Apocalypse RP #3: The Vanishing

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Nix hears a voice somewhere off to his right in the darkness. "They didn't....huh.... follow us... hah," it says between breaths. "stopped....huh....not long....hah...after we started running. Whew."

[Philote]

"Let's agree never to go back to that neighborhood again"

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Ben nodded furiously, his jaw locked up with fear. clutched desperately to his cleaver, his hands turned white from the effort. His eyes darted around their new surroundings, seeing malice in every shadow and movement just beyond wherever he looked. The metal blade of the clever began to vibrate...

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Tyler backed a half-step away from Ben, out of his cleaver's potential flight path. After surviving a fire, taking an accidental cleaver to the head would have been too ironic to bear.

Still keeping his eye on his nervous friend's hands, he asked the other, "So...have any of you got supplies? We don't have much time to lose, so we'd better take a quick inventory and pool our resources..."

[Philote]

"Let's get out of this neighborhood. Head towards some shops. Try to find some place that isn't going to try and kill us" Nix brainstorms.

"We might not even be in trouble for food if we find enough supermarkets to hunt around in. I doubt there has been much looting with all the possible looters vanished into thin air."

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

You're actually in luck, as between Nix and Ben you managed to scoop up a good number of supplies.

(The half a jar of pickles, graham crackers, 4 bottles of water, 2 cans of beans, 2 rolls of bandages,  1 bottle of painkillers, and the tube of lotion for use on rashes and burn and in the pack.)

As the four of you march through the dense shrubbery, along discarded paths probably cut by the bicycles of neighborhood kids it strikes you again just how silent the night around you is save for your own footsteps. The gentle babbling of a small stream is a relief when you hear it.

It's a small stream, just shallow enough for the neighborhood kids hunt salamanders in if they could make it there and it hadn't recently rained. The water only comes up to your ankles in most places, but the banks are steep and muddy and difficult to climb. Luckily, you can see downstream that an old tree truck had fallen across sometime in the past, and created a perfect bridge.

But you'd have to ask the thing sitting on it to move first.

You can barely make the things shape out in the scarce moonlight afforded through the twisting limbs above you, but it's outline is more than enough to tell you that it's big. As you watch it reaches down beside it on the log, and after a few moments there are crunching noises as it eats... something.

[Philote]

"I'd rather take my chance sliding down and climbing up the other side" Nix comments quietly.

"After the dogs, I don't think I'm going to even take a step in that things direction. So if nobody disagrees, we should make our way across before the sun comes up and gives us away."

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Tyler gets an uneasy shiver at the sight.

"I agree with Nix. Let's try to find somewhere safe to rest, and I can increase and divvy up the food we have. Rations should keep us, at least, a couple days, if we're careful. Let's not try our luck."

Whatever it was--a bear, Bigfoot, or some ungodly upgrade of those mutant dogs they'd left behind--Tyler was in no mood to get acquainted.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Jeff is noticeably silent, seemingly transfixed by the thing on the log. "I don't think..." he starts, then he moves a little closer to the treeline. In the moonlight you seem him bow his head, as if concentrating. He inclines his head toward all of you, individually, swiveling around like he's trying to get a bead on...something.

Finally, he cups his ears and points himself toward it. He just stands there like that for a bit, then you hear him swallow. "It, uh...." he starts shakily. "It's got no....there's just....that thing doesn't have a heartbeat, guys. Like, it's there, it's got something, but it's sure as hell not a heartbeat. I'm not sure what-"

Another crunch from the creature cuts him off, then he laughs slightly. Very slightly, and without any joy. "Well, at least it's not eating bones. I know what that sounds like, you know?" he laughs again.

[Philote]

"I don't like it" Nix says "And heartbeat or not, I'm not trusting it. Let's get across and get out here."

Nix walks in the opposite direction from the creature for a couple minutes and then slides down towards the creek. Moving quickly to the other side, Nix phases his hands into the mud to find something more stable to hold onto as he climbs up the other side.

[Myself]

(Ok. It's just radically different to the other Apocalypse RP's. I'm might stay out of this one, at least for now.)

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Luckily for him there's a myriad of root systems snaking their way through the soil and Nix easily finds them and begins to hoist himself up the edge. He climbs. He climbs and climbs. He climbs some more, moving hand over hand, pulling himself up the muddy bank. Hand over hand, foot over foot he climbs.

It's taking a long time. When he looks up, the edge of the bank is just as far away as when he began.

[Philote]

Nix curses and lays flat against the mud, doing his best to be unnoticeable.

Speaking softly he says "Jeff. Don't let the others come down. Have Ben or Tyler shine a flashlight once to let me know you're listening."

