Look at the Cleanse, look at the moves!

Open - Late Day 9

The manor house is the largest single building on the island and the only building that has a second floor. The outside of the house features elaborate carvings in the entryway, while the main hall contains a large metal chandelier formed of many interlocking spirals. The interior features extravagant rugs spread across the floor in every room. On the ground floor, there is a kitchen, a large dining room with a hand-carved table, each leg made to look like a rushing wave, and a living room featuring a large purple velvet sofa. The second floor is home to a large master bedroom, a smaller but no less elaborate guest room, a drawing room and a balcony that overlooks the entire island.
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Pippi
Posts: 1066
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 7:04 pm
Location: I'm from England!

#61

Post by Pippi »

He couldn’t do it.

He just… he couldn’t find the ability to pull the trigger. Not even to provide covering fire, not in case he, like, nicked a vital artery or shot so wildly that he managed to pepper Michael’s entire face and torso with bullet holes. He could move his finger onto the trigger. He just couldn’t move it any further than that. It wasn’t so much a wall he was facing. Just a locked door that he’d lost the key for.

There had to be another door, though. There had to be some other way to help Arizona out, he couldn’t just sit here and watch and wait and hope that luck was on his side this time around. She yelled at him, in between bursts of gunfire, in between the cracks and thuds of shotgun shells impacting with fabric and stuffing. He tried to catch her eye and nod, but he couldn’t tell if she saw it. He took a deep breath, knowing there was every chance he’d catch a stray bullet right in the face. Then he poked his head around the side of the chair, hoping his angle was better than Arizona’s.

There he was. Garren couldn’t see all of him, just a lock of blonde, a flash of gunmetal. But it was enough, enough to get a sense of where he was, and the distance between where that and where Arizona was shooting.

“I see him! He’s to the right, the right of where you’re-”

He saw something else as well. Above and behind where Michael was cowering. A window, wide open, the perfect escape route. If he managed to scramble out of it while Arizona was reloading, he’d be scot free; you didn’t need to be a total goddamn gun nut to know how shit a shotgun was at long range. All the other boy had to do was wait things out, or rush and hope he took Arizona by surprise, and this whole thing would have been fucking pointless, and Garren would have been left in the sidelines, doing nothing as good people and bad ideals clashed, once again.

Or.

Or he could be the surprise factor as well. Or he could actively do something. Make sure that Michael didn’t get away. He knew he couldn’t shoot. But he could still do something, make something happen, be something worthwhile.

There was about a 90% chance Michael would turn and react and shoot him, like, seventeen times in the torso, but. But. But but but.



Aw fuck it. Do it now, or he’d psyche himself out.

He threw the shotgun to the ground, pushing himself up off the floor, running out from behind cover, over to the window, heart thudding as loud as his footsteps, arm outstretched, ready to slam the glass shut.

There was an earsplitting crack. A punch in the ribs. His outstretched hand shook as he ran on water for a moment. Then the floorboards grabbed him and pulled him down and his head smacked against them with another sickening crack. Everything was white for a moment. He blinked. Then he looked down. And everything was red.
[+] V7
B006 - Stepney Cruz - DEAD - Dynasty decapitated, you just might see a ghost tonight - Mountain Bike - Localised - Catastrophe - Inferno
Pregame - Chill - Loss - Realm
Trip - Loved

G035 - Katie Agustien - DEAD - There's only two ways that these things can go, good or bad and how was I to know that all your friends won't hold any grudges, I got the final judgment - The World's Sharpest Knife™ - Dread - Skin - ieatnothing - Satisfaction - Tempest - Zero
Pregame - Vend-etta - Flames - Fleet - Monachopsis - Glitter
Trip - G҉ A҉ N҉ G҉

B028 - Aurelien Valter - DEAD - When everything's lost, they pick up their hearts and avenge defeat, before it all starts, they suffer through harm just to touch a dream - Spiked Mace, Glock 19, Min-Jae Parker's Crossbow - Nightmare - Bubbles - Neighbourhood - Tragedy - Make It - Fiend - Sleet - Love - Walls - Friends - Key - Everything - Gotta - Ghosts - Alone
Pregame - Shark - Heart
Prom - Link - Gradation - Ballare
Trip - Inferis - Scusare

B052 - Garren Mortimer - DEAD- Cut up and I can't feel my hands, no need to chase, can you relate, can you keep up the pace like you're dying for this? - Bryan Calvert's SPAS-12, Alligator tooth sword - Sky - Geek - Nation - No - Dilemma - Mauerbauertraurigkeit - Struck - Punishment - Énouement - Pain - Learn - lamb - Moves
Pregame - Rain
Trip - Life

