Prey: A Character Driven RP [FINISHED]

[TheDoctor455]

Dr. Strauss silently followed Alex out of the building and said nothing in reply to Alec's insistence that they meet up later.

I almost killed someone today... on purpose...

Dr. Strauss walked to the nearest public park, and picked a well-lit bench to rest on. He sat down on the bench, and pulled the last of his dose of his special blend of narcotics. Dr. Strauss lit the joint, and inhaled. There were only enough pulls left in it for him to get a light buzz... not enough to push the dreams away. But he knew he couldn't fight sleep forever, so Dr. Strauss gave in and slept.

His dream was confused... a jumbled mess of images... his oldest daughter melting into mush in his arms... his youngest coughing and wretching bile out, her fever burning her up faster than anyone could cool it down... then his wife and middle daughter coughing up blood even while they consoled him...

When morning came, Dr. Strauss woke up on the bench to find a few tears had slipped from his eyes. He made no move to dry his eyes, or to make his meeting with Alec. Dr. Strauss just sat there.

 

[i don't know]

"Wake up you bum! You're scaring away my customers!"

Alec awoke to the sound of an angry slightly high-pitched voice. In front of him was one beer mug, and two smaller vodka cups.

"How much did I spend?"

"The beer was on the house, but the vodka cost 197.58 Yuan."

"Hm, about thirty dollars. I can live with that. Goodbye."

Alec stood up shakily but then kept on walking. By the time that Alec got back to Tao Zheng, it was already 12:00am, but there was no Dr.Strauss in sight. Thinking that he'll be there soon, Alec walked into the facility and paid Mr.Kimura a visit.

 

[JoJo]

Rin laughed as she watched the demon-hunters fall down and flee from Lily and Rezetta's attacks, she had no particular affection for the close-minded fanatics and found it amusing to see their panic when confronted with the real thing. Though she was annoyed Maya had got herself found out before the assassination could properly begin, the child seemed to be acting rather well as a distraction while the more powerful kitsune could unlease his frankly impressive fireballs. When she noticed that Myrrdin was shaking besides her, she pulled him in for a friendly hug.

"Relax and enjoy the show, my loyal wizard. Whatever happens there will be special blood shed tonight!"

~​

As Alec entered the building, a short and rather pretty young woman skirted up to him carrying a white sheet piece of paper in her hand. She gave him a friendly smile and then spoke in broken English.

"You Mr. Alec yes? Mr. Kimura too ill work today, instead he ask me give you this. Have nice day!"

She handed the American a typed note, and a small wooden charm with a tiny figure carved into it, before hurrying back to her seat behind the reception desk.

Dear Alec,

My illness took a turn for the worse yesterday evening, so I have no choice but to remain at home. I have both good and bad news. First the bad; we have no direct records of any known special named Rin. Perhaps not surprising though, I am sure we have data on only a small percentage of those with abilities, many more are careful enough to avoid our gaze. The good news though is that we do have one lead: a local woman referred to as "Rin" was mentioned in an interview we had with a pair of western half-demons passed though here about half a year ago. Unfortunately they disappeared not long after then and we never heard from them again. Regardless, they said they met her to discuss business propositions in the Ming Yen restaurant on the eastern outskirts of Jinan. I would advise you and Dr. Strauss start by asking there.

I would like to thank you again for saving my life, that's not the first time I've come very close to death, only to miraculously survive. Last time afterwards I had this charm made to commemorate the event, which I'd like you to have now as a token of my appreciation.

Yours truly and good luck,

Chojun Kimura

Upon closer inspect, it could be seen that upon the wooden disk there was a miniscule outline of what appeared to be a wolf or a fox, except it had two tails, and something circular which may have been the sun was carved on a small distance above the animal.

 

[TheDoctor455]

Without really thinking about it, Dr. Strauss walked back to the Tao Zheng building to meet Alec. As he approached, Dr. Strauss said nothing. He kept his hands in his pockets, he stared down at the ground to hide his tear-worn eyes. His skin was paler than usual, his beard and hair were a complete mess. Dr. Strauss reeked of death and guilt.

 

[i don't know]

After Alec finished reading the note and put on the ornament, he felt two feelings almost at once: worry, and joy. He prayed for Mr.Kimura's, but was glad that there was a hint at where Rin might be. Alec turned around and was surprised to see Dr.Strauss right behind him with a sad expression on his face.

