[ well they don't have anything except a shovel and a fishing rod. maybe they could use the hook to cut it open, and it's unfortunate that nico's face is still sort of close to ace's while he's looking at these stitches because that means when he straightens they both get to be very up close and personal with this human-goat hybrid.
and so yeah, he screams because he was not expecting that. thanks! it's just briefly and he stifles it pretty quickly so they don't draw attention before he's glancing down at the dirt. right. museum. fuck. uh. what about the museum. uh. ahhhhhh. he can see the other animals zooming the fuck off though. ]
Did the museum do this to you? [ what the fuck kind of museum is this. ]
will also screams even though he isn't all up in Ace's face - partly because Nico is screaming, partly because the body horror when he looks over is, well, horrifying. but he does slap a paw over his mouth to muffle it.]
Starting to think that museum needs to not reopen-- [what the hellllllll.] There's-- there's gotta be something we can do to help...
[he is also looking around and noting the other animals being ushered away. this does not seem like a good sign so he will do another scan of their surroundings - is something else approaching? or are they all just freaked out because of what they're doing here.]
[i mean that's fair they should scream because it's awful, but it doesn't mean ace doesn't flinch a little. oof.
but. he nods too, when nico asks. he takes a step back, away. puts a hoof up to his face, and closes his eyes for a second, taking a deep breath. and then, after a second, he gives them the best approximation of a smile he can, with his mouth sewn shut. it's okay. he'll be alright.
nothing seems to be approaching, so will can probably guess that the other animals are just afraid of what's going on here. or maybe they can feel the sort of awful pressure that's starting to bear down on the beautiful spring day, the sound of thunder in the distance.
maybe they don't want to end up like this. maybe they know what happens when you try to help someone.]
[ ...but this is ace. (sort of. somehow.) it doesn't feel right now to help, and even if he doesn't understand what sort of fucked up creation of nimona's they're in, he would feel that way about any of them. ace would do the same for them, he thinks, if the situation was reversed. ]
Sorry. [ it's whispered, both sorry for freaking out and sorry that this happened and sorry that they can't do anything. why is the smile somehow fucking worse, god. it's not even scary anymore now it's just kind of sad.
but the sound of thunder definitely makes him tense. ]
I don't want to leave him like this. But we need to find Chiemi's house still. I don't know if we can take him with us though. [ we are not mean enough to make flurry rp a band of animal hybrids even though he looks extremely upset at the idea of leaving someone familiar like this. even if it's not real. it's not real because it's not like they're real furries but it's not like his nightmares have ever made sense to begin with. why would they start now.
maybe ace knows where they should go since all of the other animals split. it's probably the rundown house, but he's still hesitating. ]
[it's so many different levels of wrong, leaving him chained up like this, not doing anything about the stitches on his mouth. ace tries to smile and it makes will's heart break. how can they possibly be meant to just go and leave him here?
there has to be some way to fix this. he doesn't know how, yet. but somehow...
stomach churning, he tries to ignore the pressure in the air and the sense of dread hearing that thunder brings.]
Maybe we'll find something we can use to help him there - in Chiemi's house, or... If we pay the museum a visit.
[and burn it down all over again--]
...if we step away, it won't be to leave him behind. It'll be to find something we can use to get him out of this.
[he shakes his head a little at the sorry, firmly. no, no apologies. he doesn't want them, deserve them, or need them. he just gestures at the road. keep going. you can't save this one, not this time.
doesn't that happen a lot? isn't it terrible how you can just never be in the right place at the right time? how you just lose people over and over? you learn to love them so much, and then they're gone. or worse.
ace moves away, and sits down in front of his house, and carefully takes his cracked chains with him, gingerly making sure they don't break. the further he gets, the more the pressure eases.
in the distance, somewhere on main street, there's a wail. and close by, the door of a house that the alligator went to hide in opens, and the alligator stares out at them. it's not a nice look.]