Meanwhile
Lyra Doyle - Let's live tonight like fireflies, and one by one light up the sky - Pop!
Pregame - Evolution - Life - Lo Mein
Memories - Forward - Odds

Dean Puchero - By July you'd made a whole bunch of brand new friends, people you used to look down on, and you'd figured out a way to make real money - Phone - Angel
Pregame - Generation - Prince
Memories - Star
Prom - Sun - Luster
[+] The Past
V6
Bryony Adams - Burning bright until the end, now you'll be missing from the photographs
Astrid Tate - So what became of loving man, and what became of you?
Mia Rose - You can't understand that I won't leave 'til we're finished here, and then you'll find out where it all went wrong

V5
Owen Kay - I fold my tie and ribbon to hide my scars, that's how it starts
Amy Bachelor - Can you whisper, as it crumbles and breaks, as you shiver, count up all your mistakes
Francis St. Ledger - So a day when you've lost yourself completely could be a night when your life ends

V4
George Leidman (Adopted from Blastinus) - Now if we jump together at least we can swim far away from the wreck that we made
Beatrice - Jamie - Pippi - Tim - Ada - Tabby - Romeo - Lissa - Freddie - Trinity - Redd - Natalie - Kendra
[+] The Future
Boyd Adkinson - Ain't no surprise that I can't sleep tonight, my only vice is standing by your side
"bryony and alba would definitely join the terrorists quote me on this put this quote in signatures put it in history books" - Cicada Days, 2017
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Kermit
Posts: 1647
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2018 9:06 pm
Location: Don't worry about it :)

#62

Post by Kermit »

The couch exploded again. Arizona was saying something, but Michael couldn't make out the words.

Something swooped around the corner. Michael kind of half-flopped onto his side, and pointed his gun at the intruder. Garren? Garren.

Man, Garren didn't even have his gun. He was going for the window. Michael, actually, had forgotten about that up until now.

Another explosion, and Garren fell. Michael sat in shock for a moment, stare alternating between Garren and his own gun.

He hadn't fired.

...

...Oh. Of course.

He didn't know what to do, so he just scrambled for the window and dove through. Then, he did what he always did.

((He ran and tried not to look back.))
[+] v7
[+] Michael Froese
Michael Froese - The story of an identity; the story of a matador; the story of a liar; the story of a junkie; the story of a very special frog; the story of a jackal; the story of an oscillator; the story of a ghost; the story of the death of an author; the story of a bunch of other stuff.

THREADS!

PREGAME: Mad world - This...this felt nice. - Michael was incredibly disappointed in himself for actually agreeing to go do something with Beryl. - He wasn't actually all that sorry. - Part of him was worried his real motivation wasn't self-torturing altruism but instead the fact that it was one of the few things that still made him feel.

ISLAND:
Michael and all of his friends were going to be footnotes in a history textbook. - he was folding in on himself like a four-dimensional object in three-dimensional space - Everything was about pain, fear, and love. - "Gave them our reactions, our explosions, all that was ours; For graphs of passion, and charts of stars." - He had a duty to look into someone's eyes as he killed them. - Closure really did sound like nothing at all. - "I wish we were lovers, but it's for the best." - Michael Froese the award-winning murderer. That was who he was now. - "I wanted to lose myself." - "Good and bad, all roads lead to Rome and I just, it hurts too much to be a good person." - "Somewhere out there in the deep blue sea, there's this whale." - "...It's harder to be yourself than it is to be anybody else." - "The neighbors, they adored him for his humor and his conversation. Look underneath the house there, find the few living things, rotting fast in their sleep; oh, the dead," - He gave her a big hug. He buried his head in her shoulder, feeling her cold, spongy, rubbery skin against his forehead. She had no eyes. She had no face. Something had eaten her face. - Michael Froese was a crazy person with a gun. - Validation. - "You don't live in a goddamned movie." - "I miss what it's like to be, like, actually alone." - "Market data inconsistent. Cantor API problem. Trading system offline," - Michael didn't want this. It wasn't like that'd stop him. - "I'm wide awake, it's morning." - He was a spree killer now, he supposed. - When he gave his word, he was giving nothing. - The fact they even existed was being politicized. - "BERYL FUCKING MAHELONA. TELL ME WHAT YOU DID TO BERYL MAHELONA," - 'Am I gray?' - A beach covered in unidentified decedents. - He'd never felt anything unconditionally. - "Look around you, you're surrounded.
It won't get any better. And so, goodnight."
[+] Valerija Bogdanovic
The story of a (failed) revolutionary.

THREADS!

