deercountry | venus november catch-all

[ his sleep is restless, his dreams full of meaning he can't quite identify. his hands glow bright, so bright they almost hurt to look at; he looks from a dozen eyes at once, the crossed feeds of his rods and cones almost overwhelming to look past. but he has to look. there's something here. band shirts and cigarettes, lingerie and skin tearing open... he has to find them. he needs to find them. he sees an alleyway in the town outskirts, a place in the darkness, and as he wakes up with a start he knows he has to go there. fast. fast enough to find those scents and sensations. fast enough that they won't fade away.

he grabs his radio. he dresses for the cold - at least, as much as he can, his welcome robes atop his shirt and slacks. and then, as he steps into the alleyway, he smells something odd. something... fungal? maybe.

and then he promptly passes out. oh, terrific. he probably should have warned shiro, huh.

he wakes up in an unfamiliar place. it looks like... a stable, almost? a stall to keep people in - and not for long, judging from the sickly sweet scent on the air and the red stains all around him. he grabs for his radio, finding it intact and on his person - maybe they just assumed it was useless wiring. or maybe god's looking out for him? ha. fat chance of that one. he clutches the radio close, wrapping a few wires and whispering a short prayer; the manacle on his left wrist pops open after a moment.

and just like that, he's free. he pushes his way out of the stall, looking around with an abject terror in his eyes. where the hell has he managed to find himself? well, as long as he's careful, maybe he won't stick out too much.

just ignore the light he's giving off. you know. if you can. ]

[ Kainé had been feeling odd lately. She chalks it up to the increase in ambient blood pollution that came with the Bone Moon. She can start to feel the rot festering in her. She knows that she'll have to be careful this month, all the more for how blood makes her actions mirror and turn back in on her, and for the fatigue that seems to be creeping into her bones. She's felt things creeping on the edge of her senses... sounds, visions.

With all of that weighing on her she doesn't even notice the moment that it happens. She was out on patrol by the docks, swords at the ready, and then she's somewhere else.

Limbs bound by rope, not budging no matter how she struggles, naked and strung up from the ceiling like a hunk of meat. Every thought feels like it's coming through thick fog, and she's tired, impossibly tired. There's a dull ache, a hollow feeling throughout her body. She can't break free, but even the thought of moving feels like too much under the sedation.

Thick tubes with syringes at the end stab into places on her body, siphoning out her dull green blood. She can't look down, but if she did, she'd see the cavity in her abdomen held open by jagged clamps, see bits of entrails and kidneys and liver in a bucket on the floor. She feels sick.

She knows something is wrong with her, but right now all she can think about is that this might be happening to other people. People like Deku and Paul and Kaworu, like Scorpia and Ange and Ruby, like Lance and Duty and 2B and Falco, like that awkward feminine boy that arrived recently. To Anna. And she is so afraid. ]

Edited 2022-11-07 06:41 (UTC)

[ this place is... wrong. wrong, wrong in a way he doesn't have words to describe. this isn't a place beyond god's grace, a place where only the devil's light reaches. this is a place entirely outside of their domain. this is a place where humans should not exist.

it's his first time seeing something like this. he hopes - he prays - that he'll never see it again.

the first few bodies he finds, strung up and already bled out, are already too much for his poor mind. he pukes after the second one, when he's not able to look away from the missing viscera in the cavity of their stomach in time; if he weren't already glowing a faint white, he'd be pale as a sheet. he clutches his radio in his hand, forcing himself to keep moving. he can't stop. he can't let whatever put them here find him again-

-and then he sees a familiar face, a woman nude and strung up and cut open, and he can't help the whimper that escapes him. ]

Kainé...?

[ she's... bleeding. she's full of tubes. and her stomach, oh god, her stomach... there's nothing left in his stomach, and that's the only reason he doesn't start wretching right there and then.

is he too late for her, too? ]

[ That voice. She knows that voice. She's heard it quite a bit over the lat few days. Right. Venus. That's who it is. She's been quite aloof toward him, something in the way their personalities interacted, but the wave of gratitude she feels right now can be clearly felt through the sedated fog.

