ARRIVAL LOG 012

[larkers]

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: A research outpost not far from New Amsterdam proper
WHEN: November 22
WHAT: The twelfth arrival
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Body horror, general horror, experimentation on animals and humans, violence, etc.

> ARRIVAL LOG #012

Awareness comes to you in blurred snatches, cloudy fragments of sound and light, color, sensation. Hazy and difficult to grasp on to, but slowly aligning into focus. A series of regular, rhythmic beeps. A medicinal, astringent smell. Murmuring voices saying indistinguishable words. There's fleeting memories of something else, too: an accident, and the pain that followed. Chaos, the echoing noise of gunshots overhead, and the cold sensation of your body going into shock. None of it can be grasped onto in any detail, the flashes of memory more like a fading dream than any real recollection.

When you fully awaken, you'll find your movements to be weighed down and heavy, your body struggling to respond the way that you want it to. Your hair is grown out, perhaps even past its usual length, but not maintained in any way, and you're wearing a hospital gown. The room around you is small and sparsely furnished. There's a bed, the one you woke on, along with a desk pushed against the adjacent wall, but no other distinguishing features. It feels, somehow, that you have been here for a while -- even if you can't put any of the memories together.

As soon as you leave the room, you'll find that your sense of something being very wrong is proven correct. You exit into a dark hallway. There are other doors lining said halls, most of them leading into rooms similar to the one you just left. The area you're in seems to be some sort of dormitory wing, intended for the people who work here, though for now none of those people can be found. Sometimes lights will flicker up and down the maze of halls, but the facility remains dark, and for the most part, quiet. Is it the middle of the night, or is this place completely abandoned? Soon enough you'll come across others like you: wearing only a hospital gown, confused, lost, barefoot.

Unfortunately, it turns out that you're not the only ones here. There's a loud blaring noise that rings through the halls, and somewhere in the facility, a door is unlocked and the proverbial floodgates are opened. At first it won't be clear what happened, but then you'll hear them: scrabbling claws, guttural growls, the thundering approach of creatures that want nothing more than to feed.

They might round a dark hallway and leap, claws extended, or burst out of the vents to wrap around you, fangs ready to sink in. They're twisted, grotesque creatures, but one thing that all of them have in common is their golden glow and eyes. It will take smarts, strength, or speed to survive. Killing them is an option, but without any weapons or your usual powers, it might not be as simple of a task as it once was. Running and hiding is an option, too. There is a new power you've been granted — maybe the stress of the situation will allow you to discover it sooner rather than later. Or maybe with enough teamwork, you can all find a way out.

But don't worry: help is on the way.

> INTO THE WOODS

Instead of the usual head's up from El, the Displaced receive a very different kind of message to tell them of a batch of newcomers who need their assistance:

@100342
Well, well, well, I'll save the trivial "nice to see you again" for later, as it's time to put yourselves together and go. Funny story, a bunch of your pals have been located somewhere outside the city. I know what you're going to ask: How do I know? Let's just say I have some access to points that usually lay beneath the radar to keep it friendly.
Since I was feeling generous, I left you a gift to bring them back. The best part is that you don't have to drive, the worst part is that if you miss it, it'll be gone and you'll be SOL.
Don't be late, or there won't be much to salvage.

Along with the message, all of the Displaced will receive a GPS pin and a warning that they're on the clock. They'll need to reach their destination before 1900 hours or they'll be left behind, and when they arrive at the place in question, they'll see why. It's a boarded-up entrance to a subway station, one that seems to have been out of commission for some time now. Once they break their way in and walk down the stairs into the abandoned station, they'll find that there's a train waiting for them.

How did it get here when most of the public transit is still down? How is it functional? Why hasn't anyone noticed this on a map before? Who knows, but the Displaced will be able to board, and as soon as it hits 1900 hours the train will shudder into movement. There are no announcements to let them know where it's going, so they'll simply have to wait it out.

