Operating Area: Conspirator's House

((Alistair lost Coffee Pot. Alistair acquired and equipped the Sign Post, average blunt weapon.))

Alistair's coffee pot gambit worked, to the delight of all. The shibito stupidly flied over to investigate it. "Heeeeeeee-eee-eeeee! I found the shitheads!" came the zombie's shrill voice. The others seemed to be ignoring him, however, and the other one who'd been following Alistair continued doing so. Still, the shibito were keeping very much in motion and scouting the area. The air filled with excited shrieking as two discovered Michael. Piling on problems, the one dressed in the shabby brown duster seemed to have found Alistair. "Holy shit, there heeee-eee-eeee!" it said in an even higher voice than the other two, beginning its slow descent.

Before Alistair had time to celebrate losing the one with the black jacket, the shades-wearing shibito was upon him. "Gotcha now, biiiiii-eee-eeeeetch!" the thing cackled, raising its bat up in a threatening way. It hadn't gotten between him and the door yet, thankfully, so he might still be able to make a break for it. Alternatively, the thing did seemingly call him a bitch, so he may want retribution. Michael saw that Alistair was temporarily holding the creature's attention, but it would be pretty shameless to just leave him with it.

As they ran into the courtyard together, Sarah and Michael took the time to look around. A nearby glint revealed a water pitcher to both of them, but would that be useful at this point? After investigating a little more, Sarah noticed some things that Michael missed: some shrubbery that they might be able to hide in, a discarded baseball bat, and a heavy iron chain that seemed to have been cut, perhaps holding a bike to a tree at some point, although it looked a little too heavy to be used for that.

The door to the house was almost within reach, if they could only get just a little further!

--------------------------------

Objective: Find a way to neutralize the Fly Shibito threat.

DIRECTIONS: All survivors are currently in the courtyard. Ahead is the door intot he lobby of the church. Behind is a steel gate, leading out to the street.

All players are together. Alistair is detected by the fly shibito with shades and the one with the brown duster. Michael is detected by the one with the shades and the one with the black jacket. Alistair is engaged with the shades-wearing shibito!

Alistair Charlie Lorcain: 10/10 Vitality
Sarah Taylor: 10/10 Vitality
Michael Barre: 10/10 Vitality
Ixbalanque: 10/10 Vitality

The 4 players detect each other and three people nearby, all identified:
Fly Shibito with shades @ church courtyard: 10/10 Vitality
Fly Shibito with brown duster @ road to the left: 10/10 Vitality
Fly Shibito with black jacket @ church courtyard: 10/10 Vitality
Sarah's plan had worked, for her at least. She made it to the yard with plenty of time to spare. Sadly her friends weren't all as lucky. A glance over her shoulder revealed to her that one of the freaks had gotten in front of the new guy.

She wasn't the closest to him, and she didn't think a fight was to be expected anyway. As a group, their goal had been to get into the Church. So her goal was to facilitate that in anyway possible. "I'm ahead, so if I can get to the door and hold it open for everyone, that should be enough."

She continued running, then, to the door. On her way by she picked up a bat she'd spotted, since she imagined it may prove useful at some point. She didn't stop as she picked it up. She continued running, close to the ground, reached out, and snatched it.

In a matter of moments she'd made it to the door. She skidded to a halt and grabbed the handle, and shoved the door open inwards. She managed to shove only one of the doors inwards, which would make it easier for her to slam it shut after the others had gotten in.

Since the door opened inwards, to close it after the others she had to head inside, so she did. Once inside, she glanced around quickly to see if there was anything of importance inside. Once she'd finished that, Sarah grabbed onto the door and began watching for her allies.

"With some luck, they should all make it in here fine," she thought. The only thing that worried her was that they wouldn't see her. Of course, she only worried about this briefly, as the others all had the same goal as her: getting into the Church.

[Grab Bat]
[Run into church]
[SPOT CHECK for important things]
"God damn it," Alistair muttered as the bug eyed loon with shades headed straight for him.

