dontcallmebugsy (dontcallmebugsy) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2022-10-17 23:12:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log, !narrative, !open, [plot] upside down, ~2022 october, ~jonathan tipton-clarke (dontcallmebugsy |
Fools Rush In...
Who: Jonathan Tipton-Clarke
What: Exploring the Upside Down (Narrative)
When: Sometime during the week
Where: The Upside Down
Warnings: None
Status: Complete
"Well, there's something you don't see every day," Jonathan said to himself.
He stood in the living room of his apartment looking up at the hole in the ceiling. Instead of his upstairs neighbor's ceiling, he was looking up at the decayed, vine-strewn floor of his apartment, judging by the stained and tattered rug, and the other items he could see. "This must be one of the infamous portals that popped up all over town."
Full of monsters, he'd heard. Some of which were crossing over into Madison Valley. Caution counseled staying put. But Jonathan hadn't traveled from New York to Egypt to report on genocide and fight to keep the victims safe because it was the cautious thing to do. That didn't mean he couldn't be cautious in his foolhardiness.
He raised a hand and half a dozen wasps emerged from the flesh and took flight through the portal. The shift in gravity as they crossed the threshold was interesting--and good to know. As they buzzed around the apartment giving him a moving, fragmented look at it, Jonathan put together a small pack of food, water, a flashlight, a first aid kit and some spare clothes.
He pushed a table beneath the portal, and stood on it, which let him climb far enough into the portal that the gravity overhead pulled him through to crash to the floor in an explosion of dust. Vines undulated beneath him, rattling against the windows and beneath the exterior door where they'd crept into the apartment. That...was probably not good.
Jonathan got to his feet and recalled the wasps. The rest of the apartment was empty. He opened the front door and stepped outside. He sent the wasps out ahead of him, and more besides. About three fingers worth. They spread out overhead, giving him an aerial view of the immediate area all around him. He saw no movement except plants stirred by the wind.
He heard gunshots at one point and moved in that direction--but cautiously, sending wasps ahead. He found one of the weird vaguely humanoid monsters dead, hacked to death. A number of spent shells, a lot of blood, and a discarded t-shirt soaked in blood were nearby. No other bodies, though.
Jonathan continued exploring. He heard more gunshots in the distance, but father away still. Several times he spotted flying bat-like creatures in the sky, or what looked kind of like dogs--but with the same weird eyeless heads that the first monster had. He made sure not to let them spot him, and they moved on past him.
No people, though. No one to talk to, or question about this strange place, nobody in need of help. Eventually, he headed back to the portal and into his apartment. He wasn't about to sleep in the apartment, not when a monster could come crawling out of his ceiling at any moment. He gathered a few days worth of clothes and his laptop and locked his apartment behind him.
Time to spend a few days in a hotel room until the portal vanished again.