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Post by Vanitypirate on Mar 6, 2018 9:51:27 GMT -8
Ariana:
In what handfuls she could grab, she would find a count of six-hundred-gold worth of coins lodged, arranged like tiles, within the filth. She certainly could have kept digging and finding more, if she liked, though it might be prudent to move on.
As her eyes adjusted, she would vaguely be able to make out the form of a plank of wood, roughly the length and width of a forearm, although it was rectangular and boxy in shape.
Down the hall, Ariana would hear distant chatter as the light grew a hair bigger. There were two silhouettes, humanoid in form, shifting forth to examine something hanging from the ceiling.
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Post by porkylabrador on Mar 6, 2018 10:16:44 GMT -8
Oh fuck and thunder. Rania's momentary glee and loot-lust was quelled as the noise chittered into existence to her flank. On her best day she knew she could take those two silhouettes and turn them into floor-huggers but she was well and truly bleeding on the butcher's block.
The Arbalest did something very uncommon for her and took the Stealthy option, lowering herself down with a big grunt of effort, she crouched and trained her crossbow on the newcomers. If there was so much as an inkling that they were more pig than man, she'd pepper them with bolts before they knew where she was. The plank could wait.
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Post by black379 on Mar 6, 2018 18:18:12 GMT -8
Can't be.
It was. Unmistakably. Adeney looked over the hanging body carefully, from her mangled feet up to her pleading eyes. He felt his insides turn over and was wracked with a paralyzing shiver.
"ALPhonse!! Help h-r d-down!!" Voice cracking harshly, he dropped the lamp into the muck and quickly took her by the legs in an effort to hoist her off the hook. There was no time to consider what came next. He didn't know the extent of her wounds, or how long she had been down here. The frantic assessment of her grisly wounds offered only to compel his panic.
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Post by Vanitypirate on Mar 6, 2018 19:27:37 GMT -8
Alphonse:
How could this happen?
His jaw hung open in shock at the horrible state of the woman. He couldn't imagine how anyone could deserve this.
Alphonse looped his sword into his belt, unsheathed-- there was no time to clean off the blood just yet, though he wasn't rightly sure how much good he could do with just an arm... though, he could only surmise that the doctor knew the woman by his less-than-stoic reaction.
He scraped together enough gunk from the ground to boost himself up, standing on his toes, he held the woman just beneath the arm and made to slide her off the hook.
The Spaniard cringed; he couldn't help but think this must be worse for the poor woman. Though, he still held her upright, to the best of his ability, reluctantly to fully let her down onto the filthy floor.
Woman:
The site of the wound was almost black, with a cherry-red border than trailed off in veins towards her heart; tell-tale symptoms of infection, Adeney might note.
Her attire was in tatters, and her boots were gone.
She reached out weakly towards the good doctor, and her voice cracked, but failed to make a sound.
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Post by black379 on Mar 6, 2018 20:03:08 GMT -8
Adeney whined or growled through grit teeth. He tried to assist the man in pulling her down, and when the meat hook finally let her go, moved shakily to take her from Alphonse.
He cradled the girl to himself, restraining her arms while his lenses scoured her assortment of injuries. Every tear in her skin threatened to steal her away. The worst, where the hook had skewered her shoulder, was rife with infection and throbbed with blackish blood as her heart beat.
"Sh-hh! Audrey... Sh-shut up!" The beaked doctor couldn't think straight, could hardly function enough just to hold her. "What'd you do..."
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Post by Vanitypirate on Mar 6, 2018 20:18:02 GMT -8
Audrey:
Her mouth opened and shut, again, like a fish out of water. She seemed almost like to cry, but she had no tears to spare out of dehydration.
She drew her fingers up to the corner of his mask, weakly, as though to peel it away.
She wanted to see his face.
Alphonse:
His mouth was in a tight line, and he stayed silent out of respect for Adeney and this woman, Audrey.
He drew a closed fist down his forehead, across his chest, closing his eyes in silent prayer. He wished for her spirit to find rest worlds away from here; no one deserved this much pain...
There was a bitter, stalwart urge to go out and exact vengeance on whatever... entity caused this, and to prevent it from happening again.
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Post by black379 on Mar 6, 2018 23:11:33 GMT -8
Whether he was meant to notice or not, he caught sight of Alphonse's prayer. He hung his head and cursed under his breath. Adeney wanted to believe that her breathing and weak stirring meant that she was still alive, but he knew differently. Disease already claimed her and if Audrey even lived more than minutes, it would be in agony.
Still clutching her to his chest, Adeney sat in the bloody mire, settling her in his lap. He held her upright, but his other hand pulled back the red cowl and then peeled away his mask. As if he weren't tortured enough, he grimaced as the offensive air pervaded his senses.
His pale face peered down at her. Dirty bangs hanging over glossy green eyes. His lips quivered and he felt like he was being throttled.
"Y-y-you're better than this... You deserve-" Gently combing Silvant's bangs behind her ears, he marked her forehead with bloody gloves.
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Post by Vanitypirate on Mar 7, 2018 9:13:31 GMT -8
Alphonse:
He caught sight of the man's face and studied it; Adeney was much younger than the Spaniard had expected, with a face more boyish and youthful.
He kept quiet, but with his eyes wide open as he kept watch with a hand on his sword. Praying silently for the woman's safe deliverance to the afterlife.
Audrey:
The woman shivered and the strength in her arm wilted, and for a moment it seemed that she would pass then and there.
But she still clung on to what senses she had left, brushing Adeney's cheek with her thumb. Her eyes were glossy and pinkish from disease, and her dark brows were furrowed and pinched with pain.
