Come up, light a candle, and if you like, share something about the people you're remembering with us. As long as we remember them, they are never truly gone. Once I get the feeling that everyone has had their chance, I'll wrap things up. Now if you don't mind, I'll start."

He turned and picked up the clicky lighter and lit the first candle. He didn't turn to face anyone, but kept his gaze on the flickering flame. He didn't know how well he was going to hold up, and he wanted to appear strong for the others. "Sandra Washington. You were a beautiful woman, a wonderful partner, and an amazing servant of the Lord. I didn't deserve having someone like you in my life, but somehow you stuck with me through the good times and the bad." His eyes began to tear up a little, although he quickly wiped them. "I miss ya, baby. I miss your smile, your laugh, I miss holding you and sleeping next to you. I miss your beautiful voice. But I know when my time comes, you'll be right there, waitin' for me. I love you, baby." He stood for a moment, wiping the few tears that had come, then kissed the tips of his index and middle fingers before raising them to the sky. After he collected himself, he turned back around, then stepped back to let anyone else who wanted have their turn.

[[Quick note, I figured instead of having a million scenes for one purpose, those who want to have their dreams invaded by Jessica can start a new thread in this one post. Any and all, believers and non-believers are welcome.]]

WHO: Jessica and ...
WHEN: During the early early mornings of September 8th
WHERE: In an apartment building somewhere in Detroit, then their dreams

Jessica sat for hours, the body still curled tightly to her side, as the stress and emotional turmoil of the past two weeks finally took their toll on her. She cried for everything that she lost. Cried as hopelessness crushed down on her chest now that she was alone. At least with James still alive, she could have had something to focus her energy on instead of letting it all coming crashing down on her at once. But he had said that this would happen. Somehow, he'd known that she would end up alone. Why hadn't she taken his words to heart? Because he was a mental patient, even though he seemed sane a good majority of the time. It was impossible for him to know what was going to happen. But in the same breath she thought that it was impossible for her to have the same dream with the man, and the others they had been with.

Pushing those thoughts from her mind, this wasn't the time or place to think about such insane things, she de-tangled her hand from James' cold grip and gently laid him on the ground. His other hand still had bag straps wrapped securely around it, so Jess extracted them from his arm and placed them all on the bed. First thing was first. She was still bleeding from the wound on her leg, which was also causing her to limp. She pulled open the trauma bag, checking the contents to make sure nothing had been too damaged in the fight from before. She snorted as she thought the word fight. It had been an ambush. A failure on their part. But the weather had a lot to do with it. They could barely see around them, not that they particularly wanted to. She pushed herself to focus again. Bandage herself, check inventory, prepare for the night that was already upon her. She stripped off her clothes, no sense in being shy around a dead body, and sat on the bed as she cleaned up the deep scratches on her leg. No wonder she had been limping, her knee was swollen a few sizes to big, but it was nothing threatening. She wrapped her knee in a tensor bandage, cleaned and stitched the cuts along her thigh then bandaged those. Her shoulder was throbbing, but she didn't have much choice but to use that arm. Packing up the medical supplies again, she turned her attention to the other bags. Clothes, obviously Elle's bag which she gladly pulled on items from. Ammunition, thank whatever God was watching over her. A little snack food, but maybe the apartment was still stocked. She needed to reload all the weapons she had, then checked for food. There wasn't a whole lot but she managed to fill her stomach well enough. There was nothing to occupy her time with, not wanting to be too loud by watching TV and finding no books or magazines that could hold her interest. So she managed to maneuver one of the stuffed chairs to face the door into the apartment, grabbed her rifle and settled in to stand guard.

She needed to stay awake. She tapped her feet against the hardwood floors, but then felt it made too much sound. She couldn't let her guard down like they had before. That would be disastrous. The creatures were still out there, and she wasn't about to let them get her. As much as she tried to fidget and shift to keep herself up, oblivion came to her quickly as she melted into the cushion of the chair. Its comfort lulled her into a false sense of security. The grip on her gun loosened, but not enough for the weapon to slid from her lap while her head lolled first to the side as her eyes drifted shut, then completely back as all the tension in her body released and she slipped into the dream world...

Who: Josh and Juan
Where: the bar/lounge area
When: midday

The middle of the day had arrived, and Josh still felt like miserable crap. He'd taken three frigidly cold showers to try to bring down his temperature, he'd drank a ton of cold water, and he still felt like he was probably running about a hundred and three degrees. He knew why he was sick-- because of what he'd done in the basement the previous day, which had been a very good thing for everyone-- but that didn't make the consequences any easier to bear. He'd finally decided that lying around on his floor next to the window wasn't going to make him feel any better, either, so he got up and dragged himself down the stairs to the lounge.

It was deeply shadowed but still possible to see with the light that came into the windows, and Josh went behind the bar to see what he could find. He'd never been much of a drinker, hadn't ever been able to afford to be a drinker, but if he had to be wretchedly sick, maybe he could find something that would knock him unconscious. It was worth a try. Pale, hollow-eyed and sweating heavily, he leaned against the back part of the bar as he checked out the various bottles on the mirrored shelf behind it.

( he hoped he wasn't evil like Pyro, but control over fire was pretty cool anyway )

Who: Andre & Josh
Where: Josh's room
When: Morning

Andre was still tired, even after getting a full night's rest. The search and rescue operation the day before had really taken a lot out of him. Not just the stairs, spiders, and fire, but especially turning a second person invisible with him. Considering how easily he could turn himself invisible, or anything he happened to be holding or wearing, it was kind of a shock just how worn out he still was from it all. He could still turn himself invisible- he'd tried it when he woke up and looked in the mirror- but it seemed like it took a little more effort to do this morning. He hoped that all he needed was to recharge a little and it would all be all right.

