If I had died

[shiro2hero]

Who: SHIRO & OPEN
What: Catchall for December Shenanigans, House Meeting, Event, Silent Hill Player Plot
When: All through the month.
Where: Mouse House, Around Trench

Content Warnings: Silent Hill type imagery/body horror, violence against snowmen, will update as needed


See the headers below for specifics!

• Mouse House Meet Up
• Silent Hill Player Plot
• Event Post

Comments

MOUSE HOUSE MEET UP | closed to residents/past residents

[shiro2hero]

Welcome Home.

Not even in the creepy way. The house now feels more lived-in, as the long-empty rooms fill in with people. With voices. The kitchen doesn't feel hollow, or sterile. There's probably dishes in the sink more often than not, it probably smells often of food, constantly of coffee or tea. Sometimes burned toast.

There are two living rooms, plenty of places to sit and chat, or read, or just hang out. One sofa even has a pile of blankets in a box beside it. Bathrooms are clean as one can expect in a house of multiple people - they're all shared, too, so. Be sure you lock up before you shower. Heck, the house even has a resident feline who has the zoomies at weird hours - his name is Oreos. He's very friendly and will sleep on your lap if allowed.

There's only one area off-limits. The master bedroom at the far east end of the house. It's locked, securely, no explanation available. Not even the cat goes in there.

Oh, yeah. There's an entire piano. Does anyone even play piano?

Meet up, have domestic shenanigans, try to figure out how to play the piano, burn some toast, have fun.

Ritsuka Aoyagi | Loveless

[in_loveless_memory]

A: The kitchen

Ritsuka is a very particular person in some ways, one of them is smells. Every time he passes the kitchen, the scent of burnt toast makes him gag or wince. Finally fed up, he decided he was going to change the smell by cooking something else.

He put on one of the aprons in the kitchen, the hem brushing against his knees with how it dwarfed his frame. But he would not be deterred.

With a scan for ingredients and utensils, he settled on a mushroom ramen stir fry dish that Makoto had taught him. He handled everything quietly and deftly, the smells from the kitchen wafting through the house. His tail swished in thought and he opted for a large enough serving for everyone in the house to have something.

He was plating his food when his ears perked up, alerted first by the sound of someone before he looked up.

"Uh, I made enough for everyone..." he offered as he put the apron away and began to clean up the mess he made from cooking. His tail swished, nervous as he had no idea how to interact with... well... anyone, honestly. "You can have some, if you want? It's not... I mean it's fine, nothing fancy."

His ears bent back. "I was just trying to get rid of the burnt toast smell," he went on, trying to provide a reason for his being in the kitchen to validate his being there.

B. The living room

Ritsuka was a quiet person by nature and animals tended to like being around him because of it. Oreo, however, didn't need a reason to like someone. He was quite happily "stuck" as Oreo was purring with utter joy while sitting atop the book in his lap that he had been reading. Not willing to pass up the opportunity, he scratched and petted the cat. He had always wanted a cat.

"You didn't sleep in my room last night," he said to Oero as he scratched under the cat's chin. "Where were you, huh?"

A!

[saltyadam]

Adam laughs softly. "That's what happens when Takashi uses the kitchen." His tone is apologetic as he raises a helpless eyebrow.

"I married him for his looks, not his cooking skills."

Still, he waves off Ritsuka's apologies. "This is your kitchen too, you're free to use it any time you like. I just came to make myself a cup of tea. Though," He sniffs at the air for a moment, peeking over at his plate, "You weren't kidding about being able to cook. What'd you make?"

[tempredmental]

"Oh." Keith watched Ritsuka cooking for a moment, and then nodded. "You'll be uh... doing that... a lot." He frowned. Words were harder than usual this month. It was bothering him. But he pushed through. "We try not to let Shiro... do that." Why couldn't think of the word? Argh.

"It's... it's fine."

lance

[azurestar]

[Lance doesn't live here anymore, too many memories, triggers for difficult hallucinations and visions because his mind is a mess. Thanks winter lanterns and PTSD. But when he wants to take the risk and challenge his head, or go into his old room where he's still stashing things that are valuable to him, he will be here. And he's almost always wearing dark sunglasses and won't take them off, like a weirdo. His giant white direwolf that he raised with Allura is also regularly with him or sometimes on her own just parked outside of the door to the master bedroom blocking everyone's way because she's the size of a horse.

There's also the piano, which he does know how to play. But he didn't always, he taught himself when he was alone in the house back in Deerington. It wasn't hard since he's already a musician and it's another reason he'll sometimes come back. But he only plays when he thinks there's nobody else in the house. Of course, lately he's been pretty distracted and might have missed that someone is there while he's playing covers of pop songs. Might also play some classics. His glaceon is often with him along with the giant white wolf when he plays, sitting atop the piano and wiggling with the music, accidentally letting off some frost and snow flurries inside.

Otherwise, he can be found in his old room sometimes sitting on the floor with the door cracked slightly where usually it's closed. Is he doing anything of significance? Perhaps. If you consider trying to sit with painful memories and hallucinations and get over it already significant. He can look kinda like he's spacing out, but other times he'll have a box of stuff next to him that he's going through. Pictures and other little things he got in Deerington that he keeps here. If you walk in on him going through it, he'll yelp and shove it under the bed and might also try to… blow your head off. Approach with caution. The wolf will always be with him in here as well, and sometimes his coyote omen Valor.

Lastly, sometimes he'll bring over food he made because since Hunk left, he's not entirely sure about this household's cooking skills and status. So he can be caught putting covered dishes of food in the fridge before trying to make a smooth exit without being seen or… seeing anything. And other times he might just come over to bother Chloe outside her window, Keith too sometimes. He'll use pebbles or knock on the glass, or even raise a boom box over his head and play "music." Feel free to catch him doing this even if it's not your attention he's trying to get. Where did he get the boom box, you ask? Don't worry about it.]

Piano

[saltyadam]

[Adam hadn't meant to eavesdrop, honestly. He'd just been putting the kettle on in the kitchen when he heard music from the other room. No, not just music. There were plenty of people who lived here, either in the past or currently, who played records or songs or other recorded music. This was live music. And if he wasn't mistaken, it was their piano.

In the entirety of his time at Mouse House he hadn't heard a single person play on it. For some reason he'd assumed it was Alluras, another monument to her that Takashi wanted here and preserved but not talked about. Now he realizes he should've just asked.

He's surprised to find Lance sitting there, playing quietly and confidently. Adam smiles to himself as he nods along with the tune, actually recognizing it for once. He wasn't great with music, but even he knew a few pop hits.

It's the wolf that gives him away, spotting him leaning where he was and alerting. Adam straightens and coughs.]

Sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I've just never heard anyone actually play on that thing. You're good.

"smooth exit"

[shiro2hero]

... Are you. Sneaking food in? Or out?

[Sorry, bud. You've been caught tupperware-handed. So to speak. It's mostly because Shiro and sleep are not the best of friends on a good day. He's gotten better. But still, he keeps odd hours.]

[And naps on the couch when he can. Which is where he's calling out from. That lump of blankets is apparently Shiro, where he sacked out after a Waker shift earlier.]

[tempredmental]

[What was that weird tapping on his window? It sounded like... rocks? Keith wasn't sure, but he eventually got annoyed enough to go over and open said window to find out...

Hopefully, Lance wasn't about to throw another rock...]

space dad

[shiro2hero]

A) EARLY MORNING
... It burned again.

The toast has burned again. That explains why the kitchen smells like that, at least. He wasn't even using the high setting on the toaster. The very, very lowest. And yet... he's left with a charred hunk of bread.

"Can't... waste food. I guess."

Shiro no.



B) LATE EVENING
The front door opens. It's already dark outside, and the wind blows in a few stray drifts of white as Shiro drags himself inside. He's wearing white, matching his hair, and the robes smell strongly of sea and sand. Waker duty today. And he looks worn out, not paying much attention to who he's speaking with, leaning against the wall nearest the door.

"Any hot water left today...? Or coffee. Or a sandwich."

Listen it's freezing, and it's even colder on the beach. It was a long, long day.

"Sorry - little out of it."

A

[saltyadam]

"What? Takashi, no! We have like, six dogs or cats you could feed that to instead!" No wonder he seemed to always be a little off. A little tired, a little weak, a little caffeine deprived...

Well, he was caffeine deprived.

And admittedly, he was doing substantially better than he had in Deerington, or even when Adam first arrived here.

"And didn't we have rules about you and anything that can heat up in the kitchen?"

B

[tagartist]

Chloe's doing her usual post-dinner snack binge and had just opened the fridge to look at her options when she heard Shiro's voice. She peeks around the edge of the door, looking at him and raising a brow.

"Sit down. I was just gonna make something anyway. Last thing you look like you need is to burn down the kitchen trying to boil water."

B.

[in_loveless_memory]

Ritsuka doesn't necessarily suffer from insomnia but he's still in his adjustment period to Trench and so he's perpetually uneasy. Coming the month before a freezing cold winter and apparently having things like "blood effects" didn't help. His ears perked, picking up the sound before he actually acknowledged it when the door opened. He was currently nursing some hot chocolate and a novel when Shiro came in.

He was silent for a moment before getting up to offer the much much much taller man his heated blanket, holding it up to him.

"I can make you something?" he offered, though he hoped it wasn't coffee because coffee was gross.

[tempredmental]

[Keith heard Shiro come in. He'd actually just poured a cup of coffee for himself, but hadn't put anything in it, yet. So, when Shiro leaned against the wall, Keith just pushed the mug towards him before going to get another one.

He hadn't been talking much since the beginning of the month. Not that Keith was an amazing conversationalist, but he'd been quieter than usual.]

venus | we know the devil | paleblood

[wingstosee]

w[a]rmup exercises - around noon

[ venus is a bit of an oddity around the house. sometimes, he just hangs out and helps out with whatever he can; other times he vanishes for days at a time, showing back up without warning like an outside cat with more wanderlust than sense.

it's one of the former days that you might hear music coming from the piano room. not piano music, mind you - maybe the occasional plink of a key, but that's all the sound echoing from the instrument. instead, it's the gentle sound of a high tenor singing. he's quiet - barely above sotto voce, trying to sing without letting anyone else hear - but sometimes his voice picks up, and sometimes he gets a bit lost in the song.

regardless of what volume he's been caught at, when someone else walks in he immediately stops with a stammered out- ]

Oh my god? [ and then, without even waiting for a response: ] I'm- Sorry! I didn't think anyone else was around??

a [b]eautiful night - night

[ it's one of those latter nights that venus shows up at the house again. he's been missing for a good three days this time - not the longest stop out, but certainly not the shortest by any stretch. he looks mildly stressed - okay, mildly stressed for him, which is to say "nearly crying" for anyone else. perhaps more importantly, he is absolutely serving looks - winged eyeliner and eyeshadow applied with a hand far steadier than his, a reflective gloss across his lips. it's not a look he's worn around anyone in the house before, at the very least.

which might be why he tiptoes in as slowly as he can, trying desperately to avoid making any sound or waking anyone up. one step, and then another, and then-

and then a floorboard makes a sound like a dying whale, and he just freezes in place with a whispered: ]

Shit.

b

[shiro2hero]

[We're so sorry, Venus. But, Shiro doesn't sleep regular human hours. He's tried, and he's gotten a bit better. Tonight's one of the nights he just can't shut his brain off, and rather than keep his partner up tossing and turning, he moved to the kitchen to go over his old Deerington notes.]

[Footsteps and people being up and around is fine and well. There's teens and cats, and Keith, here. People up at weird hours. It's the curse that gets his attention, not because "language!!". More because he's concerned -]

[So he pokes his head around a corner.]

Hello?

A! Adam W | Voltron: Legendary Defender | boringblood

[saltyadam]

[Adam holds up his hands with a disarming smile.]

No need to apologize. I was just putting the kettle on and overheard you a bit. So I suppose I'm the one who owes you an apology for eavesdropping.

[He leans against the wall, arms crossed loosely over his chest.]

You're Venus, right?

w[a]rmup exercises

[azurestar]

[Lance had been kind of distracted, and he's never met Venus before, so he thought that his singing was kind of just… in his own head. Paranoid hallucinations and all that are made intense with the effects of December's month, so he's hearing stuff more lately. And he just got finished sitting in his old room trying to go through his box of things without incident, so now there's more than a few voices layering over each other in his mind, it's fine. This is fine.

He's just going to slip out now, and not come back for a while- oh shit, someone's here talking to him? He blinks from where he stands in the entrance to the main living area, taking in the kid talking to him and apologizing for some reason. Okay, if this kid isn't a hallucination, then Lance is very confused. Actually, he's confused either way, just in slightly different ways.]

"Sorry"? Uh, for what?

[tempredmental]

[Keith stared at the person near the piano for a moment, and then shrugged at the apology before shaking his head.]

No big. [If Venus wanted to sing, Keith wasn't going to stop him.]

Keith

[tempredmental]

Keith didn't spend every night in the house anymore. Though, his work at Lance's with the restoration after the ghost of Chloe had destroyed the third floor was done, and they'd been able to move everything over to the same street even, thanks to Sasuke's bloodmagic. So, Lance was closer now. But Keith had been doing Hunter work, and staying out for long nights with Kosmo and his Litten. On the outskirts of town, mostly in the woods, he had a Nightmare Steed that had decided to start hanging around him after Oz's Clocktower Jump training last winter, and a massive dragon from Sansa's world, one of several that had come through the portals, had also decided Keith was a decent companion.

So, it wasn't like he was alone.

Edelya sometimes followed, too, as she had decided Kosmo was Alpha, or one of the robot Lions that was still there, usually the Black one. (Keith had been trying to get Red and Lance to reopen their bond, so he tended to try discouraging her from following him.)

During arrivals week, he took on Waker duties, mostly looking for people he knew, wanting to be there to help them out. But he was working... a lot. And it was wearing him down. The cold weather was also triggering the beginnings of lockjoint, something that Keith had managed to mostly miss out on last winter, and this month's bloodmagic problems were making it hard for him to communicate... harder than usual. So he'd been trying to keep conversations short and sparse to avoid confusion.

When he was there, though, he was either holed up in his room with Kosmo and his Litten, or in the kitchen getting food or a drink, or using one of the bathrooms for necessary things including showers and whatnot.

SILENT HILL | ota

[shiro2hero]

1) THE EXPLORATION
Frankly, the sirens should have been a dead giveaway. He should have known better. Should have realized something terrible was about to happen. There's a vague memory of something like this, though, for the life of him, he's not sure what. Though he does hunker down, hold his right hand up - purple light illuminating the surrounding area... and...

"Oh crap." Language, Shiro! One look at the peeling, warping world is all he needs to duck down behind some storage boxes in the alleyway. "Okay. Okay, wait for this to pass... then get home."

And so begins Shiro's exploration of Silent Trench Hill begins. Feel free to run into him anywhere - he's probably fairly visible, using his right hand for a flashlight and all.

2) THE MONSTERS | cw; silent hill style body horror
Unfortunately, the big glowing hand doesn't just attract other Sleepers. It will, inevitably, attract monsters. And with Shiro not having a radio to blare warning static, he is likely to be caught unawares by more than a couple horrors. Such as...

a) Masks
Staggering, swollen creatures on spindly legs. Its back is one huge growth, pulsing, twisting. Occasionally eyes emerge, blinking. Or mouths gape wide and drooling from its hide. Noses like pustules. Every so often, a full face appears, forms, and is plucked off, peeled off as if it were a scab, held up to the creature's head. The faces look... oddly familiar. People who may have been seen in Trench, or Deerington - or a young girl, face made of light, hair made of shadow.

The faces scream, sob, or plead. Or worse, they call out to Shiro himself.

b) Table
This one... is some kind of backward, metallic centaur of a creature. Its legs are hinged like an animal's joints, rusted here and there, glowing in between sloppily welded pieces with lurid purple light. The creature's back is stiff and rigid, slick with unidentifiable fluid - is it blood, is it oil? A human torso emerges from the front of it, tied down with heavy bolts and manacles embedded into flesh. Its arms, swollen and deformed with muscle, have been stitched on backward, reaching blindly out. There is no face, only a mouth, held shut with a thick metal gag. Stitching runs along its body, glowing that same ugly purple.

It bucks and wobbles, propelling itself forward blindly.

Both of the creatures are aggressive, but the Table is more so, and will attempt to tear its victims apart with those huge arms.

3) THE HOSPITAL | safe room or boss fight
When the door appeared out of the fog, Shiro bolted for it. Maybe you were there with him. But he bolted, he ran, and threw it open to just plain escape from the things he saw out there. He doesn't look at the hallway he ends up in. Not right away.

Instead, he sinks down, slides down to sit against the wall, breathing - focusing. Until he catches his breath, and the acrid stink of harsh chemicals makes itself known. He slowly lifts his head, staring around in abject horror.

It's a long, long hallway. Too long to see the end of. The overhead lights flicker weirdly - bright, searing white one moment, dull purple the next. Sometimes they stay one color of the other. Sometimes banks of them change, while others don't. White lights reveal white walls, white floors, white doors, like someone splashed the whole portion of the hall in paint. Purple lights show something else. More warped doorways, the color scheme all greys, blacks, purples and reds, more alien than the sterile hospital ward should be.

Shiro looks terrified. He tries to go back through the door, only to find a blank wall. His hands actually scrabble at it, metal fingers peeling off paint. But there's nothing.

Just a wall. And the looming specter of the hospital hall behind him.

2-A

[fogsong]

Sharon had promised herself to stay out of it. She'd told herself she would remain in that little cottage home of hers, doors and windows locked up and boarded, and let the horrors take their course. This wasn't about playing the hero or the game master, it was about practice. It was about bettering her control and distractions wouldn't benefit her any.

And yet.

It's during one of her outings to leave warnings that she comes across an unfamiliar mass. She hears it long before she sees it. A strange cry here, a haunting sob there, but it's when it calls out for a familiar name that Sharon finds herself freezing in her place. Her stomach drops.

Shiro, it cries out, and everything inside of her grows cold. No. No, no, come on. She ducks behind the edge of a building and pulls out her gun, flicking the safety off. The weight gives her a mild sense of comfort. Maybe she can take care of this creature before it finds who it's looking for. It's the least she can fucking do.

1

[azurestar]

Well, this seems about right for a Tuesday in Trench. Lance had ducked inside the nearest shop on the street after the strange ash and the peeling walls appeared with the sirens. It's happening on the inside too, though, so he's not sure which is safer, being in here or out there. Probably neither, but instinct demands one hide in unknown dangerous situations.

Then he makes himself step outside and that's when he hears a familiar voice say 'Oh crap' from a nearby alley across the street. He frowns and heads over to try and get a better look in the dark and fog and sees the purple light. He makes a faint star above his hand for his own light source and pokes his head into the mouth of the alley and hears Shiro say more to himself about waiting it out.

"…Shiro?" He raises an eyebrow, "is that you?"

3 hospital (saferoom or bossfight you choose!)

[stayscared]

Mike knows to run for a door. Sometimes it's bad (and when it's bad it's very bad), but most times it's an out. Or at least a portal elsewhere - maybe better, maybe worse, but he doesn't have time to deliberate. It is what it is, and he's already bolted through it, especially because he's seen Shiro bolt through first.

That smell hits him like a ton of bricks and he feels two things rise: anger and sadness, and they're having it out right now over who's in control.

Then there's the hall. For a moment he thinks of the hospital he'd been chased into before he knew what the Zealots really were - before he'd known the horrors (and the small, smug triumph of fucking them over ...twice) of the Sleeper Farm, a thing that still makes him shudder, pricks up the hairs on the back of his neck.

The stretching, stretching hall, the changing of the lights - that's familiar but also different, and he's able to get a bit of a handle on the mess of emotions, wishing he didn't have to smell that hospital smell. The doors are an ...unexpected change.

And then there's the sound behind him, at which he turns to see the same man he'd followed - desperately clawing at a wall that doesn't look about to give way. The fear coming off him is palpable, so Mike remains where he is and doesn't close the distance, however much he thinks he should.

"Hey, do you know what this place is?"

He's waiting for the response to be something along the lines of yes and it's bad.

2-B

[survivalthroughhate]

Now that is quite the monster. Fortunately, since it's not one of Maul's personal demons brought to life, he feels a lot less apprehensive about facing off against it than he might if it was something representing his own terrors. His double-bladed lightsaber flickers to life. He doesn't flinch as the monster comes closer

"I've fought bigger and tougher than you, ugly." He raises his lightsaber in an offensive kata. He's trying to prepare for just about anything that this creature might throw at him, though he knows full well Trench often doesn't give him that luxury. Why should this rotting version of the world be any different?

December Event | OTA

[shiro2hero]

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