lookinside (lookinside) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2019-08-29 20:07:00 |
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Entry tags: | #december 2017, #group scene, jen, ophelia, sebastian |
Who: Sebastian, Ophelia, and Jen
Where: The McCarthy House
When: Afternoon, December 28
Status: Complete
Once they were all settled in the basement, things eventually quieted down in the McCarthy house. Sebastian eventually crashed, giving in to the panic attack that he’d tried so hard to avoid, then curled up on the sofa and slept a few hours. The fog was still present when he awoke, but he didn’t have the energy to get wound up about it again, at least not yet. He kept telling himself that he wasn’t technically trapped. He could go outside if he absolutely had to. It was just freezing cold and… there were monsters. “What did mom say they looked like?” he asked, looking away from the window towards Phee and Jen. He’d been so out of it when his mother had come in, weirdly focused on making a remedy he’d pulled from some dark corner of his brain, that he hadn’t really caught everything she’d said about the dangers outside. “The thing that attacked her--what was it?”
“She didn’t know. She didn’t get a good look, she just said it was big and had claws,” Phee answered from where she was sitting on the sectional, her knees drawn up to her chest. They had spent some time in the storage room first, but it eventually became clear that whatever was out there wasn’t trying to get into the house. They’d slowly eased their way back into the more comfortable areas of the basement, and Brianna had ended up falling asleep on the couch. It had just been Phee and Jen for a while, a movie running quietly in the background, but then Sebastian had gotten up again. Phee hadn’t previously known that she could be scared and bored at the same time, but here they were. There was nothing to do to help them, so she’d just been quietly worrying her ass off about Greg and her mom and everybody else out there.
A bear Jen thought. Or a wolf. Wolves could be big but it just seemed so strange that a wild animal was roaming around in town in blind fog. It all felt strange and she still wasn't sure how Brianna had gotten away. She'd seen pictures of people attacked by bears and it tended to be way more gruesome. If she had heard Brianna say it had scales she'd be even more confused. She'd spent so much time worrying about her dad, now she was worrying about her pets as well. She felt like she was neglecting them, like she was a terrible pet owner, even if it wasn't her fault because she was god damned stuck in Overlook. "This is like a nightmare," she said quietly. "But like the most boring nightmare ever."
Sebastian’s mind was going the same place as Jen’s, attempting to think of all the logical animals that populated their state. A bear was a definite possibility, except it seemed weird that his mother hadn’t seen it well enough to say ‘bear’. They wouldn’t all be huddled inside, scared of a bear. It wasn’t the kind of animal that would stalk them. If they had to get out, they could. The bear was probably gone by now. “I was thinking… Greg got me a drone for Christmas. Maybe we could see it,” he said, looking at them both. “I mean, it’d be a little less terrifying if it was just a bear. Or a coyote.” It would still suck, but Sebastian could maybe quiet his mind if he thought he could actually walk out that door and not die.
In her distress, Phee had forgotten about the scales. This whole thing was like a nightmare, and the mention of her boyfriend’s name even in passing made her want to cry some more. She’d been doing quite enough of that, even if it hadn’t actually been all that much. Crying in front of the cool and collected Jen Barrett sucked. Not to mention her mother. She thought the idea that a coyote could’ve make a scratch like that was dumb, but she knew they were all grasping for straws at the moment. “Can you even fly it in all this?” she asked, shooting a doubtful glance toward the solid-white windows. Her curiosity was piqued in spite of herself, though. She wanted to know what was out there too. “But maybe we can get a look, yeah ...” Or the animal was just gone and they would see nothing but fog until the drone crashed, but it was at least something to do.
Crying was the normal thing to do in a situation like this and Jen once again felt like there was probably something wrong with her, like not crying meant she didn't really care if her dad was in danger or not. She did care, she just didn't cry easily and it felt like somewhat of a social stigma. Brianna hadn't cried either though but she was the Mom and she was hurt... so maybe she was just staying strong for their benefit. Social rules were weird, especially in a crisis. The mention of Sebastian's drone was a welcome distraction and she arched her brows in surprise and mild amusement. "You're going to lose that drone," she pointed out. "But that sounds like exactly the kind of thing you should use a drone for. Recon, right?" She wasn't too thrilled about having to open a window or a door to get it out there but a crack should be safe. She glanced at Brianna, half expecting her to be awake and ready to protest but she was still sleeping, probably needing all the rest she could get. "I'm in."
Everyone’s reactions felt more appropriate to Sebastian than his own, which made him feel more than a little bit crazy. If he’d been able to take a step back, he might have realized there was more going on than just the claustrophobia, but he wanted to put the whole episode behind him and move on. It felt like a healthy choice, especially if it kept him from freaking out again. “I’ll definitely lose it,” he agreed with a frown. “But...maybe I’ll be able to find it when the fog lifts. I just wanna see, you know? If there’s something to see. It should fly fine, so long as I take it slow.” He’d have to rely completely on the monitor, but he thought he could do it. “Let me go grab it,” he said, rising to his feet and heading towards the stairs. “I’ll be right back.”
