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 Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 10:35 am
It was the perfect time of day to sprawl out in the grass, let the wind tickle your face, and enjoy the feeling of the sunshine warming you slowly from the outside in. Never one to pass up such a truly amazing opportunity, Grayson found himself doing just that, still dressed in his uniform from the day's classes, not really caring that he might have grass stains by the end of the endeavor. His pop had sent him some stain stick stuff, as he knew his son well, so if he needed to, he'd just slather it all over his clothes and throw them on the to-be-washed pile.
Speaking of, it was getting rather big.
Ah well, he still had underwear. He was good for a while.
Crossing his legs at the ankle, he lifted his head slightly, slipping his hands underneath it to provide some cushion from the ground. He watched clouds drift by, amusing himself with likening them to shapes or animals, and was completely content.
He could stay outside for hours doing absolutely nothing, and he'd be just fine. He'd decided to take a break from practice that day, as it was just as important to rest as it was to rehearse, and so his schedule was open.
Wide open.
He yawned, eyes drifting closed, and considered taking a nap.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 12:07 pm
Esen would agree with that sentiment. It was one of the few days in this year's autumn she found pleasant, and deep down she would've enjoyed jumping into the huge leaf pile outside the dormitories, a childhood activity she never really experienced (her home was above a store).
Taking advantage of the weather, though, would have to wait. The Barren Pine GSA meeting was today, and she was running late. Even worse, she was the person who held some hot-off-the-press documents for this meet. Two weeks in between meetings kind of makes you forget stuff, and if her computer printer wasn't off the fritz, she might have been on time.
Speedy as she could possibly become, Esen's cardigan was flowing behind her, as well as her hair. Maybe if she actually paid attention and slowed down, she wouldn't have tripped over a guy snoozing in the middle of the grass. This meeting's documentation flew out of her hands as she fell.
"Great job, self," Esen muttered. At least her eyeglasses stayed on.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 2:42 pm
Grayson grunted. It was really all he could do, considering his relaxed state was suddenly interrupted by a foot in his side. Eyes opening, he half-rose, bits of grass sticking out of his hair as he looked around. What in the world had -
Oh. A girl. Blinking, he frowned a bit, noticing that she'd fallen. Well, that would happen if you tripped over something as substantial as a teenage boy, he mused. And her papers had gone everywhere; that was a shame. Grayson wasn't ever particularly inspired to clean up a mess, but he felt a tiny bit responsible. After all, she'd tripped on him.
Of course, if she'd been watching where she was going, she wouldn't have tripped on him. He felt reassured in this, and instead of gathering the papers, he rose, offering his hand instead.
"Hey. Are you okay?" No anger, not even an undertone of mocking. Just a simple question as he extended his hand, palm up. "That must've been a surprise. I know it was for me."
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 6:12 pm
It took Esen a few seconds to find the source of the voice. Looking up, she saw a young man, whose short, two-tone hair was more obviously colored than that of her own (her dark green color was almost grown out!), with an outstretched hand.
"Yes, I'm fine, thanks." Perfectly aware of the fact she'd done wrong, she got onto all four limbs, and while looking behind her for the boy she tripped over, there was only an indent in the grass that showed someone was there, but no longer was. "Did I trip over you, or did whomever I trip over disappear as soon as I touched them?" A somewhat positive, almost humorous, tone was given, but her face was as stony as ever as she went to grab his hand for leverage.
Apparently the papers liked to dance, or at least run away from their owner to follow some leaves. Granted, the papers couldn't soar as high, but they were going pretty far away from their original positions where they landed on the ground... it was quite a windy day, after all.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 7:30 pm
It was a windy day, and thus all that Esen and Grayson had smelled were the chill, sharp smells of autumn -- the wind and the far-off paper burner on campus, the grass and the trees.
