( june event ) who's that pokemon?

[officialnotice]

EVENT: WHO'S THAT POKEMON?

For the residents of Wayward Pines, the 19th is just your typical boring Monday. The sun is shining. The birds are chirping.

Until suddenly, they're not.

That's the first sign. Maybe you don't even notice — you're far too busy with your nine-to-five, or maybe even by poolside, blissfully ignorant to the trouble brewing just out of sight, or to the fact that SPF 15 is basically just water anyway. Or maybe you aren't quite so lucky. You notice the birds have gone silent. You feel the eyes upon you, unseen but still raising goosebumps on the back of your neck.

And then from the woods, that telltale scream.

No, two screams, then three, then five, then more than a dozen. You can't count them, can't figure out which direction they're coming from. It's like they're all around you now. Even above you. Now you spot them on the rooftops — god, they're huge, you can't even fathom how they made it up there unnoticed.

But they're not playing at stealth anymore. One leaps off the roof, a single fluid bound on long thick limbs, and barely lands on the sidewalk for a moment before it lunges at the nearest person — your neighbor mowing his lawn, or maybe the woman carrying that armful of bags out of French's Grocery — long claws slicing through their flesh like a hot knife through butter. Then comes another, and another. Into the streets, the backyards, and the ill-timed pool parties, tearing through every living soul they can find.

By nightfall, the creatures have retreated back into the woods en masse, but anyone foolish enough to wander too far from the safety of their homes runs the risk of being picked off one by one if they're not careful. The 20th and 21st follow a similar pattern; during the day, the Sheriff and a team of volunteers comb through the woods looking for survivors, and during the night, these creatures do much the same.

The morning of the 22nd dawns with the last of the vicious "murder potatoes" (as Linda had hysterically dubbed them on the first day while wielding a butcher's knife with astonishing proficiency) have fallen, and the danger is gone.

For now, anyway. The questions they leave behind, however? Those are here to stay.

MOD NOTES

This is a catch-all for any and all threads pertaining to the Who's That Pokemon event! It covers the battle on the 19th and the lingering danger over the course of the 20th and 21st.

PLEASE INCLUDE IN YOUR TOP-LEVEL SUBJECT LINE: Character Name, date, location, and open or closed, to help keep things a bit more organized.

If you have any questions regarding this event, feel free to ask them here!

Comments

[ouzel]

The thing does scream, just in time for Cassian to make it out of the building and to take note of Poe (on the ground, mostly, clothing a wreck, a lot of blood stains) and BB-8 (making panicked beeping noises) and Caroline (semi-cradling Poe) and Cassian wants to swear. Why the hell is Poe out here? What the fuck was he trying to do, get himself killed?

He doesn't stop to ask what's happened or what's going on; he fires at the monster (double-tap, mid-second scream, but there's movement incoming and he doesn't want to wait to see how many will turn out for the party) before making his way to Poe and Caroline and flicking the former on the curve of his ear.

"The hell are you doing out here?" C'mon, y'all, it's time to haul ass back inside. Like. Now. "We've gotta go, come on."

[volitaunt]

"Ow," Poe says, and he looks toward the car, the mess of remains. Another person failed. "I was... trying to help."

He's never going to get used to running away from a fight. He's still dizzy with blood loss, but he can feel his side knitting itself up (more than a little weird), and that has to be good enough for now. He starts to sit up, finally reaching his blaster--

Which is when a fresh wave of monsters breaches the top of the closest building, three of them, moving at top speed.

Poe swears, shoots from a sitting position, hits one on the shoulder and another in the eye more by luck than design.

[coy]

Cassian comes rushing towards them with a weapon and for a moment, she feels a warm wash of relief before she remembers that it's dangerous and he's human. Because the humanity laden part of her brain thinks that she wouldn't be able to carry Poe out of here on her own without help but that's not exactly true. She could do it herself and Cassian might be a badass with that weapon of his, he's still as fragile as Poe and the last thing she wants is for him to get hurt too.

"Okay, let me--" Just as she's about to help Poe up, trusting Cassian will cover them, it happens. There's a surge and she senses it, feels it with her every sense, each one elevated. They're coming her instincts tell her and then... they do.

Poe manages to hit two of them and undoubtedly Cassian gets his own shots in but there's still one leading the pack and Caroline moves quickly to stand, just as the creature shrieks at her.

Maybe that's why she doesn't hear the shot that comes from... behind her? Above her? In front of her? Maybe it's the scream of the monsters and the sound of other gunfire that makes her miss it, maybe she's still reeling from all the carnage she's seen or from the thought of almost losing Poe. But she misses the sound of the shot that certainly doesn't miss her.

Her body jerks suddenly, a round hits her shoulder and suddenly it feels like her whole body is on fire as she cries out in agony. It feels like the fire of a thousand suns, it feels like every piece of wood that ever existed is racing through her bloodstream. And just like that, she crumbles to the ground without any grace at all.

[volitaunt]

No.

No, no, no. Not today. Not Caroline. Not after everything else.

Poe is on his feet without the recollection of standing. He catches Caroline as she starts to go down, half-falling with her, landing hard on one knee. He has to get up. He has to get back up, get her inside, get someone to take a look at her--

What the hell happened?

Hole in her shoulder--

Those things still coming, still coming, Poe raises his blaster and his aim goes wild, scoring the leading monster's chest, then its arm, then its neighbor.

"Cass, help me!" He hates his own desperation, but he can't get up under Caroline's weight. He's not as strong as she is at the best of times, and this is not the best of times.

[ouzel]

It happens a lot faster than Cassian would like, and the shooter is on the roof of the hospital trying to help pick their attackers off - he can tell that much from the angle of the shot Caroline took but why she fell he doesn't know. The bullets are hollow, they contain something meant to slow or stop the monsters, but beyond that?

He's swearing but he's there at Poe's side, wrapping an arm around Caroline's center and hauling her up onto his shoulder. A fireman's carry means he can hold Caroline while helping Poe up and maybe even managing to shoot (but really what it means is carrying Caroline and half dragging half supporting Poe inside before someone else gets shot).

"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Once they're in the doors he gets Caroline onto a gurney and nurses start swarming in to see what can be done about her and Poe, which means Cassian and BB-8 are standing there for a moment before Cassian grabs Poe by the shirt, suddenly.

"Don't fucking go outside again, alone, you hear me?"

[volitaunt]

Poe is still focused on Caroline as the nurses circle him, one of them touching the mostly-healed bite mark on his shoulder and saying he needs to get an inoculation. He barely hears her.

He knows better than to interfere with medical staff doing there work. It's how he keeps himself from asking if Caroline is okay, how he keeps from grabbing one of them and demanding to know what happened.

The nurses around him move back a moment before Cassian grabs his shirt.

"I was supposed to just leave the guy out there? There was no time."

Not that his attempted intervention made a difference. He looks at Caroline again. They're still working on her, which means she's still alive.