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"It's no good, pal." comes a voice from beside you. The voices owner is a pale young man in his late twenties, with wispy blond hair and a thin face. A bag rests by his foot, and he's wearing a long blue overcoat. He's leaning on the steep bank beside you, having appeared seemingly from nowhere, and though its clear he's speaking to you he's actually facing away and speaking directly to the air. "You're in his power now. Your friends too, but the poor stupid bastards don't know it. Nothing you want to can happen anymore. Warning poor fools to stay out of the trench, for example. Heh Heh."

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Up on the bank the rest of you see the man who just appeared, and can hear him speaking clearly.

[Philote]

Nix's vision snaps to the man as he speaks.

Great, another problem to make his day even worse.

"And who are you supposed to be" Nix asks, still keeping his voice low and really hoping that Jeff had gotten the message and relayed it to the others.

(Does Nix notice if this man is facing in the same way the creature is or if the man deliberately keeping his vision from the creature / ravine?)

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

(He doesn't seem to be so concerned with the creature. His eyes flick everywhere, restlessly, except in your direction.)

There's an uncomfortable silence, before he smiles. "Hahaha, you're trying to talk to me right? What did I just tell you, man; nothing you want can happen anymore. That's what it means to be stuck in that guys territory, everything you try to do is just slightly beyond your reach. You try to talk to me, I can't hear you. I try to signal you, you can't see me." he reaches up and gives his ear two taps, then points them toward the opposite bank. "Talk so I can hear you."

-------

Everyone up on the bank heard what Nix just said.

[Philote]

Nix frowns, thinking for a moment. It was a gamble, but if he was already in that creature's power anyways then it was worth a shot.

Without another second of hesitation, Nix pushes off the side of the ravine wall. He yells as he tries to land as inmost within the ravine as possible, doing his best to make himself noticeable as he does so.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Nix leaps up into the air, screaming, and comes crashing down into the mud just slightly farther away from the bank than he was before.

The man angles his head to look at him, before turning away and speaking to the air again. "Let me guess: tried to jump in to jump out?" He angels his head so Nix can see him smiling without looking at him. "I was confused about that to, when I first met Tantalus. I call him that, because that's how the big guys power works. It's a cruel power, effects even him. You reach up for fruit, you reach down for water, and you come up just short of what you were trying to do. Most people can't even work out how to move in this territory." He walks across the river bed to the opposite bank, his back to Nix, and fixes his gaze on the group above him on the bank.

Philote:  "But, if you can work out the tricks, all those little loopholes, learn how to work with it, it makes for a fantastic hunting ground."

The man in blue stares up at the group on the bank, hands folded behind his back, clearly speaking to them and yet there are no words they can hear.

Phi:  There's a small army surplus combat knife in his hands that you can see. "Of course, there are some disadvantages. For example, I want to hide my intentions from you but that ain't gonna happen because of Tantalus. And there are things I really don't want you to know, like you can move where you want if you want to get to a spot just further along than where you intend to end up. But it's only a bit, see? Like Tantalus, what I want is only slightly beyond my reach. I don't have to tell you everything, just a bit. The pros really do outweigh the cons, see?. And really, results speak for themselves, hehe. For example, you idiots up on the bank?"

He half turns his head back to Nix, smirk tugging at the corners of his face, before turning back.

Phi:  "I want you to see me gut your friend like a fish!" He rounds on you, knife flicking in the moonlight, and slices downward.

The man tuns back toward Nix, moves, and then they both vanish.

[Philote]

Vault:"So let me get this straight" Nix says as he raises his and phases it through the knife and towards the man's hand.

"If I try to disarm you, then I'll only succeed in stopping your attack instead? Though I doubt you will hear this, me speaking directly to you like this."

(Feel free to edit this if I do something the power doesn't allow or if you think the others should be able to notice something. I believe Nix still has his knife as well as a flashlight in his pocket and some other things but tell me if I'm wrong."

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[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Phi:  He doesn't respond, but you do arrest the knife as your hand literally slides within his. At this his manic grin only spreads wider. He calls out, looking you square in the eyes.

You all hear a voice coming from the creekbed, the voice of the man who was talking before, but can see no one. "Tantalus? Oh Tantalus, do you see? This one is smart. So very clever, hahahehe. Most have instinct take over and try to block the first stroke, but this one figured it out from the word go. Is this a test, Tantalus? Does this mean Ascension draws near?"

Phi: The knife vanishes from his hand. No, that not the proper word. The knife vanishes into his hand. You barely have time to register that before he makes a hacking, choking sound. You notice a gleam between his teeth before it registers as the knife, which he rolls blade first out of his mouth and spits at an angle that should, in any logical world, carry it right past your ear.