Horizon Walkers (Game Thread) Dead

[Josh123914]

A shiver crept down Dalrel's spine as Des touched the man.

''You shouldn't be doing that.'' Dalrel warned from a safe distance. If the man is begging for death, then what should they do? Calling the others could help, but the poor wretch in front of them was too far gone to save, and who knows how the parasite growing on him would react to Des destroying its host.

''If an Eye latches onto your hand I will close that door and burn this place.'' He warned again.

 

[Terratina.]

Id had also chosen to stay near the campsite like the dwarf. Without a body, there was little to do anyway. Creating one would take up too much time, not to mention it would alert the two fleshly beings nearby. However, some fun could be had. Frightened minds made for easy prey though that was simply a bonus. It was amusing to see how different sentient beings reacted to different things. A ripe opportunity for learning experiences. For its first trick, Id made one of the carcasses dance. How fun.

 

[DarkRawen]

"You shouldn't be doing that."

Des smiled, but didn't let go of the dagger. While he certainly would have liked not to, burning someone alive, infected or not, wasn't okay. It was bad. Des didn't want to not do anything at all, and he had already finished the more dangerous part of that.

"It's fine."

"If an Eye latches onto your hand I will close that door and burn this place."

"I'm immune to this kinda thing," he replied. "It's just a human illness, nothing to worry about," Des explained, and breathed slowly, to prepare himself. There was a slight hesitation in his movements, what would happen if this wasn't just some human disease?

I'll be fine. "It's better to end his suffering as quickly as possible, right? You should probably step a little away, though. Oh, and if you're really unsure of this, we could just get Alex to look at me afterwards."

Then he lunged forwards, stabbing the man in the chest several times, making sure he was killing the other as efficiently as possibly. When he was sure the mortal was dead, he let go of the torch and burned the table that Kes had prepared, the flames burning brightly. Des didn't feel happy about it at all. This was the first time he had killed a mortal. He put a hand against the upper part of his face as it got hotter, both to shield his eyes from the bright light, and so that neither of the two others would see the tears of blood that had started gathering in the corners of his eyes.

I hope he rests in peace. I can't imagine how it would be to live like this for even a day.

"We should probably get out of here," he muttered, before wandering towards the door himself.

 

[hiei82]

Kes watched as Des made his decision to kill the man before she burned the place down. It was obvious from his movements - at least to her - that this was his first kill. The first kill was always hard and there was something about it that stuck with you and ate away at you if you allowed it. It was a special kind of disease and, by the way he covered his face after the kill, Kes knew it was one that he had no special immunity against. What more, it was a terrible first kill for anyone.

The kill was a mercy, but that would provide no solace in the coming day. Other kills allowed some kind of justification. You could claim self-defense or that it was for the good of your family or people or country. Even certain kinds of mercies to enemies were justifiable for you could say you at least gave them a clean death. But here - with a mercy death for one who'd done them no wrong - the only things you could say were that it was "for the best" or that you "had no choice" but they all came down to a single line of thought; "I couldn't help."

Knowing Des wanted to hide the feeling, she turned to Dalrel. "Please find Alex; I want to make sure we did this right and he's the expert. I'll make sure that if Des is infected, I'll... stop him." she said, though by the looks of things he was indeed immune. Truth told, she did actually want Alex to inspect the work to ensure it's correctness, but at the moment she wanted to give Des a chance to protect his dignity; it was the least she could do given the help he'd been in escaping the arena.

Thereafter, she walked over to Des and spoke. "It's okay; know that you did the right thing. If you need to talk, I'll listen." she said quite honestly.

 

[IFS]

Alex shrugged and focused his thoughts as Serragish had instructed, hopefully this wouldn't take too long they needed to finish searching for the source. He thought of how they had all been gathered in the arena going over each of their announcements before flashing quickly through the fights that followed. Those became more of a blur in his mind, and there was only a little of her homeland that he was able to recall effectively enough to convey though he brought up those memories as well the best he could.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The eyes scattered as the man fell into the flames, though as he burned small wisps of fire seemed to appear on them in the walls and one by one they were scorched out of existence leaving only small black marks on the walls where they had been. Though the infection in the man was certainly not the source of the entire disease it seemed to have been what had empowered those carvings to take life.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The tree monster jolted backwards as wisps of flames cracked across it, its eyes erased and its protective shell greatly weakened. Struggling blindly it turned away from the heat of Kyras' flames and began to flee, stumbling over rocks and other small changes in terrain as its path carried it towards the town where the others were camped.

 

[DarkRawen]

Des wandered outside the cellar, following the others. He felt a little numb, this whole affair was... very unpleasant. He had killed a mortal, but he hadn't had any choice. Right? The man had begged to be killed.

I'm really not a killer.

A demon perhaps, but one of love and pleasure, not of hate or death. He couldn't help the heavy feeling, Des wasn't used to emotions like this. It was a little too much for him.