His distraction with the coffee pot had worked, much to his surprise, but it didn't do squat to help him avoid the flying teenager who had already spotted him. Another of the lunatics had moved into the church courtyard as well, this one moving toward the kid with the ax. Alistair wasn't exactly sure what he should do in a situation like this, but he didn't like any of the options he had come up with.

"Gotcha now, biiiiiiiiii-eeeee-eeeeetch," the loon said.

"Bitch?" Alistair said, slightly incredulous.

No. He was in no position to fight despite the crazy freak's insults. He had to run. He had to find a place more defensible than an open courtyard. He had to find a weapon better than a freakin' signpost.

Alistair saw the girl dash ahead of him, moving toward the church door. She opened the door and ran into the church. She looked like she was prepared the slam the door shut at any moment. Alistair just hoped that he would be inside the building when she did so.

Alistair shouldered his signpost as the bat wielding Loon came for him. He ducked low, positioning the sign so that it covered most of his back. With luck, the metal sign would act like a shield against the teenager's baseball bat. Alistair ran for the church door, head down and eyes scanning for anything that would trip him up. He desperately wanted to reach the door, and the dubious safety of the church, before the Loon caught back up to him.

[Hold signpost like a shield to protect him]
[Make sure he doesn't trip!]
[Run like hell for church door!]
Seeing that Ix had once again breezed through the moth-people things undetected, he risked a pause to look at the situation now. The boy wasted no time in deciding what he wanted to do next. While he could perfectly run away and ignoring the woes of others, he figured that it might be better to actually make everyone he could see stay as alive as possible.

And at that thought, he burst into action.

His eyes were on the new guy, who was having troubles with a flying corpse with shades. Seeing that he was already beginning his trot/run towards the church, he waited for the shibito to get into range before flinging a glass shard full force at the shades-wearing thing. The kid's aims were really to try and disable the target from giving chase, though he wouldn't be too optimistic about it, given the recent drastic changes in the environment.

Then, quick as lightning (in his opinion), he dashed towards the welcoming church doors. The silverhead did a mental headcount and inventory count, figuring if he should be looking for more things that he could use as weapons.

Naw, that could wait, he thought to himself, just focusing on his important legwork that would determine his survival right this moment.


[Attack/Throw: Glass Shard 1x]
[Get into the church]
When Michael saw one of the flying things heading straight for the new guy, he started towards the man with the intention to get the drop on the creature. That plan persisted until the man decided to use his weapon defensively and take off for the church, which the girl had just entered. As much as Michael wanted to smash one of these things with an axe after all they'd been put through, he figured it would be better to follow suit.

Before he took off, he made sure the younger boy was still en route to the church. That concern was addressed when the boy dashed past him brandishing shards of glass. Alright, time to get the hell out of here, Michael thought. Releasing his two-handed grip on the fire axe, he instead held it low in his right hand and began to sprint after the others towards the church. While he was running, he briefly considered turning his head to check on the flying things, but their vulgar cries were more than enough to keep him focused on the welcoming church door.

Hopefully the others would be generous enough to point out whether I'm about to be bashed across the head with a bat, Michael noted as he neared the door. He didn't slow down until he reached the door and charged through it, at which point he put on the brakes to avoid running into anything. On his way in he'd noticed that the girl had her hand on the door, so Michael forgot about that for the moment and glanced around, breathing heavily as he made sure everyone made it inside.

[Run for church door]
[Spot check new area]
((Sarah picked up Baseball Bat, an average, blunt weapon, and put it in the inventory))

Although he managed to escape, Alistair was not at all without injury. Cackling madly, the flying, zombie-like creature swung his bat and cracked him hard in the shoulder, moving past the sign to hit an undefended area. Pain shot through Alistair's body, but he managed to get inside as Sarah held the door open for him. Ix threw some more glass at the enemies, but it wasn't a terribly effective weapon against them.