Except then the wind changed, and they were slowly aware that a reek was filling their nostrils. It was burningly unfamiliar. The campus was ringed around on three sides by thick forest that they were banned from for purposes of You Will Tease The Wildlife And Be A Threat To It: there were some pretty nature paths they were allowed to go on and run in, but with staked notices all around not to taunt the birds or poke the possums or whatever they felt like doing -- but the smell was coming from a clump of bushes nearby, interrupting their conversation. It was a vaguely sweet, overpoweringly nasty smell of rot.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 7:48 pm
Grasping the girl's hand, Gray hoisted her up with surprisingly little effort for a guy who had a pierced ear and decently long hair. Looks could be deceiving, after all, and he could hoist a girl around well enough if he had to. Or, well, a man for that matter, considering some of the dance routines he did involved some pretty complicated maneuvers.
He released her hand almost immediately, glancing around at the papers with a thoughtful look. Nope, he still didn't want to pick them up. He was spared the effort, however, when the wind changed, and something assaulted his senses and made his stomach roll.
Bringing his hand up, he took a literal step back, glancing from the girl to the direction the wind was blowing from. What the hell?
"What is that smell?" It was horrible, like when he left the garbage too long in the kitchen, but about a thousand times worse. There was almost something sweet about it, which didn't make any sense. "And where is it coming from? Jeez."
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 8:23 pm
"Thanks again," Esen replied once back on her feet. When she saw the papers fly toward them, she started to grab a stray paper that clung to her face - that was a terrible mistake, she realized, as she almost coughed due to a smell, which, while she was unable to pinpoint it, would likely attract a lot of vultures.
Pulling her cardigan over her nose (freshly cleaned yarn smelled better, even though this stench would likely go through it pretty quick) and catching her breath, Esen gave a somewhat nasal reply of "I don't know what the heck this is, but I bet vultures will enjoy-"
Her poker face broke for the first time in a long time, eyes widened and already pale skin becoming off-white. "...it." Esen had became frightened; this look was quite obvious to anyone who could see. The boy couldn't have been the source of it, he just commented on it himself, and she showered today, so...
"Something isn't right."
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 8:26 pm
It really did not smell like the smell of somebody who had not been in the shower with the soap recently. It smelled much, much worse. It was a heady, thick, grotesque stench, assailing their nostrils even worse now that the wind had changed. It was obviously somewhere quite close, and their nasal senses pointed only to the scrub in front of them that bordered where the true forest on campus began.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 8:33 pm
The smell only intensified, stealing Grayson's breath when he wound have responded, and instead only making him gag. He felt perilously close to actual vomit - he'd never smelled something so putrid, and it was intense and - close? Whatever it was, and his stomach was starting to pitch with the possibilities, it definitely wasn't good.
Eyes flicking to Quinn, trying manfully to avoid losing his lunch in front of her, he cupped his hand around his mouth. It was best to focus on the smell of his own skin. Even though the stench seemed to be burned on his nostrils, it was worth it to try, right? And he could tell that she was frightened.
Well, there was only one thing to do. He was the man here, wasn't he? And they couldn't just leave.
Leaning toward her, trying to breathe in as little of the air as possible, he instructed through his hand, "Stay here. I'll check it out."
Not the smartest move, maybe. He had a feeling, as he turned, that it wasn't going to end well. He was probably going to puke if the smell got much worse. But, hell, he couldn't let a girl go see what was making all that smell.
That in mind, he brought his sweater up over his nose, breathing shallow, and strode toward where the smell was strongest.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 8:54 pm
"Got it," Esen replied. She seemed a little better that she wasn't the one to investigate, yet a little dismayed that she was to stay behind. "I guess that's gentlemanly of him," she muttered negatively, although from his looks, he seemed more replusive - no, wait, that wasn't the word, she realized, at least not for the guy she just tripped over. It was for the smell of whatever was, well, smelling, and it did make it through her cardigan, rendering the bunch of crafted yarn useless to block the odor from her nostrils.
