2019-10-22 - Inkubation

Music is Lyric's passion so when she hears the car go by with those inside thumping to the beat. Never would she begrudge anyone their fill of their love of music. She even bobs her head to the beat and shoots a peace sign. Blinded briefly by the headlights, she lifts an arm to shield her eyes. As soon as she lowers it though, she's in a a completely different place. Turning a complete circle, she gapes at her surroundings. "I took a wrong turn." Funny, there's no door for her to have wrong turned into!

Kass has spent the last week on the couch of her newly rented trailer, sick as a dog and feeling it all the way to her soul. On the mend, she's been trying not to inflict her sickness on others, so is still camped out watching cheesy movies and drinking lots of TheraFlu and EmergenC and tea and water. When the car approaches, the pounding bass makes her head throb in time with it, the bright lights making her squint and lift a hand to ward it off. Then, she sneezes. When her eyes open, she finds herself, in her violently orange girl boxers and black tanktop with werewolf feet stompy slippers with a neon green microfiber throw blanket around her shoulders, in the white room. A tissue still clutched in one hand while she looks around blearily. It takes a moment for the scenery to penetrate the OTC medicated brainfog.. but when it does, she whimpers. Her eyes immediately loste what little luster they had as the redhead is mentally transported back to another time, another place, another danger. "Bad place.. bad place with bad people.. we have to be quiet. They don't like loud noises..."

Rising from his computer where he was doing some sorting of his photos, Rick is about to head out to get himself something to drink from his fridge. He's wearing rather comfortable clothing now, dark pants and a grey sweatshirt. As he hears that car approach, he frowns a bit. "Hey, turn that down..." he begins, blinking at the lights and the sound. One hand going up to his eyes, he blinks a bit as he sees where he is, and the people present. "I'll wait in this place where the sun never shines. Wait in this place where the shadows run from themselves..." It's more or less muttered to himself, as he looks around. "This is not the kitchen..." Stating the obvious.

Grant hears the thumping and out he tumbles from his loft bed right out of it onto the floor. In a panic skating reflexes kick in and in a stroke of geni-... pure luck, he doesn't land flat on his face. He stands up hiking his shorts up murmuring to himself, "S'ok... don't need an audience, Bax. You know that looked bad ass." He even answer himself with a murmur, "Yes, yes it did. Thank you." He opens the door grabbing a hoodie and stepping out into the blinding light and... stark subsidiarity. Suddenly uncertain of anything but that he's not wearing shoes he slides the hoodie on covering the two 'stars' tattooed on the front of his shoulders: One the Dead Kennedys logo and the other the Chili Peppers. One hand wiping his face he looks around, "Are we at my place? Are we being like... evicted?" He's slow to process looking around asking, "Kaaaaaass... where'd my stuff go?" Seeing Rick he asks her, "Who's this and can we keep em?" Looking back to Rick he hesitates before waving. "Sup."

"Your house? Are we in Pleasantville again?" Everything was white though, not gray and she studies Grant. "We keep meeting like this. Clowns and kids with guns. Ice cream trucks with Bomb Pops. At least the walls in here aren't padded, cause then I'd know we been committed." Kass, she vaguely remembers from Pleasantville too. But Rick? She grins at. "At least we got a cop here this time." Lyric isn't afraid yet. The last few dreams had been just.. kind of fun. She went from walking home to a room with no windows or doors. She's making assumptions about it being a dream. Then she notices the egg and points it out. "We even got something for omelets. That's all good, as long as it's not from Grizzly Diner." Isn't she just a regular comedian? No. Nope.

"Shhhhhhhhhh.. we have to be quiet. They don't like it when we're noisy." Kass repeats herself to Grant before darting a glance to Rick. "He's cute. We can keep him." Then she's looking towards Lyric. Her head cocks to the side, "I know you... Cabaret, right? You're the.. dj opposite Mee? Hi. Uh.. I'm Kass.. the waitress that uses the body paint?" And does she ever. Her 'uniforms' are always some form of extreme bodyart painting. Her first night was a callback to Ursula the sea witch! She glances towards Grant again and leans in, "We need to be more quiet though.. the nurses will come get us.. you don't want The Injection.. we should be more quiet so we don't attract their attention." Says the girl with the brightly colored hair and clothes...