[ it. it sure happens a lot. it happens constantly.
"Sounds like he must have been pretty tough. So what went wrong?"
"Um. He sacrificed himself a few months ago to save a few of our friends, including Will's father. I don't...exactly know all of the details of how it happened. I haven't asked everything and I wasn't there. But I felt it when it happened, and when Apollo and Meg came back to camp not long after that they confirmed it was true."
"... That's why you don't want to use it. It can't be easy being reminded of him like that."
"Yeah. ...Jason was the first person I really felt like was a friend. I didn't know him for that long, but it was still enough to know he would've done anything for me. And I couldn't even be there to help and try to save him in the end. So coming here and getting one of his powers instead of mine just..."
...
"I wasn’t even crying over Jason’s death. It didn’t seem real to me. How could he just be gone?"
"And Jason meant a great deal to you, yes? He was the first to truly accept you."
"Exactly. And I wasn’t there to help at the end. I couldn’t save him!"
which is worse? not being in the right place at the right time to save a friend? or being in a place at a time and finding out how powerless you really are? it's a question he's wrestled with time and time again, something he's been trying to work through in oceanside itself, and here they are as fucking animals with no powers and no way to help and it's the thing that makes it more difficult to breathe than anything, really.
will says if they leave it's not leaving ace behind. it's finding help. and maybe that's true, but he can't help but watch as the goat gets further away, going back to his created prison. what if that's not true? what if leaving him really is the wrong answer and he's just telling them to go?
the wailing from main street startles him, as does this alligator just. staring at them? what. literally what, bro? he stares back as if challenging the alligator to fight them. ]
Chiemi's first. And then the museum. And then we're coming back to save him.
[not coming back to save him isn't an option. neither one of them has ever been the type to be able to just walk away from someone in need. even now, it's hard to do; even now, reminding himself that they're not equipped to deal with this yet and they'll do more harm than good trying to force it when there's probably some actual solution out there that they haven't found, it feels like they're abandoning him.
what good are they as heroes - not superheroes, but as the demigod heroes they've been raised up to be - if they can't even help their friend? and what good is he, as a doctor, if he can't do anything to help ease ace's pain and put this right? because it has to be painful, doesn't it? he can't imagine what they were seeing was painless.
as a medic, he's used to seeing people at the end of things - as a last resort. but he's never wanted to be the last resort for anyone. he's never wanted for anyone to have to get to that point. it's why he throws himself right into the thick of things on the battlefield, so he can treat them before it gets that bad.
so walking away from here without doing anything for ace now...
it needles at him, and even as he holds tight to nico's paw and they head for the rundown house they're pretty sure is chiemi's, he can't help but look back at ace as they go. the pressure around them has eased, but he still feels a little uncertain.
still, they have to move forward.
he meets the alligator's gaze when he looks ahead of them again.
[they move forward. the thunder stops, and the bright, beautiful spring day returns. just another day in the village!
the alligator is staring at the two of you like you've done something wrong. nobody talks to the goat. nobody. so why did you? that's different. as he peeks out of his house and watches you pass with an angry look, a look that could kill if that were possible, another door to a house on the side opens. a dog joins in the staring. they just watch you the whole time as you make your way to chiemi's old house.
it's broken down, a little, but that seems strange to you. she didn't move away that long ago. maybe like a day or two? so it shouldn't look like this. it kind of looks like someone tried to burn the house down, in fact. it might be dangerous to go inside, considering how ashy the foundations are, but that probably doesn't matter to them, huh.]
