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[Entering]

Jerry had slept.... well enough, all things considered. It had been... interesting. At least he had use of both hands now. The moment he had staggered out of the portal behind Killzone, Roar was immediately filling them. What had... they had only been gone a day- and all hell had broken loose? Ridiculous.

He spotted Petra with Rep still, thankfully he was being babysat it would seem. Was Sasha holding her own? He hoped so. "They're everywhere! Petra let's go! He'll be fine!" Where did he even aim first?

[TACK COMING THROUGH]

That painful realization that something was wrong had grown past just a nagging feeling, surging into a disquieting tightness in his chest, an itchy wailing in his mind, demanding attention. He couldn't just stay behind. He had to find him, to know he'd be safe.

Walking to the dorm room he had spent a good majority of his time was quiet and uneventful, albeit difficult. Thackery stopped several times along the way to reconsider, to wonder what he could possibly say to the boil who broke his heart. It was an awkward situation, sure, but...maybe he'd understand. Maybe he'd realize that they had to be careful. Maybe he knew something was wrong, too.

'Worry' did not come close to defining what he felt when he saw the dorm room ajar, Ash nowhere in sight. He'd turned in circles, lost, until he saw it: a fresh groove lining the hallway, leading away from him, extending through the shadows that were out of his sight. Following it took him out of the building, through a section of campus, towards...his heart skipped a beat.

The cave. He was going into the cave. Joining the others somewhere he definitely did not need to be.

The Cerberus came bounding through the portal a few moments after Ash, skin pale and shining with panicked sweat. He pressed onward until he found him attacking some sort of invisible foe with unsettling determination. Surely he wasn't thinking straight.

"Ash! Ash, no, no, not here!" The words that poured forth were not really what he'd intended to say to him, not nearly close to the lines he rehearsed over and over. But this was dangerous, and stupid things like nights spent alone and heartbreak and tangible emptiness had no place here. He shifted anxiously about, trying to get his attention, reaching with both hands to tug at his wrist. "Stop hitting that, Ash, oh jack stop, please!"

Eyes flooding with confusion and terror stared up at the reaper, pleading, his ears pinned worriedly backward. Ash might not be listening right now, but he was somewhere in there. He had to be.

He hoped.

His hands were empty.

Thackery could just stare at his palms, the faint brush of skin against skin still lingering on his fingertips. He was just there. He was just right there. If he were only a few minutes faster, if he had just been able to convince him to come back to his real home...

But in all of his hesitation and concern that he might say the wrong thing, he'd been too late.

His shoulders trembled with quiet sobs as he sunk to the ground, fingers pressed into the soil. Too late. He chose to wear the badge of defeat in his natural form, slumped and wilted, fluff and bones just vaguely canine; a Cerberus dog couldn't cry like a Cerberus human could.

He didn't want to cry. He just wanted Ash back.

The creature that slunk past the place where the Reaper once stood just looked like a ragged animal who was wandering off to die.



[exiting!]

The ghoul took another swing with her spear, and this time felt it hit against the barrier. It was almost a relief, after all the chaos and confusion, to have something go right, and she was a bit worried still that the barrier remained standing. What was the point in rescuing the students who'd been captured, if they couldn't then get off the island? At least none of the Hunters had messed with her yet, and she was just as happy to ignore them in favor of making sure everyone got in, out, and home safely.

Mitzi hadn't even noticed at first that Alex was back by the portal; she had missed seeing him going flying, and had just assumed he'd ended up going inside after Yin. So when she looked around quickly to make sure no one was being attacked, she was surprised to see the zomboil. She ran over to him. "Alex! Are you all right? Was Yin in the building?" Something about him seemed off... She skidded to a halt next to him, noticing the tears, quickly becoming worried. "Alex, did you find him?" Her heart was thudding, concern for the zomboil thick in her words, but he wasn't berserking and tearing into every Hunter in sight... that had to be a good sign, right? She hadn't gone inside, not with as many others as had already preceded her, so she didn't know what they might have found.

Alex was still angry. As much as he tried to keep it shoved down below the surface, as much as he tried to keep himself numb of feelings, it was still there. He had just been so close! It took everything he had in him not to leave his new post. But he knew. Knew that he was too slow, that there was not enough time, and that hurt. He was supposed to be one of ones to save the others. That was why he'd gone to Medea in the first place. That's why he had let the priestess shove his hand into a pyre that didn't quite burn, but left this mark on his hand regardless.

With his lips curled back from his teeth, he took that anger, all the frustration at his useless incapability, and lashed out at the barrier with a fist, feeling the undead flesh of his hand connect against something hard that shuddered the slightest bit beneath the blow. It stung his hand, in a way, but he just let that fuel his intentions further. It felt good to at least be doing something...

He didn't even notice Mitzi's approach, not until she started speaking at least. But he was still struggling to hold himself together. She was not helping.

"I don't know." He replied with a growl, staring straight ahead, the tears from before already beginning to dry on his cheeks, tacky and red.

That was the only answer she was going to get from him on the subject.

"Just keep hitting this jacking barrier."

It was commendable that the exhausted ghoul had taken his words to deer, and he gave her a slight nod of approval just before another Hunter engaged her. And then it was back to business for good

Leaping over the zombie (no small feat given his height), he plunged the dagger down once more into the barrier.

(( quick post before airport ))

With another shard absorbed, he was feeling quite a bit better. His wounds had at least healed over rather quickly from the boost, in any case, though the anger and frustration at just about everything continued to well up inside of him.

....Did something just jump over his head? He glanced upwards, and over, pale gaze narrowed at the horsemen who had struck out at the barrier. Well, it was probably time Alex did the same. He needed to continue to fight.

He jabbed at the barrier with his fist again.

-nvm dissipated-