"Well, I've just received a note and this wooden ornament from Mr.Kimura. He had to stay home because his sickness got worse, I hope he gets better though. He wrote that there might be a clue where Rin is at, in a restaurant on the eastern outskirts of Jinan. Also, don't forget that you owe Mr.Kimura, and you're disrespecting him if you back out now."

He then walked back to Mr.Ling's office.

 

[TheDoctor455]

Dr. Strauss wordlessly followed Alec to Mr. Ling's office. The visions of his family dying around him still flashed before his eyes. Dr. Strauss started to get a migraine. His arms and chest were sweating. He started coughing violently. Dr. Strauss collapsed to the floor behind Alec and curled up into a ball, muttering nonsense to himself.

Only a few words were even remotely audible from his ramblings: "Sera... my girls... dead... all dead... my fault..."

 

[i don't know]

Suddenly Alec felt a serious headache. Almost as if Dr.Strauss's migraine had been passed onto him. Soon afterwards he fell to the floor and began having a vision.
There were five people standing in what appears to be empty pitch-black space. The figures appeared to be giving off light by themselves. One of them was a thirty-year-old man, and the others were young women. Alec soon realized that this was similar to getting possessed and began using his conscience regaining technique to move around in the vision. He began imagining walking and other memories, and then his hands began to become visible. This meant that he was now able to travel throughout the vision. But there was one question that remained in Alec's mind forever from now on, Did I just get possessed by Dr.Strauss's pain itself, or something more sinister.

 

[DktrAgonizer]

Belatedly, Rezetta heard somebody scream at her and she realized that something like floating fire was coming quickly at her. She just managed to throw up her arms to cover her face, trying to sidestep out of the fire's path. It hit her arms, however, and her sleeve caught fire. "Oh, hell!" she hissed, waving her arm frantically as the fabric of her sleeve began to burn through. She backed up hastily to the wall, using her other sleeve to try and smother the flames. After a while, she managed to put it out; thankfully, it hadn't done too much to her actual arm apart from making it uncomfortably warm.

Zetta shook her head, staring at the charred sleeve before looking around to see where the fire had come from. Apart from the few cloaked followers shrinking down in the gloom, the only person she could see by the crates were the little girl she'd been trying to reach. She thought about going to her again, but the thought of some unseen person who could throw more fire at her made her uneasy. Still, what else could she do?

Zetta took a deep breath and began to walk towards the girl, whom she noticed was trying to wriggle away out of sight behind the crates again. She smiled in a way she hoped was reassuring and, eyes sweeping left and right to look for whoever had attacked her, said, "I'm not going to hurt you! I'm not the enemy here."

 

[Sporky111]

Takeda watched with mixed satisfaction and horror as he caught the demon woman on fire. He hoped she would keep burning, so his promise would be fulfilled. But she quickly patted out the flames and descended upon Maya again.

He dashed forward and threw his body against her, intending to knock her away. Then he knelt beside Maya and quickly spoke to her. "Maya, they can see you. Turn invisible again and run away."

 

[JoJo]

Maya backed away even further as the demon in front of her smiled and spoke to her, though she was too frightened by what appeared to be an evil grin to understand what she had said. She recoiled as she heard a voice whisper in her ear before recognising it as that of Takeda. Somehow his words managed to force their way through the many layers of fear in her mind and she realised what he wanted her to do.

Kneeling on the ground, she screwed up her eyes as the woman approached and concentrated on the light breeze that always accompanied her invisibility. Nothing happened and she started to shake violently, not daring to open her eyes again. As the footsteps became increasing loud she was inadvertently reminded of the last memory of her old home; standing alone paralysed with fear behind her front door as loud regular knocking sounded through it, several men calling out loudly, then her running... just running... not thinking of anything else but running away from them.

Suddenly the small girl felt a shiver run down her body and instinctively knowing what had just happened she picked herself up and stumbled away, dropping back down a few feet away behind another crate. She prayed with all her heart that demons couldn't see though her invisibility like Rin could, and that Takeda would stop them before they got her.

 

[i don't know]

The vision that Alec was having suddenly became really weird. When he walked up to the man and asked him who he was, the figures exploded into light! The light was blindingly bright, and Alex covered his eyes. After a while the light began to feel physical and he moved it aside almost like opening a window. He awoke with a nose bleed.

Spoiler: ooc

I will erase this post if necessary.

