07-12-2016, 07:07 PM
It was nighttime outside.
Inside the hotel, Gin and Remilia had gone their separate ways for the evening. The youthful vampire had way her way upstairs in search of a more extravagant room. After loading up the dishwasher and setting it on the correct cycle, Gin had retired to Room 7. With the door shut and an ornate wooden chair jammed up under the lock just in case something came at them with lockpicks, the redhead allowed some of the tension to ease off his shoulders.
He made his way over to a desk in the corner of the room and plopped down into an upscale leather computer chair that had probably been beautiful in a past life. The chair let out a sigh of dusty air as Gin settled into it and flicked on the nearby lamp. How long had it been since the plane had gone down? The youth rubbed his temples as he poured over the events of the day—days?
Reaching over, Gin pulled open the shade and looked up at the dark sky. It was clearly nighttime but had they really been here that long? When the plane left from the facility, he clearly remembered the sun was rising, but the island was telling him that it had been night for a good long while. Remilia would be happy, but Gin was certain that something was off.
“You’re not far from the mark, Champ.” The smooth voice almost spooked Gin out of his shoes. Jolting upright, the redhead immediately noticed the man standing in front of him dressed up in very outdated business attire. Who the hell wore pocket watches and top hats anymore? And the pencil-thin mustache didn’t help things. The man, who appeared to be in his early forties from bits of salt and pepper around his temples and sideburns, pulled up a chair and sat down on the other side of the desk. When he saw Gin jump almost entirely out of the chair, he lifted a hand and smiled. “By all means, you may enjoy my chair. It’s a good one.”
“Y-your chair?” Gin asked as he eased back down and watched as the man leaned over and produced a pair of small glasses and a large decanter filled with a brown liquid.
“Bingo,” the man remarked as he set one glass on his side of the desk and the other in front of Gin. Twisting up his lips, the businessman slipped the top off the decanter and poured a few fingers of the liquor into each of the small glasses. “I’m going to ascertain that you’re a man who prefers his scotch neat?” He inquired as he popped the top back into the decanter and set it equidistant between the two men.
“I guess,” Gin remarked as he watched the man pick up the glass and casually pour the scotch down his throat. When he tried to follow his guest’s lead a moment later, Gin started to gag the moment the strong-smelling, strong-tasting liquor hit his taste buds. His first reaction was to smack the glass down and clamp his mouth shut before he spat up the scotch onto the man’s suit.
“It’s always rough the first few times,” the guest replied as he poured himself a fuller cup and took a small sip from it. “I’m Jace Morgans, and you’re inside my hotel.”
After recovering, Gin subtly pushed the glass away and turned his focus to the businessman. “I’m sorry to intrude… the place looked empty when Remilia and I arrived.”
The man smiled a tight, thin smile that almost made his little mustache vanish from sight. “That’s quite all right, Mr…?”
“Gin,” the redhead spoke as he reached across and shook hands with the manager of the building.
“Mr. Gin,” Jace finished as he leaned back a little. “You haven’t noticed anyone, because they’re all gone.”
“Dead?”
Jace smiled as he shook his head. “Oh no, my boy. Dead would be better. You see, my staff and my guests were all taken. The ones that survived, of course.”
“Kidnapped? That’s a busy kidnapper!”
The man once again shook his head. “Do you know what ‘omnilium’ is, Mr. Gin?”
“Yea, I’m a prime.”
“Then you know that it can be bent to your will. You can craft wonders from the stuff.” The redhead nodded his head. “And secondaries, like myself, can harvest the stuff and process the raw material, but we lack the gifts to impose our will onto it.”
“Yea, that’s pretty basic stuff.”
Jace grinned as he drank some more scotch. “Smart boy.” With that, the businessman leaned forward across the desk until he was no more than six inches from the prime. “What if one day, the omnilium decided to impose its will upon you?”
Gin furrowed his brow as the thought sat in his head.
“What if, unknown to you, it crept into your mind and body and changed you into something you never were?”
“That’s… it can’t possibly work like that.”
The hotel manager shook his head. “Tell that to the townspeople. Tell that to them as their bodies rotted and their minds were twisted. Tell that the husbands who beat their wives to death or the mothers who devoured their children.”
“But where’d they all go?”
Gin received a shoulder shrug in response to his inquiry. “I don’t know. I wasn’t around.”
“You seem okay.”
Jace smiled. “Wake up, Gin.”
With a gasp, Gin lifted his head up from the desk. In front of him, the scotch decanter was empty, but there was only the one glass a few inches from his right hand. Had he gotten drunk and passed out? It was still black in the streets outside, but he had given up on using the time of day to figure anything out. As he stood up, his legs wobbly beneath his lithe frame, he caught a whiff of something that smelled completely awful.