He was more concerned about the other members of the rescue party, though. Terry had seemed to come through all right, and he knew Landon and Catie were in the best hands possible, considering that their doctor had left them high and dry. But he wondered how the kid was holding up. Josh had done a bang-up job keeping all the spider-things occupied while he and Terry rescued the others, but he hadn't looked that good before it, and he could imagine that all that fire had taken a lot of out of him as well. After taking a cold shower, shaving, and a little prayer for everyone, he decided to go have a look-see, make sure the boy was doing okay. He climbed the stairs, silently cursing them as he did, before stopping at the boy's door. He knocked semi-quietly, hoping the boy wasn't still asleep. "Hey, kid," he said, trying not to be too loud, which was difficult with his booming voice. "It's me, Andre."

( I wouldn't have minded havin' a human flamethrower like you back when I was in Iraq. )

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: Josh and Minuette
When: mid-afternoon
Where: the storage room

PLACEHOLDER!

Who: Verity and Josh
When: early afternoon
Where: the lobby

Josh had two states of being these days: flushed red, hot and sweating or just out of the shower with wet hair. He was in the latter state as he walked down the steps from the first floor to the lobby level, slowly so he wouldn't get warm again anytime soon. He was quite possibly the only person in the hotel for whom a lack of hot water wasn't a problem; his showers were icy cold and he liked them that way. He stepped through the stairwell door into the lobby, damp hair dripping onto the neck of his t-shirt, and paused when he saw Verity doing... something on the other side of it.

He hadn't seen the guy since he and Joyce had brought him here to the hotel, and he'd been so out of it by the time they'd gotten here that it was kind of embarrassing to think about it. He thought for a few seconds and then began walking in that direction, curious about what he was doing.

( forming a motley enclave of those too lucky, skilled, or stubborn to die )

Who: Josh and Minuette
When: 11:00 a.m., day 10
Where: the kitchen

It was a bit early for lunch, and that might've been why the kitchen was empty when Josh went into it. He was feeling strange again: hot, sweaty, twitchy, vaguely frustrated. He'd awakened fairly early this morning, finding that apparently he'd gotten out of bed during the night and curled up next to the open window in his room, his bare back against the wall, his damp hair plastered to his head. He could never get cool enough, was his problem. The only relief he'd found since he'd discovered he could set things on fire had been icy cold baths and showers, and they would only last so long. He thought that his body temperature was never what most would consider normal anymore, but he didn't have a thermometer with which to check it.

He'd taken a pair of scissors to his jeans, making them into cutoffs, and he'd left his shirt in his room, not thinking anything about the fact that he was wandering around without much clothing on. It was dark most places in the hotel, since they didn't have any lights except a few flashlights. Who'd notice or even care? He paced around the kitchen, trying to figure out if he wanted something to eat. He couldn't decide. His bare feet carried him around the huge stainless-steel island to one of the deep sinks in this part of the room, and he noticed that someone had filled it with water. Josh stopped and stared at it for what felt like a long time, then reached over to touch its surface. Cold, straight from the pipes. He removed his hand, thought some more, almost in a daze of anticipation in the stuffy silence of the room.

( Josh hot. Mini rain. )

Who: Josh and Rowan
When: mid-afternoon, day 9
Where: the roof

It had just stopped raining, and Josh wasn't sure he was pleased about that. He'd been standing out in the open during the downpour, and his jeans, t-shirt and hair were soaked; he brushed longish dark-blond hair that dripped with water out of his eyes as he looked up at the sky. Dark-grey clouds roiled, although he couldn't tell if there would be more precipitation to come or if the rest of the day would simply be gloomy. Whether it would rain again or not didn't matter that much. He felt better up here than he did in the stuffy and dark confines of the hotel.

It might seem strange that he'd been standing out here getting drenched, but it was a behavior that now felt as instinctive as breathing. The showers he'd taken since he'd gotten to the hotel were icy cold, and it wasn't from any impulse to try to save the hot water. It cooled him, energized him, even sometimes made him feel a strange sort of arousal that he wasn't sure what to do with. Beyond the obvious, of course. His skin felt so hot all the time now, and the cold water provided relief. The rain did, too, when it was a cool rain like this one had been. Josh stood as if in a daze as the wind blew all around him, chilling him further, and his fingers rubbed idly at one bare elbow. Was the whole world like this? he wondered. Small ports of refuge, but other than that chaos?

He squinted toward the distant horizon, taking a couple of steps closer to the edge of the roof. Not close enough to fall off but close enough to feel as if he was standing in the middle of nothingness, waiting for it to sweep him away.

Who: Loren and Josh
When: 2:00pm and onward
Where: Billiards room

( This game is rigged. )

Who: Verity, Joyce & Josh
When: Day 6, morning
Where: the hotel to the hardware store and back

Verity was really just wandering at this point. He was feeling restless and there was nothing to do, nothing to distract himself from fresh memories and future worries. He'd already posted his inventories of supplies, such as he'd been able to put together. He couldn't figure out who the information should go to, so a couple of signs seemed like the best idea. He might have opted for lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling, and hoping not to fall asleep, but that would set Jasper a bad example. He at least wanted Jas to get out, and trying to see to his brother's mental health forced him to take a little care with his own. He had decided that now was the time for his vending machine raiding project. There were a whole lot in a little alcove off the lobby. As good a place to start as any.

( survivors unite )