Event Log: Flu Season

[hadrielmods]

Who: All characters
What: The event log for the Flu Season event
Where: All over the city
When: March 20th-March 30th
Warnings: Gross sneezing, sick people, and paranoia

It starts with a cough, a sneeze, a sore throat - something small and simple, easily ignored. But then your symptoms get worse. It's probably been awhile since you've been sick, that sort of thing doesn't usually happen here. You might be able to raid the shops for some tissues and tea before it gets too bad, and hopefully you've got a friend to help out until you get better. Surely it'll be over soon, right?

Until the fever sets in, and you start to understand why your friend is really there. They don't want to take care of you. They want to make sure this is the last anyone will ever see of you. They want to learn all your secrets. They want to steal your most precious possession. You know they're plotting against you, you know they're keeping something from you. What will you do to find out what it is?

Then, as the sickness fades, you realize it was all in your mind. Let's hope you didn't do or say anything too awful. But that friend of yours... they seem to have picked up your cough. Maybe you should help them out?

► This log covers March 20th-March 30th.
► Feel free to make your own logs, as well
► Please tag headers of threads with content warnings where they apply
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!
► If your paranoia ends in murder, please let us know here.

Comments

[hot_mes]

[It's all he's got right now. Aware that running straight at Michael might make his guardian beast assume he's going to harm the host, Law doesn't look over his shoulder, he just pelts his way toward Michael and at the last second catches the glint of metal on the ground by his hand. Swooping down to grab it, he turns to confront his pursuer, aware of how ridiculous this looks.

But no matter how small the blade, it is still a channeling tool for the Ope-Ope fruit. It allows him a greater range of moves, although Law himself thinks there's no way he's cutting the Visitor in half from a distance like he would with Kikoku. The real trouble right now is that he's sure Injection Shot will be very effective, but with such a short blade, he'll have to be in extremely close range. Shit. Well, left arm is already damaged, might as well put it forward and use it to shield the rest of him.]

Come on, you lumbering bastard. Come get me.

[and wait for it...]

[aroundthecoroner]

[He doesn't need to tell it twice. The Visitor is honing in on him the moment it sees his direction, screaming as it dashes after. Luckily it doesn't notice in time to stop him from swooping down for the knife, and when he does so and turns on it instead, it seems just slightly hesitant.

It comes to a jerky stop, watching him like a hawk. Perhaps it thinks he might turn his weapon on its host if it gets too close too quickly, but when that doesn't happen, it suddenly darts forward to try and snap him up in its jaws before he can decide on it. Since his left arm is out in front, it'll go for that first.]

[hot_mes]

[Taking a breath and holding it really doesn't prepare him for the pain of teeth ripping into his injured arm, but it's a sacrifice Law has to make in order to get that short little knife blade close enough to the skull to work.]

...fuck! Injection Shot!

[it's like a high-powered bullet delivered at point blank range, but invisible, a burst of energy off the tip of the knife where it just barely touches the front of the skull that acts as a piercing projectile. On fleshy creatures, it rips through tissue and organs like a bullet, but at least this one also shatters bone. Law knows that if it works, the backwards momentum will rip those teeth right back out of him, but that shit will heal in time. Hurt like a motherfucker, but it's preferable to being dead and dealing with Hope.]

[aroundthecoroner]

[The Visitor, naturally, was not expecting this. It's caught entirely off-guard.

And the thing about skulls, is that they're not just one solid piece, but rather made up of several, all interlocked and lightly fused at the seams. They were, anyway. The invisible shot goes right through the creature's snout, shattering its nasal bones and blasting out through the back of the cranium. The whole thing splits in half, down the center seams, and though the skull doesn't fall apart, it's definitely in bad shape.

The monster staggers back, both from the force of the bullet and from what seems to be confusion. The lights of its eyes are fading, and several of its teeth have been jarred loose (and possibly left behind). The lower jaw seems to sort of hang limply, as if it's no longer properly aligned. A couple of attempted jaw snaps serve only to shake some of the bone debris loose, and shards of it scatter to the ground.

The creature makes a low, guttural sound as the blue fires wink out one after the other. It stops moving.

But only for a second.

Its head effectively disabled, the Visitor is blind but still mobile. It knows where its host is, but not where its prey is. All it can do now is swing wildly, hoping to catch him where he stood last.]

[hot_mes]

[therein lies the sacrifice of point-blank attacks. Law isn't fast enough to find something to grab and shuffle into his place in time, only the slight recoil backward saves him from being killed on the spot. The claws rake across his neck and chest, missing main arteries by mere millimeters, and send him crashing and tumbling backwards. He comes to rest some distance away, paralyzed with pain. After one strangled shout, he clamps down and forces himself to endure it in silence. Maybe if he plays dead, the Visitor will assume he is.

Palming the pocketknife, just in case, Law rolls onto his side and tries to hold as still as he can, which is pretty difficult when all he wants to do is seethe in pain. The Room vanishes, he can't keep it up in this state. He lays there hoping this is all it'll take, but struggling to come up with an alternate plan if it turns out the shadowy monster can still hear or smell him. It'll all be over if he can't make another Room.]

[aroundthecoroner]

[It can't smell or hear him, luckily, and after batting him away it doesn't seem to know where he went. The single shout isn't enough to clue it in, and even if it were, it can't be sure that Law isn't on the move, getting closer to the person it's trying to protect. Essentially, all of its senses but the supernatural one have been shut down.

The Visitor walks a circle around Michael, sort of half-striking at the air in front of it as it goes. When it finds nothing, it moves to stand over him and then sort of hunkers down, like a mother hen over her chicks. It's an incongruously gentle image for a creature whose existence is mostly violence, and in another context it might even be funny.

It remains there, its broken skull resting on Michael's back between his shoulders, for a long time. But gradually, as it's clear the threat hasn't returned, it starts to break apart further; first the folded limbs, and then the ribcage, and then the head and spine. They sort of melt into ashes, which vanish into Michael's shadow and the space around him. Michael, for his part, continues to not move.]

[hot_mes]

[from where he lies Law has a perfect view of this, and remains as still as he can, breathing hard and bleeding out but otherwise...safe? Oh thank god he's safe. It's over. Wincing, he tries to push himself up, but knows he can't get far in this state. He needs help, but Michael isn't alert to give it even if he would in his altered state.

It takes a number of fits and starts, but finally he manages to scrape up enough stamina for one more Room, just long enough to teleport himself inside the nearest building. He'll have to take hops and jumps to get to the clinic, or maybe call Atem, or something. Who knows. He can't even think right now.

But he's keeping the knife. At least until all of this is over. Sorry Michael.]