[ THE CO-ED WASHROOM ] HERE BE HORSEMEN TERRITORY pg 10!

[Ice Queen]

They didn't get it, Roch thought. They--

He looked at Riley as she spoke to him, the tenseness in his shoulders disappearing as he let his guitar dissipate. He nodded at her, his eyes softening. She got it. Even if they weren't hunters, he could at least try and give them some tips on HOW to fight.

For now, though, he'd just keep his mouth shut. For once.

Nio Love

 

[Grey Dragon]

Cymbeline's nasty grin spread. "You propose to tamper with those items, those... technological shards of human-built filth?" She sidled up closer to the crowd. "A novel concept indeed, the spark of an idea, so quick to spread it's black wings... You think it had not been brought to life before?"

The ghoul abruptly whirled, and began pacing along the back of the room. Her voice rose, and soon it was not like she was talking to the students, but arguing with some unknown entity."You would think that! You would think yourself master and maker, keeper of the domain of study and madness! YOU WOULD BLIND YOURSELF TO THE VENOM IT LEAVES BEHIND! ... The filthy residue, a black ink swirling through the fog, infecting your mind, turning every thought to a spiral-bound, hateful notion with no purpose or intent..."

Anyone who looked close would see the ghoul's many expressions, flickering from one extreme to another in a fit of madness, also held the barest trace of pain. "YOU SEEK TO TAME WHAT WILL NEVER BE TAMED. Bigger than their fledgeling worm of science, stronger even than our fear... We fell back. We were tainted by it's misty tendrils, sliding into our very selves with the barest hint of a whisper~ We were tainted. WE WERE TAINTED BY IT'S FILTH! Red... Red was taken."

Cymbeline paused. Whether she was letting those words sink in or just struggling to unravel her own twisted thoughts was anyone's guess. "To play with those machines is to tempt insanity. And it will come for you~ It will slip into your very being. And the pain... Lost in the fog you are lost to us, lost to all those who once knew you."

The ghoul grinned. "We hold this insanity inside ourselves~ That is our burden. Yours is to fight or run."  

[Bilious]

Christof blinked at Cymbeline's response, brows furrowing as he tried to make sense of it.

Finally, he signed to Barth, "Was-that-yes-or-no?"  

[Dragain]

Lizzy just stood there next to Levi and Holly, silent. Listening... Mostly recalling what she had experienced for herself, both on the most recent field trip as well as on the "foggy" island. The horsemen just seemed to be confirming all her fears; perhaps that's why she hadn't said anything.

Her player might also be too lazy to really respond.

Lizzy's hair was also really pink that day.  

[bobaTJ]

Roch had lost his mind, Taryn was sure of it. She watched as he yelled and gestured and began assaulting the ghoul (padfoot?) that she had recently spoken to in class. She could produce no proof herself, although she had not found the ghoul to be particularly earthy or crumbly, but she was glad when Zurine produced a pin to shut Roch up. Now wasn't the time for emotional reactions. They had to think. They had to plan what little they could plan.

Research? The word struck the chimera in just the right way. Certainly it would be difficult to study something that you could not follow home and could not even necessarily see. There had to be a way, though. Even if weak in body, she was strong of mind. Research she could do.

She continued to listen to the conversation going on around her, head tilted slightly to the right. Hunters. She'd heard that word before, and she was beginning to feel the boiling hatred the others did for it.  

[JetAlmeara]

It seemed like things were getting back on track - and for that Zurine was thankful, the horsemen themselves had all but said that everyone in the room was a part of Halloween and not one of these reapers..if nothing else well, she hoped that would place her above suspicion from now on. her and any other new student who had happened to make the meeting.

The thought of being hunted by these humans with former Halloween weapons was terrifying enough - she didn't really want to be spending all her time looking over her shoulder in case some paranoid older student decided she didn't fit in and tried to stab her. Glancing at those around her she turned her attention back to the comments and questions being asked, trying to piece together the information she could.  

[demon_pachabel]

As Cymbeline began one of her insane ramblings, Invictus moved over to stand near her. Was he amused, or was he there in case he needed to reach out and calm the horsewoman? Either way, he placed one hand gingerly on Famine's shoulder, almost amused by her words. Almost.

"You are very right, Cymbeline." he said, before turning his attention to look at the students who were gathered;

"Do not tempt the Runic Sciences of the humans. What the humans have...utilized is an energy that can disrupt even us Horsemen...and your own numbers. You have seen it, have you not? That flickering in and out of existence in an instance, the lack of clarity it brings... many of you have experienced it first hand, but also second hand through those who have been exposed to it..."

Invictus looked to Riley knowingly, then to some of the others who had treated their 'first' meeting with great amounts of suspicion and mistrust. "As Cymbeline said, it is called Insanity - not some emotion you think of when someone is taken over by a tantrum, but true...raw Insanity. While somehow compatible with FEAR, it doesn't yield the same results. It taints the mind and devours any sense you ever had. You don't recover from such things overnight..." another look towards Cymbeline, knowingly, perhaps almost nostalgically, "It is not something that can be tamed. We Horsemen spent years practically drowning in this...Insanity, only kept even slightly cognizant of our own selves by a steady flow of FEAR...which even that was beginning to drain from being unable to move from that place. Years, trapped within a barrier we could not leave."

He removed his hand from Cymbeline's shoulder.

"Insanity is the force that devoured Red and tainted us."  

[iloveyouDIE]

Ulmuka had been slightly taken aback when he was accused by a reaper boil. In true Ulmuka fashion though, he simply tilted his head and when he'd been about to speak Zurine did instead.

