jigokulogs | June 2022 Event Plotting PART 2

Entry tags:

June 2022 Event Plotting PART 2

Who ⬤ The selected teams
What ⬤ Finding the source of the cursed energy and putting an end to this.
When ⬤ /waves hands vaguely
Where ⬤ Kaigo no Bou
Content Warnings ⬤ Horror imagery, possible gore.

The tower that is Kaigo no Bou is an intimidating sight on normal days, but the way its black figure cut into the deep crimson of the cursed sky made it that much more imposing as the teams approached. Evidence of just how devastating the initial waves of the cursed energy had been to the nearby buildings was on clear display, everything looking warped and disfigured into shapes no longer identifiable as anything built for humanoid needs. Even the streets themselves seemed twisted and knotted, turning into something more like jagged slopes than thoroughfares. Even the entrance of the tower has been shifted from its original glass displays to a giant steel gate that Toraguma struggles to open for the rest of the group.

Within the tower itself, it's much the same. The Enma officers that had been brought along to help navigate each team would find themselves struggling just slightly, almost immediately, as the interior of the building was a menagerie of rust and decay. It was if the building was rotting, but not as a structure, but as a once living thing now reduced to a cadaver for them to navigate.

Well... it could be worse. Time to split into their teams.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ The other team was not so fortunate. Captain Shiki had told them the main elevator shaft that civilians could use didn't go down to the sublevels, so they had to find another way down. What's worse, it looked like the empoyee elevator just straight up didn't exist any longer, having warped instead into a bloody, pulsing root like structure reaching up from the lower levels. ]

Great... Well, I ain't climbing down something that looks like that, so let's see if the emergency stairs are clear.

[ At least they only had eight floors to go down... ]

Sergeant Andy, you're with me. The rest of you, watch our backs.

Aye.

[ Soft assent from within her layers of leather armor. There is little of the woman underneath even visible, just her eyes between the drape of her hat and the leather gorget that covers from her collarbones over her nose. Her weapon is collapsed at the moment into a bladed cane, quick for slashing and stabbing. ]

Roger.

[ Cloud's confirmation comes just after Anna's. After Minato suggested they have someone on each team be on 'camera duty', Cloud has set up his smartphone with the camera lens facing outward in a case that notches nicely into his suspenders. The built-in flashlight and camera hovering just over shoulder-level. ]

[ Cloud's battle armor, thankfully, is also his normal attire - suspenders, leather belly-warmer, metal shoulderpad and gloves. A heavy blade is strapped to his back, courtesy of Matoba, and a small red ribbon is wrapped around his left bicep. Cloud's as ready as he'll ever be. ]

[ ...And it was better to go down stairs than up. He knew that much from experience. ]

Sure, boss.

[ The twinge of wryness in Andy's voice as she steps up beside Toraguma is habitual more than anything. The katana at her side is standard-issue from the Department's armory — utterly unremarkable compared to the other blades in present company — and ammo will be a limiting factor on the handgun Kim Kitsuragi gave her, but she seems calm and steady. Ready to work. ]

Got it.

[ Their surroundings look rather disconcerting, to put it lightly. But Felix isn't one to shy away from the way the environment appears or the high level of danger in this situation, or many others for that matter. He's come prepared as can be, and he feels ready to take on anything that'll come their way.

Felix keeps his eyes peeled on their surroundings, listening out for any small sign that would indicate something is about to come for them, at all times. ]

[ First thing's first; a way down. With the ghastly tendril where an elevator should be, Toraguma's instinct is to find a hole anywhere in the rot of the floor. He tosses around debris like one tosses balls of paper, grunting only slightly as he digs through the rubble until...

A hole.

Toraguma looks at the hole. He turns to the team. He looks at the hole again. ]

Well. Fuck.

[ A hole that they had no idea how deep it was, or if there was anything to land on, or even how they'd get back up.

But it was all they had.

Toraguma takes in a deep breath, holding it, and... ]

Everyone in the pool.

[ Leaps in. ]

[ She has fallen from worse. Died, sometimes, but she has done it. She doesn't hesitate at all. It certainly feels like a height from which she could splatter to below but such things cannot be trusted when reality has been warped. Until she is dead, she is prepared to land on her feet; knees dipping deep to keep her balance.

