The forest was dark and grew progressively darker the further in they ran. The fog certainly didn't help matters. Branches constantly whipped their faces as they ran, leaves shaking as they inadvertently brushed by them. The moaning and groaning of the hoard behind them grew quieter as they ran. It wouldn't be completely replaced with the stillness and quiet of the forest, but it would do.
The fog seemed to only grow thicker in the forest. It was difficult to see where they were going, even by the glowing runes of Heidi's drawn weapon. That wasn't enough to stop a rather particularly large root from tripping Peyton, causing the hunter to land rather hard on the ground. And on the precious cargo she was carrying.
Silence.
A sniffle.
The sudden jolt and surprise upon landing on the floor was enough to bring some semblance of consciousness to the little girl whose face crinkled into an unhappy frown. A loud wail came from the girl as the tears from physical pain came. Beneath the ear-splitting wail an answering cry could be heard from within the distance.
The OOC
You have several choices you can make.
1) Abandon the child. 2) Attempt to quiet the child down.
Each hunter gets only ONE CHANCE before the hoard finds them. Roll 1-10. 1 being the child cries harder and louder, 10 being you're a champion babysitter they just calmed down. Whoever's roll is highest = that is how the formerly catatonic acts on a scale of earsplitting wails vs quiet and obedient but not talkative regardless.
5 would roughly be moderate quiet. 7 would be quiet sobbing, tears would stop at 8 but with hiccuping and whimpering, quiet sniffles would be at 9.
3) Stash the children in a safe place and face the hoard. The hoard has 999/999 HP and does -5 auto damage per attack.
Isn't it great to be a high roller? c:
pinchmonster
Inle-roo
Eight
Beejoux
Zoobey
Eight rolled 1 10-sided dice:
1Total: 1 (1-10)
Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2013 8:00 am
((Really, Heidi? Really?))
When Peyton fell, Heidi gasped and quickly unsummoned her bow to rush to her and the little girl's aid. "Peyton? Are you guys okay?" She looked to the little girl, a hopeful smile on her face. "Yeah! You're okay, right?"
Silence.
"You're fiiiine~."
Sniffle.
Oh no.
The child shrieked and Heidi couldn't think of what to do. She'd babysat before but..the kids she babysat were usually pretty well behaved! Because she was cool! She was awesome! "Ah..uh...nonono..shhh, shhh. It's okay! You're fine. Shhhh, you're okay.." She winced. Oh noooo!
Inle-roo
Beejoux
pinchmonster
Eight
Fanatical Friend
Offline
Beejoux rolled 1 10-sided dice:
4Total: 4 (1-10)
Beejoux
Wrathful Demigod
Offline
Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2013 10:08 am
Encroaching sounds of shuffling and moaning at their backs drove them further into the woods, and visibility was reduced to nothing more then wishful thinking as the fog rolled in ever thicker. Peyton ran, almost sprinting, following Evan's tall frame and the blue glow of Heidi's weapon. She tightened her grip on the child in her arms and she kept moving forward. They would find shelter, This was a town, wasn't it? They would find something.
Her foot catching on the root took her by surprise, and she gave a startled yelp as she pitched forward. With her arms full she could do nothing to catch herself, but she tried to turn her body to cushion the blow, to protect the child. They ended with the dainty Sun on her side, cradling the child as Heidi doubled back to her, and she let the other girl attempt to calm the suddenly hysterical little girl as she pushed herself up, rubbing at her shoulder.
It didn't seem as if Heidi was having much luck though, and Peyton rose up on her knees and curled her fingers loosely around thin arms. "Hey hey, It's okay. Come here." She pulled the little girl into a hug, stroking her hand through blood stained curls, and with her face buried against the short hunter's shoulder it muffled the sobbing, but not enough. "Shh, hey, I know you're scared, and hurt, but we have to be quiet. Come on." <******** ******** ******** ******** eyes snapped up to the two boys desperately. They needed to quiet the little girl down, needed to. Or..