“Ugh,” the redhead remarked as he grabbed the lamp and held it in the direction of the stench. When the light hit the corner of the room, Gin saw that there was a corpse in a crisp, old fashioned business suit lying at the side of the master bed. A top hat and a pocket watch lay a few feet away from the body, which had probably been decomposing for a few weeks.
Nestled into Jace’s hands was a revolver, although Gin quickly noticed that the man’s fingernails were broken and busted and there was a smear of blood near the body. Lifting the light from the lamp, Gin saw that there was a dried message left on the wall.
Wake up.
Amber had tried to nap. In her dreams, everything was red and angry. Thoughts crept into her head that didn’t belong there, and her ‘friends’ had left her behind. In those dreams, secret voices told her to tear their throats out. It wanted the faunus to drink their blood and eat their bodies while they gurgled for mercy.
In the end, the sickly woman would wake up with a yelp or a faint cry.
When she woke up from his particular dream, it changed everything.
With a scream, Amber’s eyes shot open, but before she could process the dreams, her brain picked up on the fact that she wasn’t alone in the small bed. Even worse, everything around her was wet, and there was a stench that hung in the air of the small apartment room. Throwing off her sheets, Amber swallowed a scream when she saw that there was part of a mutilated corpse in the bed. The body had been torn apart by an animal of some sort, and despite how mangled it was, the girl could see that it was one of their companions—Jeremiah.
Amber tried to say something, but as he tongue moved around, it slid against something thicker than saliva. The faunus felt her stomach twist up as she spit onto the bed in front of her. Lying in a pool of spit and blood was half of an ear.
Carmelita had been tired until she found the directory nestled inside the building supervisor’s room. As she rifled through the old book, a sheet of laminated paper slipped free and onto the floor. A quick look showed a map of part of the town, detailing a few of the landmarks. A few of the buildings were circled in permanent marker and labeled ‘Hope?’ – A hospital, a radio station, and two other buildings that didn’t have any printed names on them.
Inside the hotel, Gin and Remilia had gone their separate ways for the evening. The youthful vampire had way her way upstairs in search of a more extravagant room. After loading up the dishwasher and setting it on the correct cycle, Gin had retired to Room 7. With the door shut and an ornate wooden chair jammed up under the lock just in case something came at them with lockpicks, the redhead allowed some of the tension to ease off his shoulders.
He made his way over to a desk in the corner of the room and plopped down into an upscale leather computer chair that had probably been beautiful in a past life. The chair let out a sigh of dusty air as Gin settled into it and flicked on the nearby lamp. How long had it been since the plane had gone down? The youth rubbed his temples as he poured over the events of the day—days?
Reaching over, Gin pulled open the shade and looked up at the dark sky. It was clearly nighttime but had they really been here that long? When the plane left from the facility, he clearly remembered the sun was rising, but the island was telling him that it had been night for a good long while. Remilia would be happy, but Gin was certain that something was off.
“You’re not far from the mark, Champ.” The smooth voice almost spooked Gin out of his shoes. Jolting upright, the redhead immediately noticed the man standing in front of him dressed up in very outdated business attire. Who the hell wore pocket watches and top hats anymore? And the pencil-thin mustache didn’t help things. The man, who appeared to be in his early forties from bits of salt and pepper around his temples and sideburns, pulled up a chair and sat down on the other side of the desk. When he saw Gin jump almost entirely out of the chair, he lifted a hand and smiled. “By all means, you may enjoy my chair. It’s a good one.”
“Y-your chair?” Gin asked as he eased back down and watched as the man leaned over and produced a pair of small glasses and a large decanter filled with a brown liquid.
“Bingo,” the man remarked as he set one glass on his side of the desk and the other in front of Gin. Twisting up his lips, the businessman slipped the top off the decanter and poured a few fingers of the liquor into each of the small glasses. “I’m going to ascertain that you’re a man who prefers his scotch neat?” He inquired as he popped the top back into the decanter and set it equidistant between the two men.
“I guess,” Gin remarked as he watched the man pick up the glass and casually pour the scotch down his throat. When he tried to follow his guest’s lead a moment later, Gin started to gag the moment the strong-smelling, strong-tasting liquor hit his taste buds. His first reaction was to smack the glass down and clamp his mouth shut before he spat up the scotch onto the man’s suit.
“It’s always rough the first few times,” the guest replied as he poured himself a fuller cup and took a small sip from it. “I’m Jace Morgans, and you’re inside my hotel.”
After recovering, Gin subtly pushed the glass away and turned his focus to the businessman. “I’m sorry to intrude… the place looked empty when Remilia and I arrived.”
The man smiled a tight, thin smile that almost made his little mustache vanish from sight. “That’s quite all right, Mr…?”
“Gin,” the redhead spoke as he reached across and shook hands with the manager of the building.
