If you could only see the beast you've made of me

[recurve]

WHO: Kate & YOU.
WHERE: Hotel Castillo
WHEN: Monday
WARNINGS: Decaying flesh.
SUMMARY: Kate thought she was okay at first. Then her flesh started rotting off.
FORMAT: Quick to start, tagger's choice.

[She thought she was lucky. She hadn't gone to the masked ball, and as such, she figured she might not catch whatever virus had been released onto the partygoers. She felt okay most of Sunday, just a little dizzy before she fell asleep checking out flights out of the country on her phone.

When she woke up Monday morning, however, the situation had shifted dramatically. She felt like she could barely lift her head up, lifting her arms was a trial in and of itself. It was like her muscles had all atrophied over night, and when she was finally able to drag herself off the bed and to a mirror-- one leg dragging inelegantly behind the rest of her in an oddly terrifying shuffle, she was horrified by what she saw. Her face was gaunt, greenish grey, eyes sunken in and dead looking. She looked more corpse than living and breathing woman, and when she opened her mouth to scream, all that came out was a gurgling, gasping sound.

With every ounce of her strength, she threw open the door and stumbled into the hall of the hotel, grunting at the top of her lungs. The sound is rough and strangled]

I think I'm about to die!

Comments

wednesday

[glowsferatu]

[ kanaya opens the door to their room suddenly and shambles her way through, buried under a bulky coat, one sleeve empty while the other hand's stuffed underneath. only her nose is left uncovered between her scarf, the bandages around her forehead, and the shades just below them. she moves stiffly, like her legs have forgotten how to bend and really wish she wouldn't try it. she brings an overly perfumed aroma with her, but it doesn't entirely hide the smell of the death her body's going through.

had either of them even realized she'd left? probably not. she hadn't announced her departure, or even unlocked the door to her little refuge in the bathroom to leave. portals can do that when you're too busy wallowing to care about your surroundings and be considerate of the people in them.

as she hobbles her way across the room, that's exactly where she's headed again, failing utterly to acknowledge either of her roommates. and she doesn't intend to ever come out unless made to again. ]

[recurve]

[From her bed, where she's been confined since her trip into the hallway on Monday, Kate makes a short grunt of acknowledgement to Kanaya. She's propped up, sitting against a mountain of pillows and the purplish gray hue of her skin stands out in stark contrast with the clean white pillowcases.]

Kan--?

[Her face contorts in an exaggerated, Halloween-mask-like expression. Something smells awful. Even worse than Kate already does.]

What is that smell?

[nitidus]

[Rose's mood has been a volatile one since the virus had taken hold. She has, in the last few hours, managed to realize that her mood (and the desire to tear someone apart, for that matter) is out of the ordinary. She hasn't been able to shake it, but she has mostly been able to keep her fists clenched at her side and her mouth shut.

And then Kanaya comes in.

The smell hits her immediately, and Rose is quick to offer, snidely: it's Kanaya, only to have it come out in eldritch. Her expression is not a subtle one.

Then, afterwards: what happened to you?]

[glowsferatu]

[ kanaya ends her procession and gurgles some kind of unamused noise. she sneers under her scarf, almost tempted to toss her hands up to the air in resignation, but remembers why she has her hand stuffed in her coat to begin with, and how much literal hand-tossing she might end up with.

she tries to say something snide of her own to kate, but a lot of it is lost in the scarf and the strain she has even in talking: ] Oh, yes, thank you very much for saying so. As if I weren't aware of the issue already!

[ she doesn't say anything at all to rose, she just casts a glare at her. she can't understand a word the girl is saying and can only imagine the worst in its place. ]

[recurve]

[Kate's studied a few foreign languages over the years, but eldritch isn't one of them. So after giving Rose a short, puzzled look, she rolls her eyes back toward Kanaya, in a manner not meant to convey sarcasm, though the way her skin is puckering it's hard to tell.]

Sorry, I didn't-- [The apology fades away. She isn't really in the mood for this, not when she can clearly feel the lines of discord being drawn between the other two. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it feels like, but it's making Kate uncomfortable, the way the air seems unnaturally still and cold, like there's something dangerous brewing under the surface.]

You should lie down, Kanaya. You look worse than I do. ... No offense. Rose, maybe there's some extra pillows or something.