[ they're both likely lost a little in their thoughts. nico about failing to save people he's come to care for (and perturbed by his mouth being shut because that was a fun nightmare he had himself just a few weeks ago), and will about failing to help anyone before it's too late. two sides of the same coin.
it's not where he wanted to connect, and he doesn't entirely know what will's thinking but he can guess. they've talked about this. they know each other's strengths and weaknesses and worst fears enough to be able to read between the lines.
so they're holding pauses and probably both giving this alligator a death glare. the dog comes to join the alligator in the staring, and as they walk he doesn't remove his gaze. luckily, animal crossing villages are pretty easy to navigate without having to look. the fact that the spring day returns disturbs him, like just talking to ace had changed the story.
but yeah. you're right. a burnt down house does not matter to them especially since they both investigated a burnt konbini a week before. ]
...think someone beat us here? [ that is not going to stop them, but he's waiting for will to regain his bearings, too, before they head in. ]
Probably. The note did say they were worried about "him" destroying it.
[was it the raccoon? it was probably the raccoon...
anyway, he gives nico's paw a little fortifying squeeze, ignores the gazes of the animals who are probably going to set the house on fire again while they're in it, and... in they go! he will very carefully try to ease the door open. hopefully nothing will immediately fall on their heads and kill them.]
[it's a close thing, but the house does not collapse on them yet.
when they walk in, it's a cute little house. it's only one room, but it was probably nice before it was set on fire. there's piles of rubble and ash here and there. a bed, sidetable, and a record player, which is playing a distorted, warbling version of Only Me. there's so much burn damage that it's hard to tell if there's anything of note on the walls or floor, but it'd be easy enough to dig through rubble if they want to.]
[ love that i wrote "holding pauses" instead of paws but that's fine anyway. so into the house they go and they do not die immediately. but he is deeply frowning. ]
...well. I'm going to destroy "him" when I find him, then. [ the music is a little creepy. but they can start to go through the rubble, sure.
is there anything of note around the bed or sidetable? any drawers to maybe go through? ]
[digging through the rubble, yeah! but it will also occur to will to check under the pillow, inside the pillowcase, and under the mattress of the bed. just in case.
he's half tempted to take the record off the record player. he glances at it a couple of times while they're searching.]
the music plays on loop as they search! first, there's nothing inside the pillowcase or under the pillow, but under the mattress is a file that is a little crispy. in the bedside table, there's a sawed off shotgun. waow.
in the rubble itself, there's a potion bottle. it's filled with reddish-pink liquid that seems to move around independently of how you hold the bottle.]
anyway cool, did you know nobody in pjo uses guns. while will's checking the bed more thoroughly, nico is taking this gun out of the table and checking it over. i guess the question now is does this look like it's been used? can he open it to see in the barrel if there're any shells inside? i guess they have to let go of hands to do this. ]
This was definitely her house. [ glancing. ] Find anything?
[the gun has not been used, but there are bullets inside of it. don't make me think about guns too hard after last weekend.
will's very careful to not destroy the contents, which is a good thing, because they're very fragile.
in this file is a lot of handwritten notes and blurry photographs detailing something that chiemi, or maybe multiple people, must have been tracking over time. the director, who was recently the mayor until she changed her title very abruptly, has been making a lot of strange changes to the town. visitors are no longer welcome from outside the village. there have been notices of a monster stalking around the boundary of the village, and she wants it taken care of, so she's instituted a town-wide decree. everybody must raised 65,000 bells, so that she can get rid of the monster once and for all.
but the notes mention that weird things have been happening, and that villagers have protested because they either didn't have the funds or couldn't meet the deadline fast enough - and when they did protest, they were escorted to the museum. when they came back out, their mouths were sewn shut, and they were reluctant to interact with anybody in any way other than just waving and smiling and doing what good neighbors do.
and then, one of chiemi's partners in figuring out the conspiracy, norma, was found dead with a shotgun blast through the chest, in the middle of her house. there was a shotgun found in chiemi's house, and the other villagers, furious at what she'd done, drove her out of town.
the last note in here is a goodbye - a sorry, for not being able to finish what she started.
also, unrelated to the file, there's the sound of a kcchkk, and a thud against the wall, and a hissing sound... huh! probably normal!]
