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 Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 1:06 pm
He shook his head and stared sadly at the girl. "If there's no one to help, then the only way to die is to die with vengence...otherwise we die like everyone else, with nothing to prove that we were different from this poor chumps. And as for the age, yes, we are the same age, but I feel like a skeleton that's been through the wash with the jeans...and I'm the one with the beard, so lay off," he chuckled, watching as Loyd stood up and went to the bathroom. "Can't hold his dirt water, can he?" he said, winking at Mercy with a playful expression on his face. When he heard the water starting, he sighed, figuring that Loyd was doing something that would annoy him, and when he saw the water creeping towards them, he sighed again, mentally agreeing with himself that it would be something that annoyed him. "Loyd, I'll go with you, mostly so I don't have to clean this s**t juice up."
He got up, grunting with the creaking of his bones, and walked over to Loyd, carefully stepping over the murky water.
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Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 2:07 pm
 Loyd opened the door, and peered into the hall, it was still lit, providing him some comfort. He was more concerned with what may be lurking within the other rooms of this floor, which is why he asked for assistance. "Don't worry, nobody's cleaning anything." Loyd assured Jekyll, stepping into the hall, now able to hear the ruckus below instead of flowing water. It was obvious that the creatures knew they were there now, they are probably waiting right outside of the light, waiting for the darkness to come so they can claim their prize. He walked to the room across the hall and swiftly opened it, hoping nothing lurked within, and to his satisfaction, his prayers were answered. "So far so good." He said mostly to himself than to Jekyll. Loyd peered around the corner and it seemed as though the area is clear.
Walking to the kitchen sink, Loyd clogged the drain and turned on the water, happy to see liquid flowing from the nozzle. He gave a sigh of approval and walked towards the bathroom, soon stopping in his tracks. He could see it, just barely, and it probably could see him. The Shade was gazing right in his direction, meeting to what Loyd would assume eye to eye. He was almost frozen with fear, unsure of what to do. Loyd was staring into the eyes of death, his body was becoming numb, feeling his legs tremble. He wanted to run, but his body was blocking all messages from his brain. The Shade gave a small growl, affirming his presence, but to Loyd it felt as if the thing just spoke to him. It was telling him that it could see Loyd, and would be more than happy to end that life that he carried. Loyd wasn't breathing, not at the moment, he was far too afraid to do any action, whether he controlled it or not. He kept his eyes on the Shade, afraid that if he looked towards Jekyll, the thing would slash his throat. Oh god, please help me. He thought, hoping the beast couldn't read minds.
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Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 4:57 pm
While Loyd was up to one of his mad genius plans, Mercedes was busy gathering the rest of her stuff. Before she slung the bow over her shoulder, she tested the string's tautness with a quick pluck, and also quickly molded the tattered windbreaker into a makeshift quiver.
"I'm all for getting out of here," she said aloud cheerfully, taking one last glance out the window, then following after Jekyll, careful not to slip on now slippery floor. She watched curiously as Loyd disappeared into the hallway.
"Loyd?" she called after him quietly, eyes zooming in at the end of the hallway, where she detected movement. At its current angle in the sky, the sun and skylight would not be much help. "Get your skinny little self back here." She took a careful step into the hallway, unslung her bow and notched an arrow, keeping her eyes trained at the end. When he didn't respond, an exasperated Mercy pushed open the door to the apartment Loyd had entered, whispering, "Jek, cover me." Loyd had apparently hit the kitchen of this room as well, which meant the bathroom was next. And there she found her blue haired comrade staring directly into the eyes of a Shade.
