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

[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!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Would that work? But really, even if it doesn't work on the armour it might still be very useful.]

They're really fast, and really strong. So even if your spells don't like, make it possible to hurt them, they'd probably be really useful if you were attacked.

[And about the healing--]

As much as it'd be great if no one got hurt, they're probably going to so if you can heal that's going to help a lot.

[Not that many people escape alive from a wendigo that's close enough to hurt them, but still.]

I'm not much of a front line fighter so I'll be avoiding heading out unless absolutely necessary. I've had to fight a lot of monsters back home but...

[ nothing like this. cie'th were a close resemblance, humans cursed and transformed into hideous creatures but cie'th didn't eat people. well, as far as he knew. ]

That's usually how it goes. [ sadly. a kid his age probably shouldn't think like this but it's the truth of how he's had to live. ] At least I can help out if it's needed.

Avoiding wendigos is definitely the best plan, so yeah, stay inside if it's safe. They don't seem to do doors all that well but they're not like, a guarantee of keeping one out or anything.

[Better to barricade yourself in a room than go out wandering though, by a whole lot.]

What kind of monsters?

[Because he didn't miss that comment, and any sort of experience fighting monsters is going to be better than none.]

And uh... What's your name?

All sorts, really. Some like behemoths are huge and all teeth but there's also some that fly or use magic. There's even some that are as tall as some buildings.

[ because giant turtle monsters, why not. ]

Oh, I'm Hope.

[Well, that all sounds pretty horrible. At least wendigo are more or less human sized.]

And you've like, fought them? So this whole monster thing is nothing new to you, I guess.

[Though Hope isn't exactly an unheard of name, it's still a little bit of a surprise to hear considering their resident harried god.]

Chris. I'd say nice to meet you or whatever, but you know.

[Terrible situation to meet in.]

Yeah, the group I'm with... we've had to travel through some rough areas full of them. Usually the Guardian Corps keeps them out of the cities so I've never dealt with them until recently.

[ and usually he just gets surprise upon hearing his name because he's a boy with a girlish sounding name. he's still getting used to the whole... god thing. ]

If what I've heard about this place is true then we might never get the chance to say it.

[ cause, you know... people being buried alive, cannibal monsters, etc etc. ]

So like... Kind of like here, with them staying outside of where everyone lives until they suddenly don't?

[Hearing about the different worlds people here are from has been one of the best--or most interesting, at least--things about being here, and even in the midst of this mess it's a nice distraction.

And yeah, he can't argue that last point.]

That's true; I think most of us actually only meet for the first time when there's like, some horrible crisis going on anyway.