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

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[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!]

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[He's quiet a moment at that.]

Maybe, but since it'd only affect like four people I don't think he'd bother.

[Not a lot of gain on Fear's end, unless he decides to just take inspiration from the events instead and turn the cave into a giant reenactment of Saw or something. He really hopes not.]

[SERIOUSLY CHRIS DO NOT GIVE FEAR ANY IDEAS.]

I know his kind. I don't think it's the amount of chaos that matters so much as the simple fact that chaos is caused.

Edited 2016-02-23 03:00 (UTC)

[Chris isn't so sure--partially because he can't really deal with the idea of anything else on top of what's going on right now and partially because he doesn't quite agree with the logic--but it's not worth the effort to argue.]

Well, if it does happen I guess we'll be making another announcement.

[How is this what his life has come to?]

Do you know where they come from, or why?

[He knows the immediate why, or the how, at least. They've already covered that part. But leave it to Beyond to make a philosophical inquiry about a type of monster.]

What, the wendigos?

[He assumes that's what the question is about anyway.]

We don't know. They're just like... They're spirits or something, and they're only on this one mountain back home. No idea why.

Yes ... I was just thinking, they must have originated somehow. You know why we've been affected, but what about the creatures you dealt with before?

[He pauses, chewing the end of his thumbnail while he thinks this over. It might be useless speculation, but there might also be some sort of helpful clue.]

I'm afraid I'm not as knowledgeable on mythology as I am on other subjects. I never had reason to believe in anything supernatural until fairly recently.

Yeah, me either.

[He hadn't believed in the supernatural at all until all of this happened, and he isn't sure what he believes now but ultimately he doubts it matters.

As for how the wendigos at home came about..]

Most of them were um... I think they were miners, that got stuck in a cave-in or something?

[Mike knows more about this story than he does, but he's gotten the gist of it. But the main wendigo--the most terrifying one, the one that had killed the stranger and nearly killed Chris--he knows more of the story of.]

One was just... A really bad accident.

A really bad accident ...

[Beyond thoughtfully repeats the words, as if rolling them over in his mouth will unlock some kind of clue.]

I think there are a lot of things that could be said to originate from something of the sort.

[The bit about the miners seems like it might be relevant, though.]

Where was the mine located? You said there was a mountain?

Edited 2016-02-23 04:54 (UTC)

[A really bad accident doesn't even begin to explain it, but he barely wants to think about it let alone say more for many reasons. So he's glad to move on to the other questions.]

Yeah, my friend's parents own a mountain. The mines were built into the mountain or something but I think they stopped being used a really long time ago; I didn't know they were there at all until a few of my friends ended up in them.

[Emily had mentioned them first, when she'd made it back to the lodge, and he remembers distantly Mike making some comments about them while they were all in the basement as well.]

Do you know what was mined there? Coal, perhaps? Or something else?

No idea. If anyone knows it might be Mike?

[Chris doesn't know a lot of the details of anything that was said in the basement before the whole thing about Emily happened, as he'd been pretty dazed for most of it and hadn't paid any attention to the conversation.]

It just seems like the sort of thing that might be a useful piece of information.

[Beyond just can't seem to make the dots connect, though, and for someone as smart as he is, with a brain that's so used to functioning like a well-oiled machine, it's infinitely frustrating to not be able to draw a conclusion.]

Mike is a friend of yours?

I mean, I don't think that whatever they were digging for had any real connection to evil cannibal spirits, but maybe.

[He's pretty sure nothing that could've been mined out of the mountain would be responsible for that, at least not outside of a comic book.]

Yeah. From home.

Sometimes even the smallest clue can turn out to be relevant to an investigation.

[He lets out a loud, frustrated sigh.]

Not always though. [Maybe he's just grasping for straws, searching for a pattern in chaos.]

Edited 2016-02-24 01:16 (UTC)

Yeah, I guess. I don't um... I think each of us has like, some pieces of info the others don't, but it's hard to figure out what exactly.

[Mostly because they don't talk that much about the details of that night; it's a lot easier to just try to move past it, even if that's completely impossible right now with this going on.]

It shouldn't be that difficult. If there are gaps in your knowledge, there's a fairly straightforward solution to filling them. All you'd need to do is gather everyone and go over the timeline together, look for the discrepancies to the pattern.

[That seems like the obvious solution.]

We've got the general timeline down. It's thinking of what tiny details we need to actually like, share and the others might not already know that's the problem.

[It isn't actually just figuring out what's important to say, but that anything but the main events and what they'd needed to immediately know to survive requires thinking too much about what happened. To even make this post he'd had to carefully keep mental distance from how he'd learned everything--and he's pretty sure Sam had to as well--or he would've have been able to get the words out at all.

But he can't try to explain that even if he wants to, which he doesn't, so it's easier to pretend the issue is just in figuring out what's important and what isn't.]

It's like ten hours of nonstop things happening, so there's a lot to cover.

That seems like all the more reason to be thorough. Human memory is notoriously faulty, and it only degrades over time. You could be losing valuable information the longer you wait.

[He's silent for a short time at that, because he knows; not just the normal fading of memories either, but the more dramatic blocks that can happen after a trauma. There are entire parts of the night that are hazy for him, while others he can remember every tiny detail.

That's actually part of the problem here; he remembers perfectly what the stranger told him about wendigos, and what Sam told him was in the stranger's journal once they figured out what was going on here. But when they'd read the journal the first time, and Mike had told them about the sanatorium and the miners... He barely remembers any of it, so out of it from what had happened just before that he'd barely listened and what he did listen to is still pretty much gone now.

But he can't explain any of that, and doesn't want to. Instead he just feels a vague level of frustrated irritation, but he tries not to let it get through in his voice. Beyond is only trying to help figure this out, after all.]

Yeah. Probably. But I don't think we have time for that right now, so we're just gonna have to go with what we know already.

[It's not a good answer, Beyond thinks - that's not how his mind works, and leaving questions unsolved by choice is antithetical to his very existence. But the transformation is already taking its toll on him, diminishing his capacity to think, and he can see this is quickly becoming a circular argument that he doesn't have the patience to follow.]

Very well. What do you propose for a plan of action?

Right now? Don't die, and try to figure out if we have any better options than just... You know.

[Killing everyone infected.]

I'm afraid reading minds isn't part of my skillset. What options are available for those who are affected?

[Don't get snippy with him bro.]

Wait to turn into a monster, or wait for someone to kill them first.

Those options kind of suck, so... Yeah. Finding some different ones is like, first on the to-do list.

[He's ALREADY PART WENDIGO ok, being snippy is the least of Beyond's concerns. :c]

That's awfully grim. [But not entirely unexpected.] Please let us know if you do come up with anything else.

[He would be a lot more patient if he knew that but he hasn't quite realized it yet, alas.]

Yeah. We will, for sure.

[If they figure something out they'll definitely be telling everyone, and then doing whatever they can to make it work.]

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

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