hadriel | [Video & Voice] cw: for mild gore

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[Video & Voice] cw: for mild gore

Why won't you work the way I want you to?

[ The video was mostly accidently, Will laying in his bed fiddling with the buttons on his phone. Will had been trying to dial numbers from home, all to no avail. He'd tried turning it off and then on again, hoping that resetting it would give him the means of calling home... Not that he had anyone to answer but still. Failing that, he was checking the contact list every 5 minutes, just in case another name was added that he might recognize, or the possibility that his own would vanish. ]

If I take you apart and you break...

[ He sighed and the video feed cuts off for a moment. It next returns a few hours later, after having accidentally, privately called a few people only to hang up quickly after having realized he was calling. As his finger lingered wearily over the connect button, having fallen into a light sleep while trying and testing his methodical and repetitive act. His finger pressed heavy with sleep and called the network, only to show the ceiling of his apartment, the uttered mumblings of his sleeptalking. ]

I wasn't... Thinking straight... I was... Upset... Angry...

[ The feed cuts off as Will's palm enveloped the device. Until a few hours later that is.

The feed seemed to be swinging, Will still holding his phone down by his side as he walked slowly into the night. Clues of his whereabouts in the City came in small sections as the camera swayed in motion with his steps. It was dark and a thick fog seemed to roll in from out of nowhere. Then the noise began. A loud and steady siren, yet Will remained calm. A dark blur moved passed the camera of his phone, steam from the breath of a large animal puffed out the nose and directly on the screen. It was anightmareish stag that dislodged the phone from Will's hand, becoming clear to those viewing as it leaned down and gave a snort from its nose.

Will swayed in his slumber where he stood, then took to walking again, just a few feet in front of the device, he was seen barefoot and dressed in only a sweat soaked t-shirt and boxers, the stag followed close to his side as other motions and shadows from the fog began to emerge. Human-like forms with their arms bound across their chests held in place with a sheath of discolored skin, yet Will continued to sleepwalk towards them. Ash started to gather around the small lens of his phones camera, distorting the view, yet just before it was covered and the screen went a static white and gray, something else from Will's deepest, darkest dreams, scooped the phone up before dropping it suddenly, knocking it hard enough to crack the screen and switch to audio only. Will's trembling, cold, voice in the near distance, speaking out softly as the sirens continued making it harder to hear. He sounded almost as if he was coming around from his slumber, confused and tired. ]

... I brought you a gift... Then thought better of it... I had no idea you were here... Abi- !!

[ Suddenly the sound of fast movement and heavy thudding. He'd fallen? Been pushed down? Something wasn't right at all. Nothing but the sounds of labored breathing and slight grimacing. Will felt out and found his phone in the thick settling ash, holding it up to his face to use as a light. The cracked screen flickering in and out of static and feed, showing a rather disheveled and confused looking Will who had no idea he was broadcasting this whole time. ]

She was just here... Where'd...

[ The screen showed Will's face as his eyes searched the blinding darkness of blackest night and ashfall. Though he was not alone. Something was lurking behind him, just over a shoulder, just at arm's length away. ]

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Hadriel? ... Hadriel ...

[ Okay, you caught his attention now. And that little joke with his name? Will actually appreciated it, giving a half smile and single breathed laugh. ]

Depends on what way you're going, though, huh? ... Where is this Hadriel exactly? And is the weather always this bad?

[ You seem to have woken him up a little. Still confused but at least he's actually listening now. ]

[Well, a tiny reaction is better than no reaction at all. If he emotes at all, that is. Sans knows from experience. So, uh. The guy is either a new arrival or near enough to it that he might as well be.

Not so surprisin', given how many people have been showin' up these past few days.]

Underground city. You new 'round here, pal?

[ Will had been here for a few weeks, maybe about a month now. It was hard to track time when the illness you had specifically fucked with your body clock.

Will had lost hours if not days on end to hallucinations and sleepwalking... He'd just never done it over the network like this before. Until now that is. ]

I er... I came in through the flames of dragons...

