Don't Rest Your Head: Where madmen and psychological academia meet and go wild!

[bue52]

William

The smell of sweat fills the room as it always does. William is the only one sitting there at the bench. You then hear a puff, and the scent of lemon fills the room. You notice that it is exactly 10.50pm. Another 10 minutes before the air freshener would activate again. You see as two bodybuilders leave the locker room, leaving you the only person left in the gym- your safe haven. Except for the Janitor, Old Bones Alvin; the cafe owner Damian and receptionist, Miss Westwood. You are the only person in this gym who the staff are used to you being there that late, so they don't ask any questions. Besides the place is secluded enough, it may possibly be the best way for you to avoid any more of Guo Qi's men.


Iren
You walk your way home...... Today's session was exceptionally long, maybe it's also because Dr. Kate moved to the suburbs now, and you have more time to just talk to her. Good thing you do not need to sleep, because you just missed the last city bus, so you can take your time to walk all the way home.


Naohan
The colours!!! All the colours, and the bright sounds, in neon light, you find yourself a little too overwhelmed to notice yourself moving away from your student group. You should have expected this going to a fair. Especially one that opens so late in the night. Then again this is probably the first time your mom is willing to even let you go out on your own. It probably helped that she planned this trip with the other mothers, but caught this horrible flu last night. So of course you were allowed to go, it'll help you with your problem too.

Though now you have a much more immediate problem, finding your way around, all you see now is a sign with the name Xavier on it.......


Janus
You totally should have gotten shoes. It helps walking across gravel, and old roads. You find yourself to be near the city's bus terminal, everything is grey and shaded thanks to the dim lights around you.

Hey, what is a gal doing, walking up the road towards you..... She looks like she knows where she wants to go. Unlike you.


Xavier
You probably need to get a better slogan...... How many customers have you had tonight? 2? It's close to the end of the week and you had what, 4 customers as a whole. Maybe it's the location, maybe you need to better market yourself. Either way, it may be in your best interest to either stay in the tent and hope for someone to come over, or bring your sign back in and rewrite it with BETTER Slogans. You totally should have taken that Advertising for Dummies book from the library.

[Hazuki]

Iren

Iren tugs on the bottom of her jacket, pulling it down further over the perfume-soaked hoodie. She needs to cover herself up, less chance for her to get hurt or hit, or to see her. They might see too much of her if they can see her outline or body heat...no, this was good. The ends of the arms covered her hands, that way people wouldn't see the bandages. Not until she hit them anyway.

Maybe there'd be somebody this night, on the walk back. They could try to fight her, they could hurt too. But no that wasn't what to hope for. Dr. Kate would disapprove. She should move on. No, that doesn't fit, she was hoping to see her sister. In the bushes, maybe she'd see her. Or on a swing set or walking down the street or anything.

Iren follows the route she'd planned out on the way to the suburbs to go back. Nice and slowly, that way she could see anything she wanted to avoid and change the route for the next time. She walks steadily along her planned route, her eyes never stopping their scanning of every step.

[Kallisti]

Xavier

Dammit. Dammit dammit dammit. He really, really did need the money.

Muttering under his breath, Xavier begins divesting himself of the tools of the trade--the comically oversized hat, gaudy wand, and obligatory almost-classy bow tie--and stalks off into the gloom towards the public library for yet another advertising book to place in the precarious tower of the blasted things growing on the trestle table in the 'backstage' behind the flimsy cardboard partition.

"Laur--uh, Levita! We're wastin' our time here. I'm off to the library. Again. Worth a shot, huh? You pack it up; the street-performer act was a crapshoot anyhow, we're not gonna get anywhere until we play that local repertory theater on Tuesday. We've got enough to hold out till Tuesday, right?"

[Overlord Rion]

Janus

Stupid. How could he have forgotten shoes, of all things? He had simply walked out of his house, and before he knew it he had walked several miles without shoes. So much for being smart. He mused about why his wanderings usually brought him to a bus station. He came to the conclusion that it was because it was the last place he had seen his grandfather, just a few short weeks before things started clicking into place.