[ i will not make you think too hard about the gun, because nico doesn't know or care. can he put the gun in his inventory though. he has a few wheel slots left. ]
What's it say? [ he will continue to search the rubble, but he spots the potion bottle. hello? he will scoop it up to take a look, holding it still to eyeball it. can he discern what sort of liquid it is? what's it doing?
and then there's a noise and he just kind of pauses. ]
...did you hear that. [ can he pinpoint which direction the sound is coming from? ]
[will, out of habit, tries to reach for his phone in his pocket to take a picture of the notes, but since he has neither a phone nor pants, he just ends up patting his leg. this is fine.
instead, he will explain the contents of the file to nico while he's searching through the rubble.]
The director - formerly the mayor - was forcing everyone to raise a bunch of money to deal with a... monster. [he hesitates, because he's not sure he likes the implications of this, actually, given nimona's hero name and the fact that they think this has something to do with her.] And making a bunch of other changes, too. Visitors from the outside aren't allowed here anymore. ...people who protested were taken to the museum and... uh. Their mouths were... sewn shut. And they didn't really want to interact with other people except by smiling and waving and "being a good neighbor".
[suddenly he's thinking they need to go deal with the director? hello? what the fuck is this.]
Chiemi and Norma were investigating it, but then Norma was found dead of a shotgun injury and they foud a shotgun in Chiemi's house so they ran her out and--
[there's that noise.]
...yeah. I heard that. We probably don't want to stick around here too much longer.
[nico now has a gun in his hammerspace inventory wheel. that's pretty neat.
the potion bottle is hard to figure out, because it's such a weird consistency, but it seems a little like blood, maybe? or blood mixed with something else. the pink bits separate from the red, and if he holds it and rotates it, he can see the pink bits forming shapes. a cat's paw, a rhino horn, an armadillo tail.
huh, wild!
anyway, the house explodes.
there's a huge boom right outside the wall, and everything goes up in flames, blinding them both momentarily. a flash of heat overwhelms both of them, and the ceiling of the house caves in on top of them.
and see, this would kill someone normally, but. it doesn't kill the two of you. you're hard to kill, you always have been, since you can remember. an arrow hits you? no big deal. a sword stabs clean through you? eh. it hurts, but you heal fast.
so it hurts, but... you're not dead. you are, however, trapped under a bunch of rubble and burning building.]
[ okay, cool. he doesn't even get time to admire his new gun (sure) or even fully register the liquid (animals he recognizes, thoughts that this has to be a blood sample from their "monster") before the whole house explodes.
it's more innate instinct than anything that makes him move, potion in his pocket as he whips around to grab will and tackle them both to the ground. they are both hard to kill. they have both been raised and trained to fight, to know when there's danger and to work quickly to survive. it's unsurprising that he can see will doing the same and it's likely the reason they both collide and hit the ground, nico landing above him as the building caves in around them. the rubble falls over both of them and he grits his teeth to avoid from crying out at the impact because ow, motherfucker, ow. ]
Will! Are you okay? [ that's the first priority, never mind that he may be bleeding and bruised now. both of them are still trapped and the heat isn't wavering, the faint scent of smoke rising as he wiggles his wolf limbs uselessly to try and free them both. how buried are they actually. ]
[FUCK. this is bad. this is so, so bad. will acts on instinct - the file goes safely into hammerspace because that's just how animal crossing works - and lunges at nico to try to shield him with his own body, but of course nico is doing the exact same thing. they collide and go down hard, and will grits his teeth as his head hits the ground and nico lands above him and that stupid rubble covers them both.]
I'm fine--
[he's fine. he is absolutely bleeding and bruised and his fur is probably going to end up matted and gross, but that's not the important thing here. he wriggles a little, and manages to free his paw just enough to reach up for nico's face]
Are you? Did you - [he coughs. there's smoke in here now and he hates it.] Gods, I can't heal you like this...