As it turns out, the train takes them all the way out of the city. When it reaches the city gates, it's let through with no incident, and then it continues on its journey, winding a path through the wooded area that at least a few of the Displaced have explored before. When it finally comes to a stop about an hour and a half later, they'll be let off at an outpost. They're miles out of the city now, too far to easily walk back, and before them lies an unmarked building. On top of that, the train keeps going without them. For the moment, everyone's stranded.

They'll be able to get inside the building with little trouble, as it's from this research outpost that the new set of Displaced will need to be collected. By the time that they arrive it's late into the night so it might not be surprising that the place feels abandoned, but it won't take long to realize there's a commotion. A pack of genetically altered animals have been unleashed on the Displaced who woke up here, so they'll need to help everyone get out in one piece and then figure out a way back to the city.

Some notes about the research lab and these monsters:

◉ The building is six stories tall. The first floor has a lobby/waiting area, a cafeteria, and some office spaces. The second floor is the dormitory floor, which is where the employees would usually sleep if they chose to stay at the facility while working rather than returning to the city in between shifts. This is where the new arrivals woke up. Floors three through five are dedicated to lab spaces, which is where the actual research work is usually done. Most of these laboratories are going to be locked, but that won't stop Displaced from breaking into them if they want. Some of the lab rooms also have exam rooms, rooms with gurneys, stacked and locked cages (some even holding sedated monsters), and other evidence that both people and animals were being experimented on here. Displaced will be able to swipe lab equipment and medical supplies, such as syringes, vials/beakers, first aid supplies, scalpels, bandages, multi-lens microscopes, etc. The top floor is dedicated to offices for higher-ranked scientists, so think of it as the C suite. All floors also have bathrooms, of course, and the dormitory wing also has showers.

There are also a few rooms which might be of interest to the Displaced. These will all be locked tight and will have to be opened through brute force, as they won't respond to any of the Displaced's implants. Of course, a locked door doesn't always mean that there's no way through, especially for this bunch — breaking the locking mechanism, brute force, or even finding a control mechanism are some ways the Displaced can get inside. As for what's beyond these doors:

◈ An operating room. It's clean and emptied out, but the consoles, surgical tools, and lighting make it obvious that surgeries are performed here.
◈ A room that holds in-progress experimental subjects. Some of the animals look almost normal, while others are further along in their mutations, but all of them are sedated and either held suspended in fluid pods or kept in cages. It's possible they could be woken up with enough effort, but why would you?
◈ A morgue. This is where all of the discarded animals and yes, even scientists are kept. It's essentially a dumping ground for failed experiments. The corpses are in sliding drawers as you would expect from any morgue, but opening these drawers will reveal disturbing monstrosities. Some of them are humans, but only barely recognizable given that they've been ripped limb from limb. Others are various animals twisted into impossible positions, or with added appendages/defects. These are experiments where the mutations didn't enhance them, but made it so they could no longer survive.

◉ The monsters who are attacking have the same golden glow and eyes that some of the Displaced have already seen, but they are not the same ones. They look like different kinds of animals that have been spliced with monster DNA, and that DNA has warped them into different forms. Here are a few examples of the monsters, though you are also welcome to come up with other types based off of what we've already outlined:

◈ A large snake, except that it also has four small legs (two near the front of its body, two near the back) which allow it to skitter around rather than slither, making it much faster than any snake has a right to be. It's large and strong enough to strangle its victim, making it difficult to remove by a single person. Don't let it unhinge its jaw, it's got way too many teeth.
◈ A hyena-creature with impressive amounts of agility, due to the fact that it seems like almost all of its joints are double-jointed. It can turn its head almost completely around as well, making it an extremely skilled hunter. Its fangs protrude from the top of its mouth in rows of three like a shark. Even if it's disemboweled or it loses a limb, this creature will still continue to attack in a frenzy.
◈ A stag beetle, except that it's the size of a medium-sized dog. It's still able to fly and its pincers can do damage if it's allowed to get too close. Worse than that, they tend to move in swarms of three or four. Beneath the hard shell are human-like eyes with dilated pupils that follow shadows and light.
◈ A humanoid creature that stands on two legs. Its eyes glow in the dark, catching bits of light from a distance. Upon closer inspection, the creature has snake-scale skin, a long, flickering tail, and claws for hands. These scales are incandescent in nature, shimmering whenever they're underneath enough light.
◈ A sloth-like mimic that cries from a distance for help from hidden, high places. Once it hears a voice, it can mimic it, drawing someone in toward it due to it sounding like another Displaced. Getting too close will leave them within reach of the creature that's all arms and little else, leaving a toxic and poisonous trap to weaken its prey. Its hiding places include the rafters, where it may drop on those looking for their friends. Under certain lights, the slothly creature's eyes are humanoid in appearance, sharp and aware — yet still gold.
◈ Humanoid creatures that give off a thick, putrid smell of decay. Not unlike zombies, they move sluggishly, but upon closer inspection, it appears that something is off about these people. They have claws, sharp rows of teeth, and skin that flakes off with every shuffle of their feet. Potentially some early or later stage experiment of the snake-skinned humanoids. They're highly aggressive and will follow someone with the intention of attacking until they're incapacitated.
◈ A cross-breed insect that looks like a mix of a wasp and a mosquito, but is only the size of a dime. Its sting can draw out a large amount of blood, sedating the individual. The toxin that they inject will leave large, red welts, depending on the efficiency of the immune system. They're blotchy and painful. Once they have found a target, they will swarm around that individual all at once.
◈ A naked creature resembling a dog with a reptile's body, with patches of hair. This creature has long rows of crooked fangs protruding from its lips, mouth and tongue, with a large, dilated eye. It has sharp scales on its back to keep it from being touched, but it has a thirst for blood. This creature will attempt to surprise its prey from around corners, jumping onto someone's shoulders with hopes of sticking to them and drawing blood like a reptilian tick.

◉ These monsters will move through the vents in the building and up and down the stairwells, but they can be killed like any other creature. Or hidden from, if you want to go cry in a bathroom stall or something.

Once the newbies have been collected and taken outside, the Displaced will have to decide if they want to try and get back to New Amsterdam on foot or wait to see if a train arrives back at the stop. The train will return 24 hours after it originally dropped the Displaced off to return everyone to the city, though they won't get any indication of that other than a cryptic hint from Cassius.

Have fun camping, hiking, waiting it out in the building barricaded somewhere, or whatever else you decide to do!

A final note for characters who have been in Meadowlark from the first arrival log (Bobbi Morse, Clarke Griffin, Kylo Ren, Loki, Ojiro Sniper, Rey, Stephen Strange): You are free to have your character recognize any of the newcomers as having been on the bus crash during that first log, if you want! Have these characters been kept in this facility all this time?

For new characters, all of your characters were "present" during the very first log, but either injured to the point that they couldn't trail after the first bunch to the safehouse, or killed during the initial crash and resulting fire fight. We'll leave whichever it is up to you, though your character will not remember the circumstances beyond the vague recollections alluded to at the start of this log. For now, all signs point to them being in captivity after that first crash was cleaned up and swept under the rug.

> NEW AMSTERDAM

Eventually, the Displaced will all make it back into the city one way or another. What the newcomers will find is a city that is very much in recovery mode. There was a recent disaster that has left the city badly damaged and killed people in the hundreds of thousands. For their first few days the new characters will be confined to the safehouse (more on that below), but after that they'll be let out to explore the city as they wish.

◉ Relief efforts. Given that the city is still trying to rebuild and will be for some time, many of the Displaced have already thrown themselves into helping, whether through their normal jobs or by pitching in with the relief organization called PRESERVE. Everyone can pitch in with delivering supplies, escorting people who've lost their homes to relief centers, furnishing and repairing shelters, and so on. Unfortunately, only a few trains are in working order, so getting around is going to be more difficult than it would be normally. Hope you don't mind walking!

◉ Golden-eyed animals. While they're not like the monsters in the research outpost, there will be animals with golden eyes who've somehow found their way into the city. This is noteworthy given that animals are very rarely seen in a megacity. They're not aggressive, and if anything they seem sickly. Some of them look like strange chimeras, like two or three different animals mashed together. Others have too many limbs or eyes. Either way, they will die within a few days of arriving, so it's also possible to stumble on strange corpses scattered around.