The sight of someone else stirred him out of his thoughts for a few moments. People really shouldn't walk alone at night, even if they could do the same things he did. So he did the only sensible thing in his mind: approach them.

"E-excuse me, but you really shouldn't be walking around alone. Maybe you could use some company?"

[Dog_Days]

Billy

Billy sits with his head in his hands at the lat pulldown. It's 10:51 now, exactly one minute after he had noticed the time in the first place, and he still hadn't come up with a plan. As much as it disagreed with him, killing for the Rangers was a much more tasteful affair: waste some bearded guy hiding in a cave or some God-forsaken village, get the hell out, and hope your ride came on time to get back to home plate before his buddies got all riled up.

This was different. Billy didn't have back-up. Didn't have a team. Hell, he didn't even have a home plate; the house certainly wasn't--

Billy shot straight up for a moment. The house, you moron! They're gonna go straight for the ****ing house!

10:52. Billy rushes to the locker room; a rusty old payphone on the back wall was left when this place was still a bar. Picking up the receiver, Billy hears a familiar and, at this very moment, comforting drone as he digs through his pocket for some change. 50 cents exactly goes down the coin slot as Billy hurriedly pushes the numbers of his house phone. The other end begins to ring as Billy looks down at the ground.

"Please...pick up...for the love of God pick up..."

[bue52]

Billy
You wait for another minute before the phone is finally picked up.
"Hello?" you hear the voice of your younger brother, after a pause, " is that you Billy? It's the gym isn't I can hear Old Bones rambling something in the background.... Wait shouldn't you be having a match right now? What's going on?"


Iren
You see a barefooted dude walk up to you and greeting you in a rather nervous tone. What do you do?

[Hazuki]

Iren

Iren looks over the boy, and sees enough in the few seconds to know she doesn't want to be near him. Besides, walking home alone has always served her well.. There's a better chance of getting to see the good things without other people getting in her way. Other people weren't who she wanted. "I can handle myself..." She mutters just loudly enough to hear, before crossing the street swiftly. She pulls her hood over her head, making sure to keep her hands hidden by the sleeves.

[Dog_Days]

Billy

Billy wastes no time.

"Pat, listen to me. You need to get Moira and Doug and get the hell out of there. Some real bad guys might be coming over there soon and you need to be long gone before they get there. I keep a gun in my nightstand--use it if you need to. Don't let anyone stop you and just get out of town. Meet me at Rockbreaker's Gas just outside of town, alright? I'll be ther soon. Just get going now, you understand?"

[bue52]

Billy
"Wait what?! What the hell did you do!!!! Fine, I'll go get everything. You better not be joking." Pat says with an annoyed voice before he hangs off.

[THEChanger]

Naomhan
Approaching the sign cautiously, Naomhan looked around in confusion. He had no idea how he got here, nor where here was, exactly. But, since the shop with the name Xavier seemed to be the only place open, he might as well go in.
Shuffling his feet with a rather gray sound, he slowly pushed open the door. The light bell had a nice green ring to it. "Hello. I'm a little bit lost. Could someone in here help me?"

[Kallisti]

Xavier
"...till Tuesday, right?"

Xavier reaches for the door of the run-down toy shop where he and Levita had been...performing, arguably, although the toy shop got so few customers they'd really been sitting behind a battered cardboard screen with a poorly-spelt message--"A magcian never reveals a secrets!"--painted in overly-cheery yellow over a rather insipid magician pulling a rabbit from a wooden toy chest. I really shouldn't have let the store owner make the screen.

"Hello. I'm a little bit lost. Could someone in here help me?"

Great. That's just what I needed. More crap to deal with. I could just leave.

...no I couldn't.

Xavier sighs.

"Sure, sure. Whaddaya need, kid?"

