[002] Video | Around 10 AM on the 17th

[thechoiceisyours]

[The last few days have been... A little strange. At first no one had thought much of Emily being a little more difficult than usual, and Josh is always a bit unpredictable, but it had quickly grown apparent there was something wrong. By the morning of the 17th it had become clear what.

Chris appears on camera first, looking very forcibly composed. This is not going to be good news, but it has to be said and the sooner the better; he isn't sure exactly what kind of timescale they're looking at, but the quicker everyone knows what they're dealing with hopefully less people will get hurt.]

Okay, so, everyone is probably starting to like... Figure out something weird is going on.

[Something weird. Yeah. That's one way to put it. He glances off-camera a bit nervously, then back.]

It's um... We know what it is. So we're going to tell you what we know, and try to figure out what to do from there.

[This is surely already inspiring confidence, but honestly he just still can't quite believe this is happening again. It's surreal, and that's probably for the best right now because it makes explaining at all possible.]

Back where we all were before we got here, there's this... Monster, called the wendigo. People turn into it when they um, engage in cannibalism. You should probably all stop eating anything with meat in it.

[Because that's a thing.]

[Locked away in a room, all by herself, is Emily, who is currently in the midst of her transformation. While she is not really in any shape to be involved in this announcement, she's got something she absolutely needs everyone in this godforsaken fucking CAVE, WHAT THE FUCK, to know.

As her eyesight has been going, her hearing has been improving. Every word her friends are saying carries perfectly over to her, around the walls and through the door that is doubtless barred by furniture.

So when Chris mentions the cannibalism thing, she expects him to follow up with that VERY IMPORTANT THING THEY'D DISCUSSED A FEW DAYS AGO. But of course he doesn't, because he's a fucking idiot who's too busy pining over Ashley to do anything of actual importance.

GOD, her friends are morons. (Except Sam. Sam's all right.)

Before anyone else can say anything to move this fucking substandard video message away from this very important thing, Emily takes a deep breath and veritably goddamn fucking bellows--]

AND JUST SO ALL OF YOU FUCKHEADS KNOW, WENDIGO BITES ARE NOT INFECTIOUS.

[Her duty done, Emily snarls at the door of her fucking prison what the fuck, and stalks over to the bed, hunched over with the beginnings of her body's deformation under the curse.

God fucking damnit.]

... Yeah, there's no easy way to put it. Things are gonna get bad.

[ The phone moves a little so that both Sam and Chris are in the frame, the latter still looking off in the direction the off-camera outburst came from. Sam looks weary and it seems like the color's drained from her face. How is this even happening again? Her gaze settles back onto the camera and she shifts in her seat, leaning forward a little with her brows knit together. ]

Wendigos eat people, [ In case anyone needed any more clarification. ] and as far as we know there's no cure. Whatever Fear did, people are transforming and there's not a lot of time left.

[ Sam sits back again and drops her gaze, trying to piece together information she remembers from that night. There's the flamethrower guy's journal, which seems pretty important to touch on. He was the expert, after all. There's also Hannah's scrawled journal from the mines... That may be a good place to start but — god. ]

So, we know it starts with hunger. You feel like you're starving no matter what you do, and then you get — really strong. At least one we saw could just fucking... tear people apart.

[ "One." Like she doesn't know who it really was. Like she wasn't close enough to see that butterfly tattoo. She glances at Chris for a second before going on. ]

And that's the thing. You'll want to rip into people, because at some point you won't be you anymore. I think you lose yourself until all that's left is the hunger.

Those of you that aren't, you know... [Turning into horrible monsters.] There's a few things you can do. I don't like, suggest fighting a wendigo unless you totally have to. It's not a great experience.

[Because yeah, tearing people apart is definitely not too tough for a wendigo. He got to see a nice first hand demonstration of that.]

If you've got a shotgun, it'll knock them back for a few seconds, but you're gonna run out of bullets or miss a shot and I don't know if anyone here even has a shotgun...

[But not really the point, and okay, stay on focus. It's a little difficult to explain while still trying not to think too hard about the subject, but he's doing his best.]

Knives and normal bullets won't do anything. Fire's the only sure thing. But your best bet is just to not move, like, at all. They can't see you if you don't move.

[He glances toward Sam, not sure if they've covered everything that people need to know to not be immediately killed by their former friends.]

[ She nods to Chris in agreement, then adds in another tidbit. ]

I, uh — I beat one with a shovel after it'd been in an explosion though, and it's head rolled off. Just make sure you burn them first and you should be able to get past its skin. Oh, augh... I also read that they can "mimic their prey." Not really sure how it works, but let's just say I trust the source.

[ It simultaneously feels like they've covered everything important and not nearly enough. Sam folds her arms over her chest and looks at Chris again, unable to hide the worry from her face. ]

I am... I'm so sorry that this is happening. Honestly, it's like a waking nightmare. Those of you that are changing — god, I can't even imagine what you're feeling, but you deserve answers, so... we're here. There's still a lot we don't know, but we're here if you have questions or just wanna talk. Um, my name's Sam, and this is Chris. Emily and Mike have experience with this stuff too, in case you hear from them.