<Or what?>
She didn't have an answer.
eight
inle-roo
You're up to bat, Bro.
pinchmonster
Inle-roo rolled 1 10-sided dice:
8Total: 8 (1-10)
Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2013 4:19 pm
s**t ******** goddamn, Evan thought to himself at the sound of a crash and a siren-like wail. He stopped short, doubling back towards the others, and would have tripped over Peyton if not for the screaming child betraying her--their--position. This was not something they needed right now, with a horde of spider-zombies behind them and the unknown in front of them.
"Hey, it's okay, sweetheart, you're okay," Evan said as he crouched down next to the fallen pair, trying like hell to keep the frustration out of his voice. He shifted the still-catatonic child in his arms so he could reach out and ruffle her hair. "Aw, did you guys fall down?" Evan asked, light and soothing.. The little girl, still sobbing, nodded. Evan tsked and shook his head. "That Peyton, she's so clumsy, huh?" The child hiccuped and nodded again. "Well, look, honey, we have to keep moving, but I need you to do something for me, okay?"
The girl, still crying, looked up and met Evan's eyes, waiting to see if the alternative Evan offered was better than sitting there and screaming the pain of her minor scrapes out for the whole world to hear. "Since Peyton can't seem to keep her feet, she's going to need you to help her. Can you do that, baby? Can you help Peyton make it through this forest in one piece?" The girl seemed to shrug one narrow shoulder. While it wasn't a definite yes, at least her sobs had quieted down to sniffles.
Whatever. Evan would take it. "What a good girl," he commended her, patting her head one last time before standing up. All of the faux sweetness he had managed to muster up for the child's sake melted off of him as he rose. "Move," he growled down at Peyton.
There was a split second where Tuck wanted to make some kind of smartass remark about Evan being so good with kids, but the little girl he held in his arms was trembling and had started to wail out of sheer terror - so Tuck kept his mouth shut and did the only thing he could think to do.
He clasped that little girl to his chest and started humming a low, disjointed melody that sounded something like 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' or maybe even 'Happy Birthday to You' or it could have even been 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' - anything to soothe the terrified child in his arms.
"You heard Evan," his voice was much gentler than Evan's when he spoke to Peyton in a sing-song voice, "on your feet."
Beejoux
eight
inle-roo
pinchmonster
Zoobey
Marushii
Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2013 7:47 pm
The little girl had quieted when Evan spoke. She even went so far as to grab hold of Peyton's hand.
The motion, however, was stopped when the girl looked at Tuck. Her hand, which had been reaching out towards Heidi's, stopped to point at something behind the Moon hunter.
No. Not quite. The little girl turned to Peyton and screamed, the sound muffled by the coat. The girl in Evan's arms said nothing, did nothing. The girl that was in Tuck's arms clung to him tighter, eyes squeezed shut as she turned to hide her face in the crook of his neck.
There was nothing behind him. The child clinging to Peyton still had her tiny hand outstretched, finger pointing towards Tuck. She was silent, visibly shaking. From the direction of town the howls of the approaching horde could be heard along with the loud hissing and shaking of foliage as the mindless things began to spread out in search of them.
Tuck would feel something sharp clamp into the side of his neck. It would be small, circular, and he couldn't move to see it considering it belonged to the little girl he held in his arms. Or to be more accurate, what was the little girl. Her little hands grew vicious claws that dug into the unfortunate hunter. Spines and spikes poked through the clothes she wore. Her face seemed to melt, doe-brown eyes hardening into deep pools of solid black.
The OOC
The horde of zombies is approaching. There are still two children with the hunters. One child-sized monster is currently attached to Tuck's throat, their dirty night shirt growing steadily darker with Tuck's blood. What course of action will be taken now?
It looks worse than it is. Tuck - Regardless of what action you take, Tuck takes -10 HP dmg.
Attack the monster attached to Tuck. - Standard attack dice. - Every miss will be -2 hp damage to Tuck. - Child-sized monster has 10/10 HP. - Please note that if you are holding a child, you cannot attack unless you put said child down.
Flee. - Tuck's a man and can handle it. -5 HP each time Tuck's turn rolls around due to child-sized monster still attached to his throat. Perhaps there's a safer place to remove said child-sized monster and to stash the currently 100% human kids safely?
