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suitedreams2022-07-24 12:50 pm
guestservices) wrote in suitedreams2022-07-24 12:50 pm
Entry tags:
WEEK SIX: EXECUTION
W̴͍̎E̴̝̊E̸͚͝K̸͕̿ SIX: EXECUTION
By now, you've all got to be expecting it. Time marches on, and as Sunday morning arrives, you'll find yourself rising from your bed around 9. It starts off as a gentle suggestion, a feeling that you're going to be late for something. Aren't you going to be late for something?
Whether you answer that call or not, eventually, you'll find yourself walking directly down to the lobby, to a room that has so far been locked. All of you stand in front of a pair of golden doors, blocked off by a red velvet rope.
There's a moment of silence, and then a strange clattering noise. The doors fly open, and you'll find that you're standing in a darkened room where rows and rows of blue velvet seats lead up to a stage. The stage in front of you is covered with a pair of matching, rich blue velvet curtains, emblazoned with the logo of the Starlight Hotel.
Welcome, everyone, to the Starlight Theater.
You'll find yourself feeling like you must sit. You can choose your seat, but every seat in the house in the Starlight Theater guarantees a perfect view of the stage - there's no hiding. Should you try to merely stand, you'll find a pair of hands on your shoulders, and your body will move along without your permission into a seat. For those of you looking at your less cooperative friend, you might see the figure walking them to their seat is skeletal in nature, almost dancing behind them as they're ushered into their seat.
In fact... The empty seats in the theater are already filled. Skeletons sit in each empty seat, but make no mistake, audience: they clatter and move around, excited. Some of them are holding popcorn. Some of them look at you, then at the screen, eager. Others raise their arms to flag something, or someone - shadowy ushers burst from the floor and provide refreshments - and skeletons pour drinks down their nonexistent throats and stomachs, slurping at straws in a way that should be impossible.
Eventually, the bone clattering stops, and a hush falls over the crowd. Looking around, you might have noticed that one of your own didn't make it to the theater - Kim Dokja is not among you.
Perhaps he's backstage?
You don't get much time to think about it, though. The lights dim, and a pair of spotlights spin and arch across the curtains, as somewhere, a drumroll plays.
Lights, camera, action!
N̸A̵V̴I̶G̶A̶T̴I̴O̸N̷.̷
no subject
Perhaps they'll doom you to it.
[ hua cheng will be no help in recognizing it as an exterminator's outfit, but he knows the end goal is for him to be dead. so they would provide something to kill him with? or it won't work, because have any of these actually worked so far, to start with? no. no they haven't. things have gotten dragged out, and he'd like to avoid that. he'd like to send dokja back intact. ]
Is that what this is? [ there's a thump! sound effect card as the book hits the ground instead of either of them, so no bonks just yet. it's followed by more unearthly, eerie howling, and another scream. but he's still not worried about the screams, apparently.
but how dare you, estelle labeled him a hunk. he grabs dokja by the upper arm, half hauling him and half pushing. ] Move.
[ even with his dex modifier this row of dominos is coming down on him. ]
no subject
that eerie howl echoes, heard around, but just quietly-- like a whisper in the wind, he hears a chorus of cackles. ]
Wh-- Wait!
[ help, these heels. he's pushed out of the way, but the events wouldn't be so fun to end there, would it? now, multiple books seem to start pitching, like a child throwing a tantrum. he only manages to dodge a few, but one pitches him hard in the face with a sickly crack and he goes tumbling back with a loud THUD. like a turtle falling back on their shell with this bulky ass thing.
the pained hiss is the only indication he didn't die to a book in the face. but his nose is definitely possibly crooked a little, blood oozing down. in their surroundings now is a flicker of an image of green appears atop the nearby bookshelves still held up. ]
As if we don't have enough to deal with-- [ spiritly forms flicker in and out, laughing at their predicament, more shelves rattling nearby with additional books flying their way. why are things never easy in these damned games? ]
no subject
under a shelf, beaten by the rain of books that come before the fall. there's a grunt of pain, silence, and then a growl of annoyance, the shelf rattling after a beat. but only because of one ghost, rather than a haunted library's worth of them. ]
I'm going to rip the Nightman's arm off and beat him with it. [ tell them how you really feel! he leverages the shelf up enough to pull himself out, a trickle of blood running down his face.