It was an older, weaker one. She could tell by the eyes, which were filled with the same predatory look as the rest of its species, but also a sort of weariness. It was surprised by her as much as she was surprised by it. Fortunately now it was outnumbered, and she had faster reflexes. Her arrow sank into its throat, after which it fell to the ground writhing in pain --- she had hit it there so it would not be able to use its meager vocal cords to alert its companions of their presence. "Loyd!" she hissed urgently, worried. "What. The. Hell?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:55 pm
When he heard something hit the floor he grabbed his two, curved, notched swords and hurried into the hallway, olding them to his sides. He saw Loyd, who seemed shocked, Mercedes, who seemed to have caughten something, and the Shade, wo looked like it had just gotten caught by Mercedes. He carefully stepped forwards and slashed down, chooping off both of its claws. He stepped back to examine his work and glanced back at the other two to see what their reaction was to his somewhat barbaric actions. "So it doesn't poke us....just being careful what with all of these pointy objects in the house."
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 5:07 pm
Watching the Shade fell to the ground, Loyd did the same almost in unison. He breathed heavily, as if it were the first time he ever had. "Thanks much..." He said, with a small pant at the end of it. He slowly regained control of his body and walked carefully around the Shade into the bathroom and began to flood it. Almost stepping on the Shade as he walked out, he saw the thing twitch, causing him to jump away back into the bathroom. It must have been the nerves, some say that even the dead move momentarily after there demise. He was still cautious nonetheless to make sure he kept himself clear of the creature. "These two should be good enough, we just need to make sure the water pours out into the hallway." He looked into the room once more, confirming the Shade's death. He then went towards the room where they had held themselves in. "Hey, Mercy? How did you climb from room to room by window again?" The last part was going to require such a feat of athletics, he needed to get to the roof by this window once he made the final preparations.
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 10:32 pm
After Jekyll effectively disarmed the Shade, Mercy, clenching her teeth, stepped onto its torso, gripped the shaft of the arrow and ripped it out of the creature's throat. Arrows were hard to come by, and even though she would rather not have to pillage the bodies of her targets for these little accessories afterward, it was necessary if she didn't want to have to keep making them. Mercy, by the way, was no fletcher.
There was now bright, alien Shade blood on the floor, the walls, as well as her pants, but ignoring this she rushed over to the kitchen to quickly clean off the arrowhead while formulating an answer to Loyd's question.
"There's ledge running alongside the bottom of the window, wide enough to step onto," she told him, done rinsing her arrow and sticking it back into her makeshift quiver. "But what you really want to do is use the balcony rails... And every so often between a balcony and window is like a little plaster box, I don't know what it is but it's sturdy enough to hold onto for support. I was thinking of using the fire escape to exit the building, but that side is completely covered in darkness... we could take it still, but we'd have some trouble."
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Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 2:16 pm
"Shhhhhhhh-i-ttttttttt."
Trice sat up drunkenly [she was one of the few who could do this without even being drunk] and looked around with one golden eye half-open as she rubbed her forehead and drew her legs into a cross legged position. She had wandered away from her besties in search of some snak-ums and... Ahem. She had been 'knocked out' by... air. Yeah....... One of her greater faults, perhaps, was that she disliked to admit to making mistakes; such as sitting by a wall and ending up asleep.
In all honesty, Trice was shocked she wasn't dead.
She looked around blearily and made a pathetic attempt to get up as her sleep-fogged brain informed her the liklihood of her staying not dead when she was on her own was very poor. With a grunt and a groan she managed to heave herself to her feet, and resisted the urge to yell for someone to come and help her, she was lost, and couldn't find her 'parents.'
Oh, immaturity.
Somewhere she could here the sounds of a fight, but paid them no real attention. Since she was still sleepy, Trice was not operating with optimal efficiency.