[you are very buried! like under an entire roof. there is a whole rafter that came down and bonked both of them. so they're under that, and a bunch of rubble, with smoke curling up around them. the fire is spreading, too. you are burned and battered around, and probably missing fur in places. the balding came for you...
it'll take some effort to get out but it's possible. it'll fuck up your paws to do it, unless you can think of some other way to get out from the in-process burning-down house.]
[ well this sucks. they've both experienced a lot of pain before. they've fought in multiple wars. they were just in tartarus for hades' sake, they'd been battered and bruised and thrown around and nearly died multiple times.
and yet here they are. stuck without any sort of power, burning and buried but unfortunately alive. ]
I'm okay. [ he wheezes, because the rubble knocked the wind out of him and yet he's still leaning into the touch as if to reassure him. ] Don't think about that, we have to move. [ they can freak out about healing later? right now, they are buried as shit. he uses his shoulders to try and push some of the debris off, shifting to where the rafter drags over his back as he's working to push so they have room to move. he's going to try to access his shovel though to use and push some stuff off in addition to his paws. ]
What happened? How did the whole building... [ maybe focus on getting out, instead. but he's coughing as the smoke rises into his nose and he shakes his head. ]
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and so yeah, he screams because he was not expecting that. thanks! it's just briefly and he stifles it pretty quickly so they don't draw attention before he's glancing down at the dirt. right. museum. fuck. uh. what about the museum. uh. ahhhhhh. he can see the other animals zooming the fuck off though. ]
Did the museum do this to you? [ what the fuck kind of museum is this. ]
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will also screams even though he isn't all up in Ace's face - partly because Nico is screaming, partly because the body horror when he looks over is, well, horrifying. but he does slap a paw over his mouth to muffle it.]
Starting to think that museum needs to not reopen-- [what the hellllllll.] There's-- there's gotta be something we can do to help...
[he is also looking around and noting the other animals being ushered away. this does not seem like a good sign so he will do another scan of their surroundings - is something else approaching? or are they all just freaked out because of what they're doing here.]
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but. he nods too, when nico asks. he takes a step back, away. puts a hoof up to his face, and closes his eyes for a second, taking a deep breath. and then, after a second, he gives them the best approximation of a smile he can, with his mouth sewn shut. it's okay. he'll be alright.
nothing seems to be approaching, so will can probably guess that the other animals are just afraid of what's going on here. or maybe they can feel the sort of awful pressure that's starting to bear down on the beautiful spring day, the sound of thunder in the distance.
maybe they don't want to end up like this. maybe they know what happens when you try to help someone.]
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Sorry. [ it's whispered, both sorry for freaking out and sorry that this happened and sorry that they can't do anything. why is the smile somehow fucking worse, god. it's not even scary anymore now it's just kind of sad.
but the sound of thunder definitely makes him tense. ]
I don't want to leave him like this. But we need to find Chiemi's house still. I don't know if we can take him with us though. [ we are not mean enough to make flurry rp a band of animal hybrids even though he looks extremely upset at the idea of leaving someone familiar like this. even if it's not real. it's not real because it's not like they're real furries but it's not like his nightmares have ever made sense to begin with. why would they start now.
maybe ace knows where they should go since all of the other animals split. it's probably the rundown house, but he's still hesitating. ]
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[it's so many different levels of wrong, leaving him chained up like this, not doing anything about the stitches on his mouth. ace tries to smile and it makes will's heart break. how can they possibly be meant to just go and leave him here?
there has to be some way to fix this. he doesn't know how, yet. but somehow...
stomach churning, he tries to ignore the pressure in the air and the sense of dread hearing that thunder brings.]
Maybe we'll find something we can use to help him there - in Chiemi's house, or... If we pay the museum a visit.
[and burn it down all over again--]
...if we step away, it won't be to leave him behind. It'll be to find something we can use to get him out of this.