Phee’s knee-jerk reaction was to flinch and want to insist that she should go with him, but she didn’t want to leave Jen alone down there either. She didn’t think what was outside was really trying to get inside, or they would’ve heard it, but it was herding instinct or something. Safety in numbers. But Sebastian was a big boy, who apparently had more magical knowledge than she knew, so he could likely make it up to his bedroom and back by himself, like they’d done a million times in this house. As her brother headed up the stairs, Phee turned to Jen, nibbling on her bottom lip and reaching out to give her friend’s hand a brief squeeze. “How’re you doing?” she asked quietly. “I’m so sorry you’re stuck here, but I’m glad you’re not like, alone, you know?”
Out of all the places Jen could be stuck, Phee's house was probably one of the best ones. "I'm okay," she said softly, giving Phee's hand a little squeeze. "Worried about dad but, you guys are good to be with. I just wish it was... just boring, you know?" What she wouldn't give to spend this stuck situation in Phee's room, babbling about nothing and watching something just the girls. It was awkward being with Sebastian and Brianna too and while awkward didn't hold a candle to 'afraid', she still felt it keenly. She wasn't worried about Sebastian at all. Thanks to Hunter she'd see him play and the guy was fast and strong, he was definitely the best one out of the four of them to go running around getting shit done. "It'll be over soon, I'm sure," she added even if she wasn't. They were both tired, scared and bored and she was as much lying to herself as she was to Phee because it could help. She could hear Sebastian come back down the stairs so she started getting up, tugging at Phee to join her. "Let's go be spies."
Having a reason to run up to his room and back was good for Sebastian. It reminded him how big the house was, which seemed like a silly thing to forget, but he didn’t really understand how his brain worked. Logic felt like a thing of the past lately, like he was running himself ragged on feelings and couldn’t seem to stop. At least today all the drama felt warranted. With his drone in hand, Sebastian hurried back downstairs and gave the girls a little smile before leading them into the billiard room--it had a door to the outside and put enough space between them and Brianna that they hopefully wouldn’t wake her. “I haven’t really experimented with it all that much. I couldn’t think of anything I need to go see with it. Greg might kill me, but this feels like the kind of thing this as meant for.” And if they saw nothing at all, then that was fine, too. Sebastian set the drone on the floor then began to fiddle with the remote, getting it all set up. “We just need to open the door long enough to set it outside. I should be able to go from there.”
It had only been a few days since Christmas -- which felt like forever already to Phee -- so it made sense that Sebastian hadn’t had time to play with his drone yet. The weather had been so cold and crappy, who wanted to be outside anyway? And now the weather had gone far beyond even that. “I’m sure he’ll get it,” Phee murmured as she hovered around her brother while he worked on getting the drone ready. If he’s even alive, her brain unhelpfully supplied. She did her best to smother that thought and not imagine her sweet boyfriend all torn to bloody bits in the fog and snow. “Are you sure it’ll work with it outside and us in here?” she asked, more to distract herself than anything.
Jen was pretty sure Greg would be fine with the fact that they were using the drone for recon in an actual crisis. If he was as cool as Phee seemed to think, he'd think it was awesome in fact but hell, maybe he sucked and Phee just had too many stars in her eyes to see it. "If it's a good drone it should be doable," she mused, though she really had no idea. She automatically reached for her phone to ask the internet before remembering that wasn't an option. How had people survived in this world before smartphones? She was going insane. "Probably not far though but we don't need it to go far." It wasn't like they were trying to get aerial images of the town or anything, the drone was just a little scout to try to see if there was a weird creature out there and hopefully see what they were dealing with.
“It’s a good drone,” Sebastian said, his lips ticking up as he thought of Greg. This was the kind of thing they normally would’ve done together, cheering stupidly as the drone took flight, then laughing as it crashed in some spectacular fashion that hopefully didn’t ruin it. He’d be all about using it to spy on monsters and would likely be sad he wasn’t there to witness it. It made Sebastian wish he was there now, even if he’d mostly be ignored in favor of his sister. Flipping one last switch, the drone came to life, its propellers whirling softly as it began to hover off the floor. Sebastian’s tongue twisted in his mouth as he steered it towards the door. “Okay… If one of you can open the door for just a second, we can send it out.” It was worth the risk, he thought. Besides, they hadn’t seen anything outside all day long. Whatever had attacked his mom was probably long gone.
Feeling like she had to do something rightly and bravely, Phee silently volunteered to open the door. She carefully skirted around the drone, giving it a doubtful glance or two, then took a moment to peer out through the blinds on the door. She couldn’t see anything out there. That didn’t mean much, of course, it was hard to even see the end of the porch concrete, but there was nothing that seemed to be waiting for the door to open so it could rush in and eat them. Phee unlocked the deadbolt and glanced back at Sebastian. “Okay, ready?” she asked her brother, then turned the knob and pulled the door open. Once the drone was through, Phee quickly shut and locked it again.