Michael came in as well; with that, all four of the survivors were secure. While they might have been preparing to hold the door closed hard behind them, the creatures surprisingly seemed to have given up their chase and were now simply beating their bodies against the door. It reminded the group of the actions of moths, fluttering against a glass pane. They weren't ramming the door hard enough to break through it, rather, just dumbly trying to progress and then bouncing off.

OBJECTIVE CLEARED!
New objective added...

Inside the church was not nearly how they'd likely imagined it would be from the outside. It seemed some renovations had been taking place such that the area barely even resembled a church any more. The walls had a jarring, robin's egg blue paint coating them (almost fresh looking). Moreover, the chapel area seemed to have collapsed in on itself, which made it apparent that proceeding into the center of the church wasn't going to happen. The only options were heading into the bathrooms or exploring the side hallways.

As the terror subsided, Michael and Sarah made an effort to find anything of use around the room. They each spotted a wooden desk, enclosing three sides, which would be ideal for hiding under if the creatures were patrolling due to its ample crawlspace. A pair of black dress shoes was set over in the corner, along with a paint roller and a small lamp. The shoes were covered in dust, but the others looked like they may have seen recent use. A red ink pen sat on the desk, although there was no paper in sight. The two also made note of some very strange Christmas lights strung all around the floor of the area... they seemed out of season, for sure, but they were also giving off a mysterious, dull blue light.

Those assembled in the church, at the last second, sensed the presence of two figures up ahead, one in each hallway. It was impossible to tell whether or not they were hostile.

--------------------------------

Objective: Explore the church.

DIRECTIONS: All survivors are currently in the church's reception room. Two branching hallways lie ahead, one to the right and another to the left. Behind is the door leading outside of the church.

All players are together. Alistair is detected by the fly shibito with shades and the one with the brown duster. Michael is detected by all three fly shibito. Ixbalanque is detected by the fly shibito with shades and the one with the brown duster.

Alistair Charlie Lorcain: 6/10 Vitality
Sarah Taylor: 10/10 Vitality
Michael Barre: 10/10 Vitality
Ixbalanque: 10/10 Vitality

The 4 players detect each other, two unidentified figures ahead, and three identified enemies nearby:
Fly Shibito with shades @ church courtyard: 10/10 Vitality
Fly Shibito with brown duster @ church courtyard: 10/10 Vitality
Fly Shibito with black jacket @ church courtyard: 10/10 Vitality
??? @ right hallway
??? @ left hallway
Alistair stepped into the center of the room, setting his sign post onto the floor and leaning heavily against it. His back was on fire, waves of pain radiating from his injured shoulder. He had hoped to avoid the disturbing creature's attack by using the metal sign as a shield, but the bug eyed monster had managed to smash its bat against Alistair's exposed shoulder. He tested his shoulder, rotating his arm slowly in its socket. He winced at the pain, but he didn't think anything was broken.

"That was close," he muttered to no one in particular.

He glanced around the room, looking for anything that could be useful. The sign post was too heavy and unwieldy to be used as a proper weapon. It would work in a pinch and was infinitely better than the coffee pot, but he needed to find something better if he hoped to survive.

The inside of the church was not what he had expected. The reception room seemed to be freshly painted. The robin's egg blue was an odd choice and was made odder by the shadows cast by the strange lights scattered along the floor. The chapel itself had collapsed in on itself, leaving only a pair of hallways leading away from the room and what looked to be the entrance to some bathrooms.

"May as well explore a bit, eh?" Alistair asked.

He hefted his weapon onto his uninjured shoulder and attempted to move silently toward the men's restroom. As he neared the door, he leaned forward to press his ear against it. He was hesitant to enter the room unprepared and listened for signs of anyone hiding within the room.

[Look around for anything better than the sign post]
[Try to move silently toward men's bathroom]
[Listen at door]
"Tell me about it," Michael grumbled in response to Alistair as he caught his breath. He thought the man's shoulder might need some kind of tending to, but when the man in question managed to shrug it off Michael allowed himself to focus on the more important things.