Attack the incoming horde. - The horde is scattered. Quite possibly they'll be easier to handle... - Tuck's a man and can handle it. -5 HP each time Tuck's turn rolls around due to child-sized monster still attached to his throat. - The other two children will need to be set down, as Hunters can't wield a weapon and carry a child at the same time!
Radio Lance for help. - Providing you can get enough reception and aren't interrupted by the incoming horde...
Attempt to double-back to town. - The zombie horde should be split up, right? It should be easier to dodge around them...
Heidi sighed with relief when Evan got the little girl to quiet down. Thank goodness! She summoned Matilda once again now that the crisis seemed to be averted, flashing Tuck a smile when he started humming. He was so sweet trying to keep the child in his arms calm. She completely missed the interaction between the children, and it would be something she'd come to regret when she saw the girl move and..change. "TUCK?!" What?! Tuck?! Was he okay? Oh god! Oh god oh god oh god oh god! What could she do?! Attack the...thing? Whatever it was now? Oh god! What if she missed?! What if she hit Tuck?! Oh god oh god no oh god what oh god..!
Evan had been prepared to haul Peyton off the ground and throw her forward if that's what it took to keep them all moving, but Heidi's sudden outburst distracted him. He turned towards her to remind her that they were the hunted, now, and they needed to keep it down, but the sound died in his throat as he saw what she had seen.
He froze, his eyes wide as the blood seemed to drain out of him. White noise filled his ears, and a steady and frantic mantra of nonononononotagainnotagainneveragainnevernever overwhelmed all other thoughts.
For an instant, he wasn't in a forest in the middle of the night, but in a desert that was blindingly bright and scorching hot. The setting may have been different, now, but the situation was the same: a ******** monster was eating alive a man he called friend and brother, taking advantage of his helplessness--there was nothing he could do, the bullets bounced right off of them, if they hit at all, he had failed them again--
A low, clear howl cut Evan free from the confines of memory, bringing him back to the here and now. /Feed me it,/ Gir demanded, reminding him that he wasn't quite so powerless anymore. It was as though the world snapped back into place, then, the urgency of the moment demanding the kind of action that Evan had prepared all his life to take.
Evan practically threw the still-catatonic child he was holding into Heidi's arms. "Take the kids and run," he ordered her and Peyton, his voice low and harsh. "Find higher ground. Radio for backup. Don't stop moving for anything. Go."
He turned his attention from them back to Tuck, Gir materializing in his hands. "Just hold tight. You'll be okay," he said with a confidence he wasn't really sure he felt. Rage and terror and sorrow and an aching, desperate need for vengeance spurred him on, though, and he hooked the sharp canine tooth of the blade over the creature's shoulder and tugged, trying to see if he could pull it off of the other man. It seemed like the monster child was too firmly attached for that, though.
Target: kids are just the worste istg Damage: 1 rly evan rly Target HP: 9/10
pinchmonster
heer i com 2 saev teh dayyyyy
Eight
run awaaaaay
Beejoux
aint nobody got time for this
Inle-roo
Offline
Eight
Fanatical Friend
Offline
Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2013 9:45 pm
A kid was flying at her and Matilda quickly reverted back to totem form to free up Heidi's arms. She stared wide-eyed down at the shocked child, looking up at Evan with panic. What? He..what? Run? But..! "But...I..I can't..!" She couldn't leave Tuck! A panicked look was given to her boyfriend. No, she couldn't leave him. She couldn't. She wouldn't. She refused!
And if thine decision gets thee killed?
Heidi blinked. What?
Thine beau will be most displeased if thou dies.
But--
Look! Evan is protecting him! Thou hast sworn her protection to Peyton, and Tuck to Evan. Protect the scarelings, and hope Tuck's was the only hostile one.
She couldn't..!
Heidi whimpered, holding the child tightly to her chest. "I..I love you, okay? We'll go get help! A..and you'll be okay! IpromiseI'msorryI'msosorry!" She didn't want to leave him. She wanted to stay and be useful. Heidi frowned and turned to Peyton. "Come on, let's go." She took off with the child in her arms further into the forest, looking back a few times to make sure Tuck and Evan were okay and also to make sure they weren't being followed.