"Please find Alex; I want to make sure we did this right and he's the expert. I'll make sure that if Des is infected, I'll... stop him."

"I promise, I'm not infected," he said, and turned to face her. If Dalrel did go to find Alex, Des didn't notice it, troubled as he was. Some of the blood had run down his cheek, but he wiped it off, frowning. He didn't remove his hand from his eyes, but walked a little closer to her. The hand carrying the dagger was just hanging, almost as if it was motionless, until he let go of the dagger and wiped off the mortal's blood on the ground. The dagger was just left there, however. He didn't want it anymore.

"It's okay; know that you did the right thing. If you need to talk, I'll listen."

"It's fine, I couldn't worry such a pretty lady..." he muttered, though, he did want to talk. He wanted to explain his reasoning, or even just voice his sadness and be told that it was going to be alright. That it didn't change anything. Des forced a smile, and removed his hand to look at her, only to have the red return in his vision, and his smile lessen. Mortals reacted... not too well to his tears, and he really didn't need to deal with that as well now.

I hope she doesn't think it's a sign of disease.

"Don't worry about my eyes, I'm just... sad. Very sad. The tears they just... end up being like this. It doesn't hurt."

 

[Anti-American Eagle]

Kyras watched in confusion and surprise as the abomination caught on fire and stumbled off towards the town. After taking an awed moment to think about how his life was likely saved by what appeared to be random chance or perhaps the intervention of a spirit or even great spirit, he snuffed the fires he had started on the ground and began to give chase to the tree creature. He avoided charging in blindly however, this could be a ruse, it was clearly intelligent it could be trying to catch him off guard.

 

[hiei82]

Kes wasn't terribly surprised by the bleeding eyes. It wasn't that she'd seen if before so much as her limited experience making nearly everything "new". She mostly knew how to fight and break and destroy while playing to a crowd. Nothing else mattered in the arenas. Sure she knew a few things passed down to her from her elders about the outside world and surviving there, but what non-humans did in times of extreme confusion was beyond her skill set.

Of course she was concerned about it; as far as she'd learned, blood was supposed to stay inside the body. Making it come out was one of the major ways creatures died in the arena. She tried to read him to ensure he was being truthful before deciding he was; not that her judgment of people was known to be particularly accurate. "If you say so." she said, offering him the benefit of the doubt.

 

[DarkRawen]

"If you say so."

"Yes, I do say so," Des smiled, feeling better now. He would have embraced Kes, but she didn't seem awfully fond of that kind of thing. Not even used to it. If he could, he'd make her more comfortable with that kind of thing, treat her well and keep her happy. Though he was still sad, Des chuckled, a light chuckle that would make anyone feel warm inside.

"Thanks, Kes," he told her, resisting taking her hand. She had made him feel better, and he felt the need to make her feel good as way, an instinctual feeling bound in the nature of his existence, trading pleasure for vitality, or, in this case, pleasure for a warm feeling, something which he had needed.

"I'm happy that you care enough to ask about that kinda thing. At least he's not in pain now, right?" He dried his eyes, taking the time to do it well, looking at her every now and then.

"Now, do you have something you want to talk about?" he asked her, tilting his head and looking curious. "While we wait for Alex, I mean. You can rely on me, even if I cry that easily."

 

[Josh123914]

Dalrel could only sit back and watch as Des sobbed uncontrollably over the death of the man.
"Now, do you have something you want to talk about?"

''Well, not really. We should get back to the others'' He said, wandering aimlessly for a moment, before turning back around to see if the other two were following him. They weren't. ''Hold on.'' He said to Des, ''Have you not killed.... ANYONE before?'' he asked, confused. ''Surely there must have been someone in the arena, or the desert, or even in previous travels? We are ruthless people in retrospect. That big bird earlier alone must have killed dozens of soldiers very painfully, and I'm pretty sure we immolated someone in the arena.'' He spoke, expecting an answer but then realising that he probably wasn't making Des feel any better, so he stopped.

 

[hiei82]

Kes was about to speak up when Dalrel spoke up. His comments were... unhelpful. First kills were difficult for most everyone; he didn't need questioning. Honestly, Kes was surprised he hadn't vomited it; the most common reaction to a person's first taking of life. Still, maybe that was a biology thing; he clearly wasn't exactly human and, for that matter, she couldn't remember ever seeing him eat. "What does he subsist on?" Kes wondered, though didn't vocalize the question due, primarily, to the circumstances.

Instead, she just stared disapprovingly at Dalrel as if to say 'Not helping.'

 

[DarkRawen]

"Hold on. Have you not killed.... ANYONE before?"

Des shook his head. "No. Well. Not any humans, I've had to kill animals sometimes, and there was the beasts in the arena, but not any humans or intelligent mortals."

"Surely there must have been someone in the arena, or the desert, or even in previous travels? We are ruthless people in retrospect. That big bird earlier alone must have killed dozens of soldiers very painfully, and I'm pretty sure we immolated someone in the arena."