There's a few moments of pause before Rick offers a half-wave in return to Grant. "Hello," he offers, before there's a brief grin to Lyric. "Ah, so you usually tend to meet people in places like this?" Sounding a bit curious, before he pauses again as he hears Kass. After a few moments, he offers, "We're not letting them give you The Injection," he offers. Moving over in the direction of that egg, to study it a bit closer.

Grant tiredly warms a wide, easy grin to Lyric, "Yeah like seriously if we survive this like tomorrow? Ice Cream. 1pm." There. Heading 'is a cop' makes him arch his eyebrow sloooowly. He clarifies, "Whatever trip this is? I'm not responsible for bro...man... sir...officer." His glance shifts around and then Kass is leaning in and whispering and his eyes lift to follow the room. He frowns a bit and squints. "Eeeh I don't think we're in a hospital. None like i been in. Sides, they come, we fight. It's what super heroes do." Calmly his fingers slap to his chest, "Yooooou are in luck that I happen to be just that... in training." His hand reaches to Kass' shoulder letting her lean away if she wants before he tries to pat it. "Soooo yeah. That's... what an egg? A super suit? That controls our spaceship emergency pod? The last sentient sea monkey?"

Grant really wanted to focus on building things and that repair stuff

"Oh hey yeah, cool! Yeah, that's me. I'm Lyric the DJ, been there since the place opened. I 'member you now." A shake of Lyrics head, "We won't let nothin' hurt you. See? He's a super hero. I'm not but I think a cop can be classified as one too. So you're covered!" To Rick, she giggles, "I don't tend to meet people in places like this, cause I usually can't get into them. Not the ones without windows and doors. I wish I had a a mirror and a board. I could get out then. According to the joke anyway."

She waits a beat, whether anyone wanted to hear the joke or not, they get to. "Look in the mirror, see what you saw, take the saw, cut the board in half, two halves make a whole and you crawl out the hole." She cheeses a smile right out there for the goofy joke. "1pm Ice cream. Banana Split actually. The bigger the better. Or we can go for the ice cream eating challenge and try and win a t-shirt. I'd go for that."

As soon as the egg begins to crack she turns to look at it, gasping a little. "Looks like we're about to see!" But she reaches for the collar of her work uniform. Maybe since she was just leaving work and has less clothing on, she can feel the difference in the temperature. "It's getting warmer in here. Cause our body heat maybe? I mean there's two hot guys and all." Winking to Kass playfully. "Wait, there's more eggs! Look!"

Kass shakes her head, "There's more than one type of hospital.. and the police took me to the last one." She glances towards Rick briefly and murmurs, "I'm sure you're very nice, though." While the others are looking towards the eggs, she's edging away from them, moving towards the wall, putting her fingers to the wall and starting to feel along it. Perhaps trying to find any sort of hidden or secret catch that might be there to open a.. DUNDUNDUN.. SECRET DOOR. Who doesn't love a secret door? She even tries knocking gently on the wall a few times as if trying to gauge how thick the wall is. Glancing back every now and then towards the eggs distrustfully. "Be careful.. not everything that comes out of eggs are cute. Facehuggers come out of eggs."

Rick comes to a stop as he sees the egg start to crack. "Wait... I wonder what this is..." A brief pause, before he grins at Lyric's joke. "That would be nice. I sort of hate being in locked places like this." He pauses at the mention of more eggs and warmer, grimacing momentarily. "Let's hope whatever it is isn't bad..." There's a brief grin offered to Kass, "I try to be," he replies. There's a brief grin offered to Grant as well. "I believe you."