As she stood and watched, Esen plugged her nose as hard as she could, while rummaging through her jeans pockets with the other in an awkward fashion to see if there was anything that would be useful to the situation somehow. A trio of hair ties and a few rocks that she took with her as lucky charms were the only items in her pockets, apparently.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 9:06 pm
Both of them picked their way through the scrub to the source of the smell. It didn't take long for them to find the source of it.
In the middle of the scrub there was a corpse, swollen and bloated, discoloured and naked -- the skin was greenish, but most arrestingly the corpse didn't seem to be human. It had a lot of skin and too many legs, and the skull's flesh was so swollen as to make the face unrecognisable. Flies were buzzing around the corpse avidly -- the noise of the flies buzzing filled their ears.
There was no blood. There was just the corpse, looking like somebody had overturned too many legs and arms over on each other, and the horrible, overpowering stench.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 9:13 pm
As Grayson leaned over to see what was the source of the smell, the world very abruptly became a very unforgiving place for him. The stench, full in the face, was enough to make his eyes water, and he staggered back, horror and revulsion on his face. Everything inside of him screamed that it was wrong, it wasn't even human, but he couldn't even form a word.
Falling, landing hard, he buckled over, shoulders heaving as he vomited everything that he'd eaten that day. Tears streamed down his face, a combination of the smell, sight, and reality of the situation. He couldn't even warn Quinn not to look - he didn't have enough time.
Fisting his hands in the grass, unfortunately having sicked up a bit on himself, he closed his eyes. Big mistake; the corpse flashed in front of him, disfigured and inhuman, swollen and violated in ways that he couldn't imagine. He let out a low sound, one somewhere between terror and helplessness, and opened his eyes again.
His face was pale, so pale, and his eyes very wide. ********, there was something dead on campus.
He tried to speak, opened his mouth, but once again, was unable to form the words. So that Quinn wouldn't have to see, he turned again, shoulders shaking as his body reacted violently to the sight.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 9:44 pm
Esen heard screaming and an even stronger smell to match. She definitely had a reason to be afraid, now that a boy was. The same guy who had helped her up off the ground, now shaking while on his knees... something really wasn't right! She ran to Grayson and the bush, to discover that a green... thing that used to be living at one time... was covered in a pile of fresh human vomit, which didn't smell bad compared to whatever the hell that carcass was supposed to be. Esen wasn't having vomiting fits, no, but she knew one thing about the animal world, even though she wasn't at her best with that part of science:
Scavengers, such as raccoons and yellowjackets, will eat carrion for either themselves and/or others of their own species.
This was only one fact she knew that had turned up what would have been 'Spider-Sense' if she were bitten by a radioactive arachnid, but her gut reactions were seriously telling her to get out, NOW. Esen started to scream at Grayson, even though he hadn't invoked her wrath:
"WE HAVE TO GET THE ******** OUT OF HERE!" He helped her out, it was time she returned the favor, especially since he looked as if was going to need to get into an infirmary.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 9:51 pm
By the time that both students had lurched away from the decomposing, horrifying monster corpse (which really looked as though a meat wagon had overturned and been left in the hot sun for a while), one of the maths teachers was walking past the forest path to a class -- he saw the green, wan-faced Grayson and horrified-looking Esen, and immediately turned towards them, astonished.
"Grayson!" he said. "Gray, are you all right? You two, what's the meaning of this -- Gray, are you sick?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 10:03 pm
It was certainly not his bravest, most manly moment. Though Gray had every intention of sending Quinn for help - as soon as he could speak without puking, anyway - he really didn't want to be left alone with the dead thing. Really didn't.
Death was different from crazy stunts. Death was different from dancing with fire.
Rotted dead things were different from the crazy things he did on a weekly basis.
He was saved isolation with the body when a math teacher approached, however. Not even caring who it was, or how badly his dignity was already suffering, Gray just pointed mutely at the bushes. With his other hand, he wiped up his chin, grimacing at the sour taste in his mouth. He wasn't sure what was worse - no, the smell was definitely worse than the taste of vomit, yeah.
Finally finding his voice, he said feebly, "Dead thing."
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