PREGAME: August 12th, 2017 - The explosive sound of metal hitting metal

ISLAND:
She turned away. Everything from here on out was for the terrorists to see. - "All of us, we have the chance to actually do something with our lives." - The students were the shark in the box. - Complacency was festering like a tumour. - "She's right. It won't - it won't change anything," - Scraped into the wall, in neatly-styled lettering, the words "If they won't live in peace, then they'll die for peace." - Val needed a gun, - "I do not care for violence without a point," she stated. "My gun is not loaded." - "Juliette, I'm sure you already know this, but you really should take pains to be careful around people who speak only in enthymemes." - "Someone once said, 'Change must come with the barrel of a gun', and they were not wrong." - Two explosions.
destroy the UN08/03/2019
Micheal experienced super position wherein he was both Beryl and he was Beryl's RP site quote. He was sure he could be happy about this but he no longer knew what happiness meant.
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Deamon
Posts: 1367
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2018 3:28 pm

#63

Post by Deamon »

Garren called out where Michael was.

Arizona snapped her around and saw him, the flash of blonde hair. She slid closer, looking for a better shot.

Her aim was right on him, she was leading the shot slightly.

That was when Garren appeared right in front of her, right in her shot.

She was too amped up to properly react. Her finger, already on the trigger hitched and pulled.

The sound of the shot rang out and Garren fell.

She froze.

Michael froze, then he bolted out the window.

She ran to where he had been, leaping over Garren's fallen form.

Michael was sprinting across the grass, Arizona knew she could have caught up to him. For a moment she thought about pursuing him. But then she let the pancor drop, turned, and stepped back to Garren.

The pancor was tossed aside and she opened her bag, looking for supplies, something to help him.

"I'm sorry Garren," She said, forcing herself to speak. "I need you to talk to me, try and stay conscious. I'll try to patch you up."
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Pippi
Posts: 1066
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 7:04 pm
Location: I'm from England!

#64

Post by Pippi »

This, uh. This hurt. This hurt a lot. Like, yeah, that wasn’t exactly a mindblowing statement, that getting shot in the goddamn side hurt like a bitch, this wasn’t some newfound revelation that he and he alone was experiencing. It was just. God. Fuck. He couldn’t fucking overstate how godawful it felt. It was like someone had grabbed hold of his ribs and was yanking them apart, over and over again, letting him heal like he was fucking Prometheus before cracking his side open again.

God. He wasn’t Prometheus. He was just some fuckin’ dude.

It hurt too much to even cry out, it felt as though the sound was lodged in his throat instead. His eyes were screwed shut; out of pain or out of a desperate desire to avoid seeing the red mess plastering his body, he wasn’t sure which was more predominant. He wasn’t lying on the floor anymore. He couldn’t remember sitting himself up. His head hurt. The static was back. He could feel the ghosts circling him.

He could hear footsteps, too, and then Arizona’s voice, along with the sound of a bag unzipping, rummaging and searching. He gave a weak nod. His hand was damp, pressed into the wound. He couldn’t remember putting it there, either.

“Okay… yeah, I-fuck, okay…”

His head was a fishbowl, and he desperately, weakly sifted through the silt to find memories, thoughts, words to say. He wondered if there was blood in his mouth. That was what people who were dying in anime looked like, wasn’t it? It had always looked kinda cool. Not that he’d wanted to experience it first hand, obviously. But. You know. It was a thought. He hadn’t said it out loud. He grabbed for a different one.

“Arizona? Did you… You-fff fuck… you got him, right? We… stopped him?”

They had, hadn’t they? Of course they had. Arizona had hated him more than anything on the planet, he had seen it in her glare. She wouldn’t have stopped at anything to kill him. If she was here, Michael was dead.

That made sense. Yeah. That made sense.
[+] V7
B006 - Stepney Cruz - DEAD - Dynasty decapitated, you just might see a ghost tonight - Mountain Bike - Localised - Catastrophe - Inferno
Pregame - Chill - Loss - Realm
Trip - Loved

G035 - Katie Agustien - DEAD - There's only two ways that these things can go, good or bad and how was I to know that all your friends won't hold any grudges, I got the final judgment - The World's Sharpest Knife™ - Dread - Skin - ieatnothing - Satisfaction - Tempest - Zero
Pregame - Vend-etta - Flames - Fleet - Monachopsis - Glitter
Trip - G҉ A҉ N҉ G҉

B028 - Aurelien Valter - DEAD - When everything's lost, they pick up their hearts and avenge defeat, before it all starts, they suffer through harm just to touch a dream - Spiked Mace, Glock 19, Min-Jae Parker's Crossbow - Nightmare - Bubbles - Neighbourhood - Tragedy - Make It - Fiend - Sleet - Love - Walls - Friends - Key - Everything - Gotta - Ghosts - Alone
Pregame - Shark - Heart
Prom - Link - Gradation - Ballare
Trip - Inferis - Scusare