[ Which was pretty much true. ]

[So he ain't new - not as new as the bright new arrivals that have come spillin' in at new and unprecedented speeds and densities. Not new; just really, really out of it. Fantastic.]

And you, uh, have never heard the name of the place you're in until now?

Not that I recall...

[ He's been told the name, he just doesn't realize it. A human mind is a fragile place. Mess about with it too much and it's easy for everything to get tangled. ]

Is this ash from the dragons?

[Holding his arm up to his face as he looked up where the sky should be. As he did, something wearing flesh like a sleeping bag wiggled and twitched beside him. It convulsed and readied to do- Well, do something that was for sure. ]

It's fog, mostly.

[So the guy's pretty clearly a wreck. He's thinkin' maybe he should phone the guard or something 'cause uh, seriously. This is...not good. Not of the good. 'Specially with that thing shivering like a plate of skin-colored jello beside him.]

On your left, bud. Look out.

Hhm?

[ Will turned as he was warned. Seeing the thing just as it twitched and wobbled a few more feet closer. Will gasped and stumbled back, just as s section of its chest opened up like some necrotic mouth. Spitting out a sprinkling of distinctive smelling fluid, like formaldehyde.

Will managed to avoid it by skidding back, though he noticed as the fluid hit the floor, it bubbled and eroded like some kind of acid chemical. ]

W-what that!!??

[ If he hadn't been awake before, he was now. Moving towards it in a rush, pushing it over with his shoulder, Will started to run blindly into the fog. In panic and fear. Just what the hell was this place!? ]

[Nothin' like the smell of acid to wake you up properly. Or somethin' along those lines. Whatever it is, it's corrodin' the stone away like melting butter, and both Sans and Will, it seems, have seen enough.

Like a shot of adrenaline right to his system, Will's bookin' it more profoundly now. That's good.]

Like I said. This part of town ain't a real great part of town. Best to get out before anything else like that finds ya.

[ Hopefully Sans doesn't get motion sick, seeing as how Will wasn't even thinking about how he was holding his phone. Letting it sway back and forth in a fast, bouncing motion.

Nothing but Will's heavy breathing, panting out in a mess of air. Evidently, he slowed. Bent over, hands on knees, trying to catch his breath. He didn't have the energy for this, it was overexerting himself, something that could be critical in Will's current undiagnosed state. ]

W-what was that thing?!

[Motion sick? The guy who makes it a habit of cuttin' through space and antispace with a callous disregard for the laws of physics and executes gravitational shifts with the flex of a phalanx? Heh. Never.

Guy's human enough to have lungs. That much gets to be pretty clear from the way he's gaspin' and pantin'.]

One of the things that hangs around in that part of town. Hard to say what it was exactly. [Don't think it matters one way or the other, either way.]

[ If he bottle and sell whatever it was that made him able to do all of that without being sick? He'd be making a fortune.

Will fumbled with his phone, confused and yet thankful Sans bothered to stick with him long enough to get him out of that pickle. ]

T-thank you... I don't know what's wrong with me lately... I keep losing fractions of time... Feels like I'm dreaming, yet I know I'm not asleep.

[ A pause as he finds a nice walled off area to hide in. ]

Who are you? I don't recognize your voice.

Name's Sans.

[Sans the skeleton, he almost adds, but the guy looks goddamn spooked enough. And he's findin' some place to hide himself away - good. Get himself away from the things tryin' to kill him until someone more equipped to handle the sitch comes along.]

You have a lotta sleepin' problems, Will?

Heh, my problem with sleeping is that I don't actually get much of it. Just feel so un-rested and rattled... Like a bird in a cage.

[ He fell silent, covering his phone just to be sure, as he thought he heard something pass him by where he hide. Will waited a while, making sure there was nothing there. ]

Don't suppose you know the way out of here?

Maybe try takin' naps. Naps are very healthful. Very restorative.

[And he's one hundred percent speakin' from experience here.]

No idea where you are right now, bud, sorry. [Not outside the vague, anyway.] All I can say is that ya keep walkin' until you don't see fog anymore.