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Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 5:31 pm
He cleared off a row of jagged glass that was at the bottom of the window and stuck his hea dout of the window, looking down, up, and left and right, checking to see what was scrounging about out there in the world, if anything. He saw what Mercy was talking about and nodded, then brought his head back into the desecrated room and followed after Loyd and the girl. He stepped on top of the Shade, then back down as he made his way to them, not caring at all about the ichor that stuck to the bottom of his boots. His swords were now strapped at his side, his hands ready to unseath them should any trouble arise. "Hey, do we have any rope? Mercy could crawl up to the roof, secure it, and then we could just use that...if there is any, that is." He then thought about everything else that could happen, the rope snapping, one of them losing their grip, the Shades popping out of the windows and scratching at them, Mercy plummetting to her death as she tried to get them out of this hell hole. His spirits began to dampen, but he shrugged these thoughts off and focused on finding a rope, or going to where they told him a rope could be located.
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Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 8:52 pm
With a heavy sigh, Loyd looked out the window, and saw she was right, but better yet, instead of his silly idea of going down the fire escape, they could just drop from balcony to balcony. Of course there was one problem to that plan, the second floor had no balcony, making it a two story drop to get to ground level. He bit his lower lip, trying to figure out a decent way down, he didn't think about where the fire escape was, and now that Mercy said it was on a dark side of the building, he had to reconsider. "We could go with Jekyll's initial plan and basically jump down... All we truly have to worry about is the two story drop once we hop ourselves down to the third floor balcony..." He then saw something, something that could be of use. There was a garbage dumpster not too far down the street, and it might be able to be pushed by one of the members to the balcony, reducing the fall. "Hey, can anyone here make that hop safely?" He asked, hoping that either of them could, he was almost sure his frail body would crush beneath itself, but maybe Jekyll's strong build or Mercy's monkey like acrobatics could. "Because if one of you can, they can move the dumpster to where the others could make the drop a little safer. This way we stay on the fairly lit side of the building, and be able to get down."
Loyd imagined it in his head, if the plan worked it would take less time, which they were scarce on, but more effort. So even though they save more day time, if they get into a large battle, they may be a little fatigued from all the hopping. They would be in more light, but at the same time, Mercy already said she saw six others on the lower floors, most of which were probably through the balconies. But the largest risk in this plan was that two story drop, if that injures one of the group members, than they are as good as done for unless they want to abandon the wounded. He would never do that of course, but that was what scared him most of this new plan, that once again went back to Jekyll's original idea. Strong and smart, Loyd thought, I can't believe that the only thing I'm good for is to modify his ideas. He forced the thought out of his head as it would only cloud his judgements. He gave an indication for the others to come into the now soaked room, with water all over the floor. "Either way, we don't have too much time to keep walking back and forth."
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Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 4:19 pm
Gathering her wits about her, she set the fleshy part of her palm against her forehead and pursed her lips, thinking. Now WHERE had she last seen Sarah and Tsuyo? Oh, consarnnit! [love that word] She had no idea where they were, much less where she was - wandering aimlessly and falling asleep can do that - and her only choice was to.....
What was that?
She turned her head and stared in the direction of a building a few yards away [an underestimate on her part, since it was across the street] where a few people were yammering from a few floors up. Oh yeah, and there were a bunch of Shades slithering around somewhere nearby. Haha. Oh wait, s**t, what? Trice looked around hastily, but didn't see any immediately by her. Oh, goody. With a grimace, she realized she'd have to approach the folk on the balcony.
Because otherwise, chances were good that she'd get eaten. Was nothing easy anymore? And did that man just say something about a dumpster. She braced herself and scurried across the street to flatten herself against the building's edge, slightly to the right of the balconies.
She waved emphatically up at the people chatting in the window farther up. She didn't wanna talk too loud, just in case.
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Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 1:35 pm
Sarah woke with a start. Her sleep had finally come, it had been short, but enough yet it suffered nightmareish images. Or at least, she hoped they were. It was confirmed as she sat up, pulling the blanket and shoving it back into her backpack. Her green eyes scanned the darkening sky a moment before darting about the place in front of her. Trice still had not returned to them and this worried her just as much as the darkness that approached. Wait, where is Tsuyo?