 

[DktrAgonizer]

Rezetta let out a loud curse as something barreled into her legs, sending her flying to the ground and smacking the back of her head against the floor. She rolled over onto her side and groaned, reaching a hand over to rub at her head. "This is not helping my headache," she said to herself, blinking back tears that had brought up by the pain in her head.

Eventually she pulled herself into a sitting position, staring at where the girl she'd been trying to reach had been. Zetta frowned, still rubbing her sore head. She'd caught a glimpse of the girl as she was picking herself up from the floor, so how could she have disappeared from that spot so quickly? Even if she'd run back behind the boxes, Zetta would have seen her do so.

"Oh, hell," the woman muttered, slowly getting back to her feet. Invisibility, she thought. That had to be it. That also explained the mysterious unseen person who had just been assaulting her. Zetta gave a sigh of frustration, scowling at the boxes as if they would tell her where the girl and her unknown protector had gone. Invisibility was all an illusion, and considering her own powers it wouldn't normally be too difficult to see through them if she knew what she was really looking for. In her current state, however, she'd never be able to do it.

Unsure now of what to do, she let out another sigh and muttered, "This certainly has been one hell of a day."

 

[TheDoctor455]

Spoiler: OOC

This post was co-written by Jojo and myself.

Dr. Strauss stood over Alec's unconscious form, only dimly watching him sprawl on the floor. Dr. Strauss was completely lost in a world all his own. His loving wife and daughters flashed before his eyes again and again, the memory of their deaths playing out in front of him. He was so busy being mugged in memory lane that Dr. Strauss didn't resist or even notice as someone grabbed him from behind and whispered into his ear.

"Ha ha, after my mistake yesterday it's nice to have something work out for once. Sorry Doctor but you're just too dangerous to me and to the world to be wandering around free!"

The voice came from somewhere behind him and as those words were spoken a pair of strong hands gripped the man around his body and quickly pulled him away.

Whoever it was injected Dr. Strauss with something to paralyze him, not that it was really needed. Dr. Strauss went limp and dimly watched -as if he weren't involved- as he was dragged away, then someone hit him on the head, and everything went dark.

 

[SeanTheSheep]

"Well it's far from over." Lily said as she pulled Zetta to her feet, holding the gun in the other hand, and turned back towards Rin and Merlin. "Besides, they're just kids. Or at least, the girl definitely is, I don't know how old the boy claims to be. Either way, only a monster would hurt a child." She said, getting a little sidetracked. "But that's not our main concern, we need to focus on Rin and the warlock, and fast. They might not be going anywhere now, but they will as soon as things go south, I promise you that." Lily finished, walking confidently towards the two tricksters who had been watching unharmed.

 

[JoJo]

Rin looked disappointed for a moment as she gripped a shaken Myrddin, who gulped nervously as Lily and Rezetta approached, before changing her expression to one that vaguely resembled concern. By now all the followers had fled, except for a couple lying near the exit in pools of blood moaning quietly.

"Well um... you see... I... we're all in great danger, especially you two demons! My foreseeing has suddenly informed me that those were a couple of invisible spirit-assassins disguised as children, who have been sent here by the mythical Predators themselves! Don't be fooled by their harmless appearances, get them before they attack us again!"

As she finished her hurried spiel, she pointed her finger past the two women towards the crates where she could see Maya and Takeda still crouching and watching the four adults.

~​

A day later in a small office in the Tao Zheng building, the large well-built man known as Mr. Ling cocked his head as he heard strange noises coming from outside his bare room. After checking that the large reinforced metal door behind him was still securely locked, he carefully opened the office door and scanned the surroundings. To his relief the only person in view was the odd American he had met the day before, who was picking himself up off the floor with a nose-bleed.

"Wacha you doin' down there, Mr. Foreigner?" he asked slowly in a deep gruff voice, "I've got yer gun 'ere, just don't let any policemen catch a glimpse of it."

He thrust a pocket-sized leather holster containing something pointy and heavy into Alec's hands, before standing back with a look of confusion of his face.

"Wait a minute, I thought there was two of yer? What 'appened to the other one?"

 

[i don't know]

Alec wiped his nose on his sleeve, and attached the holster to his pants. He then looked around and saw that Dr.Strauss was no longer near him. He began to have a really strange feeling that he must find him, and give him back something that belongs to him, but he doesn't know what that something is. He stood up.

"Mr.Ling, did you happen to see where Dr.Strauss went? He was here a while ago, and now he's gone!"