B052 - Garren Mortimer - DEAD- Cut up and I can't feel my hands, no need to chase, can you relate, can you keep up the pace like you're dying for this? - Bryan Calvert's SPAS-12, Alligator tooth sword - Sky - Geek - Nation - No - Dilemma - Mauerbauertraurigkeit - Struck - Punishment - Énouement - Pain - Learn - lamb - Moves
Pregame - Rain
Trip - Life

Meanwhile
Lyra Doyle - Let's live tonight like fireflies, and one by one light up the sky - Pop!
Pregame - Evolution - Life - Lo Mein
Memories - Forward - Odds

Dean Puchero - By July you'd made a whole bunch of brand new friends, people you used to look down on, and you'd figured out a way to make real money - Phone - Angel
Pregame - Generation - Prince
Memories - Star
Prom - Sun - Luster
[+] The Past
V6
Bryony Adams - Burning bright until the end, now you'll be missing from the photographs
Astrid Tate - So what became of loving man, and what became of you?
Mia Rose - You can't understand that I won't leave 'til we're finished here, and then you'll find out where it all went wrong

V5
Owen Kay - I fold my tie and ribbon to hide my scars, that's how it starts
Amy Bachelor - Can you whisper, as it crumbles and breaks, as you shiver, count up all your mistakes
Francis St. Ledger - So a day when you've lost yourself completely could be a night when your life ends

V4
George Leidman (Adopted from Blastinus) - Now if we jump together at least we can swim far away from the wreck that we made
Beatrice - Jamie - Pippi - Tim - Ada - Tabby - Romeo - Lissa - Freddie - Trinity - Redd - Natalie - Kendra
[+] The Future
Boyd Adkinson - Ain't no surprise that I can't sleep tonight, my only vice is standing by your side
"bryony and alba would definitely join the terrorists quote me on this put this quote in signatures put it in history books" - Cicada Days, 2017
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Deamon
Posts: 1367
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2018 3:28 pm

#65

Post by Deamon »

Once again she had blood on her hands.

It was innocent blood, that was the difference. Previously, it had been Quinn's blood. She'd ended up with Quinn's blood splattered on her hands and face.

Garren's blood was everywhere. The pancor had punched bloody holes in his side. His hand covered one of them but there were others that the blood seeped out of. She wasn't sure how much she could do. There were adhesive bandages in the first-aid kit and she had stuck them where she could. Once that task was done she planned to wrap Garren in bandages. Outside of that there wasn't much more she thought she could do. A pack of ibuprofen lay on the floor, the packing slowly absorbing blood, leaving the cardboard soggy.

Garren asked if she had managed to kill Michael. There was a pause as she bit her lip, before eventually shaking her head.

"No," She said, voice shaky. "I missed and...hit you."

She looked away from Garren and opened up the ibuprofen packet, popping out a tablet before discarding the rest.

Her hands also found and opened a water bottle.

"Here," She said, "Swallow this for me."
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Pippi
Posts: 1066
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 7:04 pm
Location: I'm from England!

#66

Post by Pippi »

“Oh.”

He was silent, even after he opened his mouth and swallowed the ibuprofen on the third attempt. The sound of his ragged, shallow breathing was the only sign he was still there, still conscious. The static was gone, but it was just blank in his head now. The ghosts were still. It seemed even they were unsure of what to do with this information.

So that was it. After all that, after trying his goddamn best to make a change for the good, to do what he was convinced was right and righteous, he’d gone and put his foot in it and fucked it all up. Fitting, really. As if that wasn’t just an ugly metaphor for his entire life. As soon as he dedicated himself to a decision, he found out it was the wrong one. It should have felt good this time, knowing that at least he’d committed himself to the right one, one he could be proud of.

“Hey… Hey, it’s… okay…”

No, it really wasn’t, and no, he really couldn’t. He could feel himself slipping, and he didn’t want to let go, he wasn’t anywhere close to letting go, but it was like clinging onto a ledge in a downpour. It was a matter of when, not if, at this point.

There had to be something, there had to be something to grab hold of, if not to rescue himself but to stop himself from being terrified in these last few moments. He thought, desperately, as his mind filled to the brim with water, as his side burned, as his throat clogged up. He thought. He thought he thought he thought he thought, and he thought of the hug he’d gotten from Declyn, out of the blue. And he thought of how he’d talked with Myles and with Ivy. And he thought about how Arizona had given up her vengeance to try and patch him up. And he thought about every step he could have taken where none of that would have happened, where he’d end up with blood on his hands that wasn’t his own, where he was lying alone in a ditch somewhere around the time of day 3.