Be safe.



[ooc: Please let us know somewhere in your comment if you'd like a reply from a specific character, otherwise anyone (or all of them!) may respond to comments. Also, threadjacking is totally fine by us so feel free to jump in and out of any conversations!]

Comments

video

[buttsbuttsbutts]

[ FOR THE EASE OF NARRATION we shall assume someone, at some point, has taught Sera how things work and she's gone past the initial "oh no what is this devil box" and has progressed, more or less, into "ok I suppose I can use this stupid thing" territory.

So at the moment she's glaring (perhaps a little off-center — one doesn't master front-face cam in a day, after all) as hard as she can. ]

So you're saying no arrows? Shit.

But what about fiery ones, yeah? Is it enough? Or does it have to be big fire?

Big fire, I can do. Maybe.

...Probably.

[ r u instilled with confidence yet? ]

video

[thechoiceisyours]

[So, so much confidence. But that's okay because that's about how much they're instilling in others, so it all evens out.]

Yeah, no, arrows aren't going to do anything, at least not once they're like... Totally transformed.

[It's possible they would work earlier, but... There are so many problems with the whole idea and it's nauseating to think about, especially since it might end up being necessary.]

You have to have enough fire to burn their armour off.

[So a flaming arrow may or may not work, but big fire is probably the way to go.]

[video]

[circumitus]

Only fire, you said?

[Well, this is kind of good news to Rey at least.]

Creating fire shouldn't be an issue, then -- am able to generate and control it.

[video]

[thechoiceisyours]

[That's... Definitely good news.]

That's a really convenient super power to have in this situation.

video

[endured]

[ this was all a lot to take in so suddenly. hope's not completely unfamiliar with the idea of people during into monsters but something like this? right, okay. breathe and consider its weaknesses and what he can do with his magic. ]

I, uh... I can enchant weapons with fire magic if that'll help. It works on guns too. [ because he won't be of much use out there on his own even with his more powerful spells. ] I also have healing spells if anyone gets hurt out there.

video

[thechoiceisyours]

[The whole idea of someone being able to enchant things with magic is still a little surreal, but he just tries to think about it like a video game. What would work on the monsters they need to beat?]

They're like... Covered in armour, and fire burns it off. So yeah, enchanted weapons might help, but I'm not sure if they would work fast enough?

[Maybe they would, but probably there wouldn't be enough contact with the fire itself for the weapon to be effective. Healing magic, on the other hand--]

Healing spells?

[video]

[mismanagement]

[Maketh is holding the phone at an angle, so her face is mostly hidden. Even so, one might notice that there's something off. Like the pallor of her skin and the way her teeth seem to have grown.]

I see. The information is...

Appreciated.

[video]

[thechoiceisyours]

[He... Definitely notices, mostly because he knows what to look for and is on high alert with this situation.]

...Yeah.

A-Are you... Um...

[He's not sure what he's trying to ask; some combination of if she's okay--which the answer to is kind of obvious--and if she's turning, which is just as obvious.]

text

[hybridification]

...so these were the monsters you were telling me about, huh?

text

[thechoiceisyours]

Yeah.

Sorry you're going to get to see them.

[This is all so messed up.]

video;

[cashlin]

[That's a lot of information to take in all at once, and Lilith's suddenly really, really grateful that she did all her food shopping early.]

That's pretty fucked up. We can't even shoot them normally?

[She notably sounds more surprised than morally offended. At least it's happening here and not on canniballistic-psycho-paradise Pandora.]

But anyway, if you guys want fire, I can definitely do fire, and a lot of it. Lemme know if that herd needs thinning anytime soon.

video;

[thechoiceisyours]

Yeah, I mean, I don't think any of us actually tried shooting one with a normal bullet but the guy who was hunting them said it wouldn't work, so...

[More people with fire is great news.]

Okay. Awesome. Right now just stay on guard, but I mean eventually...

[Eventually people are going to turn enough that they do have to be dealt with, which he's trying not to think too much about considering two of his friends are among them.]

text.

[hedgings]

Adding to the list of pyromaniacs in this place.

I can burn shit if needed.

text.

[thechoiceisyours]

Okay, great. There's a surprising number of people who can do fire stuff here.

[Not that he's complaining.]

text

[quaerit]

When you say we should stop eating the meat.

Are you saying that it's infected, or that it's human?

[ Because he heard cannibal, and everything that follows is basically horrific. ]

You can't truly mean that death is the only cure for these people. What about magic? What has actually been tried? I understand that they're dangerous, but they're still people. We can't just abandon them to their fate.

text

[thechoiceisyours]

I mean it's gotta be human. That's the only way to turn into a wendigo.

[Which is nauseating; he's really starting to think Sam has the right idea with the whole vegan thing.

It takes a short time before the next part of the reply comes, because it isn't easy to say even in text.]