The place was creepy.

Not very important at first glance, but Michael knew enough about horror to know where you were most likely to get yourself attacked. The few inconsequential things he picked up on around the current area were easily ignorable and forgettable. I mean, a pen? What am I going to do, write a diary? He scoffed and scanned the rest of the area. The paint roller was useless, though a can of paint could come in handy as a distraction. Too bad there isn't any. The lamp didn't have any apparent uses. The wooden desk wasn't screaming "helpful" to Michael, but he took note of it anyway.

The Christmas lights merited the most attention. They seemed blatantly out of place, but Michael couldn't think of a reason why they would be there. The light they were giving off made them seem harmless enough, so he dismissed them for the moment.

When Alistair made his intention to explore clear, Michael tightened his grip on the fire axe. "Right behind you," he said. "Make sure you stay nearby," he told Sarah and the boy before imitating the man's quiet stride toward the bathroom. He brandished the axe with both hands as he followed, ready to use the weapon if he had to.

[Follow Alistair with weapon ready]
[Listen at door]
After everyone had gotten in, Sarah helped the others as they closed the door, and then moved away from it the enemies outside threw themselves against it. Nerd mentioned that that had been close, and since Bomber Jacket had already agreed, she continued the trend, but only with a nod.

She looked around her new surroundings, finding them to be strange for a church. There was some fresh paint decorating the walls, and it wasn't the kind of color she would have associated with a church. She also couldn't help but notice the disrepair some of the area was in. On top of this, Christmas lights were strung up. Sarah couldn't help but wonder who would decorate a church this way, and could only hope it wasn't another one of those crazies.

She strolled around the entrance to the church a bit, and picked up on the red pen when she noticed it. She found it strange that it was the only thing there. It also occurred to her that it would be useful if she was recording her diary on paper instead of in text form.

Bomber Jacket called out to her, so she quickly turned around and headed towards the center of the room, closer to the men. She didn't feel all the comfortable following the two into the Men's room, and didn't see the need in it, so she figured she'd be just as well off hanging around somewhere that wasn't inside the men's room.

Sarah's attention was drawn to the hallways. She couldn't help but think that the boys wouldn't find any people in the bathroom. The only people in here were them and the two at the ends of the halls. She didn't understand how, but she was sure this feeling was related to her recent string of head-ache inducing visions.

Slightly curious as to how this worked, she decided to see if she couldn't induce one of those visions herself. After finishing a quick diary entry, she sat down leaning against the desk. She remembered the head-aches and didn't want to fall over or something of the sort. "Besides, now seems like a good time to give my legs a quick rest." The girl though, as she tucked her legs up to her chest. She was wondered what would happen, and hoped that it wouldn't turn her eyes red, or turn her crazy, or mean she was crazy. "But I've already had these vision things, so if I'm already crazy I'll just have to deal with it. My eyes aren't red yet, at least, either."

She closed her eyes and focused. She tried to bring back the same kind of feeling the head-ache visions had given her, and thought hard about that feeling she had that there were people down the halls.

[sit down, update diary]
[SIGHT-JACK - random ??? down random hall]
Ix observed the interiors of the church-- it obviously didn't fit into a common stereotype of what a church would look like. And were those christmas lights? Giving blue color? Huh. All blue makes it fit with the robin egg blue in a surreal way.

It's a nice color combination, actually.

Just as the boy observed the odd tapestry, he looked around once more to attempt to find anything useful. Then the man with the axe said something about staying nearby, and Ixbalanque nodded in agreement.

He saw that the girl wasn't following, however, and stalked her instead. He was entirely sure that the two big men were fine on their own, and proceeded to shuffle closer to the girl.

Ix stared at the girl with brief curiosity, still wary of his surroundings. Apparently, Sarah attempted to sightjack and stuff. "What are you doing?" he asked.

[Majority attention on surveying surroundings]
[sticks with Sarah]