◉ All Star game. It's not all doom and gloom, thankfully. The city is trying its best to pull itself up by its bootstraps and carry on despite all the tragedies, which means that the annual soccer All Star Game is still on. Near the sports stadium there will be stalls selling food and merchandise, bands performing, and so on. It's not a full-blown festival the likes of which New Amsterdam is known for, but it is a place to swing by if anyone needs a break.

Please refer to the Setting and Locations posts for more ideas of what the city has to offer, and you can also check out the Aftermath Post from the last event and the July Calendar if you want a better idea of what's going on in New Amsterdam!

> SAFEHOUSE

Located under an abandoned hover-bike garage, access to the safehouse is a hatch in the floor beside a rusted set of metal shelves that used to hold tools and supplies. The immediate area is similarly abandoned: full of rundown and dilapidated warehouses and forgotten businesses, where numerous people squat in hopes of having some stability because they can't afford a place themselves.

◉ The safehouse is a large space with multiple rooms for storage, with the largest of the rooms filled with rows of basic cots set up to sleep a large amount of people. Basic, but outfitted with everything necessary for daily life. A few doors lead to back rooms for storage, medical care, and a large communal bathroom, and past the long rows of cots there is a communal kitchen, fully stocked, and an eating area. Privacy is at a minimum.

◉ New characters will be asked to pick their beds, and provided with a change of (second-hand, mismatched and somewhat threadbare) clothes and basic toiletries.

◉ There is a mini-bar set up in the kitchen. The quality of the alcohol inside is akin to what someone might get from the well, but it's well-stocked.

◉ It can be assumed that new arrivals will be told that any requests or queries can go through El for the time being; Gaby is currently not available.

◉ New characters will be given rudimentary access to the network upon arrival in the safehouse, whether they had their ID set up by Cassius or they still need it set up by El. They will be able to make posts and replies, but their messages will be anonymous and they do not have inboxes yet. El will restrict widespread internet access while ze reviews everyone's preset backgrounds or reviews what's already in place. Once El has set up IDs — or revised/retained Cassius's work, the newbies will be free to go. See the comment below to learn more about this!

◉ New characters will not be allowed to leave the safehouse until NOVEMBER 26 (JULY 21). These 4 days are for them to adjust, learn about the world they've arrived in from their fellows, and for El to speak with them and work on setting up their IDs — or review the ID that was set up by Cassius. We have another option for IDs this log which will be explained in a comment below; it's opt-in!

> FINAL OOC NOTES

Welcome to Meadowlark, newbies! You're now free to post to the network and logs comms. To reiterate, your characters will not be allowed out of the safehouse until NOVEMBER 26 (JULY 21). At that point it's expected they'll have gotten a good idea of their new situation from their fellow characters, and will have discussed their background and had job potentials reviewed with El in order for their false IDs to be set up.

If you would like your character to have a wildly inappropriate background or incredibly unique setup by Cassius, please comment to the background review below! Since Cassius has a different set of accesses and resources available, he'll be able to provide a different path for your character. This background does not need to be accurate to your characters' skill set — in fact, it's more likely that it wouldn't because Cassius is a troll that way. El will try to revise it into working order, but ze can only do so much.

If you have any questions or ideas about how you'd like to get your character involved in the world, please head over to the plot engagement post and drop us a comment! For questions specific to this log, there is a thread below.

Please check out our July calendar rundown for a look at things happening this month, as well as some additional notes from the mods.

As a reminder, AC for new characters accepted in July will be 10 comments across 2-4 threads, while current characters will need to provide the full AC of 20 comments across 2-4 threads. AC will be posted on August 1 at 12 AM UTC and close on August 8 at 12 AM UTC. If you do not reply to AC, you will be considered idled and dropped from the game. We will not post a warning list.

> NAVIGATION

Comments

[hierophante]

"Jonathan." For a moment there's just that, the echo of his name, as though she's testing out how it sounds in her own voice. What would Homer have said? OA always felt he was better at this than she's ever been, at easing other people out of their pain without forcing them to acknowledge it head-on. She has empathy, more than she knows what to do with, but she simply can't muster that even-keeled nuance with the same apparent ease.