She groans weakly, lifts her eyes toward him. He looks so afraid. Her expression is blank, vague. It takes a few seconds for her to find words. She has to dig for them, and she doesn't know where they are. ]

Oh… hey there, Sparkles… have you seen Anna? Is she...

[ That's what matters. Far more than what's happening to her. ]

Edited 2022-11-07 17:35 (UTC)

[ she's moving. she's alive, and the relief that washes over him is only overshadowed by the unstoppable, overwhelming terror. she's hurt. she's hurt so, so bad. what is he supposed to do? what can he do?

it's only when she speaks that he forces himself to run over, licking his lips and trying to speak. ]

N- No, I- I haven't seen anyone else who...

[ who's still alive. the bodies on the hooks, rotting and empty, fill his mind once again, and a sudden wave of nausea hits again. he claps his free hand over his mouth, trying desperately to will it down. kainé needs his help. she needs it now. ]

We- we need to get you down first! [ he reaches out to one of the tubes - hesitates. ] Is it... safe? Is there something I can do?

[ The vivid, sparking brightness of his feelings cut through the dull fog enveloping her consciousness, making her groan again in an entirely different sort of discomfort.

She blinks at him a couple times slowly, as though not quite wanting to be dragged into full consciousness yet. ]

She's more important...

[ That nausea hits her like a hammer to the brain, snapping her further into wakefulness. She's grateful he's here, she really is, but can't he tone it down a little? Her head hurts too much to feel all of this. Ugh. ]

It should be okay. Just... take out the needles and cram my guts back in.

[ she's more important. a pang of something washes over venus - sadness? jealousy? frustration? all three, from the way they blend and mingle together. he shakes his head, gritting his teeth and grabbing one of the tubes threaded into her. ]

Don't say that. [ he grits his teeth, closes his eyes and pulls. the tube disengages, the needle drawing out as vileblood begins to spill down her arm. ] You're... You're both important, okay? If I left you alone, she'd probably say the exact same thing.

[ another needle, pulled straight out. he's careful, terribly careful - trying to avoid hurting her worse, trying to avoid the vileblood spilling out from her. all of it. ]

I'm going to get you down first, okay? Then we can do... [ he can't talk about putting her guts in. he's not strong enough to just say it. ] ...the rest.

[ She isn't surprised exactly that he's worried about her. I mean, she must look like a fucking nightmare right now. It just seems so stupid, and trivial. Annoying. She can't come up with a reason. She can give voice to her self-loathing later. ]

'Course she would. [ She wheezes something that might be a laugh, barely wincing as the tubes pull out of her and blood runs down her mutilated body. ] She's an idiot.

[ She's growing more aware of herself now. Still groggy, but glad of that. She doesn't want to feel everything that's been done to her. He's trying so hard for her. She can't just pretend that's nothing. ]

Fine... it's fine. I'll be able to handle myself once I'm down.

[ The most obvious lie anybody has ever told. ]

If you say so...

[ he's not trying to be mean or rude. really, he's not, and it comes through the emotions that trickle over to her quite clearly. but he doesn't believe her, or at least he doesn't exactly believe her, and that's almost as bad. he keeps at the needles, one after the other, until-

-until the last one comes out with a pop, and kaine's supports are all gone, just like that. he makes a sound as she falls out of her upright position, immediate concern and regret clear on his face and his soul. ]

Are you- are you alright!?

[ She collapses in a heap, all limp and bleeding, with nothing to signify her displeasure beyond a muted grunt. Eventually the pain will come back, she knows, and then she'll really be in trouble.

She makes a valiant effort, and sits up— and then immediately regrets it on account of the vertigo.]

I've had better days, Sparkles.

[ Her eyes focus on the bucket containing her guts. ]

Fuck. How'm I even alive right now? [ She doesn't sound very alarmed about that. ]

[ it's been a rough week.

well... that's hardly an appropriate way to put it, really. it's probably been the roughest week of his life. when he'd first arrived, he'd been struck by how kind some of the people here were - how he felt more strangely at home than he'd ever felt in the american midwest. that had been before the sleeper farm, though. before he'd had to put kainé's organs back in their places, before he'd had to help anna down from the tubes needled through her.

it's a reminder, and a grim one. this isn't home. home isn't home. he's lost, as always.

this time around, when he roams the city and its outskirts, there's a sad sort of purpose behind his actions - radio in hand, faded map in the other. he observes each alley, each building, each district and landmark. even if he knows he'll just forget it in a few days, he's got to do something.

that's just what a scout should do. right? ]

Edited 2022-11-08 21:40 (UTC)

[ Battler is out and about; doing his own thing. Poking around the city and trying to see what he can see. He doesn't particularly have anything in mind for what he's doing. Just finding things that interest him, really. Venus catches his attention, though. It's the radio in his hand and the map and the sort of... purposeful way he's poking into things.