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doesn't that happen a lot? isn't it terrible how you can just never be in the right place at the right time? how you just lose people over and over? you learn to love them so much, and then they're gone. or worse.
ace moves away, and sits down in front of his house, and carefully takes his cracked chains with him, gingerly making sure they don't break. the further he gets, the more the pressure eases.
in the distance, somewhere on main street, there's a wail. and close by, the door of a house that the alligator went to hide in opens, and the alligator stares out at them. it's not a nice look.]
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"Sounds like he must have been pretty tough. So what went wrong?"
"Um. He sacrificed himself a few months ago to save a few of our friends, including Will's father. I don't...exactly know all of the details of how it happened. I haven't asked everything and I wasn't there. But I felt it when it happened, and when Apollo and Meg came back to camp not long after that they confirmed it was true."
"... That's why you don't want to use it. It can't be easy being reminded of him like that."
"Yeah. ...Jason was the first person I really felt like was a friend. I didn't know him for that long, but it was still enough to know he would've done anything for me. And I couldn't even be there to help and try to save him in the end. So coming here and getting one of his powers instead of mine just..."
...
"I wasn’t even crying over Jason’s death. It didn’t seem real to me. How could he just be gone?"
"And Jason meant a great deal to you, yes? He was the first to truly accept you."
"Exactly. And I wasn’t there to help at the end. I couldn’t save him!"
which is worse? not being in the right place at the right time to save a friend? or being in a place at a time and finding out how powerless you really are? it's a question he's wrestled with time and time again, something he's been trying to work through in oceanside itself, and here they are as fucking animals with no powers and no way to help and it's the thing that makes it more difficult to breathe than anything, really.
will says if they leave it's not leaving ace behind. it's finding help. and maybe that's true, but he can't help but watch as the goat gets further away, going back to his created prison. what if that's not true? what if leaving him really is the wrong answer and he's just telling them to go?
the wailing from main street startles him, as does this alligator just. staring at them? what. literally what, bro? he stares back as if challenging the alligator to fight them. ]
Chiemi's first. And then the museum. And then we're coming back to save him.
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[not coming back to save him isn't an option. neither one of them has ever been the type to be able to just walk away from someone in need. even now, it's hard to do; even now, reminding himself that they're not equipped to deal with this yet and they'll do more harm than good trying to force it when there's probably some actual solution out there that they haven't found, it feels like they're abandoning him.
what good are they as heroes - not superheroes, but as the demigod heroes they've been raised up to be - if they can't even help their friend? and what good is he, as a doctor, if he can't do anything to help ease ace's pain and put this right? because it has to be painful, doesn't it? he can't imagine what they were seeing was painless.
as a medic, he's used to seeing people at the end of things - as a last resort. but he's never wanted to be the last resort for anyone. he's never wanted for anyone to have to get to that point. it's why he throws himself right into the thick of things on the battlefield, so he can treat them before it gets that bad.
so walking away from here without doing anything for ace now...
it needles at him, and even as he holds tight to nico's paw and they head for the rundown house they're pretty sure is chiemi's, he can't help but look back at ace as they go. the pressure around them has eased, but he still feels a little uncertain.
still, they have to move forward.
he meets the alligator's gaze when he looks ahead of them again.
what. what do you want.]
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the alligator is staring at the two of you like you've done something wrong. nobody talks to the goat. nobody. so why did you? that's different. as he peeks out of his house and watches you pass with an angry look, a look that could kill if that were possible, another door to a house on the side opens. a dog joins in the staring. they just watch you the whole time as you make your way to chiemi's old house.
it's broken down, a little, but that seems strange to you. she didn't move away that long ago. maybe like a day or two? so it shouldn't look like this. it kind of looks like someone tried to burn the house down, in fact. it might be dangerous to go inside, considering how ashy the foundations are, but that probably doesn't matter to them, huh.]