"I can't promise everything will be fine. I don't know what's happened or what's going to happen. I don't even know if this means anything to you, but I can promise you this: I won't leave you behind if I can help it." She shoots him a glance over her shoulder, eyes wide with fright but nonetheless solemn and earnest. It's not a statement that needs a response; she doesn't need Jonathan's acknowledgement, but she does want him to know that she means it.

From this new angle she catches the sound better, strange and skittering but heavy, suffused with a sort of wrongness she can't categorize. Whatever it is, it makes her skin crawl. Were her heart not already hammering in her throat, the sheer proximity of the thing would be enough to send it there. It's fast. Too fast.

If all these rooms are like the one she woke up in, they might make for a reasonably safe hiding place in a pinch, though she hates the thought even as she has it. Better to keep moving if they can, get out of here entirely and as soon as possible. "Do you think you could help me get a desk against the door if we needed to hide?"

[end_recording]

The normal thing to do would be to believe her, but he can't quite bring himself too, not even with her fearful eyes a mirror of his own. It could be a trick—It could be a very well-acted trick to make him tractable. Lure him off somewhere. Who says things like that? Good people, he thinks, but the greater part of him says manipulative people. Jonathan wishes he could do something other than nod numbly.

"Yes, I, yes I could do that." And then be trapped in a room with her instead. That thought catches Jon a beat later. "That thing's in the ceiling, it could still get through."

[hierophante]

"Yeah. You're right, yeah." OA hadn't considered that eventuality. She's used to manoeuvring around people, not things that can easily navigate crawl spaces. The thought evokes a surge of terror that claws at her insides, catching the breath in her lungs and holding on for a moment before she can push it aside.

"I just... I don't know what we'll do if we can't outpace it." Running now might be a good idea... but then, it might just attract more attention, never mind the possibility of hurtling directly into a much worse situation.

At an intersection of hallways, she pokes her head around a corner, squinting up and down the darkened corridors before deciding to press onward. It feels like danger is everywhere, but the only thing she knows for certain is that they can't go back now. There's no sitting quietly in their cells and waiting this one out, she doesn't think.

"That door looks different. A stairwell, maybe?" She spares Jonathan a glance -- maybe he's seen something or thought of something she hasn't. She can't ask of him more than she's able to produce herself, but she's also not going to discount the possibility that he's got a better plan than she has.

[end_recording]

"We need to find some sort of weapon." Weapons were nearly always useful in these sorts of situations. "When it attacks, I can distract it if you can—hit it, or whatever." Jonathan attempts to sound urbane with only some success, his tone warbling with fear. He strides past the OA briskly, pushing the door open to reveal a kitchen.

It's fine. He'll be fine. No matter how many teeth belong to the creature in the ceiling, the regeneration will keep him alive.

[hierophante]

If it's a weapon he's after, a kitchen is as good a place as any they're likely to come across. OA doesn't relish the idea, but he's not wrong -- better to have one than to be caught without. Still, she's acutely aware that she's very much out of her depth here. The only times she'd seriously tried to do real harm to another creature had been, in spite of the echoes she can't help but sense here, ultimately very different.

Looking around at the place, its odd assortment of furniture and appliances, she feels again the distinct sensation that she's entirely out of place, awakens a sleeping suspicion and the accompanying dread: she is no longer at home. Not just physically or even temporally -- this is an elsewhere, and all the rules she knows are meaningless. Under other circumstances that might be thrilling. As things are, she simply finds herself terrified.

There remains, at least, the physical act of searching the place. It's all solid. Real. Whatever's making those sounds they keep hearing is probably also solid and real. Those are problems with which she can wrangle, maybe even successfully.

The first cupboard she opens is of no help at all -- utilitarian plates and glasses, neither weighty nor sharp enough to make useful weaponry. She remembers the weight of the cast-iron pan in Hap's kitchen, remembers swinging it towards where she'd known the window must have been. Something like that would be ideal.