[THEChanger]

Naomhan

Naomhan took in the strangely-dressed man who met him at the door. Shaking his head, Naomhan nodded. "Well, I was with a bunch of my friends at the fair, and somehow I got seperated, and now-" Naomhan's eyes widened as he realized why this man looked familiar. He was dressed like a magician! Naomhan's face lit up with a huge smile. "Are you a magician?"

[Kallisti]

Xavier

"Yeah. Sure. That's the idea, anyhow. So you need to get back to the fair, or what?"

[Overlord Rion]

Janus
That girl.... Janus had felt something odd about that girl. But he couldn't just follow her, not after she had seen him. Going against his instinct, Janus would follow her. If something went wrong, well, he was screwed. And that was perfectly fine with him.

[Dog_Days]

Billy

Good...hopefully, they'll have half a chance...sorry for ruining your evening, there, Pat...

Billy rushes out of the locker room out of the old fire exit, placing his finger on his lips to Old Bones before silently shutting the door behind him. Moving along with the shadows, he does his best to stay out of sights to make his way out of town to Rockbreakers.

[THEChanger]

Naomhan

OH! Right. Do you think you could help me find my way?" Naomhan looked up at the magician with wonder in his eyes. Wow. A real magician! SO AWESOME! I can't wait to tell my friends.

[Kallisti]

Xavier

"'course, kid. Right this way." Xavier gestures, then begins to walk towards the fair, carefully making sure he's not walking too fast for Naomhan to follow.

God, it's been years since anyone but my daughter was that that happy to see me. Maybe the whole profession isn't quite obsolete just yet.

[bue52]

Billy
As you move along the alleyways and boulevards, avoiding all the main streets as much as possible, you notice that the shadows seem to be getting longer, and darker....... The sounds of the city becomes more muffled, and you notice that you are moving along a back alley, with the path leading to a door that is of charcoal black and a knob that is of pearl white. The contrast between the two colours is striking to you. (EVen though you are not the empath)


Naoham & Xavier
As Xavier walks ahead of Naoham by a few steps, before hearing clicking sounds of a 3/4 beat. Naoham notices this too, and as he does, a finger with a really long nail seeps out of his shadow.


Iren and Janus
As the two of you meet, the streetlights to your left and right start to flicker, when all the lights including the one right above the two of you suddenly just give out.

[Hazuki]

Iren

Iren ignores the flickering streetlights as she continues walking. Disrepair wasn't a rare thing to exist anywhere; it was likely to be a a black out or something similar. Maybe a technician spilled his coffee.

[Overlord Rion]

Janus

Instead of following her from the start, Janus stayed in the lone circle of light. In his mind, it was a symbol. It said they needed to stick together. Then again, he might have been playing too many RPGs lately, he was never sure anymore.

He'd wait a few moments longer, then begin to follow her. His dark clothing would help keep him hidden.

[Hazuki]

Iren

Iren felt like she was being followed as she continued into an alley. It was a feeling she rarely got, but even then it was far too often. She wasn't stupid...she could tell when a sound was out of place. Going over her memories so often, she recognized that the sounds she was hearing along this route weren't normal, and that boy was following her. She follows along her route until she gets to a long road. The pathway rarely had a lot of people on it this time of night. It was perfect.

As she goes along the sidewalk, she steals glances at the car mirror of every parked vehicle along the road, until she eventually spots the boy following her. She takes the next turn as if she hasn't noticed anything, but then she pushes herself up against the wall. When the boy came around the corner she'd clothesline him. That would work. Creepers deserved to be punished...she knew it all too well.

[Kallisti]

Xavier

Xavier pauses for a moment. His brow furrows. "Hey, kid. You hear that?"

[THEChanger]

Naomhan

Naomhan tilted his head to one side. "I...I heard something. What was it?" Naomhan turned around, looking for the source of the sound. Then he saw the finger coming out of his shadow, and shrieked. Very loudly.

[Kallisti]

Xavier

Ah, no. Don't tell me the kid is some kind of spaz or something, Xavier thinks as he hears Naomhan scream.

Heaving a put-upon sigh, he looks over his shoulder and freezes.