She has a small lantern on her belt which she uncovers, attentive to their surroundings first and foremost. ]

[ Cloud bites back the cutting remark he's about to make, but he too is used to falling from rather serious heights. He lets the camera linger on the hole they've found just long enough that it gets it in focus before he jumps down - his own light vanishing into the darkness below. ]

[ Andy should probably hesitate - she’s mortal now, after all, and she won’t walk off broken bones the way she could before - but it’s jump or turn back, so. ]

Fuck it.

[ She drops right in after Torugama, swallowed into the dark. ]

Tch...! Just great.

[ Seriously, fuck's sake.

This situation is unhol(e)y enough. Felix looks kind of displeased at the fact that they're literally tossing caution to the wind by jumping into a dark space like that, but you know what?

He also has confidence he'll be able to brace himself and land properly. It'll just be all instinct—and so there he goes. ]

[ It's a long fall. Well longer than it should be. It gets to the point where it feels like one loses their sense of place in time within the darkness before the ground is suddenly just there, as if it had always been.

Toraguma clicks another notch on the flashlight in his jacket pocket, upping the intensity, so it can cut through the black a little more. It was difficult to pinpoint where they were... the whole place just stank of rot. Bloody looking mold and mildew clung to the walls, the entire place seemingly decaying from within. It certainly smelled like it. Ugh... ]

Sergeant. Any idea where the hell we are?

[ Something sounded like deep, scraping metal in the distance, like empty water drums falling over... but it was hard to tell if that was active noise, or just the destitute state of the building... ]

[ The landing feels like it comes both much later than it should and entirely too fast. Andy hits the ground in a roll, grunting as she pulls herself to her feet. Fuck. Dusting herself off, she feels for the flashlight clipped onto her vest, clicking it on. The darkness seems eternal, but she can make out enough to tell where they are. It’s not exactly how she remembers it, but… ]

It’s the eighth sublevel.

[ Somehow. And she’d dwell on how they managed to get here, except there seems to be more pressing matters. ]

Anybody else hear that?

Aye.

[ Faint, distracted with focus. She's crouched lower along one of the walls, peering forward into the dark. Perfectly still and vigilant for any movement. ]

Whatever it is, I doubt it's friendly.

[ Cloud clearly has the same instincts here as Anna, and is pointing his frashlight-camera in a different direction than Toraguma's, just in case something plans to creep up on them. One hand casually reaches for the blade on his back. ]

[ This place is disgusting, but he doesn't linger on that post-landing given the noise and the subsequent comments. ]

Hmph, good to know we're all on the same page.

[ Because Felix doesn't like the sound of it. Warrior's intuition is enough for him. So he will lower his hand to the hilt of his blade, fingers wrapping tightly around it, waiting for the slightest movement in the shadows and the few lights. Low visibility is not entirely impossible to deal with. ]

[ Toraguma, notably, didn't seem to have any weapons on him. But given how easily he tossed the rubble aside to even find the hole they'd dropped down, it could easily be assumed the oni didn't really need a weapon.

He also, hearing the noise in the distance, didn't quite keep his profile low. Quite the opposite, in fact. He just marched forwards. Towards it.

The darkness didn't peel away until he came closer to a wall, a wall that was well too close to where they had been for the noise to have even come from that direction, despite what it had sounded like to all of them.

He snorts. ]

Figures... This place is fucking with us.

[ He looked down either direction from the wall, eventually deciding to head left. ]

Sergeant, I can assume this place ain't laid out like the last time you saw it. [ If she ever saw it. ]

So what I want you to do is keep eyes peeled for anything that looks like it's directing us to the containment center.

[ Which would be some time... the place was a maze, and not even a completely level one. Sometimes they had to climb down ladders, into murky, black flooded sectors of the area. Other times they were being directed into cramped maintenance shafts. Nothing seemed to make sense, spatially. It was a matter of time before frustration would set in. ]

[ She does not get frustrated. She has barely emoted at all, but that is the Hunter. There is little of Anna present with them, she is focused in the utmost: a tool for exploring foul places and slaughtering fell creatures.

However, when it becomes clear that the layout is too treacherous for them on their own, she holds out a handful of coins, ]

To mark the way.

