methuselah (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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singillatim2024-03-02 12:17 am
singmod) wrote in singillatim2024-03-02 12:17 am
you can run but you can't escape
THE DARKWALKER COMES
The Darkwalker strikes again. This time, it does not come for one Interloper — but four.
WHEN: March 2nd.
WHERE: Milton.
CONTENT WARNINGS: death of playable character; supernatural death; mention of dead body; themes of death; supernatural beings; themes of terror; themes of peril.
YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CAN'T ESCAPE
The sun sets on another day in the Northern Territories. The night is calm but cold, scant clouds drifting low in the skies promising snowfall soon. A waning moon sits in the skies amongst its sea of stars, and those looking up may notice it — slowly, one by one, the stars begin to go out.
Then the moon's light is swallowed whole, and a blanket of green gloom descends upon the town of Milton. One more, the sky is dark and green and terrible. Many of those will recognise it, what this means and what will come. Others will not understand it, not know what it is that awaits them all.
They will soon find out: the Darkwalker comes.
Fear washes over you like a cold wave, a vice-tight grip that squeezes the breath from you. Interlopers will find themselves over-come, and everything in their bodies and minds tells them to run. To flee. And so you run, heading for cover indoors. Curtains will be drawn, some may hide under beds, within closets or wardrobes. Some desperate attempt to conceal themselves, make themselves small, unseen. Some Interlopers, in that fear, may rush to friends or loved ones to hide with them, others may simply cowered alone — crawling and whimpering away from the night. The fear is irrational, unable to be overcome — even by the bravest or most stoic of Interlopers.
The Darkwalker howls: indescribable, unnatural, demonic. Low moans and groans. It comes from the east, the faint booms of footsteps in the distance growing ever nearer. It is coming, once more. It's coming for one of you. And still, you are powerless, unable to do anything. And it is an agony, awaiting its arrival. You cry, you whimper, you cower. Curling up for some shred of comfort, and finding none.
The footsteps draw closer and closer, and you feel like the ground itself may be threatening splitting open beneath you. It isn't you that it hunts, but you notice its path — a straight line from the east towards Milton Church. It seems to go on forever, building into a crescendo. Your heart beats so hard you fear it may burst from your chest, as if you might die of fright.
There is an almighty sound; the Darkwalker devours and suddenly the sky is alight: streaks of pale colour shoot across the gloomy green — almost blinding for one long moment. A woman's scream fills the air and then snaps into silence.
The skies return to normal, the green is gone, the fear melts away from you. It is done.
There is no body in the street. Interlopers venturing out will need to go looking for whoever it is that's fallen victim to the Devourer. The answer will be found within Milton Church.
Towards the altar, peppered amongst faint glimmers of intangible green that will fade by morning, lie the twisted and mangled bodies of Nicholas Wolfwood, Millions Knives and both iterations of Vash the Stampede. There's no blood, no physical wounds — simply the contorted bodies that lie dropped like ragdolls. Each of their faces stare with wide eyes, frozen in horror — just as La'an Noonien-Singh was.
The Darkwalker has devoured more. There is a story, told by Methuselah: It is said that the Darkwalker will awake from its slumber and swallow the world whole. One head will swallow the stars and moon and sun. Another will swallow the seas and lakes and rivers. The third will swallow the land, and every living thing upon it — and only then will the Darkwalker be satisfied and return to sleep once more.
It feels as if the Darkwalker is making good on its story: one by one, it will devour you all whole. And now the Interlopers of Milton must grapple with more death.
FAQs
1. Essentially, a 'party post' for reactions to the Darkwalker's attack, the immediate aftermath, and any funerary preparations. Have... fun???
2. Information on the Darkwalker's attack can be found here.
3. An OOC Rundown for the original Darkwalker's attack, which includes some FAQs can be found here.
4. Notes about the characters:
Wolfwood: He doesn't leave any messages behind. Folks are welcome to go through his house, which is the cabin by the pond -- there's nothing in there of his, and the only changes he made to the house was pulling a twin bed over in front of the fireplace. The wall of the cabin is also scorched from inside, from where his Lightbringer power erupted at one point.