"Check the drawers; maybe there are some... some knives?" The second cupboard isn't much better than the first, and she lets out a frustrated huff of breath. "Oh, for... come on; there's got to be something we can use."

[end_recording]

Jonathan snorts a dry laugh as he retrieves a handful of butter knives, sliding a couple over to The OA. "Close enough."

On cue, there is a loud thud from the ceiling—it must have found some way to keep its weight off the flimsy tiles, Jon thinks frantically and uselessly—and then the horrible clawed mass of it rips through the tiles to crash into the space precisely between Jonathan and The OA.

Jon loses a second, frozen in terror, transfixed by how sharp it looks. He's fully unprepared to deal with a monster like this. He's never even thrown a punch (Gertrude Robinson, his predecessor, probably knew karate or kickboxing or whatever, but Jon had the dubious benefit of being surrounded by archival assistants far more physically competent than he was.).

The OA did not look any more prepared than he was, and if that thing decided to go for her first she'd be shredded into pieces. So would Jon, but he'd get over. Jon makes an inarticulate sound—trying to get the monster's attention, trying to warn The OA—too thick with stuttering to string a full thought together.

And then he pulls the entire silverware drawer out and swings it at the creature.

[hierophante]

For a moment it's almost funny. Devoid of context, the utter futility of their fumbling is amusing enough that Jonathan's dry laugh earns him a wry smile, but then that context finds them again. It plummets through the ceiling and OA's breath catches in her throat. She's lived through sufficiently many strange things to know that 'impossible' is a nearly useless word, and yet that's the sensation she has here, that this is impossible. It isn't happening, except, of course that it is.

This must be what rabbits feel like in the headlights of a car. She's never seen it herself, but she's read about it. The thing's strange, golden eyes pin her in place; part of her brain screams at her to move and another part refuses to allow it, as though by keeping still she can somehow remain hidden.

The sound Jon makes breaks the spell. Even if it hadn't, the clatter of silverware falling to the floor, almost painfully loud, would have done. She's not going to leave him. She promised that. On the other hand, the thing's hide looks a little too tough for butter knives, and she doesn't think this is the kind of animal she can cow into submission by biting back, the way she had Steve's dog.

Blindly, eyes fixed on the creature as Jon's wild swing pushes it momentarily off-balance, she shoves her hand into the cupboard she'd been in the process of opening and prays it finds something heavy enough to be working with. What she comes up with is a device she can't place, something as bizarrely futuristic as everything else they've seen thus far -- what is this place? -- but it has a handle and it has heft and that's enough to be working with.

With the way the creature has wheeled on Jonathan she doesn't have a clear shot at it's head, so she goes low instead, swinging hard at the joint of one leg in an attempt to get its feet out from underneath it.

[end_recording]

Unsurprisingly, being smacked with a drawer by an undernourished academic doesn't dissuade the monster very much. The creature hacks at the drawer with its clawed hands, and Jon's barely able to keep his feet as the cheap material cracks and splinters. It gashes a cut open on the back of his hand but Jonathan barely has time to register before the OA joins the fray.

Seeing the creature stumble fills Jonathan with frantic, adrenalized hope and he begins wildly stabbing downward with the ragged edges of the broken drawer. The creature screeches as one of the broken points pierce a vulnerable eye, and Jon echoes the noise with a panicked gasp.

[hierophante]

This is mad. Everything has gone mad. It's all happening so fast; OA doesn't have time to process. It's all fear and instinct, numb hands and the strength of panic as much as of all those years spent honing her body underground. She wasn't training for this. Nothing like this. The practice still grants her a certain merciful fluidity, even as the fear numbs her.

She hacks at the same joint, trying to keep the thing from recovering its equilibrium. To keep it off Jonathan is the primary goal; hurting it is less than secondary. The sensation and sound of the impact is sickening, though not nearly as much as the wet sound that immediately precedes that shriek. The creature recoils; OA has to scramble back upright to avoid being knocked aside.