Grant Grins to Lyric and dips a nod, "Girl you're gonna see that and go that is way too much sundae for just me, halp halp! And I will be there spoon in hand, my friend." The compliment though gets an earnest, "Well thank you." Looking back to Kass he says, "And babylizards, and chickies, and duckies. Eggs are cool. Besides if I run away from an egg I'll have nightmares of Gerogia O'Keefe being really disappointed in me. I ain't ready for that kinda heat." Looking around he asks, "Hatchery? Maybe this is some metaphor for like... a life cycle or learning new things... or we are trapped in an egg. I dunno."

"Eggs are surprises.. and surprises are almost never good. Alligators, crocodiles, spiders, platypi, and.." Kass pauses, her fingers finding the catch, which she presses with a faintly relieved smile, "snakes. All born from eggs. So are geese and swans. And those are asshole birds." She takes a step back, looking at the wall eagerly to see what she's opened, no longer paying attention to the eggs at all. "Who is Georgia O'Keefe and what does she have to do with eggs?" That curious question comes with a quick glance towards the others, "I think I found the door..."

"But I like food, and since I walk alla time I don't get fat." Lyric is so teasing and she sticks her tongue out at him playfully. Oh but Kass does get her attention even from the oozing cracking egg and she crinkles her nose, "Nope.." to the egg, opting out of it or something. "If there's three suits, that means I'm wearing one. I'm not in training to be a super hero, I need all the help I can get." Because she's a safety girl and all that! "I will rock paper scissors for it?"

Rick steps a bit back again from the egg. "I think we should keep our distance to that one," he offers, before he pauses as he glances back to the section of the wall Kass managed to open. "Nicely done. Perhaps that means we should be doing the same to other parts of the wall too?"

"You three get into the suits. I'll keep looking.. there has to be a door.. how would anyone have gotten in, otherwise?" Kass doesn't even hesitate, moving along the walls, her fingers stroking along them, searching for another catch. Another door. Another way to get out of here before whatever is in those eggs gets out. she bites down on her lower lip and mutters, "Even if I have to break it down to get it open..."

Bax looks up to Lyric and Kass and says, "If there's suits, you're both covered... unless they're really big and we can stuff you both into them like gnomes in a trench coat." It worked on Gravity Falls. Don't ask. He considers and looks around and walks slightly over to it but stops part way. He squints and head tilts staring at it. Really it's 50/50 on trying to figure out if Grant is fascinated by the contrast of ink on alabaster or if he's trying to mentally reach out to try to get an idea of the shape of the things's mind; it's being.

Kass keeps moving along the walls, opening cabinets, more doors. None of them out, away But there's a very clear picture being presented. When she opens the first, she finds two gas masks, and puts one of them on immediately. In the second, she finds a can of seed, which is pocketed. In the third.. well now. SHe takes the gun out, handling it carefully, checking that the safety is on, then checking the clip. Snapping it back into place, she calls out, "Mr. Policeman? Here, you might need this!" And she lobs it towards him, safety still on of course! "There's 8 rounds, so make them count!" Fortuitous, it would seem, as the eggs are hatching to reveal monsters from a nightmare. Shuddering, she shakes her head and opens the last cabinet. Empty. "Fuck. Okay. Seriously guys. Three of us need to be in those suits. Now. I can.. fix things. And break them. So please.. get int he suits."

Lyric moves along the wall to help Kass and upon finding nothing by the time the egg cracks and that thing comes out, she gets closer and closer to Grant and Rick. "Maybe I really want a suit after all." Who is she to decline one when there are things like those things hatching out of eggs? She sneaks over to get one and put it on if it's not too late!

Rick frowns as his gaze stays on that thing. "What is that..." he begins, before he goes silent. He nods slowly as he hears the words about the suits. "Someone should..." he begins, pausing as that gun is lobbed in his direction. "Thanks..." he begins, before he nods, "Are you sure you don't want one of the suits?" he offers to Kass, after a few brief moments again. Eyes on that creature for now.

