hadriel_logs | They look like monsters to you?

They look like monsters to you?

Who: Rey and Sato.
What: An introduction to failed attempts to fuck up the gods.
Where: The leftover Silent Hill area of the city.
When: After this conversation.
Warnings: Probably violence and Silent Hill things.

What had been an idle question had turned into an interesting little expedition idea. Sato had been under the impression that usually there weren't many monsters in the city, and was new enough to not have experienced the taste of Silent Hill that Hadriel had, or even read anything on the network about the fallout. So he had no particular expectations, other than Rey seemed to think it was dangerous.

And speaking of dangerous, it was clear that his first impression of her hadn't been quite right. Maybe she wouldn't be a problem for him later... but then again, it was hard to say. Some people, like Firo, were so easy to get a handle on, but he still hadn't quite figured out what to do with Rey. So it couldn't hurt to have her accompany him for the trip, and see what happens.

Sato hadn't visited Sorrow's temple before. It didn't seem like an interesting landmark, or an interestingly themed deity for that matter. Although 'sorrow' would be far too strong a word for any of Sato's unhappy feelings, he doesn't think that there's any point in dwelling on the unfortunate parts of his past. So he keeps a little distance from the temple proper to avoid any annoying little emotional flickers, leaning up against one of the crumbling ruins nearby and toying with a rather vicious-looking hand axe he picked up from the armory while he waits.

In fact, in flagrant defiance of their conversation some weeks ago, Sato is fully equipped with his current monster-hunting kit: Machete, the aforementioned axe, and several knives to complement his pistol.

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When Rey had made the suggestion that Sato take a promenade through the pocket hellscape on the corner of the city, his response wasn't surprising. Unlike her brother, she isn't much of a gambler, and she doesn't often take chances. If there was even the slight possibility that he wouldn't take the proposition, then she may as well have said nothing at all.

Part of her wants an excuse to test out the rifle she had acquired with Lilith; scope out the quality of the trade. Another part is hazarding a different sort of test: She wants to see how Sato handles himself in perilous circumstances.

Armed with only the aforementioned rifle and a combat knife strapped inside her boot, Rey makes a timely arrival at their rendezvous point by Sorrow's temple. At the risk of powering any of the gods, she has made a point not to linger on certain emotions. Despite the sentiment that this temple is supposed to elicit, it doesn't take much for her to bury those feelings without going all out as she had before. Being able to control your emotions is what makes a good soldier, and an even better agent playing 'soldier'.

It doesn't come as much of a surprise when she finds that Sato has come pretty prepared as well.

"You almost look like you're ready for the Congo," Rey remarks as she approaches, before steering her direction towards the darker, foggier side of the cave.

"Just missing an M4," is Sato's cheerful reply as he pulls away from the wall, dropping into step beside Rey. "I notice you had some luck with your network request, but I don't recognize the make. Interesting design, too. Have you tried it out yet?"

At the moment, the sniper rifle she had obtained is strapped over her shoulder, keeping the gun at front so to make for a quick grip. She glances down as soon as Sato calls attention to it.

"Mm. Think it came from some other world-- planet. Haven't had the chance to give it a spin."

Which she is now remedying.

"I'm surprised. I'd have thought you'd head out into the caves right after getting your hands on it," Sato remarks. Narrowed gaze on the foggy stretch of ruins up ahead, he adds, "Then again, if it's that dangerous over there, maybe it's a good thing you saved your ammo for this."

"It was tempting. Supplying Lilith with the ammo for her gun was part of the trade agreement, though. Am just as efficient hauling bodies to Rage's temple without needing firearms."

She may just have an alternative mean of acquiring bullets after all, but that isn't something she's allowed to talk about.

Sato chuckles. "I'm sure that's true," he says, thinking back to Rey's flaming arm and sudden (if fairly mild) explosive burst. He's sure she can ramp that effect up, although the question is just how high.

As they pull up to the edge of the fog, he hefts the axe thoughtfully again. It's been pretty good so far -- something with a little more heft for dealing with things tougher than mere humans. "So what are we planning to see in this 'hellscape'? You know, for all the complaints about this place being hell, I still haven't seen a single pinky or cacodemon."

Not having yet found herself purposefully (or on accident) stumbling into this side of the city, Rey wasn't certain what all to expect. The familiar fog was a given. It was like that back when things had gone to Hell in a hand basket.

"Hard to say. There were some creatures around that aren't in the caves, and you still won't find them there. One guy called this thing a 'Pyramid Head', which supposedly has a liking for skinning and disembowelment. Never saw it firsthand, though." She scoffs at the still-stupid name for something that was supposed to be so threatening. "Other than that, there were... apparitions. Mostly harmless."

Sometimes not, as one of them had possessed her at one point. Fortunately the one she had been made to stab at also just happened to be immortal.

But, you know. Details.

"Why, I got the impression that you thought it was dangerous," is his smiling reply as Sato strolls forward into the hazy landscape, clearly not intimidated in the least. And considering his little trick to give Fear a hand... "That doesn't sound much worse than anything else that can happen to an unsuspecting guest of the city."