Eventually she stopped, looking back where they had come from.
"If we can't reach Lance from here, we should..we should head back to the town. We know we get reception from there, and Lance said something about reinforcements. They'll find us easier in town than in the forest.."
Inle-roo
Beejoux
Pinchmonster
Marushii
Zoobey
Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2013 9:33 pm
As Evan crouched down Peyton flinched, it was automatic, and she instantly hated herself for it. It had her glaring over the little girl's shoulder at the ex-marine as he spoke soothingly to try to quiet the tears, and her fingers curled against the ground, digging at the packed earth beneath her. She wanted to punch him. No, that wasn't quite right. She wanted to summon Warrick so she could bury one of the short, curved blades in the other hunter's eye. Every needling jab out of Evan's mouth was another p***k to the dainty Sun's pride, and she was trembling in barely contained rage by the time that fake kindness melted away as he snarled down at her.
It took more self control then was pretty not to hit him.
Tuck's prompting earned him a cold glance, but she wasn't mad at him, and the chilliness melted away as she got to her feet. Her hand found his elbow, offered an encouraging sort of pat.
Cool fingers pulled her attention down to the little girl as she grabbed for her hand, and she tried to offer her a reassuring smile, but weary features froze at the look on the that scared little face. Peyton stiffened, turning horror movie slow to look where the little girl was pointing, but all she saw was Tuck and the child still held in his arms. "What..?" The little girl screamed, pressing herself against Peyton's front, and automatically she curled her arms around her, picked her up and held her close. "Hey, come on-"
As she spoke the child in the tall Moon's arm's changed, and all at once she understood. "Tuck!" All she could hear was Heidi's fearful, desperate scream.
She jerked when Evan forced the kid he was holding into Heidi's arms, and she stared at the other woman as she struggled with the order for them to run. Peyton understood, the obvious conflict, she really did, but Evan's order was a smart one. He was strong, he'd take care of Evan. They had to save the children. "Come on!" She grabbed for Heidi's arm just as the other girl started moving, and together they ran.
When they stopped the Sun turned to put her back to Heidi's. With the kids there was precious little they would be able to do to defend themselves, but Pey could at least make sure they didn't get snuck up on from behind. "Agreed, but let's hope we can reach him from here." Adjusting her grip on the child in her arms, Peyton reached for the button on her headset. "This is Peyton requesting immediate back up in the forest. I repeat, This is Peyton and Heidi, we're requesting immediate back up. One of the civilians has turned and is attacking Tuck and Evan, and we've got two more kids here in immediate danger."
Pkease let there be reception. Please let there be reception. Please let there be reception.
Tuck didn't realize what was going on until he saw the blood dampening his shirt. It wasn't the sting of sharp teeth digging into his flesh, and it wasn't the sound of Heidi's voice, or Evan's, or Peyton's.
When he was able to connect one dot to the next, there was no way to choke down the sickly taste that coated his tongue. Panic, pure and painful and sour.
"Fu-uuu-uck!"
Every time he tried to break the hold that the ******** zombie-child had on him, it only seemed to drive those teeth deeper.
"Get it off me, Evan, get it the ******** off me!"
"Okay, okay, just--just calm down and hold still!" Sound advice from someone who wouldn't have taken it had their positions been reversed. How the hell was he supposed to get the monster-child off of Tuck without further hurting him? Gir was hardly a precision instrument, after all, and nowhere in his training had "How to Dislodge a Vampire" come up.
Evan took a second to assess his options before raising his sword and bringing it down on top of the creature's head. The long canine tooth pierced its target surprisingly easily, accompanied by a wet, messy crack as bone and other, squishier things gave way.
Damage: 3 Target: kids should be annihilated not heard Target HP: 6/10
Evan's sword slid through things he didn't even want to think about as he tugged backwards, trying to pull the monster's mouth off of Tuck's neck--or something. He supposed if he destroyed the head outright, the mouth was bound to come with it. With the utter mess he was making of it, it probably wouldn't matter soon anyway.
Damage: 2 Target: bad kid no cookie Target HP: 4/10
