will byers (_thewizard) wrote in valloic, @ 2022-09-30 10:40:00 |
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Entry tags: | ₴ inactive: dustin henderson, ₴ inactive: will byers ii |
RP Log: Dustin, Max and Will
Who Max, Will and Dustin
What Fox Way is under attack! This trio attempts and succeeds at badassery.
When During the Darkness Plot
Where Fox Way
Rating/Warnings Imp Violence
Endless night was bullshit, reminding Dustin of being in the Upside Down all over again. Add in the creepy monsters that seemed to be lurking everywhere and it was far too reminiscent for his liking. He couldn’t really imagine what it had to be like for Will or Max. Both of them had dealt with it in worse ways than he had so far…though he was pretty certain that if he ever did go home, he’d be watching Eddie die in that place. There was no way someone could survive the injuries he’d had when he showed up in Vallo.
There were thirty creatures with pitchfork tales running around the outside of Fox Way, some of them with swords and a number of them were trying to break into the house. Had Dustin said he stay inside the house? Maybe. But Steve had to know that was going to last about five minutes. Especially with the chaos that was happening.
“I think we can take them,” he said, glancing over at Will and Max.
Will was not nearly so confident. Not about taking them - there were well over two dozen of those things, and they had wings! - nor about being in eternal darkness at all. Dustin’s thoughts had been right - this reminded him a lot of the Upside Down, and the only thing keeping him from curling into a ball and hyperventilating was that it didn’t smell like the Upside Down. It smelled like-- Vallo. The Upside Down had a strangely foggy, minty, earthy smell to it, with a baseline of rot and vegetation. The absence of the scent was keeping him on his feet, focused with adrenaline and anger. Will had only just gotten used to being here without his mother and brother. And now this was happening?
He’d defend Fox Way. He didn’t want to make Blue sad that they’d messed up her house.
“We’ll need weapons,” he said after a moment, and glanced toward the closet by the kitchen that held-- well, a variety. Real ones. Not just plastic ones for cosplay.
Vallo was cool, until it wasn't. And this definitely fell into the not cool territory. The endless night fucking with Max's already shit sleep schedule and the stress of knowing there were monsters out there was doing wonders for her anxiety really. But they hadn't survived Hawkins only to stumble here. And most people being confident it would right itself eventually helped, the idea that this was - hopefully - just temporary.
But the creatures surrounding their house was a lot. Worry coiled in the pit of her stomach but like Dustin and Will she was not about to go down without a fight.
Max nodded from her place pressed to the window as she scoped out the scene outside. "Oh hell yeah we can take them," she agreed and pushed away from the window.
"Shotgun on the shotgun," she added as she headed toward the closet Will was talking about.
Max flung the doors open and pulled out the shotgun before stepping aside to let the boys grab something.
“I’ll be right back,” Dustin said, bypassing the closet and hurrying up the stairs to his bedroom.
He’d worked on different projects during engineering camp back at the beginning of August. Most of them had been different vehicles and a couple robots, but after seeing what Vallo could throw at them and the perpetual worry of Hawkins somehow bleeding into this place, Dustin had created a flamethrower. He hadn’t practiced with it much, but it should work and be able to set things on fire for a good ten feet or so.
Hopefully the creatures trying to get into Fox Way could be taken down by fire.
“I’m ready,” he told the other two, joining them back downstairs. Hopefully the thing wouldn’t malfunction.
There was something surprisingly natural about Max holding a shotgun. There was something even less surprising about Dustin having MacGyver’d himself a flamethrower of questionable capability, but Will wasn’t going to question it now. He wasn’t the most impulsive person, but he was great at following his friends’ bad examples. His mouth thinned to a stubborn line, and after a moment of pondering, he grabbed an estoc, its light weight and vicious point perfect for someone who… didn’t really like fighting, and preferred a bit of a distance.
“Wait,” he cautioned, and grabbed a few sets of thick padded body armor to throw on over their clothes. It wasn’t the greatest quality material, but he’d assumed they’d need it, and Will was nothing if not someone who paid attention to defense. “Sorry it’s not… you know. Hardcore. It was all I could afford when I heard there might be monsters here.”
Max grabbed some extra shells and shoved them into her pockets as Dustin disappeared upstairs. Her eyes went wide when he came back down and she nodded as a grin spread across her face. "Holy shit that's badass," she said with a bit of a laugh - who said one couldn't have fun in the middle of a crisis.
She set her gun down to take the offered body armor. "Good thinking," she said to Will. Even if wasn't pretty it would hopefully keep them safe. Safe-ish.
Max slipped the armor over herself and adjusted it, waited for the boys to do the same and then headed over to the door.
"Dustin out first? Start with the flames right away, Will you and I can stand beside and back a bit to grab anything that makes it past?" A plan. Sort of. She hated the idea of making someone go first but the door was only so wide and it wasn't like anyone should stand behind the flame thrower.
Body armor would have been super helpful back in Hawkins. If anything, they had definitely learned a few things from their experiences in their home world. Dustin nodded along with Max’s plan, breathing in deeply as the reality of the situation really caught up with him. The weird never really got any easier, even with all of the practice. There were always slight changes to the monsters or the villain they were facing.
At least these ones didn’t look as tough as a demogorgon.
“On three?” Dustin looked over at Max and Will. “And maybe one of you should open the door.” That way he could concentrate on making sure he hit the right button to get flames going.
“I got it,” Will confirmed, eyes sliding over to Max and giving her a little head nod. He didn’t love the idea of Dustin going out first either, but someone had to, and it might as well be the guy wielding a home-cooked flame thrower, right?
