raisetheearth | Shepherd's Haven Event: Devil's Night

Who: Damon the doppelganger and OPEN TO ANY IN SHEPHERD'S HAVEN
What: Devil has an announcement to make in the form of arson and violence. Aforementioned player plot shenanigans.
Where: Shepherd's Haven
When: Forward dated to the night of October 30th, and probably into the morning of the 31st. Devil's night, in other words.
Status: Open with some closed-ish subthreads!
Warnings: Arson and violence?

No night had ever been so aptly named.

Shepherd's Haven wasn't anywhere near Michigan, but that didn't mean the festivities of Devil's Night couldn't be spread to far and wide locales. It was the perfect night, in fact, for the creature known as a demon to remind the sleepy little haven of precisely why it was unwise to prod the beast. Perhaps the one who called him there had forgotten, or perhaps he simply thought the devil had more bark than bite.

Oh, how wrong he was.

It began with fire. Several fires, to be precise. Small at first but fed with whatever accelerant Damon could find on hand. Fuel left unguarded, dry hay or straw. Did you know compost burns very well? It does, oh how it burns. And each fire set at different locations across the town, so quickly and so close to simultaneous one might almost think that they were set by several people at once.

Or one that could move very, very quickly.

The cherry on top was a door with a fading red "X" painted on it, ripped from its hinges and set ablaze, then left on the steps in front of the town hall.

[[OOC: Leaving this fairly open for anyone to react to and have their own threads/etc. of what's happening. Separate threads will go up for some more planned stages of the event, but if anyone wants to be unfortunate enough to run across Damon while he pursues his arsonist rampage through SH go ahead and put up a toplevel and just toss in the comment header that you want me.

Have fun dealing with those fires and rampaging demon, guys!]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's been suggested. He bites his tongue on the waspish reply, thinking it through, realizing that he has a chance at getting there and it requires, shamefully, a little bit of deception.

"All right," he says, sounding reluctant and starting to pull her toward the storm shelter. "You win. Come on, we'll both hide."

Misa stops short for a moment, seemingly dumbfounded to have actually gotten her way. But she bites back the 'really?' on the tip of her tongue and hurries along beside him, not wanting to give him any chance to reconsider.

"Right- there's nothing we could do, we should leave this to the people that can fight," she repeats. Hiding is the logical choice of action. Lazarus must see that. Nathan is already there, and he's the only person she can think of that they have to worry about immediately. Anyone else living nearby should have someone to protect them; someone that Misa hopes will come and deal with the situation, and soon.

He surges toward the shelter, strides long and grasp on her wrist as firm as his own damaged one will allow.

"Yes," he answers, just present enough to make it sound genuine. "Yes, that's right, of course..."

The shelter's in sight. He kneels, pulling open the door and pushing Misa in ahead of him before following after her.

"Sit down," he requests, but it sounds more like an order as he begins poking around the supplies for something specific.

Something is off. It isn't something Misa can put words to or even a fully formed suspicion, but something is off. Even so, she can't bring herself to question it when Lazarus is suddenly being so agreeable.

Misa stumbles into the shelter, anxiety settling a little when he follows her in. Maybe she's overthinking things. Nathan gets a quick nod of acknowledgement; she hopes he won't question her attire. She had a very different night planned, and has no desire at all to explain the details to him.

The sudden order to sit down catches Misa off guard, but there is something so commanding in Lazarus's voice that she obeys without thinking.

"We should be safe in here, right?" she asks uncertainly, eyeing the door as she takes a seat. "You locked it, right?"

"I locked it," he answers, hands falling on a thick, heavy roll of duct tape. "And yes, we should be very safe. It's hard to see from outside. Tony's doppelganger won't think to look for us here. He'll probably think that we made it to the teleporter and escaped that way."

It's automatic speech, there for the sake of distraction as he pulls at the tape, gets an arm's length of tape. Once it's anchored somewhere, he can hold it by the roll and unwind more as needed, and he will need more.

He doesn't think about what he's going to do. Just shoots a meaningful look at Nathan, don't interfere or question this, before he approaches Misa as if to embrace her... and starts quickly, firmly and very decisively taping her to the chair, holding her in place with his weight and his hands if she struggles or protests.

Misa hangs onto his every word, attempting to wring comfort out of them like water from a stone. The words themselves are logical enough, but Lazarus sounds as if he is speaking from another time and space entirely. It goes beyond his usual monotone, adding to the uneasy feeling she already had. Misa watches him fetch the duct tape, completely and utterly oblivious to what it is to be used for but curious enough to keep watching as he unrolls it.

Her eyes follow Lazarus's, giving Nathan a confused look for a moment, before returning ahead. It looks like he's going to hug her. She begins to lift her arms to reciprocate, only to suddenly have one pinned to the chair and- is he...? She can't even finish the thought, it's so bizarre. Her boyfriend appears to be duct taping her to a chair.

Several long moments pass before Misa gets over her shock enough to struggle and demand, "What the hell are you doing??"

Lazarus is shamefully good at this, he realizes. It's like ensnaring a helpless bug in a web the way Misa trusts him, even reaches back for him when he starts to bind her. He thinks his heart is breaking a little bit when realization dawns, and it's even worse that Nathan is also watching.

No, let him see. Sometimes what has to be done isn't pleasant. Sometimes it's even cruel.

He tightens the tape, wraps it with a steady hand. The initial wrap was firm enough that he doesn't have to worry about those initial attempts freeing her, and he wraps it around again several more times just to ensure that she's secure.

"I'm sorry," he says, and it at least sounds sincere. "Truly, I am, but I don't want you to get hurt. I have to do this."

"Lazarus!"

Every syllable is pure fury. The blind trust she had has been shattered into a million pieces and the rage in her eyes makes it clear that trust won't be mended any time soon. Misa jerks against her bindings, opening her mouth to continue screaming, when her eyes gain a faraway look. She goes lax against the chair, and remains that way for several seconds.

Then she snaps back to her current life, as angry as ever.

"Let me go NOW!"

Any other night, Lazarus would balk at that fury. The razor-sharp sounds would cut right through his thin frame and leave him hurting and apologizing, but tonight, he thinks he's right. His gut is telling him that if he doesn't do this, she won't let him leave and fix things, and he has to leave and fix things.

The only thing that makes him hesitate is when she slumps in her chair, and he feels a pang of dread. An aneurysm, did she finally pop a blood vessel screaming at something...?

...no, it's just an echo, and one that seems to throw fuel on an already angry fire. He winces, but finishes binding her, doing the best job he can under the constraints of time and stress.

"Please keep her quiet," he beseeches Nathan softly, not having the heart to tape her mouth shut, mumbling that he'll be back and hurriedly leaving the shelter without another word or look.

Shepherd's Haven Event: Devil's Night

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject