deercountry | everyone around here seems to be going down, down, down, OPEN

Entry tags:

everyone around here seems to be going down, down, down, OPEN

Who: Lexi Howard and you!
What: Event stuff
When: March 8th through the 15th
Where: the Jungle level, the Catacombs

Content Warnings: potential death, mosquitoes/insects, coerced confessions

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Okay, Lexi actually did love the outdoors. Back when her Dad had been around, they'd went camping up in Northern California, Oregon, or Washington state as a regular thing during the summer. But her mom hated every second of it, complaining that her idea of roughing it was a Motel 6 with paid wifi and no decent cable package.

So when Dad left, the camping stopped, too. But Lexi had been a Girl Scout until she was twelve, Leslie Bennett had been the troop leader. Had been. Now the idea of herself of anyone she knew being a Girl Scout was laughable. Absurd.

She didn't think much of the mosquitos at first, swatting at them if she saw them land on her and resigning herself to being dinner for them where she didn't see.

Though...her eyes had to be playing tricks on her. The mosquitoes were getting progressively larger, were swarming her, and holy shit, so did the welts the mosquitoes left behind, she didn't want to be a mosquito dinner for real. So she ran as quickly as she could (which wasn't very fast), wracking her brain for what to do about mosquitoes without a can of Off nearby.

When she tripped and went facedown in the mud, she wanted to cry in frustration, trying to resign herself to being mosquito take-out. But that was when she started to prop herself up on her hands, the mud squelching between her fingers.

...wait a minute. Mud. Mosquitoes didn't like mud!

So she started covering herself with mud, completely tossing everything she liked about being neat and clean out of the window, replacing it with the need to get mud over every single square inch of her body, including her hair and under her clothes.

She heard a footstep squelch in the mud behind her, but was too occupied to look back. At least for now.

((OOC: Feel free to trip over her while she's on the ground, to laugh at her as she tries to outrun the mosquitoes, or follow her lead in covering herself in mud))

Peter wasn't having a very good time in the jungle.

Even growing up near the backwoods of Utah couldn't give him an ounce of experience needed to remotely survive this. What's poisonous? What isn't? Does trying to use a forked stick to navigate one's way to water with actually work? He sure doesn't fucking know! It's a wonder he hasn't been killed yet!

He'd gotten separated from the people he'd originally winded up here with, and was wandering around trying to stave off the growing need to have a panic attack. He looked a complete mess: hair a beast of wild curls tangled with twigs, leaves, dirt, probably a couple of spiders.... His clothing was torn in several places, and smudges of glittering Darkblood stained it from where he'd gotten tangled up in rough vines and thorns.

Peter noticed the swarm of mosquitoes as he neared them, but they registered only dimly in his mind for now. Even if they were clearly bigger than the average pest, Peter wasn't seeing them as too much of a threat just yet. He was more preoccupied with not getting attacked by giant frogs again, and was moving a little too fast already, when his foot made contact with something solid in the mud in front of him and he yelped loudly, like a wounded dog.

Peter managed to stop himself from completely eating mud, but he did end up toppled over, dazed for a few seconds until terror struck through him like lightning. Abruptly, he scrambled to his feet, slipping in the mud a bit, whipping around to stare down at the solid object in the mud. His immediate kneejerk panic was that it must be another giant frog.

And so, Peter just started screaming.

Really, when Lexi had realized that yes, she was in the jungle the very first thing which came to mind was those weird, gory movies that Rue would watch before. Like "Cannibal Holocaust."

At least she hadn't run into any cannibals yet?

And Lexi was already a giant mess, face down in the mud, yet trying to cover as much of herself as possible with the mud. She hated getting really dirty and this had been so far from "really dirty" that it was a mere speck in the rearview mirror.

She "ooof!" when his foot ran into her. Fortunately, it was just her thigh, nothing which could be easily broken like her ribs, though she figured she'd have one hell of a bruise there later on.

But that was when he started screaming, so she immediately pushed herself out of the mud, glancing around nervously and trying to seem reassuring as was possible when she looked like the loser in a mud wrestling match.

"No, no, no, it's okay! I'm, um. A person? Someone who's as close as it gets to being completely harmless? Are you okay?"

It was a very good thing Peter had not seen Cannibal Holocaust, or else his Freaking Out would somehow be even more than it already was. His life was already enough of a horror movie; he didn't watch too many of them.

But now here he was, standing before the next terrifying thing in one long expedition of terror. Eyes saucer-wide, Peter tensed so hard it physically hurt, expecting a tongue to lash out any second and wrap around him like it had before, only this time there was nobody around to come to his rescue.

Or.... wait. The frog was talking! No! It wasn't a frog at all! The boy ogled the mud-covered person, still having a hard time separating what the panic in his head was telling him he was looking at, and what was reality. But— okay, okay fuck, he could see her, or the shape of her. A person, right there in the mud. Of course, being Peter, he still managed to look panicked, jumping at the sound of her voice, thanks to his own raw nerves, hands coming up almost as though to defend himself.

"Holy shit! You're— alive!" ...Yes, she's a live person, Peter. He still continued to stare at her like he was expecting her to eat his head off any second, but the question did give him pause, generous eyebrows shooting right up. Why are you covered in mud, mysterious stranger.

"I'm okay, but— like, are you okay?!"

While her life was your average lower middle class life in a decent enough house and decent enough family. Except for her dad, who she was not thinking about in the slightest. So horror movies were like little shots of adrenaline, fun in the moment.

The mosquitoes hovered around where they'd last seen Lexi, but at that point she'd covered her entire self, including her back with mud. She was sure she'd never looked less attractive, given the mud which was everywhere. But she slowly started to emerge from the mud, the mosquitoes losing interest and flying away.

She was trying to conceal the frustration that she'd had to resort to turning herself into a mud monster to get the stupid mosquitoes to leave her alone. It wasn't this guy's fault he'd accidentally kicked her. And she assumed she must look terrible, she could feel mud everywhere, including in her eyelashes. Her eyelashes! And she held her own hands up, trying to look harmless.

"Yeah. No thanks to those stupid mosquitoes." She wondered if they would have kept drinking from her until she was dead, shaking her head to try and rid herself of such a morbid thought.

"As okay as I can be." She pointed to a huge welt on her leg, at least ten times as large as your average mosquito bite. "Sorry for freaking you out."

The mosquitoes? Peter blinked again, starting to understand. Especially when the girl showed him the welt on her leg, his eyes somehow managing to widen even further than they already were.

"Oh my god. They did that to you....?" He'd noticed how big the insects buzzing around were, but he hadn't expected that. It was absolutely horrifying, and he winced sharply in sympathy. Now that the adrenaline rush was starting to die down, Peter's concern was pooling in. This poor girl....

"No, it's okay— I'm sorry for running into you. I didn't hurt you, did I?" Thank god he hadn't collided with her more seriously than he had; he could have seriously done some damage. Still, he must have kicked her pretty hard. Peter reached up, hands moving through his hair, wondering if he looked as unhinged as he felt.

"God, this all feels like some nightmare....."

The welt both burned and itched like crazy. She'd always reacted badly to mosquito bites and it seemed like it was even worse for crazy jungle mosquitoes. It took all of her willpower to not start scratching at the various welts.

"Yeah. They sure did..." Lexi shrugged a little. She had no idea if this kind of thing happened a lot, she'd only been there for a few days when the stupid stuff started happening. She really wished that this was going to be a one-time thing, but her more ~~pessimistic~~ realistic self figured that it wasn't. But she noticed him growing concerned and was grateful. She wasn't used to people being concerned about her.

"No, no, it's fine. I mean, I'll have a bruise on my leg, but you didn't get me in the ribs or anything, so it's okay. Really." But she was afraid that the kick would make her limp, which could be dangerous if she was in a position where she had to run fast. And as she saw him rake his hands through his hair and look near frenzied, she had to do something.

"A little bit, yeah. But...this place has done worse? At least that's what people have told me, so this is kind of small, really."

...okay, what kind of low-rent Lara Croft bullshit was this?

She'd loved the Tomb Raider games, especially the reboot one. And unlike most people she knew, she'd enjoyed the Deep Roads segment of the Dragon Age games (the Fade could go right to hell, especially in Origins). But there was a huge difference between playing a video game and actually...spelunking.

The few times she'd been in caves, they were neatly organized tours led along well-lit pathways led by park rangers.

The backpacks were a nice bonus, though. She wondered if any of the liquids were like the healing potions in video games.

((OOC: feel free to find Lexi exploring here. the puzzles/traps will be in comments to this thread))

Lexi's eyes lit up as she found her way into the room. It looked like the puzzle to beat the kitty-demon in The Stone Prisoner DLC portion of Origins. She looked around herself, hands on her hips and an expression of mild anticipation on her face.

She knew that there would have to be something which went wrong. She was smart enough to know that. But there was an even bigger problem.

The Seasons? Lexi had no idea what they were. She'd heard that they were in the Season of Tears, but. No matter how hard she thought, she couldn't remember what the other Seasons were called. She breathed out "shit," the smile falling from her face as she stared at the puzzle.

She could do this. She could do this. The carvings on the wall looked promising, maybe she could figure it all out by guesswork? But she wouldn't say no to a little help, especially from someone who knew more about Trench than she did.

That was when she heard a footstep behind her.

((OOC: Feel free to help her, hinder her, or die with her. Yay!))

If the words of warning hadn't been terrifying enough (there really was a hell? and she was going there?), the black hole made her screech a little, flattening herself against the wall, arms spread out, trying to find grips in the stone.

She couldn't say why it scared her so badly, not exactly. But it felt like something was watching her tremble against the wall. Something wanted her to faint, to fall, to be consumed by whatever creature had made its home in the hole.

She began to breathe quickly as she felt the feeling of being watched increased a hundredfold. She felt in her gut that this was going to be where she died.

But she didn't want to die without getting a few things off her chest.

She let go of the stone walls and reached, her hands trembling, gently moving her Omen, a hedgehog named Orville, down so she could cup him in her hands, taking comfort in the affectionate way he snuffled against her hands, dark eyes shining with warmth and intelligence.

"Okay, buddy," Lexi breathed out. "Call...somebody. Anyone you can reach. Okay?" And she leaned down to give him a kiss on the head. "Love you."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

everyone around here seems to be going down, down, down, OPEN

MOSQUITO MANIA

no subject

(CW: "Cannibal Holocaust")

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

THE CATACOMBS

CHRONOLOGY OF THE SEASONS

AS ABOVE, SO BELOW