Oh, Jesus. Oh, Jesus, what the hell is that?

Just grab the kid and run.

And he does--seizing Naomhan's arm he begins to run as fast as he can, trying to leave that...thing...behind.

[bue52]

Xavier & Naoham
As you pull Naoham out of the way, the finger rises out quickly, a whole arm appears out of the shadow clearly attempting to grab the young boy's leg to drag him to wherever it was this shadow was trying to drag him to.

Roll against Pain: 2


Janus & Iren
While the two of you play innocent girl and creepy stalker, you two do not notice anyone else following you, yet, as Iren stops to confront Janus, you both notice that there are presences around you. Any source of light is immediately extinguished. And Janus with his bare feet begin to feel a distinct decrease in temperature on the path he is on, yet the air temperature seems to be the same.....

[Kallisti]

(Assuming you meant both of us: Discipline [roll0], Exhaustion [roll1])

[THEChanger]

Discpline-[roll0]
Exhaustion-[roll1]

[Hazuki]

Iren

Iren frowns deeply as all of the lights go out around her. She slides along the wall, away from the corner so the stalker wouldn't bump right into her when he turned around it. More lights going off definitely meant something was wrong with the power grid. She reaches into the pocket of her jeans and pulls out her cell phone, to see if the screen is still lit up.

[Overlord Rion]

Janus

Janus stopped dead when all the lights went out.He slowed his breathing, straining to hear the girl he was following. Finally, he heard a shuffling sound. That's gotta be her. he thought. He tried closing his eyes to sharpen his ears, but only for a few moments. Chances were she had realized he was being followed. It figured, since he was being careless. He'd have to be more careful now. The lights were off, so that was in his favor. His feet made very little noise, so there was another one. he should be good, except for a nagging feeling that something was going to go wrong. And another thought.

My feet are cold.

[bue52]

Xavier & Naoham
You both managed to remove yourself from the monster in the shadows, and are able to give yourselves enough distance that you can only see the silhouette of the monster as it rises in full 6 feet glory from whatever portal or shadow-thingy that it arrived from.


Janus & Iren
Iren's handphone still has light, but for some reason, it is severely dimmed.

While both of you do not make any movement, you both begin to hear more shuffling coming from somewhere, everywhere.....

[Hazuki]

Iren

Iren grows silently frustrated with the situation she's in. There wasn't a way to solve it; it wasn't a puzzle, the only thing she could do is get away from this weirdness. So that's what she'd do, before she'd have to resort to beating the stalker half to death. Twice. She begins moving down the dark street once again, speed walking.

[Kallisti]

Xavier

...Oh, God. Just keep running.

[THEChanger]

Naomhan

Naomhan continued shreiking, and ran as fast as he could away from the strange figure. This was not good at all. "WHAT IS THAT?"

[Kallisti]

Xavier

"Just run!"

[bue52]

Xavier & Naomhan
The demonic being finally fully formed in the plane of the living and sleeping, begins to stretch his legs and within a second begins to to dash towards the two of you. It's elongated arms, and rows of shiny canines are the only notice things you notice as it runs towards you.

PAIN: 4
[roll0]

[Overlord Rion]

Janus

Shuffling noises. That wasn't him. And judging by the new sound of feet hitting the gravel, it wasn't her. Crap. There was no point in hiding himself any longer. He'd leave the girl to her own devices, white knight complex be damned. However, he'd still have to at least partially go the same way she did. He slowly comes into view out of the deeper shadows, making sure if she turned around she'd either see him walking away or not at all. Hopefully she wouldn't attack him, but knowing his luck he couldn't really hope for the best.

[bue52]

Janus and Iren

While the two of you turn around at roughly the same time and begin to make your way out of the alleyway, you both notice that your pathway is blocked completely, a wall of shadow has covered the exit, to the point where no light can pass through, if you look up, you would notice that this wall of shadow stretches all the way around the buildings surrounding the alleyway, you can neither go forward nor up without entering the darkness.