[ Mildly irritated by the nap comment. Doesn't this guy think he's already tried that? Hmm... He's irked? Maybe he's come around more than he'd noticed. Which is good! ]

For all, I know I could be walking in a circle...

[ Pushing buttons and looking around in the phone's settings. Searching for something like a compass? ]

If I could see the sky... Or there was a tree, a leaf... Some water?

[ Thinking out loud as he strained his eyes in the fog. ]

Sorry, pal. We don't get stuff like that down here.

[He's long since accepted it, at least. Accepted that this is simply his lot in life, to never see the sky except in lost and abandoned moments in time he's doomed to never remember.]

You probably got a few people on their way to help ya right now. You posted this thing to the whole network.

[ An awkward nervous laugh and smile to that. ]

Yeah, I thought you would say that.

[ Wait, what did he just say? Will looked over his device. He'd never noticed the blinking button that if he looked closer, he'd have noticed was an indicator of who was watching or listening... To his embarrassment and concern, it had highlighted the whole of the contacts list. ]

.... Great.

[Ah. One of those accidental types, then.]

Hey, don't sweat it, buddo. Happens to the best of us. You should see what kinda stuff's been posted to this thing before. Always good for a hoot.

[Singing, dancing, philosophizing, ranting, soliloquizing - hell, you can think of it, you can probably see it, free of charge, on your premium Hadriel Cable Network. Or something like that.

Yeah well eh I'd rather stay as anonymous as possible.

[ No such look now then, huh? ]

So you're saying, if I stay put, sooner or later a merry band of do-gooder types will come marching in to save you sorry ass?

[ It's not ideal, but if it would get him out of here in one piece, it would be worth the indignity of being rescued. ]

More or less, yeah.

[He chuckles. The guy's got a cynical streak a mile wide from the sound of things, but hey, Sans can respect that. He ain't in any better a position.]

We got lotsa hero types right around here. Chances are if you're in trouble you can count on one of 'em swoopin' in to save ya. That, or you can get someone at your beck and call if you holler loud enough.

People get in trouble here a lot?

[ This was the first time he'd really had a proper conversation with anyone about this kind of stuff. Maybe it was easier for Will to talk to Sans because he was just a voice on the phone. Nothing to distract him with, like a face or eyes. ]

I don't feel like I'm dreaming anymore. Which doesn't make this any less baffling, of course?.

[ Will remained in place, low and as quiet as he could be, hoping that one of these Heros Sans spoke of, would come by anytime soon. ]

When you've got the gods throwin' stuff at ya every week or so, it's kind of a given, yeah.

[Maybe not the most reassuring he could say. Definitely not, actually, but a soothing lie probably ain't the best route he could go at the moment. 'Specially since Will here will see for himself that things swing pretty rapidly from "tolerable" to "fucked" around here.]

You get used to it.

Heh... Gods.

[ Will is still sceptical on who these so-called Gods actually are. He finds it hard to believe that a City full of reanimated Gods is what's really behind all of this. ]

What's the worst thing you've seen here? What have I got to look forwards to?

[ Will started to creep low through the fog, noticing shadows and movement in the direction he'd come from. Perhaps whatever had tried to get him earlier, had come back for another poke and pick at him. ]

We got zombies. We got foggy bits of the city full of things tryin' to kill ya, but you've seen that. We had, uh, dragons. Four of 'em, all just...destroying pretty much everything. That was fun.

[He's tickin' them all off on his phalanges as he says it, even if it ain't visible over an audio feed.]

So yeah, not a real great time for everybody.

[ Will could recall all of those things, though the zombies were fuzzy in his memory. Maybe he'd been sleepwalking when they were here too? The dragons he could remember, clearly and as for this place? Well.. ]

They should put up a barrier or something to stop people entering here if it's so dangerous.

[ It was then that Will remembered what he'd been told a few days ago, about the Gods. ]

If the Gods need to feed off of our emotions... And there are more than one God... How come it's always things that are made to make us scared, injured or dead? Don't the other Gods do anything for us? I heard one of them was called Hope? Seems a bit one-sided if you ask me.

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