"Maybe you could explain what happened in a little more detail. How this sort of thing was meant to mess with the gods, for example."

Mouth tightening into a thin line, she absentmindedly listens to Sato's remark while keeping her attention on their surroundings. The environment seems pretty innocuous right now, but nothing is gained by letting your guard down.

"There's someone who has special abilities. Can warp reality to an extent, creating an alternate world on top of this one. Not much different from what happened a few weeks back, but instead of rainbows and fluffy animals it was all rust and monsters and gore. Shit you'd normally see plucked from a nightmare or a horror movie." As she talks, she grips the rifle in front of her. "Anyway, her aim was to try and kill Hope. Ended up just pleasing Fear instead, in the end."

"I thought Hope might be the easiest to kill, too," Sato comments, turning his head at a flicker of movement out of the corner of one eye. It had been fast, whatever it was, a shadow passing across one of the broken windows. "Considering how little of it a lot of folks here seem to have."

His steps slow and grip tightens on the axe as he changes direction, heading curiously for that particular ruined house.

"No shit. Seems he's got more going for him than he lets on, if he was able to survive whatever it was that killed the other gods in the first place."

However that managed to happen. Things would be a lot easier if they would just be straight with their information.

Rey follows Sato's direction, noting the lack of unease when regarding any sign of potential hazards. No, he just walks right to it.

"Are you sure Hope is really the emotion he works with? I've wondered about some of the others, too. Rage is much less irate than I expected, for instance."

He doesn't lower his voice past the normal conversational level as he pulls up next to the doorframe, but there's clearly some kind of military or police background to the man, judging from the way he signals for Rey to take the other side and cover him.

Or at least that was what he started to signal, before the horrifying monstrosity within made the first move in act of weirdly overt aggression. It bursts through the ruined door and lashes out with bladed arms extended. Sato's quick to react, leaning back, but not quick enough to completely avoid a the tail end of one wicked slash that catches his shoulder.

Is she sure? Not really, now that Sato mentions it.

"Well, wouldn't that be interesting?"

Unlikely as it may be, one would have to wonder. It isn't like they know much of anything about the nature of these beings.

Just as Rey starts to add to that thought, she dials back in time to parry the creature's lunge. Sato, however, is not so fortunate when its bladed limb tears into him. Nothing that would kill him unless they give it a chance to follow up with its other arm.

An opportunity that Rey doesn't squander. Rifle handy, she kicks back a pace to draw her piece. Aim raised at the creature's torso, she squeezes off a shot...

Which somehow ends up firing off five projectiles in one. Good thing to know. Bad news for Sato caught within the spread.

It's not really the time to be complaining; not when the thing (now making a horrific noise) is knocked back a little from the force of the impact and injured, but still not dead. The same goes for Sato, really, although he can tell from the burbling wheeze when he breathes in that he's not really going to last very long.

He coughs up blood, sputtering once, but that isn't going to stop him from using his remaining time to throw himself forward, putting the full weight of his body behind the axe's downward swing. The humanoid monstrosity slashes at him again, but even the counterattack isn't enough to stop the axe from nearly cleaving the thing's bag-covered head clean in half.

Crouched over the thing, and with a new wide bloody gash to show for it, he tries to take a deep breath, but ends up just choking up blood again. There's about enough time to turn his head in Rey's direction -- considering the state he's in, his apparent mild irritation seems almost horrifically comical -- and looks like he's about to say something... when he finally collapses, slumped over on the ground next to the terror.

That's no good. The scatter must've caused some internal damage, judging by Sato's cough and the blood. Rather than going for another shot and only risk putting more holes into the old man, Rey lowers her weapon. If the damage was too much, she may as well shoot again even if he would just get caught in the crossfire. But it seems he had enough left in him to complete that finishing blow.

And then keeling over like that.

Despite the look he gave her before crumbling, Rey regards the two bodies with vague interest. The creature, being something that she hadn't seen before, and Sato, who she probably could've handled with a little more care if not for the fact that she had seen him walk away from worse. As such, she's seriously thrown caution in the wind this time.

She moves forward, still gripping the gun in the unlikely event that the creature wasn't dead after all, or for any other jumping surprises to come barreling out of the fog. Her eyes then veer towards Sato's body, giving his shoulder a brief nudge with the toe of her boot to flip him over and check if he's breathing.

Nope.

"Not very effective for close quarters, then. We'll have to keep that in mind." Rey shifts her glance from the gun back to Sato, frowning as the itch to grin and laugh in face of the like-human corpse crept from the back of her mind. "Stop that. I know you wouldn't enjoy this. He just comes back, anyway."

Technically, they all come back, but that's neither here nor there. A sigh escapes her as she retreats a step, biding her time as she distracts herself wondering how long it took for Sato to revive when that invisible thing had killed him. What a pain.

With the damage at hand -- a couple shots through the lungs and a few deep gashes, all marred by bloodstained clothing -- there's nothing flashy about his reset, not like if he'd lost a limb. No, instead it's only a few seconds after Rey takes that step back that his chest simply rises again in an even, ordinary breath, and he lifts his head.