Grant is still staring at the egg. Like a migraine it splits that smooth skull of the egg. All that pounding from the inside of its proverbial temples pouring out and hatching a very ravenous bad idea. The punk's skin blanches. Tears well up in his eyes. "Oh god.... oooooh god... ohgodohgodohgodohgod..." That murmured Grant starts taking steps back back back. His voice rising to cartoon damsel in distress leveles "IT's thinking at meeeeeeeee" Noooope nopenopenope! "Fuuuuuck they are hungry and are going to swallow our souls! Mine's not even ripe yet!"

Yep, the suit is a thing. Lyric rushes into it as good as she can as fast as she can. If it will protect her then you bet she'll at least give it a shot. "Is there a way out yet, Kass?" Grant being scared rubs off on her and she tugs and zips the thing on, not even caring how she looks. At least it covers her work uniform. Then it conforms to her and she laughs a little, all the while backing into that cabinet with the hidden door her suit was just in that Kass found. Maybe they could close themselves in the cabinet or something. Suit? check! She's protected. Sorry everyone else. But there's a gas mask and she hurries for it. You bet she does! Survival of the fittest!

Rick frowns as he hears Grant's words. "I don't think it's time to..." he begins, trailing off. What was he going to say? That it wasn't time to panic? When such a creature luunges for you, even Rick thinks you're allowed to panic a little. Taking a few moments to put on the suit, he frowns as he sees people going for that creature. They're too close to it for him to risk shooting at it right now.

Kass watches through the gasmask as Lyric gets into the suit, as Rick grabs the gun.. and then one of those things is lunging for Grant while he's freaking out for having mind-melded with the thing. "NononononononononoNO! THIS IS NOT HOW IT GOES!" Kass stands there, still sounding a little stuffy, head shaking, gas mask wobbling with her movement before she suddenly explodes into motion. its like watchign Scarlet Witch.. except with the the nifty FX. Reaching out into thin air, she GRABS onto seemingly nothing and wrenches on hand back while the other stays put, flingign the two halves of air aside. What makes it nifty is that as she does, the creature is halted in its lunge, viscerally torn in half, with the two halves flung hard into the wall. "NO MORE TESTS!"

Grant fails at swat-punching the thing away while diving for- oh he's flying... sorta! We'll take sorta! But that rat explodes and he catches the spatter. "Awwww Jackie, bad day, bad day, bad day!" He hits and rolls, at least away from teh mess. Pulling back from teh critters his hands spark and hum with electricity and he tries to use the sleeve of his hoodie to wipe it off..

Enough of this! Surely there were more gas masks in the walls for the others. Lyric doesn't climb inside and hide, what she does do is stand in the middle of the floor like a petulant child with her hands into fists and her eyes closed. Even a stomp of her foot! She's tugging on all the walls at once to see if there were any more secret compartments they may have missed. What she doesn't count on is an entire wall coming down, shattering like glass and flattening several of the critters. She looks down at them with stunned surprise. "Oops.. I broke them." Great, now they were going to be mad at her!!

Rick frowns, "Seems like we should be finding the way out of here. For some reason, I don't believe it would work to say 'It's no place like home' will work this time, right?" He pauses as he sees how the wall is brought down. "Nicely done. Perhaps that's our way out of here?" Looking to the remaining creatures to see how they react.

Kass seems to have found her mission for the evening. These little creatures must die. With the good from the first one still splattered on Grant's shirt, she whirls and reaches out, rubbing her palms together, faster and faster. Its like watching the critter get hit with a belt sander, over, and over. Until there's little recognizable left of it. Then she's shrieking and jumping as the wall comes down, turning with hands raised only to blink and cough. "I didn't do that one!"