"I haven't seen where he went. Why are you so worried about him?"

"I'm about to go to east Jinan to find out where the sword is, I might need him to help me find it. I also feel like I am supposed to return something to him, I don't know-AHHHH!"

Alec's eyes lost color, and his shadow turned into a flame-like shape. An ominous voice spoke from Alec's mouth, one that wasn't his.

"Must, find, STRAUSS! He cannot escape his mind, no one can! Where is he!?"

The entity stopped talking and appeared to float out of Alec's head, it looked like a dark and thick fog, its hideous face popped out and gave Mr.Ling a menacing look before disappearing.

 

[SeanTheSheep]

"That is literally the worst lie I have ever heard." Lily said, not faltering for one moment. "You have five seconds after I've finished speaking to make your move, after which I'm taking you down." she continued, halting mere feet from where Rin stood "You even killed two of your men as they fled." indicating the bodies by the door "Don't bother denying it, because I don't kill people unless they deserve it, from what I've gathered, Zetta doesn't kill full stop, the girl fired one shot, and the invisible boy throws fire. Your foresight didn't tell you shit, you just didn't see this coming."

She raised the gun a little to point at Myrddin's thigh. "Five..."

 

[DktrAgonizer]

"I probably couldn't kill anybody even if I tried, in this condition," Rezetta said, though it was more to herself than anything. She had to admit, though, that despite her earlier anxieties about the thought of killing somebody or seeing them be killed, she hardly doubted that the deaths of 'Merlin' and Rin would weigh too heavy on her mind. One hand consistently rubbing her aching head, she followed Rin's finger to the stack of crates in the room, but saw nothing. Either the girl and her protector had ducked back out of sight, or they were still invisible. As Lily began her countdown, Zetta found her gaze drawn back to Rin. The woman had some sort of weird time powers, she knew, but did she also possess the ability to see through illusions? It could explain why she knew what I was, she thought, but not how she couldn't pick out what Lily was. Ah well, not the time to worry about it, I suppose.

 

[JoJo]

After checking that she was definitely still invisible, Maya peered around the crate she was hiding behind to get a clearer view at what was going on. Having just rolled on the floor, her hair was now almost as messy as before Rin had washed it and her clothes had a brand new layer of grime and dust stuck to them. She was hugely relieved to see that she was no longer being followed; instead Rin and the two demons seemed to be arguing in increasing loud voices. From her position she could hear most of their conversation, though a lot of what they said made very little sense to her.

Noticing in the corner of her vision that a couple of the people in strange clothing were lying still, she stretched upwards to get a better look, and then immediately ducked back down with a sick feeling when she saw the blood around their bodies. She shuddered as she heard one of the demons repeatedly use the word "kill" and flattened herself against the ground to make sure that even if she was visible she would be safely out of sight. She couldn't see the kitsune but suspected he must be somewhere close by.


"Takeda?" she whispered "Are you still there?"

 

[SamuelT]

Gabriel blew out a puff of smoke, and tossed the butt of his cig away. He was making his way through the streets of an unknown city, mindlessly trudging across streets and past crossroads. The thoughts of a heavy binge-drinking session of last night stuck out like shards of glass in his head. Occasionally his headache would hit him, when a beam of light hit him for example. He wore sunglasses for just that reason. This, combined with the shade of an unshaven chin and his dirty and torn beanie made most people on the sidewalk avoid him.

He patted the pockets of his coat. They were empty, as were the pockets of his jeans. That cig'd been his last. He grumbled to himself and looked around for the first time in a while, and saw that the quiet and rustic street he was in was devoid of any tobacco store or anything alike. He swore quietly, and continued his aimless treck through the unknown streets.

After a small while he found himself in a more industrial part of the city. Wharves and warehouses told him that once this'd been a bustling seaport. He took a right past what looked like an empty terrain with nothing but an office building dead centre. Suddenly a loud bang broke through the monotone humming of distant cars. Gabriel jerked, nearly dropping himself to the ground. He looked to the right and saw people running out of the building. No more bangs followed. He waited and listened intently, but for what he didn't exactly know.

His interest piqued, he looked at the chainlink fence surrounding the premises. He easily climbed over it, and quietly made his way to the lonely building, with a hunched back and long strides. The singular entrance was open. Lacking a flashlight, he twisted his hand and a pulsing green shine surrounded it.

"Hullo?" He said rather loudly.