He frowned, but once again he shook his head.

"I've never murdered anyone, I'm only 400 years old." That was, what, 5 humans' life-time, right? Des was fairly sure there was at least a thousand humans out there that had never killed anyone.

It's not really that weird, is it?

Humans waged wars, Des did not.

"The horizon with the arena was my first, I... was brought into the fighting grounds for the first time with the rest of you." He scratched his face, awkwardly. "I think it was meant to be a public execution, honestly, that one general man didn't like that I was in bed with his wife, even if I was just there because she was lonely. At least, I think that's what he didn't like, I had no clue about the language when that happened. Loneliness, however, needs no words to be portrayed, and she embraced me first."

He smiled a little, he wished he'd get more time with her, she'd been so sad. Hopefully nothing had happened to her though, and the realization of that made his smile lessen slightly.

"Anyways, I've not killed anyone, I tend to move around, and I don't partake in violent actions... I've had to run for my life enough times, though. It's easy enough to get into trouble, mortals are predictable like that."

He glanced at Kes, smiling a bit more, before his eyes went back to Dalrel.

"Why is that a weird thing, though? I'm not a mortal, therefore I don't act like one."

 

[Lunar Templar]

As Riviera started out she saw, and heard some sort of tree monster heading toward her, or rather in her general direction. From the way it was thrashing around it was clearly crazed "I don't have time for this ..." she sighed as she looked around from something big and heavy to fling at it. She could just blast it, but she'd been doing that to much for her liking lately, to the point where she was question weather or not her company was actually LOOKING for trouble or not.

Regardless of weather or not they where looking for trouble, she found a suitably large rock, well, large by her standard, grabbed it, and flung it at the tree creature with her full strength.

 

[IFS]

The boulder struck the tree monster with a mighty crash, shattering its wooden shell and revealing a pulsating black mass within. Its armor shattered and its eyes gone the ooze poured out of the remains of the twisted tree and began wriggling across the ground towards one of the houses they had yet to check, seeming guided towards a pile of rubble over what looked like a cellar door. It seemed to grow in size and speed as it neared the rubble, as though something beyond the rubble was strengthening it.

 

[Josh123914]

"Why is that a weird thing, though? I'm not a mortal, therefore I don't act like one."
Dalrel cleared his throat, ''I'm sorry. I assumed that you must have been put in a position like this before. Horizons can be dangerous after all''
He looked around, remembering that there were others in their party and that they should meet up with them again.
''Come on you two, we need to find the others.''

After a few minutes walking Dalrel caught Alex and Serragish literally at each other's throats.
''What exactly is going on?'' he asked, glaring at Des and Kes to see if they were seeing the same thing as him.

 

[DarkRawen]

"I'm sorry. I assumed that you must have been put in a position like this before. Horizons can be dangerous after all."

Des shook his head. "It's fine, no harm done." He wondered if the other thought he had gotten upset. "It is a curious thing, but I would rather avoid someone who wants to murder me than confront them. Although..." he glanced over at Kes, though it was only a very short moment. "I don't mind protecting those I care about."

"Come on you two, we need to find the others."

He nodded and followed, they quickly enough found Serragish and Alex. However, it seemed like they weren't exactly best friends.

"What exactly is going on?"

Des tilted his head. Alex's cheek was red, right? Why would Serragish be hitting Alex? Normally, he would have sided with the lady, mortal women were such delightful beings after all, but he knew that she had been hostile before. Alex hadn't. Besides, she didn't seem harmed at all, not by words nor by actions.

"What are you doing?!" he asked, looking both disappointed and a little angered. He didn't like seeing anyone being needlessly violent.

"You can't hit people, okay? I'm sure that Alex didn't do anything to deserve that. You are unharmed, right?" He examined her, she seemed no different from earlier. "Do you have a headache, perhaps? If you're not feeling well, then... then you should just let us know."

 

[hiei82]

Kes didn't notice the look from Des; partly because she wasn't looking at him and partly because the idea she needed protection would never occur to her.

"Come on you two, we need to find the others." Dalrel said, earning a nod from her. She started jogging after them, quickly catching up. Eventually they came upon A strange scene; Serragish and Alex fighting. Both Dalrel and Des were quick to ask what was going on, but Kes was decidedly apathetic about the reason. Rather, Kes was conflicted about whether to intervene and pull the pair apart or whether she should let the pair of them work it out. In the end, she decided to wait and watch; pulling them apart by force wouldn't resolve whatever it was that drove them to blows and, so long as it didn't become particularly dangerous, Kes wouldn't change that stance.

 

[Anti-American Eagle]

After seeing a boulder crash into the abomination, Kyras stopped in shock almost bending down in to supplication to the miracle before him... before seeing the cat-creature in the direction of where it had came from. But the abomination was continuing towards more ruins.

Seeing that it was vulnerable again he immediately started throwing fire at it. Seeing it seemed to be getting stronger from the presence of the ruins dealing lethal blows now seemed the best option.