[ She can’t say that she exactly frequent the sublevels, but even with her passing knowledge, Andy knows this isn’t quite right - so, in the end, maybe it doesn’t make much difference. Might as well be upfront about their odds. ]

I’ll do what I can. Like you said - feels like the place is fucking with us.

[ As the only representative of her faction in attendance though, her guess will have to do. Andy does her best to lead their team forward into the darkness with whatever meager clues are available. At least the Hunter’s coins will let them backtrack if they need so - assuming nothing in the shadows fucks with their trail either. ]

[ Cloud is a little frustrated. He isn't removing the grip on his sword, even with that scare - he just doesn't trust like that. He's on high alert and not coming down from it, now that they're down here. That said, he can... feel something. It feels like - ]

...Hold up. Can you feel that?

[ He's raising one hand to stop the others. He takes a moment to take a breath - as deep as he can. ]

The air was heavier the way we just came. I tried to scout out the tower before any of the protections were developed - the air felt like that. If we're looking for the source of this curse...

[ Well, the rest of the proof is obvious, as they say. ]

[ Felix is starting to get absolutely downright irritable, gritting his teeth in literal and actual frustration because boy he is not the most patient of people, and he does NOT deal well when he's being cleared fucked around with. He swears, once there's a physical target, Felix is sure going to let whatever it is have it.

He does at least stop when Cloud brings up his point. Backed by past, reckless actions, but because of those they may in fact benefit them. ]

Then, clearly we focus our route back on where the heavier air is.

[ To be honest he's glad that one of them cottoned onto this sooner rather than later. ]

A lead's a lead.

[ Toraguma pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing. It wasn't like they had much choice, especially as he turned the corner and...

There it was, glittering like a single star in a light polluted night sky. Every single coin Anna had dropped along the way, stacked neatly in a little pile, completely removed from wherever it was the hunter had dropped them. ]

... And we can't go back.

[ Toraguma turned to Cloud, snorting. ]

Guess what, kid. You get your wish. You're on point.

[ If they were going to head into the clearly toxic air, the guy who suggested it was going to go first.

But it did seem to be the right idea... evidenced soon enough by increased presence of rot along the walls, floor, and ceiling. Wet, sticky looking, pungent. What's more, they'd start to see them, those... red, vein-like roots that they'd seen in the lobby before. Pulsing, glowing just slightly... ]

We're getting close. We gotta be.

[ The sounds were getting louder, too. That couldn't just be the deteriorating building any longer. And soon enough, they'd come across something else...

People. Sort of? It was hard to say. But that's what they seemed to be. All of them seemed to be frozen in place, coated in the black rot, but... ]

These people...

[ Cloud shrugs - he'll accept that. It's his idea, and it's not really a good one, per se. So he'll take point for it. ]

[ He'll stop when he sees the people frozen, covered in rot. He's going to pan his flashlight-camera over them, before he speaks up. ]

Are these... the people who were in the tower when the containment breach happened?

[ He's not sure, so if anyone can confirm that, he assumes it would be Andy, so he'll look her way. ]

Edited 2022-06-19 04:53 (UTC)

[ No skin off Andy's back. She slows her step to fall into line with the others, tugging the bandana around her neck up over her nose and mouth as the air continues to get thicker. Doesn't do much for the fucking smell, but it's better than nothing. ]

Some of them look familiar. [ Hard to tell with complete certainty. Truthfully, she's never really gone out of her way to know her colleagues more than necessary. Figures that would come back to bite her in the ass. ] Not sure. Wasn't exactly Miss fucking Congeniality around here.

[ She pauses to scrutinize some of the people suspended in all that black stuff. At first, she's not sure, but she could swear if she looks closely, it almost seems like... They're still breathing? Tugging off one of her gloves, she holds her hand out in front of one such victim's nose and mouth, just to see if she can feel the faintest stirring of air. After a moment, with a muted surprise: ]

Fuck me. This one's alive.

[ She stands back from the figures, mistrustful. Otherworldly rot and spore should not be underestimated for its powers. She scans the ceilings for more that might drop down on them. ]

Don't be distracted.

[ And here he had assumed that things could not have become more revolting. It's sickening just looking at this. ]

Of course not.

[ His hand has not moved away from the hilt of his blade, observing the mess here. ]

...It looks like more than just one of them happen to be alive.

Team Down; Toraguma, Felix, Anna, Cloud, Andy

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