The drone was a lot louder than Jen had expected and she glanced over to the door to the room where Brianna was sleeping, half expecting her to come out to see what the hell they were up to. When she didn't, Jen joined Phee by the door to try to peek out through the blinds too since Sebastian had the remote and the monitor. The tiny little robot was hovering outside the door but it took only seconds before it vanished into the thick of it and Jen almost felt... sorry for it? Empathy was weird. Brave little drone, off to look for monsters. "Can you see anything?" she whispered to Sebastian, glancing over her shoulder at him.
Getting the drone out the door was easy, but after that Sebastian wasn’t entirely sure what to do. Normally he’d be able to see where to steer it, either using the monitor or with his own eyes, but it was so foggy that both seemed relatively useless. “Not really,” he said, waiting till they could both come over to see the monitor as well. “It’s all just white out there. I’m trying to take it slow, since I don’t know where it is, but it should be about five feet off the ground, twenty feet north of us.” It sounded so official, but Sebastian wasn’t sure if that was over the pool, out on the lawn, or about to run into a tree.
It was ridiculous to worry about a drone, it was just a machine, and not even one they’d had around very long and grown attached to. But Phee found herself tense as she hovered around the monitor with her brother and friend. She nibbled on her bottom lip, expecting the thing to crash into something or be crushed by something else at any point. They couldn’t even tell how high up it was, the fog was so thick. Phee was starting to doubt how good of an idea this had been.
He sounded sure and Jen believed him which was probably proof that confidence went a long way but whatever, maybe she needed to believe somebody knew what they were doing right now. Nothing was happening which was a good thing because a small thing whirring this loudly would get attacked if there was something out there waiting for them. If it stayed in the air until Sebastian gave up and landed it, they could feel at ease again. Staying at the window felt both useless and dangerous so Jen moved to Phee's side, peering past Sebastian's arm at the monitor. She definitely wanted to try to fly one of these one day but right now she was more than happy to let Sebastian be in charge.
The longer Sebastian flew the drone around, the less productive it felt, able to see absolutely nothing but fog from the viewfinder screen. He was just about to start steering it back towards the house when he caught a flash of something and turned the drone a little farther to the left. Suddenly there were teeth, huge teeth, and Sebastian cursed as he tried to back the drone up. Before they could really get a good view of what those horrible teeth were connected to, the creature lurched forward and caught the drone in its mouth. There was a horrible crunching noise as its jaw shut, easily shredding the metal, and then the camera went black. “Holy shit,” Sebastian whispered, still staring at the screen. He’d felt like he was prepared for anything, but he hadn’t expected that.
Phee squeaked at the first glimpse of something besides white nothingness. It was almost too fast to see, but at the same time she immediately knew that image was going to be burned into her brain for forever. And then the drone was toast. She had no idea how fast the machine had been moving, how far away from the house it had gotten, how close that thing still was to them. Was that the same one that had attacked their mother? She put a hand over her mouth, the other one reaching out to clutch at her brother’s arm. Phee felt sick. How close was it to Greg’s house? Would he be dumb and brave enough to go outside? Had he already? “What the fuck was that?” she asked through her fingers, sounding small. She knew neither Bash nor Jen had answers, but there wasn’t much else in her mind. “Ohmygod, Bash, was it recording? Like on the monitor, is it saved?”
Jen felt frozen on the inside, like her organs were literally turning to ice and being crushed. She hadn't gotten a great look at what had been on the monitor but she'd seen enough. Whatever that was, it was scary and her dad was out there somewhere and now all she could think was that thing wouldn't let a car stop it if it wanted what was inside. Its mouth was big enough to chew up a drone, that wasn't a wolf or a bear. She didn't cry often but she could feel it coming on now like something breaking in her throat and she stepped back quietly. "I need the bathroom," she whispered because the last thing she wanted was to have a full fledged breakdown in front of someone else. She turned on her heel and stalked out of the room, holding her breath to keep it all down. Her dad was probably dead and they were all going to die.
For some bizarre reason Sebastian had thought this would be a good idea, that they’d see what was out there and feel better about things. It had clearly made things worse. So much worse. Both Phee and Jen looked completely stricken and he could only imagine that they were thinking of anyone else that might’ve come into contact with one of those creatures. They were lucky their mother had survived. “Um...I dunno,” he lied to Ophelia. He’d set it up to save, but he wasn’t sure that letting her watch it again was a good idea. He turned the monitor off as Jen hurried off to the bathroom, then set it aside. “We should stay away from the windows,” he said softly. “I don’t want to give those things any reason to come near the house.” Fear rushed through him, but unlike the claustrophobia, this felt like something he could handle. He could fight it. He could keep them safe. They would wait this out because he couldn’t accept that this was the new status quo and, hopefully, everyone they cared about would be okay when it was over.