"I'm glad you got to test that rifle," he says, picking up exactly where he left off before he choked to death on his own blood. Levering himself up off the ground one step at a time, he adds, "But I thought you'd be a better shot than that."

Like every other time he's reset, he feels perfectly fine now. But there's no harm in giving Rey a bit of a hard time about shooting him.

When life springs back into the bloody body, so does the muted jubilance fade as Rey expected it would.

Smug fuck.

"Apologies. Wasn't expecting a sniper rifle to fire five bullets at the same time," she retorts, knowing well that there's an absence of anger and blame in Sato's tone. But still, she can't let it get around that she can't shoot for shit.

On the plus side, at least she was lucky enough to have tried out the rifle around someone who could conveniently resurrect themselves without Hope's intervention. Small miracles.

"Someone had a few original ideas, it seems." And frankly, combining a shotgun and a sniper rifle sounds incredibly impractical, but... also pretty cool.

"I hope you can keep from burning my shirt off this time too. I have a hard enough time mending them," he adds casually, reaching down to pull the axe back and forth a couple times, finally wrenching it free from where it was stuck in the gruesome mess of a head.

Impractical, indeed. Beggars can't be choosers, though.

"Merging a long range and close combat weapon is a pretty fucking weird idea to have, but it'll do."

She will just have to get a feel of it. It's strange, but she can adapt to weapons. That's what she was made for, after all.

Seeing that Sato isn't particularly offended by Rey's little mishap a moment ago confirms that he's taking this all in stride. No need to worry. "Will avoid using that unless it's necessary. Am just going to stick with the knife for now."

While it's possible to be less destructive with that ability, it's always been easier to use when not having to think about allies.

"Good to hear," Sato says, faint smile coming back to his features. He doesn't bother to spare a second glance for the creature they just killed, just squints at their surroundings again.

"I take it we're expecting more?" He might have seen a hint of something off in the fog. Or not. It was really hard to say. But as fast and aggressive as that thing was... the monsters here are really something, and he's looking forward to whatever gets thrown at them next.

Between all her time spent here and the things she's seen the synthetics create from her own world, the twisted monstrosities lingering in the hellish reality Sharon had left on the city leaves Rey a little numbed to its horrors. If nothing else, she doesn't have to concern herself with supplying Fear the power he craves, and Sato doesn't strike her as the type who would, either.

Having caught glimpses of those movements as well, Rey checks the fog and squints. She recalls the creature that had stalked her from the time before, but hadn't seen it since the city changed back to normal. Either it disappeared entirely, or it was a strict feature of this warped reality.

In the distance, the sound of dragging can be heard from somewhere out there, along with the faint rattling of chains.

"Yes. Would advise that you stay on your guard, but dying doesn't seem like such a big deal to you," she says as her feet start moving in the direction of the distant dragging.

He can hear it too; whatever it is, is something fairly large being dragged along. Still without even the faintest trace of unease, Sato's more than happy to come along for the ride, falling in step with Rey once again.

"You'd be surprised how quickly you get used to it," he smiles. There's always the concern of being killed over and over again, or just mortally incapacitated, but he's not about to give anyone ideas this far in advance. Nobody wants him out of the way just yet, and he'd prefer it if they were under-prepared for when they inevitably do.

As they pace through the foggy streets, the long, drawn out wail of a siren breaks out through the gloom, rising and falling again and again.

"Actually--"

Having several memories of pain and dying, it really isn't all that surprising to her. It's no wonder that she walked off a bear taking a chunk of flesh out of her, and a bullet to the head.

But then the sirens wail, and the change begins. Unlike the events Sato had been present to witness the city transform into a cheery, more colorful version of itself, this one is its polar opposite. Rust and decay spreads as the layers peel off the surface of this already alien world.

"Shit," Rey says with all the annoyance of a stubbed toe as she stares down at the grated flooring beneath her feet, revealing an empty abyss beyond. "It's still doing that, too."

"Oh, this must be the part where blood starts gushing from the taps and we have a small monster of our own to entertain us." Well, she did loosely describe the opposite of what had happened a week or so ago, and Sato can make an educated guess.

He's mildly surprised more than anything. Yes, the endless abyss is a little menacing, even to an immortal, but after the initial awe over the change of surroundings, he's back to footsteps clanging against the rusted grate, still in pursuit of that odd noise.

For someone who claims to be fond of 'healthy living', Sato sure has no visible qualms with the gristly transformation. Not that the lack of terror in his response is an unwelcome development, it just adds to the notable pile of things she'll never have the mind to ever write down.

"Wouldn't expect all of them to be small, but that's the general idea. All guts, gore, and shock value."

Of course, it's not so shocking when you've lived the opposite of a healthy lifestyle, which begs to question Sato's definition of the concept.

She follows the noise, her footfalls carrying an odd heaviness than they probably should be for someone of her stature. Typical for anyone who's a walking tank, really. Her pace only slows when she begins to recognize to silhouette of the shape now moving under a flickering streetlight, just barely illuminating the area.

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