Vash The Stampede (Trigun Stampede): He really didn't have much belongings or anything in particular of note, so it is a free for all situation in terms of possessions.
Vash The Stampede (Trigun Maximum): He'll be leaving behind his meager belongings. all of it can be found on either his person or in the church's living quarters which is also decently stocked with foraged foods. alas he's prepared no messages because he is absolutely atrocious at saying goodbyes.
Millions Knives: He'll leave behind sharpened hunting and skinning knives (hah), some fishing equipment, and scattered feathers around the church.
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He's not sure why he went to the church, but Levi arrives there early enough to find Lalo still...'searching' the crime scene.
He's no stranger to looting the dead, to taking the man who fell beside you's ammo so you can keep fighting, or desperately hoping they had a healing potion they hadn't used. Its not that much different from when they were using what was left in the early days here. He's not sure why Lalo's winking though.
"Do they even have anything?"
Wait, no, he got distracted.
"Is it like with La'an? No wounds, just frozen in fear?"
He moves closer, though, might as well check for himself. Maybe he can put something the strange feather man had to use.
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Lalo stands up, and points to the outlines around the bodies. The otherwise spookily calm setting displays slight disturbances around the outlines of the bodies - as if the bodies themselves were picked up, and then unceremoniously dropped.
"Frozen in fear," Lalo confirms, with a nod. He hadn't been able to see La'an's body for himself; he had been traveling with the old man then. "But take a look at that. Like somebody picked them all up and dropped them." He looks upward, at the ceiling of the church, and imagines the Darkwalker as Methuselah had described it to him dropping the body nearest to him to the ground.
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He looks over the bodies before moving to the dark haired Vash's. "I knew him." There's no emotion in his voice as he says that, though.
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"Or the snow broke her fall. She was found outside, right? Sorry, I wasn't there." Something else occurs to Lalo. His brow furrows. He bends down, to get a closer look.
Doesn't look like they fell from any great height.
Lalo suddenly stands up, looking up at the ceiling of the church. "What are the odds they weren't dropped? Grown men, standing up. If they died of fright suddenly, while they were still standing, they might've just... fallen over. Whoosh!" He looks at Levi, and mimes someone falling down with his hand.
There is something to Levi's idea that it could be getting stronger, though, Lalo has to admit.
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"Maybe. But they don't look like they just slumped over. Maybe they were dropped after they died?" They didn't seem to have bruises like he'd expect from someone taking a fall and living.
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"Yeah, I figured it was that," he says, after a few beats. Quietly, voice gravelly. The thought had crossed his mind, anyway; of course, he had no way to no for Sur until Levi's confession just now. "That or a gang." There were kids in the cartel about Levi's age, anyway. A lot of them were more unstable, more violent, than Levi is, though. For a kid soldier, he's surprisingly pleasant.
There's a few more seconds of quiet, before Lalo looks at Levi, curiously. "What do you say we do now?"
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"Not a gang, though we probably had those. I was conscripted by the government." He cants his head, "Do now? About the bodies? Dr. Goodsir should probably look them over but I don't know if he'll need to cut them open. Its just like last time, and that didn't really tell us much... Bury them, I guess." You can't just leave dead people lying about, at the very least it'd attract scavengers.
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"The government?" Lalo shakes his head in condolences. "That's no good, kid. Let me tell you one thing. You can never trust the government. They're all corrupt." In Lalo's world, they are often corrupt in his favor, but the point still stands.
"Last time?" Lalo continues picking at the bodies for anything interesting. He hands Levi a small knife. "Here. Take this kid. What happened last time?"
Lalo, after all, had not been present for La'an's death or its aftermath. Too busy traveling with Methuselah and getting attacked by wolves.
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He takes the knife, though he's not sure why it's being handed over. "We found her outside. Nobody could tell what happened so Dr Goodsir performed an autopsy. We didn't find anything useful, though. Just her heart stopped...and she hadn't eaten for a few days."
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Heart stopped. Hadn't eaten for a few days. "When was the last time anybody saw her? Before she" -- Lalo mimes slashing his own throat with a hand -- "you know."
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"So what brought you down here?" For all Lalo knows, Levi came here for the same reason he did. That, too, would make sense for a child soldier.
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