The room seemed to quell the issue but Muka had slipped his hand into Zurine's, squeezing it in support. He also went back to holding Amrita's hand and gave her a smile for sticking up for him. The owl boil was busy absorbing all that was being said. Without having been on the field trip. some of it was confusing, but he was attentive and interested.

Enoh Love

JetAlmeara

 

[Inu-Mitsu]

Mitsu couldn't say she wasn't overwhelmed. She was still processing the fact that hunters could be walking among them. They didn't have much information on their crumbling forms other than it was possible to spot them though they were still stealthy. At least the werewolf was reassured there were none here at the moment.

Her eyes darted to each person in turn as they spoke and then back to the horseman as they answered questions. She was trying to absorb as much as possible but really didn't have anything to add. Instead she stood quietly next to Shun, her eyes a little unfocused though her ears seemed to be doing a lot of work twitching this way and that to pick up conversation.  

[JetAlmeara]

iloveyouDIE

It was only as the room quieted down and she was no longer focused on the potential f being stabbed or attacked that Zurine noted the Owl boils hand in hers, she cast him a smile and squeezed his hand lightly in return. Newbies had to stick together. Especially if the air of suspicion displayed in this meeting leaked out into the general population of the school afterwards.

Like the owl boil she turned her attention back to the Horsemen and the questions that they were both answering and being posed, sometimes it seemed that what they said caused more questions then they answered but she tried to follow along and learn as best as she could.  

[Miliardo Kason]

For the majority of the meeting Sammy simply stood quietly listening. Ultimately it sounded like their was no good news about this meeting. The hunters had a barrier they could not pass, and doing so would drain them of power. Attacking them directly it seemed was completely out of the question.

When they spoke of actually fighting the Hunters when the chance arrived she caught Bul glancing at her along with Jericho and Riley. While she couldn't hear what the boil was thinking she could take a guess. Where Nox had told them not to fight, Horsemen encouraged it.

For a moment her eyes flickered towards Riley and she pressed a thought out towards the mindflayer as well.

Red's advice to me was to know who to take orders from, we have Nox telling us no, and the Horsemen saying yes. And though I'm all for fighting... Her thought trailed off as the topic of insanity was brought up, her left arm flexing and shifting with un-ease. We need to know more before something like this happens again.

Slowly her left arm would raise up in the crowd.

"Are we at risk the same way Red was, even without trying to use a weapon, can the hunters do the same to us using weapons alone? I already have... this, to show for it from Red..." She waved her left arm a bit where it was raised, "Can this become worse or better at all?"

Nio Love

DA PONIES

 

[revenant aria]

"You guys are really powerful so.. how did they trap you?"

Israfel's question seemed to leave a brief silence amongst horsemen, a strange emotion hung in the air. One couldn't quite identify it as shame or guilt .. Neither seemed to place the emotion appropriately but there was some sort of emotion that brought forth a reluctant withdrawal.

Aisa paused, waiting for the heirs to answer. But it seemed that their attention had brought them elsewhere, answering other student's questions or merely lying back in their shadowed caverns of insanity. Aisa's shoulders lowered, her gaze traveling across the wide-eyed students who sought that particular bit of information.

"We are far older than your meager years.. but we still have much to learn in our immature age." Aisa's hand circled around her waist, in a gesture of self-defense against the memories that Israfel served to bring up nearly effortlessly. "We provided the venom and the taint. You cannot start without the source-- A snake does not draw venom without teeth. Our brashness," the only kind of brashness that youth could provide with little effort, like what had stirred up Roch and several other students--

"-- along with our infinite capacity for fear was the venom that encircled us. Our fear could not .. It would not allow us out ."

The heirs used analogies and logic in a confusing combination.. but yet, that might be one of the only ways they were left to view their world.

Are we at risk the same way Red was, even without trying to use a weapon, can the hunters do the same to us using weapons alone? I already have... this, to show for it from Red...Can this become worse or better at all?"

Sammy's arm was promptly lifted as Aisa briskly walked over, staring at the wound. Her expression never changed in complexity, simply dropping Sammy's arm back downwards as she addressed the next question. "It's mixed with insanity. It should have healed .. but insanity wounds .. Taintful little parasites. You'll have to wait and see. Some parasites eat themselves with time .. Or it may forever be tainted. Or it may merely be gone one day."

Aisa did little to address the question yet, one had to question if one could really provide all the answers. Even the heirs did not have it all .. But nobody alive brought back all the answers. Death had brought forth a few but it was so pitifully few.

Luckily for students, Connie was there to clarify.

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Any last Q/A questions please state it now! <3 We'll be wrapping this up fairly soon so try to grab all the ic information you guys can! (As far as we horsemen can answer : D )

 

[demon_pachabel]

Invictus looked to Israfel calmly.

"They have a barrier that will not let certain FEAR levels pass through it..this accounts for either direction. We were on the island when it went up, and thus we were unable to pass through this barrier to go to the other side of it." he said calmly. It wasn't that the barrier 'stole' any energy. It was simply that it kept the strong out...or in, if they were unfortunate enough to have been there.

He then looked to Sammy.

"FEAR can push away INSANITY." he answered. "If it could not, this conversation we are having now would be..very different in nature." he was not ashamed to admit that if he was tripping balls right then the four Horsemen would probably have leveled the bathroom and tried to destroy everybody instead of gathering them there. That..would have been unpleasant, to say the least. "After time, yes. FEAR should restore your arm, just as it does all other things.

As for what happened to Red," again, there was that respectful tone the Horsemen seemed to hold for the woman, "there are too many factors we don't know about her case. Such as the length of exposure to that weapon."