Grant scrambles for the free suit. Sorry dawdlers. When your leg is going numb and you have seen the rats of inky goopy hell try to bite your soul (alright that was really melodramatic, but who is thinking rational entirely right now? Not Grant Baxter! he is thinking get in suit and go weasel stomping. Finally he climbs into it waiting for it to conform to a more Bax-like shape. "Good, Lyric! Break the rest and I'll buy you twice the scoops!" He pauses, "Lyric might be onto something like... everything's solid. Maybe when the goo-ink-guts-wrongness-stuff gets on things it'll make a hole we can jump through..." He pauses and holds up both hands in the suit, "It doesn't have to make sense, it just... has to work. I dunno..." And then he realizes Kass may have found things. "Kaaaassi, If these things eat me I will not be your neighbor *any more!" No really because he might be dissolved. This isn't extortion!

What works once can maybe work twice? The dark area was a no go and she definitely wanted to see if there was anything better. So Lyric tries again for at least one of the walls. She stands there, does much as she had before!

Rick grimaces as that hollow space seems to be without light. He lets out a deep breath, trying as hard as he can not to let the stench get to him. Making sure to stay away from the walls as he sees Lyric trying to do that thing again. Looking towards the creatures as well, in case some of them needs to be shot. But as long as it seems the others can tear them apart, saving what few bullets he has sounds like a good idea.

Trying to shift away from the wall that Lyric is pulling on so she can stay out of the way of the destruction, Kass sees another of the critters trying to head towards her. Eyes narrow behind the gasmask's shield and she reaches for it, getting hold.. but not before it manages to bite her on the leg. Cursing, she lets go of the creature, shaking it off even as the limb starts to go numb. "We need to get out of here!" Patting herself down, she remembers the can of seed/meal. Pulling it out, she tries opening it up and shaking it out on the floor to see what happens.

Grant is really not feeling great but at least he's stopped panicking. The breaking is shaky but he's forcing himself to focus. He turns to the creepy tunnel and ... well Sk8r boy can shoot lightening. This is what you get for dragging your feet on the carpet. Speaking of which, "Guys I kinda can't feel my leg and it's kinda creeping up my inner thigh like being slowly groped by a demon."

Looking around he turns on the cabinets and says "Help me rip this from the wall. There might be something we can... use or something. Anything! Though..." He pauses and looks to Rick, "Though if there's all this hatching and we have to crawl through that devil's birth canal over there like some sort of crazy metaphor I'm officially out and also officially not having kids for like twenty years."

Well that was just overkill. Literally. Lyric puts her hands up to avoid the falling shards, but mostly she's worried about the others. And that thing in the center of the floor. She attempts to sweep up some of the shards from the floor and throw them towards the creature, but mostly so far she's been pressing her luck and she just isn't as strong as she started out. It was so hot though. And the mask and the suit helped, but didn't help cool her off.

Grant thinks hard bunnybunnybunnybunnybunny... That thing is huge and he bigger it IS the harder it'll be to come after it through the tube of... "Oh fuck THAT!" The cop draws his gun and Grant turns to dive into the tube and just pray for he best. Hey, side effect of one's leg being numb is if this is a terrible idea less will hurt when he's eaten by the darkness? Maybe? Why do people let him make decisions!??

Waiting for a few moments after the shards go flying, Rick frowns as he sees, and maybe even more feels, that creature of hunger. There's a few moments of consideration, then he lifts the gun, aiming it for that creature. Firing at the creature, there's an expression of determination on his face. Hopefully this will help killing it.

Even though she stands firm in the face of the creature rising up in front of them, Kass darts a glance at the others. She cringes instinctively when Lyric explodes the walls, crying out while being peppered with flying glass and debris. Bleeding from a multitude of cuts, one arm and one leg going numb, feeling as feverish as she did at the height of the Flu... Kass turns and she runs. Racing along after Grant, cringing at the sounds of the gunshots from Rick. She blinks, and remembers one thing. Grant got hurt. So she reaches out and lifts her hands, cupping them together like she was holding something between them, then quickly swipes the down and away, like one might slick away water from an arm or leg. Only in this case.. its the wounds. The numbness. If it hurt, it doesn't now.