a few of the ghastly guests swoop down over them like angry magpies, cackling, mocking them, fading in and out before retaliation can come while more books fly off the shelves in their wake. hua cheng is sorely tempted to throw a book at one of them in return, anyways, as the temperature drops further and the chill ushers in an energy he can only personally compare to resentful.
this is an infestation of a haunting, and they're not welcome. ]
no subject
one hand wipes at the blood oozing from his nose, an exhausted look of sorts but it radiates with pure annoyance. he is so tired of this shit. they truly are not welcomed here by these ghastly spirits. this is their place, theirs. and they will see them out-- one way or another. ]
Leave some of him for the rest of us.
[ grumbling, trying to unstuck himself, the device on his back sparkling a little now with various short circuits of electricity, as if something damaged was in his fall. he pays it no mind, trying to bring an arm to shield himself from the various books being pelleted at them.
he's trying to think, they need to get these ghosts stalled enough so they have time to recover and move elsewhere. but what? another eerie howl sounds, but right beside them, a familiar white blur of fur appearing atop the bookshelves-- what the dog doin'???
Jin is snapping her jaws at the ghost swooping at her soul counterpart and his companion. adorned in a particular outfit, but it has the ghosts sparsing out with angry shrieks. now's a better time as any to move. ]
no subject
[ he hates this! with a faint groan, he gets up to his feet - gets hit in the head with a book for his troubles, causing him to take a step back to stabilize himself, but it's a bullseye to his eyepatch so it could've been worse. this isn't target practice, fuck.
a ghost flies at him, then through him, and suddenly he understands what everybody else feels like when they deal with ghosts like him, cold from the deathly chill. it doesn't help that some of the faces are familiar ones, warped into ghoulish and terrible, mocking masks of laughter. companions from their game, this one, home.
what a joke. ]
Time to get up, Kim Dokja. If nothing else, perhaps we can find a letter opener or I can snap my own neck. [ he'll help this poor turtle up, while jin dives in to protect them.
another blood curdling scream, like a tortured woman, and there's another dressed up spirit that appears - washed out, but unmistakably orange beneath the pallor, as tanhua rushes after an obnoxious and green-tinged ghost. ]
no subject
[ these book pitches are far from playful throwing, there is malice with every rapid throw. stop beating the horse when it's down, fuck! he tries to not pay too attention to the mocking spirits, the familiar faces of those they know. loved or otherwise. from their game before, here or home.
he takes hold of the aid to him, but that contraption on his back sparks more, shaking tremendously on his back. as he's back on his feet, he's more concerned about it now. ]
I'd much rather you not do either of those, I'm not here to watch you kill yourself, Hua Cheng. [ he'll do it. he won't have him deal with taking himself out. he takes a single pained step, wincing as their spiritly fox companions aid them at chasing ghosts around.
suddenly a light starts to ooze from the gun-like handle in his grasp, sparkling angrily, pulsing with an overwhelming hum as the proton packs struggles against the damage to its system.
oh.
oh, no. ]
--Shit, don't really want to cause any alarm but this thing might just explode.
[ there's a sharp whirring sound, as it pitches and whine and now he's focused on trying to remove this damned thing lest it blow them both up. however, it's tightly wrapped up, no means of removing it, not without something sharp enough to slice the straps off. fuck fuck fuck. seconds are tickling, and suddenly a surge of energy pulses from the end of it, striking one of the nearest ghosts and it evaporates with a sudden shriek.
the machine pitches louder, shaking at his back with a glowing crack extending on its exterior frame. ]
no subject
their foxes help keep some of them at bay from them, at least. ]
It'd certainly be quicker. [ dryly, but he understands - hua cheng will take his death gamely, and not make his companion watch that sort of thing. at least one of his travelers should be given some control of the situation. might make them feel a little better about it. ] But so would an explosion.