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it's not where he wanted to connect, and he doesn't entirely know what will's thinking but he can guess. they've talked about this. they know each other's strengths and weaknesses and worst fears enough to be able to read between the lines.
so they're holding pauses and probably both giving this alligator a death glare. the dog comes to join the alligator in the staring, and as they walk he doesn't remove his gaze. luckily, animal crossing villages are pretty easy to navigate without having to look. the fact that the spring day returns disturbs him, like just talking to ace had changed the story.
but yeah. you're right. a burnt down house does not matter to them especially since they both investigated a burnt konbini a week before. ]
...think someone beat us here? [ that is not going to stop them, but he's waiting for will to regain his bearings, too, before they head in. ]
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[was it the raccoon? it was probably the raccoon...
anyway, he gives nico's paw a little fortifying squeeze, ignores the gazes of the animals who are probably going to set the house on fire again while they're in it, and... in they go! he will very carefully try to ease the door open. hopefully nothing will immediately fall on their heads and kill them.]
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when they walk in, it's a cute little house. it's only one room, but it was probably nice before it was set on fire. there's piles of rubble and ash here and there. a bed, sidetable, and a record player, which is playing a distorted, warbling version of Only Me. there's so much burn damage that it's hard to tell if there's anything of note on the walls or floor, but it'd be easy enough to dig through rubble if they want to.]
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...well. I'm going to destroy "him" when I find him, then. [ the music is a little creepy. but they can start to go through the rubble, sure.
is there anything of note around the bed or sidetable? any drawers to maybe go through? ]
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[digging through the rubble, yeah! but it will also occur to will to check under the pillow, inside the pillowcase, and under the mattress of the bed. just in case.
he's half tempted to take the record off the record player. he glances at it a couple of times while they're searching.]
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the music plays on loop as they search! first, there's nothing inside the pillowcase or under the pillow, but under the mattress is a file that is a little crispy. in the bedside table, there's a sawed off shotgun. waow.
in the rubble itself, there's a potion bottle. it's filled with reddish-pink liquid that seems to move around independently of how you hold the bottle.]
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anyway cool, did you know nobody in pjo uses guns. while will's checking the bed more thoroughly, nico is taking this gun out of the table and checking it over. i guess the question now is does this look like it's been used? can he open it to see in the barrel if there're any shells inside? i guess they have to let go of hands to do this. ]
This was definitely her house. [ glancing. ] Find anything?
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[he very carefully eases the file out from under the mattress and very carefully opens it! he is. trying not to crumble it to soot.
man he hates not holding nico's paw.
what does this file say?]
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will's very careful to not destroy the contents, which is a good thing, because they're very fragile.
in this file is a lot of handwritten notes and blurry photographs detailing something that chiemi, or maybe multiple people, must have been tracking over time. the director, who was recently the mayor until she changed her title very abruptly, has been making a lot of strange changes to the town. visitors are no longer welcome from outside the village. there have been notices of a monster stalking around the boundary of the village, and she wants it taken care of, so she's instituted a town-wide decree. everybody must raised 65,000 bells, so that she can get rid of the monster once and for all.
but the notes mention that weird things have been happening, and that villagers have protested because they either didn't have the funds or couldn't meet the deadline fast enough - and when they did protest, they were escorted to the museum. when they came back out, their mouths were sewn shut, and they were reluctant to interact with anybody in any way other than just waving and smiling and doing what good neighbors do.
and then, one of chiemi's partners in figuring out the conspiracy, norma, was found dead with a shotgun blast through the chest, in the middle of her house. there was a shotgun found in chiemi's house, and the other villagers, furious at what she'd done, drove her out of town.
the last note in here is a goodbye - a sorry, for not being able to finish what she started.
also, unrelated to the file, there's the sound of a kcchkk, and a thud against the wall, and a hissing sound... huh! probably normal!]
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What's it say? [ he will continue to search the rubble, but he spots the potion bottle. hello? he will scoop it up to take a look, holding it still to eyeball it. can he discern what sort of liquid it is? what's it doing?
and then there's a noise and he just kind of pauses. ]
...did you hear that. [ can he pinpoint which direction the sound is coming from? ]
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instead, he will explain the contents of the file to nico while he's searching through the rubble.]