He waited for the countdown, and as soon as Dustin said three, Will moved, kicking open the door and immediately backing off to give Dustin room (and to keep from getting set on fire). He didn’t wait long though shouldering up to Max with his estoc raised, determinedly keeping them in as close a cluster as he could. No one was going to be left alone on his watch.
Max let out a slow breath as they counted down and then steeled herself to go through the door with Will and Dustin. They had this. They'd dealt with worse, this was a walk in the park. Right?
But she didn't have long to think about it before a calm of sorts overtook her. Adrenaline maybe. Whatever it was she'd take it.
The fire seemed to work wonders and for that Max was glad. But there were a few on the fringes that weren't quite getting hit with it. "I got left!" she shouted to Will and lifted the shotgun. She knew well enough from the quick lessons with Nancy to expect one hell of a recoil and she widened her stance for it before letting off a shot at one of the creatures that was coming up the left side of them.
"Yes!" was shouted as she hit it and she pumped it to get ready to shoot again.
Dustin kept letting the fire fly, halfway amazed that it was working and wondering when the fuel inside of it would run out. Fingers crossed they’d have killed the majority of the beasties by then. It seemed like the herd that had been surrounding the house had thinned out and he couldn’t see any reinforcements for the moment but he couldn’t see much over the spray of fire that he was trying to wield.
He definitely needed to add some more grips to the flamethrower because it was a lot more unwieldy in practice against actual targets than the standing ones he’d practiced on.
“How’s it looking?” he shouted, glancing over at Will and then Max.
Will was playing defense, slashing his estoc through the air wildly. Occasionally, he even hit something. His form was terrible - he’d never really used a sword before, despite his near-constant daydreaming about medieval-like fantasy worlds - and although the estoc was a one-hander he wielded it with two, trying to put as much power behind it as he could.
Still, he was a whirling storm of sharp object, and between Dustin’s flames, Max’s shotgun blasts, they were actually producing enough chaos that the monsters were struggling to overwhelm them.
“I think,” he yelled, slicing downward with a hefty whomp, “we’re doing it.” A creature that avoided his blade darted straight into shotgun pellets. Nice. “Okay,” Will continued, “keep together! They’re trying to flank us!”
"Yeah, I see that!" Max shouted over the chaos, noticing the imps starting to spread out to all sides to close in on them, and moved so they could form a tight circle, their respective weapons on the outside.
"Not today, assholes!" she shouted at a group of them closing in on her and let out of a few shots, clearing them away. It probably shouldn't have been satisfying, straight up murdering the imps, but it was. So much of Hawkins felt out of her control but here she was defending her home, their home, and they were winning. It felt good.
"Clear on my side," she let the boys know.
Dustin adjusted the flamethrower to get a better look at the area in front of him. “All clear here.”
It looked like a straight up massacre ahead, the imps charred beyond recognition for him. He was not looking forward to the clean up. Was it too much to hope that they’d disappear after a bit? Weirder things seemed to happen in Vallo but Dustin wasn’t certain how the monster thing worked.
Will’s face was a mixture of repulsion and relief - turns out, Cajun imps smelled awful. His thoughts mirrored Dustin’s - maybe they would disappear? If people disappeared, well, hopefully this clean up wouldn’t be as disgusting as it looked.
He turned back to Max and Dustin. “Are we all good?” he asked, eyes scanning over the two of them for injuries. He was fine - his arm muscles were exhausted and shaky, but that was it. If Dustin had succeeded in not setting himself on fire, and if Max hadn’t aggravated any of her old wounds from home, well, that was a win in Will’s book.
"I think so?" Max answered Will, but took a few moments before she lowered the shotgun, just in case anything decided to jump out after them. If horror movies had taught her anything it was that sometimes something would get one last death rattle in.
But it seemed like that wasn't the case and she lowered her gun. She did the same as Will, a quick scan for anything that was bleeding profusely or broken. Finding nothing she laughed, a release of the anxiety and adrenaline. "Wow, holy shit guys we totally did it."
Max's eyes scanned the yard ahead of them, nose crinkled. "And wow that's disgusting. I say we make Steve clean it up." After all, they'd killed them all, they'd done their part.
Dustin lifted his hat from his head and brushed his hand across his forehead. Grinning, he shook his head and set the flamethrower to lean against him. They were alright. No one had any injuries and Fox Way was still standing. It was a far better outcome than he’d thought they’d manage. Better than they had dealt with back home in ages.
Another point in Vallo’s favor.
“Agreed.” Steve would probably end up cleaning up the mess if they just left the imps around anyway. “Do you think we have any chocolate left? I’m starving.” It’d help with the adrenaline crash he knew was coming too.
Will gingerly stepped over a stray body of an imp that looked like it had been burned then shot then burned again (ew), and opened the door to Fox Way. “I think Robin maybe picked up a huge bag of Halloween candy,” he said, having stolen a Twix from it earlier this evening. “Whatever. We saved the house; we get some chocolate, right?”
Okay. This felt good. This felt right. Maybe Mike had been right - maybe this place wasn’t that bad, even if Mom and Jonathan weren’t here. Maybe this wasn’t just another universe where monsters attacked. Maybe they could actually… live here well?
Will’s traumatized brain wasn’t sure how to process the information, but it sounded good from the get-go. “C’mon,” he said. “Uh… maybe let’s leave the weapons in the foyer.” He set his sword, dripping with god-knows- what, against the wall.
"Damn right we saved the house," Max said, a grin on her face.
Following Will's suggestion she, carefully, placed the shotgun down on the foyer table and kicked off her boots that probably had imp guts on them at this point. "Ugh," she said with a wrinkle of her nose at the thought.
"Dibs on the peanut butter cups," she said as they headed to find the stash. She desperately needed a shower after that, but it could wait until after a little celebrating.