I can distract it and you can -- hit it, or whatever. This counts as pretty well distracted, she'd guess, though in truth she's operating less on the assumption of a rational progression and more on pure -- and probably not well-informed -- instinct. A surge of adrenaline, desperation, hope; she hefts her makeshift bludgeon and swings with as much force as she can muster, aiming for the base of the creature's skull.

Something... happens. A dam bursts; the blow lands with far more force than anticipated, with greater strength than OA ever could have anticipated. It isn't superhuman, but it's still just far enough beyond her own understanding of her limits that it shocks her. The sickening crack of impact radiates up her arm, a jolt of pain and then the whole limb takes to tingling, a sensation sufficiently distracting that she doesn't notice the faint glow radiating from her sternum.

[end_recording]

The creature tears at Jonathan with a ferocious will to live. Jonathan's not sure how he doesn't lose a finger; the drawer is shredded through in moments the desperate force of the blows knocking Jonathan back on his ass. Blood smears against the floor as Jonathan scrabbles for the purchase to push away.

From the floor, Jonathan as a perfect view of events: the glow from the OA's chest, the instant limpness of the creature as her swing lands. Jonathan spends a very long, unmoving moment staring at the body of the creature, looking for a twitch. Even as the reality of the creatures deceased state sinks in, he can't quite make himself move. Can't trust natural laws are in place.

"Good god," he says finally, hoarse. The sound of his own voice rouses him slightly, and he finally back up at the OA, eyes wide. "You were glowing."

[hierophante]

Glowing? That makes no sense. None of this make sense. OA doesn't process the statement, not now; she's too busy staring down at the crumpled form of the creature, unconscious of the tremor in her hands. Her lips are parted in shock, brow furrowed in disbelief; absurdly, she can feel tears welling up in her eyes.

"Is it dead?" The fact that they'd had no choice doesn't really make that thought any less abhorrent.

"I've never killed anything before." Her lips are numb. She's tried -- God knows she'd done her best to kill Hap. That had been self-defence too, and far more calculated, but it still feels different. More than life-or-death - cosmic. She feels sick.

It isn't useful. None of this is useful. Survival takes precedence over turmoil. That this doesn't feel right, but rightness isn't the question right now. Does thinking that make her wicked? Does it make her like Hap?

As though to counter that thought, she tears her gaze away from the body on the floor to focus on Jonathan instead. "Oh G-- you're bleeding; let me see."

[end_recording]

Oh. She's upset the monster died.

Jonathan has no idea what to do with that. The fact that monsters—himself included— were better of dead, having to kill for survival—it had all just become... normal. Jonathan had never killed anything either, but he had gotten people killed, which was far worse.

"Er," he says, the beginning at a lame attempt at comfort. Thank god she interrupts him, though explaining why he's not wounded was going to be... delicate, Jonathan thinks, as he wipes the blood off on his hospital gown. It stings, and reveals more blood, because the wound is still bleeding and the skin hasn't regenerated. Jonathan stares at it for a moment, horrified as this sinks in.

That monster might have actually killed him.

"Oh, god."

[hierophante]

OA skirts the crumpled form of the creature gingerly; some animal part of her is half-convinced it's going to spring up again, that one of those clawed hands is going to reach out and close around her ankle, drag her down, tear her to pieces. The only motion that comes, though, is their own -- her padding softly across the cool tile, Jonathan trying and failing to scrub away the evidence of his new mortality.

OA drops to her knees alongside him, reaching out to cup her hands in the space between them. She's not going to demand touch. On the contrary, if at all possible she'd rather avoid it, but... he's hurt, she wants to know how badly. There's a noted tremor in her right hand. The tingling and numbness are slowly fading, but she still feels weak, oddly drained, completely terrified. You were glowing.

"Can I see?" Judging by the extent of his scarring this is nothing he hasn't experienced before, but that hardly means he doesn't deserve concern. On the contrary: it probably means he deserves more. "There were blankets in the other rooms; maybe there are bandages somewhere, but if we don't need any..."

She falls silent, gaze flicking from his hand to try to meet his eyes. Her expression is grim. If they don't need any, then what they should probably do is keep moving.