[From her bed, she's pretty good at giving directions. Not that anyone aside from her team is likely to follow them.]

[nitidus]

[The non-communication is frustrating. Rose says: she needs medical attention, but it's absolutely futile. Afterwards, she gestures to Kanaya and then to the bathroom door. Clean up. She sort of wishes she had a pen or something.

Kanaya's tone grates against her nerves, however. It's far too haughty. It resonates and grinds against Rose's mood in the wrong way and Rose thinks: you aren't the only one having a bad day. She says it too. She might be speaking gobbledygook, but her tone of voice translates volumes.

[glowsferatu]

I don't want to lie down. [ her calves are burning, but she's afraid that she wouldn't be able to get back up if she let them rest.

she shifts her gaze back to rose, still only able to make the faintest guess at what she could be trying to indicate. ] Oh, have you been interrupted from using the bathroom due to my condition? You will have to forgive me, dearest princess, for causing you such inconvenience with my inconsiderately decomposing self!

[ absent-mindedly, she brings her own hand out to mockingly mimic the gesture, but in her case she ends up pointing the severed arm she's holding in her hand along with it. ]

[recurve]

[She yelps at the sight. The sound is more like a terrible groan, however.]

Your arm! Oh jeez!

[Kate tries to extract herself from the bed, weakly pushing at the blankets in a futile effort to offer assistance. But standing takes so much effort, she can't even muster enough energy to do so in her current state.]

Stop arguing, guys! We need a healer! Or-or a doctor! Now!

[nitidus]

[ROSE BALKS. WHAT THE FUCK KANAYA.

She also gestures widlily to her arm. She tries to mouth what did you do but it looks nothing like English, of course. If only Rose had the sense for pen and paper. If only she weren't stuck speaking nonsense.

Rose pinches her brow. She takes a deep breath and tries to make her tone calm. She points to the bathroom, she rubs her arm as though cold, trying to communicate put it on ice.]

[glowsferatu]

[ shit. she tries to stick it back under her coat, but that cat's out of the bag already. ] That isn't going to help.

[ she continues her trudge to the mini-cooler she brought, which is still empty. she'd ended up trying to drinking all the blood she brought that first night, hoping it might slow her decay. when it started leaking out of her stomach instead, well, what do you even do from there?

the ice has all melted. she is outrageously hungry. this is too small to hold her arm.

is the arm even worth keeping? if everything was working, she could just grow a new one eventually. could she get it reattached? will she last long enough for that to even matter? ]

Do we have any ice?

[recurve]

[Her attempts to zombie-crawl to Kanaya's aid are for not. Kate is just took sick to make it the several feet across the room. Instead she rests uselessly against the bed, shaking her head, which in turn rolls weakly around.]

Down the-- the hall. Oh god. Is that going to happen to me?!

[nitidus]

[Rose pinches her nose again. She hopes it doesn't happen to Kate too.

Swallowing, she gestures at her perfume again, and then at Kanaya. This is too much. She hopes Kanaya understands that the smell of rotting arm isn't a pleasant one. ]</small?

[glowsferatu]

[ kanaya has stopped paying any attention to rose whatsoever. she sighs as she tries to figure out how she can carry her cooler to the ice machine without putting the arm down. ]

I don't know. It probably depends on how dead you are already.

...I think I ran out of blood days ago, and I'm not referring to the external feeding supply.

[recurve]

This is all such a friggin' mess!

[The stench is starting to make it's way into her nostrils now. Kate blanches, fighting back the urge to gag as best she can.]

How can a person even live without blood? Vampire-troll or not, that has to be fatal! Right? Seriously, we need to put that arm on ice and we need to get to a hospital!

[Her voice has been steadily rising throughout. Clearly she is in panic mode.]

[nitidus]

[By this point, Rose's patience has run thin. She cannot be understood. Kate has gone slightly hysterical and Kanaya is getting snippy. Rose hands curls around her bottle of perfume. It's a sweet one, usually for the summer, but Rose doesn't much care for the conventions of perfume.

She says: I'm sure the hospital will sew it back on. Right after, I'm sure they'll put a bullet through her head to stop the spread of zombie infection. Her tone is sarcastic, the language is garbled.

She scrunches her nose. She shakes the perfume in the air. Can we at least do something about the smell?]