There's no cure where we're from. But there isn't any magic like some people here have either, so we just don't know for sure but even if there is, there's a pretty short time frame to work with before the wendigo are going to be worse than just dangerous.

I mean we should try anything and everything while we can but that's not going to be that long, and people need to know what to do when they actually have to fight one of those things.

[He doesn't want to have to kill any wendigo at all, not just because they're dangerous but because they're indeed originally human. Some of those here that are turning are his friends. But there's a point where it's them or you, which he remembers the stranger telling him very clearly when he'd raised the moral issue of killing things that used to be people.]

text

[unitas]

Don't be stupid. They need to be killed if everything said is true. If we're lucky, Hope will bring them back to life relatively normal.

voice

[unitas]

And you're sure this is what's happening?

voice

[thechoiceisyours]

Yeah. I mean, if it's not then it's something that starts out exactly like it, and that seems really unlikely.

voice; hit me with anyone!

[recinerate]

[Beyond is a skilled liar, but he's never been very good at lying to himself for long. The symptoms that are described here - he's observed them in himself over the past days, a consuming hunger, gradually growing in intensity, an all-encompassing rage that refuses to be stamped out. He can't lie to himself, in the face of these facts.

It's a mystery how he manages to sound so unnaturally calm.]

You've encountered this before. Can you elaborate on the specifics of what happened?

voice;

[thechoiceisyours]

[Chris recognizes Beyond's voice, and doesn't think much of him using voice instead of video. The question gives him pause, though, not out of suspicion or anything, just because he isn't sure what to say.]

Yeah, me, Sam, Mike, and Em all have dealt with this before. What sort of specifics?

[Telling the whole story would be really long and he doesn't think he'd be able to get through it, but specific questions he can definitely try to answer.]

video; for chris but also open c':

[bekommen]

Shit.

[Nick's eyes are wide with the shock of what she's just heard. Wendigos. Those monsters Chris told her about, when they'd traded stories about being terrorized in Canada, during the blizzard.]

Fuck. I know you wouldn't joke about something as fucked up as this. What the actual fuck.

video;

[thechoiceisyours]

[Chris offers her a weak attempt at a smile, not because anything about this is worth smiling over but because this is just super crazy.]

Yeah.

I guess we're like, even more unlucky than we thought.

[If monsters from their world somehow managed to get here.]

[morphinum]

[ Johanna doesn't wholly register what's happening to her until the 18th, when she writes: ]

does morphlin g slow
it dwn

[thechoiceisyours]

[Because he isn't familiar with morphling he isn't entirely sure what she's asking, but...]

I don't think anything slows it down. We don't know of anything that does, anyway.

[64th]

no

[thechoiceisyours]

There's a whole lot no could apply to here.

[And be warranted.]

Voice

[amos_moses]

Oh, lovely.

[Amos sounds so less than pleased. He knows about wendigo, too, from his own world, and he is very not happy about it. His best friend being a magically-forced cannibal, he knows exactly how dangerous it is to try to live with that... And how dangerous it is to assume everyone around you is safe or sane.]

I hope these wendigo aren't as...vicious as the kind I met with.

Voice

[thechoiceisyours]

Your world has wendigos too?

[That's... A surprise and not a great one, but maybe it could be good if Amos already knows what he's dealing with. Although--]

It's uh... It's hard to get more vicious than these ones are.

[So yeah, no luck there.]

[video - anyone can reply!]

[vendetta]

[ Well, that settles that. Kaz won't be leaving his apartment until this has blown over one way or another. If that means that the people who have been infected have to be killed and revived to undo the transformation, then so be it. At least that is an option here.

He doesn't want to turn into some monster, and he doesn't want to encounter one either. That means laying low. He's even more grateful now that Rey brought him some of her food, and he'll be making an effort to ration it now. ]

Sounds like you had a real mess to deal with back home. [ And having to confront it again has to be, as they said, a complete nightmare. ] I can't be of much help in this situation, but... thanks for getting the word out. [ He nods firmly. ]

[video]

[thechoiceisyours]

Yeah. Of course.

[It's about the only useful thing they can do, at least until things go from bad to worse.]

If it's just you wherever you live, you can probably just... Kind of ride it out. Barricade your doors though; they can go right through them otherwise once they're totally transformed.

[Oh, and slightly offtopic, but this hole mess had distracted him from getting back to Kaz before--]

And I uh... I talked to Fear, about the whole disappearing thing. He was actually really helpful.

[And then went and pulled this whole thing, but whatever.]

video.

[hopecanruinyou]

[fight them with fire, huh? thom hadn't actually thought it was possible to want scarlett around, but apparently there's a first time for everything in this place.]

I don't know how much help I would be with fighting any of them [you know exactly how much help you would be, thom, and that answer is no help, none] but I can heal people?

video.

[thechoiceisyours]

That's okay. It's best if you don't like... Have to fight them at all, so yeah.

[Definitely go the avoiding route if possible. But the offer of healing--]

Yeah? That'd be really helpful.I mean, hopefully it wouldn't be necessary, but...

[But chances are good people are going to need it.]