[ the ghost is gone forever in a blast of unkind light and one last death knell. he sees the intent of it here.
arm lowering, he brings his hand up, briefly cupping dokja's face before giving it a pat. with that, hua cheng starts to take steady steps back. ]
Use it. Whatever it does, it's what we've got - and there's no more time before you're in more danger, too.
Just take care of the rest of them, and expect me back before too long, hm?
no subject
You don't.. [ his eyes widen, looking down at the gun before back at Hua Cheng. was that really the intention all along? like the ghost that erupted mere moments ago, to obliterate until there was nothing left. he shakes his head, aiming to hold the gun down, but its sparks and violently trembles and the control is not there. it aims up, down, to the side, and he's focusing on stilling the damned thing to the ground with a grit of his teeth.
he freezes at the touch to his face, eyes meeting the other's and he feels his body shake. whether it's a tremble from his body or simply due to the malfunctioning pack on his back, it's hard to say. ]
There.. there's gotta be a better way than this. There has to be a knife, or something better--
[ his gaze darts around, but there is nothing that gives an indication they will be able to press on. their story ends here. and even so, he wants to fight against it. fight like their soul counterparts that seek to protect them even if they are no longer in the same state as before. there's always another way. there is always a different path to take. the light sparks again, the pulse flashing in spurts before it starts to shoot out again, uncontrollable like a loaded gun that can't shut down. ]
It won't end like this-- do you hear me, Hua Cheng?!
[ the proton pack sparks in a flash, the energy disappearing from the gun in his hand and he stares, confused, blank before
it erupts. the beam strikes at the floor directly in Hua Cheng's path before making an immediate connection with him with no chance of avoiding. as it does, the energy of it throws Dokja's body propelling backwards until various bookshelves with a clatter of collision and breaking wood. ]
no subject
[ for all that this has made a mockery of them - how every execution has - he doesn't want it to go on any longer if dokja is at risk. he looks at him, meets his gaze, before he looks up, elsewhere. tanhua yowls in the sea of noise. the crackle of energy. the screaming ghosts. the whirling wind.
he closes his eye as the pack and its gun erupts, and that's it. not for the first time, and likely not for the last, he faces his own demise by his choice. the nightman won't take that from him. ]
no subject
aka
Hua Cheng is Dead!
The Librarian - Played by Hua Cheng
The Ghostbuster - Played by Kim Dokja
Filmed on location at the Starlight Hotel
The cast and crew of Starlight Productions would like to remind you that murdering a fellow guest outside of filming will guarantee the safety of your hostage.
Sponsored by Starlight C*ke
[The lights raise up just slightly, barely enough to see the theater as the screen rises up. The body of Hua Cheng lies on the floor, broken and lifeless as Kim Dokja remains frozen in his spot next to him. As the audience watches, the lights dim. The shadows don't burst from Hua Cheng like previous executions. The darkness is just light enough that now you can see the stage has cleared, and the corpse of Hua Cheng...reassembles itself from the explosion before it rises up, striding forward across the stage.
It walks slowly, parts of the corpse shifting and held together by an invisible force. It gives a little bow of gratitude for watching its performance, but it doesn't stop there. As it stands upright, it lifts a hand as little shadows fall around it like fine dust, forming a picture of Tanhua at his side. The shadowed creature opens its mouth as if to yip, but there's no sound. Soon, the corpse turns, giving one more wave before beginning to walk once more, fox Daemon at its heels even in death. Everyone in the theater is paralyzed, and as soon as the corpse steps out the exit the house lights come on.
The shadows and the skeletons are gone. You are once again free to move, but if you attempt to chase after Hua Cheng’s corpse you won’t be able to find him just yet.
When you exit the theater, you will find everything is back to normal. But feel free to visit the Starlight Cemetery to see someone new.
You can check out any time you’d like, but you can never leave.]