So Battler detours, edging up on him with a curious look. ]

What are you up to? What's with the map?

[ He's curious. Not accusatory. ]

Huh? What do you...

[ oh, right. the map. the map in his hand. ]

Oh! Right. I'm just... Trying to get more familiar with this place? In case I need to, um. Find someone. [ for a moment, he nearly leaves it at that, and it's only after a moment that he clarifies: ] If they get taken. Again.

...get taken again?

[ He wrinkles his nose. ]

Like... kidnapped? Or back into the sea?

[Venus isn't the only one roaming the city. But, Venus is probably much more methodical about it. Shiro's the one chasing after a shadow. A ghost. Only this time, it has the benefit of running him across someone who's real, even if his quarry is imaginary.]

[He pulls himself to a stop, spotting Venus down the way - alleyway, he realizes. And waves. Relief all over his face - he had wondered where the kid had gone...]

Venus! Hey! What are you doing out here?

[Asks the guy also out here.]

[ out of so many dogs from home, makima has managed to retrieve three from the seashore: a brown-capped, grey-capped and black-capped husky with bright, expressive eyes and ecstatic, lopsided canine grins. after a day before bathing and grooming them to pure white perfection after being muddled in saltwater was a task, but it was one done with the utmost care (and maybe some help, but she'd asked for it). as makima walks her dogs she smells . . . something. something not unlike a hybrid. neither devil nor human. an in-between. what could it be? she already could tell it's a sleeper, from the feeling. someone from her own old world, then? something new? was it something to play with?

she'd find out soon enough, and when she sees a young boy as lost as a blind man in the middle of a gunfight, she's even more sure of what to do. the clocktower in the residential district of crenshaw is a grand sight to see, and so may be a cherry-red-haired woman and her three adorable huskies behaving at her heels. ]

Good morning. [ she continues to walk, and seemingly looks as if she will just pass him by— until her eyes fall to what's in his hands. it hadn't been like she didn't see them already, but she's only making it seem like now. the best time to pause in her steps, and ask: ] Are you lost?

[The thing about considering Trench as something of a personal retirement of sorts is that there are many hours to fill, and that can occasionally get very boring when you're used to spending them fighting for your life.

Which means you have to find yourself some hobbies, and among the ones Qrow's found over the last couple years is café hopping. So he happens to be wandering around Willful Machine today, investigating some shops he hasn't tried yet, when the street suddenly warps beneath him and he lets out a fairly undignified yelp as he goes from "walking" to "free-fall" against his will. It's only a moment, though, before does away with having legs outright and exchanges them for wings as he shifts into his bird form to bridge the sudden gap in reality.

It'd all be very cool, if not for the fact that the reality-warp also does some Unfortunate (TM) things to your perception of space and distance, and suddenly what should've been a graceful landing ends up with a bird flapping wildly to avoid a crash with a person Qrow did not realize was there a second ago.]

[Towards the outskirts of the city and near the beach, the buildings start to become worn down, with broken windows and collapsing stone. Then, approaching the shore, there's nothing but rubble. There was something here, once, but the inhabitants retreated away from the edge of the sea, of dark and unknown waters, and into the safety of the land.

Though there's no present danger, the rubble, the sound of the sea, and the mist twisting it's way through the skeleton of a city is distinctly eerie.

Made even more eerie is the sound of music drifting in the air. The source is a young boy, pale, mysterious, almost fey, perched on a rock and plucking notes from a harp that seems to be made of bone.

Despite the near perfect pitch and tempo, when the boy finishes, he looks down at the harp with a frustrated expression.]