The director - formerly the mayor - was forcing everyone to raise a bunch of money to deal with a... monster. [he hesitates, because he's not sure he likes the implications of this, actually, given nimona's hero name and the fact that they think this has something to do with her.] And making a bunch of other changes, too. Visitors from the outside aren't allowed here anymore. ...people who protested were taken to the museum and... uh. Their mouths were... sewn shut. And they didn't really want to interact with other people except by smiling and waving and "being a good neighbor".
[suddenly he's thinking they need to go deal with the director? hello? what the fuck is this.]
Chiemi and Norma were investigating it, but then Norma was found dead of a shotgun injury and they foud a shotgun in Chiemi's house so they ran her out and--
[there's that noise.]
...yeah. I heard that. We probably don't want to stick around here too much longer.
[is the place gonna explode.]
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the potion bottle is hard to figure out, because it's such a weird consistency, but it seems a little like blood, maybe? or blood mixed with something else. the pink bits separate from the red, and if he holds it and rotates it, he can see the pink bits forming shapes. a cat's paw, a rhino horn, an armadillo tail.
huh, wild!
anyway, the house explodes.
there's a huge boom right outside the wall, and everything goes up in flames, blinding them both momentarily. a flash of heat overwhelms both of them, and the ceiling of the house caves in on top of them.
and see, this would kill someone normally, but. it doesn't kill the two of you. you're hard to kill, you always have been, since you can remember. an arrow hits you? no big deal. a sword stabs clean through you? eh. it hurts, but you heal fast.
so it hurts, but... you're not dead. you are, however, trapped under a bunch of rubble and burning building.]
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it's more innate instinct than anything that makes him move, potion in his pocket as he whips around to grab will and tackle them both to the ground. they are both hard to kill. they have both been raised and trained to fight, to know when there's danger and to work quickly to survive. it's unsurprising that he can see will doing the same and it's likely the reason they both collide and hit the ground, nico landing above him as the building caves in around them. the rubble falls over both of them and he grits his teeth to avoid from crying out at the impact because ow, motherfucker, ow. ]
Will! Are you okay? [ that's the first priority, never mind that he may be bleeding and bruised now. both of them are still trapped and the heat isn't wavering, the faint scent of smoke rising as he wiggles his wolf limbs uselessly to try and free them both. how buried are they actually. ]
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[FUCK. this is bad. this is so, so bad. will acts on instinct - the file goes safely into hammerspace because that's just how animal crossing works - and lunges at nico to try to shield him with his own body, but of course nico is doing the exact same thing. they collide and go down hard, and will grits his teeth as his head hits the ground and nico lands above him and that stupid rubble covers them both.]
I'm fine--
[he's fine. he is absolutely bleeding and bruised and his fur is probably going to end up matted and gross, but that's not the important thing here. he wriggles a little, and manages to free his paw just enough to reach up for nico's face]
Are you? Did you - [he coughs. there's smoke in here now and he hates it.] Gods, I can't heal you like this...
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it'll take some effort to get out but it's possible. it'll fuck up your paws to do it, unless you can think of some other way to get out from the in-process burning-down house.]
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and yet here they are. stuck without any sort of power, burning and buried but unfortunately alive. ]
I'm okay. [ he wheezes, because the rubble knocked the wind out of him and yet he's still leaning into the touch as if to reassure him. ] Don't think about that, we have to move. [ they can freak out about healing later? right now, they are buried as shit. he uses his shoulders to try and push some of the debris off, shifting to where the rafter drags over his back as he's working to push so they have room to move. he's going to try to access his shovel though to use and push some stuff off in addition to his paws. ]
What happened? How did the whole building... [ maybe focus on getting out, instead. but he's coughing as the smoke rises into his nose and he shakes his head. ]
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