Play@YSDC

Louis blunders hard into the steps, cracking his shins.
He curses and slumps to the ground feeling very sorry for himself. He sits there rubbing his shins. He closes his eyes to see if it’s any brighter and then he hears the voice. Help me?
Did he just hear that?
He sits, listening hard to determine where it was coming from. It seemed different to Grams.

Gym 40 roll: 97 damage: 1. Notice stuff 80 roll: 21

Sitting on the stairs, grimacing at the pain in his legs, gingerly touching his scratches and feeling the tacky, wet sensation of blood, Louis tries to focus on the noise, on the voice? There it is again. Whimpering interspersed with something high pitched, whiny, like a small child but very, very quiet, like a whisper, the sounds clumsy, drawn out, as if speaking is difficult. 'Heeelp me. Maaamaaa hurt me.'

Louis can't localise the sound. But it's close. Inside the room. Closer than that. Nearby. He feels like if he reached out his hand he could touch the source, if he could just tell from which direction it was coming.

There's a noise, coming from up the stairs, or at least where he thinks the entrance to the kitchen is. 'Louis!'

Louis disregards the call, he’s too intent on the faint noise.He’s always been a sucker for rescuing small animals in distress, much to the disgust of his older brother. This was just another one.
“Hello? Small child, where are you?”

Louis feels something press against his hand, slightly wet. There's the slightest of snuffling sounds. He instinctively stretches out his fingers and connects with something soft, like fur.

Louis strokes the wet fur tentatively,
“Here, little one, don’t be afraid. We’ll find our way out somehow.” He tries to feel what animal it might be.

His hands strokes the creature. It's furry, a bit damp, he runs his hand down it's bony spine. It seems to be about the size of a shoe, with a long smooth, hairless tail. Very cautiously he feels the head, the nose is short and cold, the face is bald, the mouth flat - it nibbles gently at his finger, not hurting, just softly grazing the skin with small, sharp teeth, interspersed with licks from a wet, smooth tongue.

It' weird, the little creature is too big to be a mouse, too small for a cat, it most resembles a rat, the size, the tail. But the head, it doesn't fit, the ears don't have the soft felt-like consistency of rat ears, they're hairless and rigid, a bit pointed. The muzzle is too short for a rat. The face, it could be a really small cat but it's bald, the tongue's too soft. The best impression Louis can construct just from touch, without any visual information, it's basically a rat, but with a face like...like a monkey or a tiny human face. A tiny human face.

'Niiice.'

OOC:   That's a SAN roll 0/1d3

Louis strokes the animal. He’s pretty good on small animals, having hunted, rescued, ate, most of the local fauna. This one is new. And it doesn’t fit with anything. A cold trickle of creeping fear runs down Louis’ back.
“Ur, shall we go upstairs now?” He says, trying to stay calm while feeling for the bottom step.
“We might find some food in the kitchen, would you like that?”

Nature 60 roll: 36 San 62 roll: 6

The creature nuzzles into Louis's hand and curls up, it's making a contented noise, somewhere between squeaking and purring. He places his foot on the bottom step, pivoting on the ball of his foot to locate the surface, and ensuring it is stable. He starts to climb the stairs, slowly, cautiously. The creature just sits in his hand and he uses the other to steady himself.

About halfway up the stairs the dull, barely perceptible square of grey that indicates the door to the basement lightens. A faint orange, flickering glow. Louis feels the creature squirm in his hand and he looks down. For a second he can make out the little creature. It has the general body shape of a rat, as he had deduced from stroking its fur, but the head, it's squat and monkey-like, the nose, the eyes, the curve of the mouth are all too human.

Before he can fully process what he's seen the creature leaps out of his hand and scuttles back down the stairs.

That's a Sanity check, 1/1d3 loss for seeing a disturbing rat-human hybrid thing. Loss is less than it might have been as he'd already partly figured out there was something not right about it.

sanity 62 roll: 23 lose 1

Louis’ eyes widen in disbelief at the sight of the rat-man-thing, and when it scuttles off he’s not sorry to see it go.
“Man, was that for real?” He mutters but the dim light above draws him on and it’s with relief that he enters the kitchen. He stops and listens, he heart beating, wondering where the others have got to.

He's not sure how, but by the time he makes it up the stairs into the kitchen that vague orange glow has gone. The room is in almost complete darkness again except for what little moonlight filters between the shutters and boards over the window, occasional white light peaking between the storm clouds before it is swallowed up again in the lashing rain.

“Hey guys?” His voice cracks, he’s been quiet for long. He tries again, louder. Wondering if it was the others who had made the orange glow.
“Darren? Shirley? Anyone?” Louis calls, he hears the bumping and, with his hands out in front of him, feels his way to the hallway.

Notice stuff: 80, roll:77

Bumbling out of the kitchen into the hallway, Louis sees Darren, holding Ian's hand, Kyle, and Harry all standing around the front door. It is wide open, silhouetted by a flash of lightning, a figure stands on the porch, one hand gripping the collar of a struggling Roger, hanging limply, his cheek swollen with a nasty welt.

Louis recognises the figure as Ace Simmons, Roger's big brother.

Louis is moving here.