[ the worn down environs, the mist encroaching onto the land... these are things he expected, to some degree. these are "normal," in their own twisted way. normal in a way where he has to take each step slowly, of course, normal in a way where he's constantly on the lookout for those zealots, but normal nonetheless. what isn't normal is the faint sound of music on the air, so distant that at first he thinks he's dreaming it. he chases it anyway, making his way further and further into the ruins of a city-

-before finally stumbling across a young boy. pale, silver-haired, red-eyed... a little alarming, maybe, but no more so than kainé. this world's got plenty of different types of people, after all. what's a lot more important is- ]

"Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee." The, um- Ode to Joy. Right?

[ for the second time since he's gotten here, he recognizes that song. he's not alone in this place. ]

[ venus likes to think he's fairly good at keeping watch for things. maybe not keeping watch, exactly, but he's very good at spotting when things are coming. he's just bad at letting people know, is all. all this is to say he's pretty sure that this bird just sort of. appeared? in front of him? on a crash course with him? ]

UM????

[ the good news: the two manage not to collide. the bad news: this appears to be mostly because of venus's quick reflexes letting her make a split-second decision... to throw herself face-down into the ground.

ow. ]

[ there's someone else here. someone just... walking some dogs. it almost strikes him as odd, how completely normal the action is. in a world where people have teleported into him, and his arms are still healing up from the cuts left by blood-crazed zealots, how can you just walk dogs like nothing's happening?

well. like that, apparently. and besides, it's not like the dogs need walking any less for all the crazy stuff. so he just nods absently as she says "good morning," still looking around the area to try and memorize it - right up until she stops and asks her question.

well, about a second or two after that. he hadn't expected it, after all; it takes his brain a moment to process what she's saying. ]

Huh? [ and then, a moment later- ] Oh! No, um, not... Not exactly? I mean, maybe a little. But I'm not really looking for anywhere specific, either. Does that make sense?

[ it probably doesn't. he knows full well how dumb he sounds most of the time - people take every opportunity to remind him. ]

Hm...?

[ oh. right. he didn't... say anything after being kidnapped, did he. he winces, already trying to figure out the most polite way to word things - and failing that, the way that sounds least confrontational.

he settles on: ]

H-hey. Sorry, I know I haven't... been around in a few days? It's, um. Anna and Kainé - they're friends - I've been at their place the whole time. [ a moment's silence. he laughs, nervously, then goes back to that same sad frown. ] I've... I haven't wanted to leave. Not until they're both healed up, at least.

[ he crosses his arms, more out of nervous habit than anything. but right now, like this, it only serves to highlight the still-healing cuts that have been patched up along them. ]

They got... We got taken to the Tower.

Uh. Kidnapped, mostly. [ he pauses for a second - looks battler over - then shakes his head. ] It's... evidently, it's just kind of a thing here? These creepy guys with hooks and chains just go around kidnapping people, then taking... stuff. From them. Organs and blood and all that.

[ he frowns. he doesn't really want to think about it, if he can help it. ]

I want to make sure I can find people if they need me to. Or... at least, I can help someone else find them.

[If nothing else, the look on his face never turns angry. There's only concern there. Concern that doesn't change when Venus elaborates, if anything else, it only gets deeper, etched into the circles under his eyes.]

Healed? Is everything okay - [But then Venus continues, and Shiro's breath catches. The cuts on his arms. The disappearance. We.] Are you - are you hurt?

[He's stepped forward then, voice full of worry, of a need to help.]

[Welp.

Crisis averted(?)

Qrow the crow lands on the ground in a tumble of wings and feathers, and rolls like a sad little corvid ball a few feet until finally come to a stop a couple inches from Venus' face. Which would likely be weird enough if it wasn't followed up by an adult man suddenly taking the place of said bird, brushing himself off and offering a hand up.]

Sorry about that. The town just kinda...shifted.

[The part of Street he fell from is still conspicuously absent, in fact.]

venus november catch-all

daring escape (anna + kainé); november 7th; violence and gore warnings

cw: body horror, needles

cw: vomit

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assume kaine can feel all of this from here on out!!

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OPEN; nov 9-11; reference to disembowelment in toplevel, warnings by tag-in

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lmk if this works!

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