[glowsferatu]

[ yes, rose, she sees that perfume, and she responds with a snarl that says the "oh my god fuck off" she doesn't feel like vocalizing.

kate's distress was starting to get on her nerves. she's not the one who's arm broke off, why is she panicking? ] You're being ridiculous.

[ she holds the arm up to give it the first close look she's had a chance to. it had already withered to uselessness by two days ago, nothing more than a greenish-grey skin stretched across her bones. it looks even worse now, and certainly has nothing left to salvage.

the last time she lost that arm, it just grew back eventually. she never found out what happened to the old one. how was she going to dispose of this one? why had she even bothered trying to save it? ]

I don't think there's a point to doing any of that, but I don't know what I expected to do with this, either.

[recurve]

Well we can't just sit here and do nothing!

[How can either of them be calm in a time like this? Maybe freaking out isn't the smartest move, but inaction will get them nowhere.]

[nitidus]

[Rose is not calm.

Rose is far from calm. Rose is tuning Kate out, focusing on Kanaya's snarl and if this is what she gets for trying to be helpful --

In a moment of blind anger, Rose lifts her perfume bottle and launches it towards Kanaya. Snarl at this, she says. ]

[glowsferatu]

[ it hits her in the chest, and while she manages to not lose her balance, it shatters on impact, its context spilling all over. she doubles over, trying to cough at the strength of the fragrance, but the sound that comes out is some ugly distortion of anything one might consider normal for it, too dry, too hollow, too dead.

the look on her face, once she's finally come to a point where she can actually respond, betrays how calm she really isn't either. it's like a floodgate of rage and frustration has finally burst.

she winds her arm back and doesn't even think about it or probably realize what she's doing as she hurls the arm in her hand at rose. it's only visceral fury left keeping her on her feet now. ]

[recurve]

Holy--!

[Kate recoils from the flying object and arm, bracing herself against the bed. This has all taken a turn for the worst and she's not well enough to wrestle control away from both of them. All she can hope is that her big girl voice will indicate that she means business.]

Stop it! I'm not kidding around, you two!

[nitidus]

[Rose gets a chest full of dead arm!

She takes it. She LAUNCHES IT RIGHT BACK. She cannot believe she just had an arm thrown at her. GROSS AS HELL, GIRLFRIEND. WHAT A TERRIBLE GIRLFRIEND.

EX GIRLFRIEND. WHAT THE HECK. ]

[glowsferatu]

[ kanaya takes the hit like a champ. wait. chump. she takes it like a chump, losing her already weak footing entirely and stumbling backwards into the wall. her limbs are stiff, it's a struggle to get back up, and she groans as she does, fighting very hard not to let out a whine and not being wholly successful.

this isn't how things were supposed to be, she never wanted this. out of frustration she throws the arm back, but misses rose entirely, leaving it careening toward kate. ]

[recurve]

[Kate has not time to react. She would, maybe if she wasn't so gravely ill. But right now, she can't even manage to duck properly. Nope. Right now, a severed arm is flying right at her face and slapping her right in the nose.

And in cue, Kate lets out a scream that is really more like a wounded animal than a person, and in her panic, she flops over and the fingers somehow tangles in her hair.]

Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!! Get it off! Get it off me!

[nitidus]

[Rose picks it up. She has seen more gruesome things, after all, than a severed arm. She shakes it at Kanaya, screeching incoherently and with a tone that is borderline admonishing. Poor Kate, to get a face full of arm, she says. What on Earth is wrong with you?

She ends her tirade with launching the arm back at her. She aims for the ground this time and fumes.

There is little that is going to diffuse this situation, she realises. But Rose is just so angry. ]

[glowsferatu]

[ kanaya hasn't the first idea what rose just said, she only knows that it's something she should probably be mad about. and she is! ]

Well fine! That's just fucking brilliant!

[ finally dragging herself to her feet, she storms her way to the door as effectively as she can manage, which is really more of a trudge, dragging one leg behind her. it makes the fury of her exit fall a little flat, and might be almost comical if every facet of this situation wasn't awful. ]

I know you don't really want me around anyway, then perhaps I should remove the offending element! [ she throws open the door and shambles to the other side. ] PERMANENTLY!

[ and she slams the door and is gone. ]