Looking at him, though, watching Adeney... it brought some level of peace within her. Instead of straining against some vile hook, she was lax and limp in the doctor's arms.
Her lips opened, but what came out was a barely-audible whisper, like hinges creaking upon a door.
If he listened, he would hear it.
'Adeney...'
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Post by Vanitypirate on Mar 7, 2018 9:24:13 GMT -8
Ariana:
The floor beneath was grimy and oddly slippery. The copper scent of it indicated that it was gore of some sort, but mercifully, it was too dark to see just quite what it looked like.
As she neared closer, she would spy the two figures reaching up and pulling another frighteningly-humanoid shape from the hook-- skewered in the same way Ariana would remember being.
Another figure, lopsided more to the right, held a glimmering tool in his hand: a sword, from what she could discern at her distance.
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Post by black379 on Mar 7, 2018 9:34:32 GMT -8
Adeney sucked in the rancid air through his teeth and began to shudder with a fit of tears. His eyes shut tight and he leaned down to rest his forehead against hers.
"I'm right here Aud-" As he hugged the girl close to himself, he drew the crimson-bathed dagger again. The blade's fang placed gently against her jugular.
"R-right here." With something of surgical precision, if not surprisingly violent, Adeney forced the dagger through her throat and up into her skull.
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Post by Vanitypirate on Mar 7, 2018 9:59:51 GMT -8
Audrey:
There was a wet gasp of air forced in through her punctured throat, and her hand slipped from his face momentarily to grip at his collar in sudden pain.
But Then the grip loosened, and relief followed as she found the pain waning, as with all her senses.
Her grey eyes watched Adeney's with all the love and admiration in the world before the light all but faded from them completely.
Alphonse:
He watched with horror as the doctor simply... euthanized the woman. The grip on his sword tightened, but the action was oddly justifiable.
No one deserved to be in that much pain.
He kept silent, still, awaiting a cue from Adeney to move on when he was ready.
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Post by black379 on Mar 7, 2018 10:35:07 GMT -8
The blade withdrew with a squelch, allowing blood to pour from her neck. While her life ebbed, Adeney’s face softened. His tears kissed her face before he rubbed his eyes with a clean segment of his sleeve.
A single sniffle and the doctor fastened his mask over his face again. He wiped his knife of the dead girl’s vest and promptly returned it to his sheathe. The dagger was traded to pick up the discarded lantern.
The corpse was rolled into a cushion of gore and Adeney rose to face Alphonse. The round, emerald lenses bore into him expectantly.
“We m-must find Celeste.” There was only a slight hitch in his throat.
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Mar 7, 2018 15:50:15 GMT -8
/Arnulf/
With a sigh and a grumble and swear of some uncommon language, he crouched low; a practiced squat from years of hunting, he held the torch low and did his best to hold it close to his core without singing any of his attire.
He made a quick 'fft' noise and flourished his hand to beckon Florence closer, whispering.
"Get down, something's nearby... close, it's... Hitting something?" He admittedly shuddered to ponder just what was making such a vile noise. He'd seen dungeons before, of terrifiying tortuous chambers, to molding rotting belows of churches and homes housing victims of plague or war both. But here... It was like a granary of meat and bone.
It was revolting... The way each of the bodies lay so packed and stacked against eachother. So many, in their grotesque human-like forms. He knew them to be swine but the pinkish skins of a few... He sighed and furrowed his brow as he pulled out a dagger and held out the torch to Florence,
"Hold this f'me?" he asked quietly.
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Post by porkylabrador on Mar 8, 2018 4:35:45 GMT -8
Swine hadn't used blades like that in her experience... however the details of the scene were largely obscured in this abysmal place.
The swinging humanoid shape caused bile to rise up in her gut. Oh fuck... oh no... Rania didn't want to display heroics but empathy hit her like a charging bull, however unlikely it was, what if that pile of hanging flesh was someone like her? Some unfortunate down here to do good and fill some coffers along the way. She could leave these curious and more importantly armed silhouettes to their macabre investigations, the merc in her told her it was the more sensible idea in terms of self-preservation.
The Arbalest sighed. Me and you are going to have a conversation about altruism and this fucking conscience, Brain, you lump of solid fuck. Raising with a small jangle to her feet, the Arbalest took aim and shuffled closer to the scene, trigger finger itching to put another Swine down.
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Post by Vanitypirate on Mar 8, 2018 9:33:15 GMT -8
Bile Room
Florence:
She quietly accepted the torch, listening more purposefully now, but she still heard nothing.
The Crowgazer shrugged stiffly, a scalpel in one hand, and the torch in the other. Admittedly, there was some quivering excitement to see a swine with her own eyes-- how fascinating to see how one could make meat walk again.
Florence felt the thrill of discovery again; it was the fire that fueled her and made every second of grueling work worth it.
Arnulf:
He would hear the wet sound hasten and then... it stopped.
A metal stick, fashioned into the rough shape of a spear, whizzed past just in front of Arnulf's flat nose and embedded into some unseen pile of meat to his left.
Buddy:
It was a pig.
Or, at least, part of it was. As it emerged from the shadows, one could see human arms sprouting like trees out the back of it, all carrying a crude, metal spear.
The beast screeched, revealing broken, albeit dangerously sharp teeth. It had the face of a man with the jaws of a wolf.
It even had a beard, dark and wiry, than dangled off of its humanoid chin.
Then it carreened off to some unseen path outside the circle of torchlight, disappearing into the dark; though Arnulf could likely still hear its frantic footsteps circling himself and Florence.
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