Sarah almost screamed out for him. That would be bad, making too much noise at such an hour! The redheaded woman dashed forward a few steps, halting as a figure was stopped. Manly. She gave a sigh of relief. "Oh, good. You had me scared for a minute Tsuyo... where's Trice?" she took two more before stopping once more. Completely, her breath even held. Too tall to be Tsuyo...
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Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 4:31 pm
Now back in the original apartment, Mercedes stared out through the window, doing some quick mental thinking. As necessary as it was, she did not want to fall into a dumpster or risk ankle or leg injuries. If only they had rope.
"Wait, guys, just --- just give me a minute ---" Inspired, she sprinted towards the master bedroom, remembering all those cartoons and movies where the heroes had tied together clothes and blankets into makeshift ropes. She pulled back the covers of the bed and yanked the sheets off, and then went into the second guest bedroom and did the same. Her arms loaded with cotton fabric, she returned to her previous spot by the window and tied the two corners together with several secure knots, creating a makeshift rope roughly fifteen feet long.
"This will get us to the ground," Mercy said confidently, coiling it up for easier transport. "Here, I'll go down first, Loyd can finish up his business or whatever, and I'll tie this onto the last balcony so we have less of a jump. Oh, and I think one of you should move the dead Shade outside into the hallway, that'd keep those demons occupied for a bit. Be careful though." The redhead briefly bid them goodbye before she climbed out the window and slowly made her way to the neighbor's balcony along the ledge. Gripping the outside of the railing, she looked down to gauge her distance, and something caught her eye.
"There's a woman down there," Mercy breathed, surprised and delighted. "What the hell is she doing on the streets right before sundown?" She glanced back at the window, wondering if her companions had seen the stranger too, and then down again, before enthusiastically waving back.
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Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 8:13 pm
In a distant sector of the city, a steel blade glinted; back and forth, back and forth - the reflected light flashed on and off as Kiyoshi spun a knife between his calloused fingers. He crouched lightly atop the corner of a building, scanning the city with cold eyes. Below his perch, several shades moved restlessly within the shadows of the alley. Disgusting little shits. The ex-assassin contemplated jumping down and slaughtering the lot of them. There were countless numbers of the things, but they were so damn irritating that it was the pure feeling of satisfaction that got Kiyoshi into killing a few every once in a while.
But they were harmless at the moment. He had other things to do. Kiyoshi closed his eyes, tilted his head, and listened.
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Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 7:54 am
She held no doubt in her mind that the woman waving back was wondering why she was up so late. And outside. she felt herself flush ever so slightly with despair for herself, but focused on the task at hand. Trice pulled out her trusty daggers, twirling them once for luck, and sank the blades of said knives into the cracks between the brick on the old structure, pulling herself up and climbing like that. With alot of little annoyed grunts and sighs.
Finally she had managed to reach a balcony next to the one with the woman. Smiling she put her knives away [she was quite happy she reached the top] and waved again at the woman, though she was only 4 feet away, and should probably talk.
"Hey there! It's nice to know I'm not one of the only people left. :3" she called over, with exactly that inflection, and EVEN the emote at the end. Or at least, that was her expression the whole time.
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Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 11:35 am
Mercy watched, stunned, as the woman climbed up the side of the building with her bare knives. She supposed that she should help the process along by going down a baloney or two, but really, this was just too cool to cut off. Gotta ask her how can I get me a set of those blades, she giggled to herself.
After reached a suitable talking distance, the woman put away her daggers, waved again, seemed to realize that was rather stupid, and then spoke. It was rather charming, actually.
"Hello there, I'm Mercedes," Mercy called back with an equally pleased expression. "You didn't have to come all the way up here; I was just on my way down." She waved the coiled blanket rope around her arm for emphasis. "The apartment's not Safe anymore, so... we're attempting to get the hell out. And, um, I guess there's not really time for chitchat... so talk to me on the way down." By holding onto the bottom railing of the fifth story balcony, she swung herself into the fourth with ease. Her thoughts went back to Jekyll and Loyd, wondering what they were up to.
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