Little thoughts. Little comforts. Little things were all he had.

“You know,” he mumbled. He wasn’t sure if Arizona could hear him. He could barely hear himself. “I think… what I regret most is… ruining this shirt… really liked it a - fffuck - like it a lot… sorry Umaru-chan…”

He gave a weak laugh. It drowned halfway.

C’mon. One last chance. One last time he could say something cool.

“See you… sp… spuh… space…”

Close enough. Close enough.



B052 - GARREN MORTIMER: DECEASED
[+] V7
B006 - Stepney Cruz - DEAD - Dynasty decapitated, you just might see a ghost tonight - Mountain Bike - Localised - Catastrophe - Inferno
Pregame - Chill - Loss - Realm
Trip - Loved

G035 - Katie Agustien - DEAD - There's only two ways that these things can go, good or bad and how was I to know that all your friends won't hold any grudges, I got the final judgment - The World's Sharpest Knife™ - Dread - Skin - ieatnothing - Satisfaction - Tempest - Zero
Pregame - Vend-etta - Flames - Fleet - Monachopsis - Glitter
Trip - G҉ A҉ N҉ G҉

B028 - Aurelien Valter - DEAD - When everything's lost, they pick up their hearts and avenge defeat, before it all starts, they suffer through harm just to touch a dream - Spiked Mace, Glock 19, Min-Jae Parker's Crossbow - Nightmare - Bubbles - Neighbourhood - Tragedy - Make It - Fiend - Sleet - Love - Walls - Friends - Key - Everything - Gotta - Ghosts - Alone
Pregame - Shark - Heart
Prom - Link - Gradation - Ballare
Trip - Inferis - Scusare

B052 - Garren Mortimer - DEAD- Cut up and I can't feel my hands, no need to chase, can you relate, can you keep up the pace like you're dying for this? - Bryan Calvert's SPAS-12, Alligator tooth sword - Sky - Geek - Nation - No - Dilemma - Mauerbauertraurigkeit - Struck - Punishment - Énouement - Pain - Learn - lamb - Moves
Pregame - Rain
Trip - Life

Meanwhile
Lyra Doyle - Let's live tonight like fireflies, and one by one light up the sky - Pop!
Pregame - Evolution - Life - Lo Mein
Memories - Forward - Odds

Dean Puchero - By July you'd made a whole bunch of brand new friends, people you used to look down on, and you'd figured out a way to make real money - Phone - Angel
Pregame - Generation - Prince
Memories - Star
Prom - Sun - Luster
[+] The Past
V6
Bryony Adams - Burning bright until the end, now you'll be missing from the photographs
Astrid Tate - So what became of loving man, and what became of you?
Mia Rose - You can't understand that I won't leave 'til we're finished here, and then you'll find out where it all went wrong

V5
Owen Kay - I fold my tie and ribbon to hide my scars, that's how it starts
Amy Bachelor - Can you whisper, as it crumbles and breaks, as you shiver, count up all your mistakes
Francis St. Ledger - So a day when you've lost yourself completely could be a night when your life ends

V4
George Leidman (Adopted from Blastinus) - Now if we jump together at least we can swim far away from the wreck that we made
Beatrice - Jamie - Pippi - Tim - Ada - Tabby - Romeo - Lissa - Freddie - Trinity - Redd - Natalie - Kendra
[+] The Future
Boyd Adkinson - Ain't no surprise that I can't sleep tonight, my only vice is standing by your side
"bryony and alba would definitely join the terrorists quote me on this put this quote in signatures put it in history books" - Cicada Days, 2017
User avatar
Deamon
Posts: 1367
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2018 3:28 pm

#67

Post by Deamon »

It didn't take Arizona long to realize she was performing first-aid on a corpse.

Silently, she packed everything away. Another failure, this one directly her fault. The sickening feeling that she had dragged Garren into his death. The bandages she had in her hands were turned into a makeshift towel as she wiped away at the blood on her hands and knees. Once they were soaked red they too were discarded, thrown across the room. Her hand searched out the pancor and gripped it tight. She stood and took one last look at the boy then turned to the window.

There was a loud crash as the butt of the pancor smashed the glass. The shards fell, shimmering, to the floor around her feet. Using the end of the gun, she took out the stubborn shards that remained in place. Then she climbed through the newly cleared portal and out of the manor.

She knew which way Michael had run.

So that was where she was going.

((Arizona Butler continued elsewhere...))
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