“Mr. Gin,” Jace finished as he leaned back a little. “You haven’t noticed anyone, because they’re all gone.”
“Dead?”
Jace smiled as he shook his head. “Oh no, my boy. Dead would be better. You see, my staff and my guests were all taken. The ones that survived, of course.”
“Kidnapped? That’s a busy kidnapper!”
The man once again shook his head. “Do you know what ‘omnilium’ is, Mr. Gin?”
“Yea, I’m a prime.”
“Then you know that it can be bent to your will. You can craft wonders from the stuff.” The redhead nodded his head. “And secondaries, like myself, can harvest the stuff and process the raw material, but we lack the gifts to impose our will onto it.”
“Yea, that’s pretty basic stuff.”
Jace grinned as he drank some more scotch. “Smart boy.” With that, the businessman leaned forward across the desk until he was no more than six inches from the prime. “What if one day, the omnilium decided to impose its will upon you?”
Gin furrowed his brow as the thought sat in his head.
“What if, unknown to you, it crept into your mind and body and changed you into something you never were?”
“That’s… it can’t possibly work like that.”
The hotel manager shook his head. “Tell that to the townspeople. Tell that to them as their bodies rotted and their minds were twisted. Tell that the husbands who beat their wives to death or the mothers who devoured their children.”
“But where’d they all go?”
Gin received a shoulder shrug in response to his inquiry. “I don’t know. I wasn’t around.”
“You seem okay.”
Jace smiled. “Wake up, Gin.”
With a gasp, Gin lifted his head up from the desk. In front of him, the scotch decanter was empty, but there was only the one glass a few inches from his right hand. Had he gotten drunk and passed out? It was still black in the streets outside, but he had given up on using the time of day to figure anything out. As he stood up, his legs wobbly beneath his lithe frame, he caught a whiff of something that smelled completely awful.
“Ugh,” the redhead remarked as he grabbed the lamp and held it in the direction of the stench. When the light hit the corner of the room, Gin saw that there was a corpse in a crisp, old fashioned business suit lying at the side of the master bed. A top hat and a pocket watch lay a few feet away from the body, which had probably been decomposing for a few weeks.
Nestled into Jace’s hands was a revolver, although Gin quickly noticed that the man’s fingernails were broken and busted and there was a smear of blood near the body. Lifting the light from the lamp, Gin saw that there was a dried message left on the wall.
Wake up.
***
Amber had tried to nap. In her dreams, everything was red and angry. Thoughts crept into her head that didn’t belong there, and her ‘friends’ had left her behind. In those dreams, secret voices told her to tear their throats out. It wanted the faunus to drink their blood and eat their bodies while they gurgled for mercy.
In the end, the sickly woman would wake up with a yelp or a faint cry.
When she woke up from his particular dream, it changed everything.
With a scream, Amber’s eyes shot open, but before she could process the dreams, her brain picked up on the fact that she wasn’t alone in the small bed. Even worse, everything around her was wet, and there was a stench that hung in the air of the small apartment room. Throwing off her sheets, Amber swallowed a scream when she saw that there was part of a mutilated corpse in the bed. The body had been torn apart by an animal of some sort, and despite how mangled it was, the girl could see that it was one of their companions—Jeremiah.
Amber tried to say something, but as he tongue moved around, it slid against something thicker than saliva. The faunus felt her stomach twist up as she spit onto the bed in front of her. Lying in a pool of spit and blood was half of an ear.
***
Carmelita had been tired until she found the directory nestled inside the building supervisor’s room. As she rifled through the old book, a sheet of laminated paper slipped free and onto the floor. A quick look showed a map of part of the town, detailing a few of the landmarks. A few of the buildings were circled in permanent marker and labeled ‘Hope?’ – A hospital, a radio station, and two other buildings that didn’t have any printed names on them.
Quote:End of Round 6
Gin receives a golden pocket watch. If you play around with the back of it, you'll discover a small key. The key will open a safe somewhere in the hotel (delayed Rd 4 prize). Contact me through PM when you reach that point in your writing.
Amber takes 4 points of Accumulated Damage. Her skin will swell and start to fall off. She will start to look as pale as a corpse. It’s up to you whether Amber killed the person or if it’s just other forces messing with her.
Abner ‘won’ Round 6. I tend to not be a fan of one-shot hyper posts, but that was an excellent piece, both with the emotional bits and the chase action at the end. Seriously. Prize forth-coming.
Abner, Colonel, and Company – Y’all can keep going with your current story. Feel free to fight back or defeat the creature at some point, but your stuff was solid. If you don’t hold off until the last minute with posting, I’ll try and give you two a dedicated update before the end of the round.
![[Image: KarlSig.jpg]](http://omniverse-rpg.com/images/KarlSig.jpg)