Episode 1 - What hath night to do with sleep?

[Mephistophilis]

Darren tears off after Charlie, following the brief flashes of movement he glimpses through the mist. Slipping on wet grass, tramping across gravel paths, and eventually sliding down an earth bank. Through the fog the shimmering surface of a body of inky black water appears. In front of it stands Charlie, he turns and looks at Darren.

Charlie doesn't know where he's run to, too distracted by trying to get away from the creature, but Darren is pretty certain they came north-west from the Merry-Go-Round, up to where he remembers there being a boating lake marked on the map.

But while Darren catches his breath, waving to Charlie down by the water. Charlie can see something in the mist beyond Darren. Something moving. Hard to fully resolve, its ill-defined bulky grey shape jerking and twisting in the fog. Loping towards them.

There's a sound, in the distance, further west still. Like voices. It's difficult to make out, but it sounds like shouting. Maybe a child and an adult. 'Don't turn away...'

[BoyBlunder78]

Darren looks up, momentarily distracted by what he assumes are voices. He reaches down to grab Charlie, "This way! Come on! and pulls him I the direction of the sound. " There's someone else here, maybe they can help!! HELP! HELP! OVER HERE! He shouts urgently.

[Philulhu]

Notice Stuff (60) 1d100

”Behind you!” Charlie hissed, grabbing ahold of Darren. ”There’s something coming through the fog!”

[Mephistophilis]

Darren feels something barge past him, pushing against him, exerting an odd force that is disconcertingly yielding, yet firm enough to push him out of the way in a trail of choking smoke. Rushing past him a blurred, grey mass.

Charlie watches it sprint past Darren and charge directly at him. Misshapen hands extend towards him, grasping with distorted fingers at his neck.

OOC:   Charlie needs to roll to Fight Back or Dodge. Darren can act but the creature will get to attack Charlie first.

Fighting brawl (grap) 50%: 1d100 28

[Philulhu]

It occurred to Charlie that if he dodged out of the way at the last minute, whatever the hell that thing was, it was going to find itself in the lake! He readied himself to jump…

Dodge (40) 1d100

Ffs!

[BoyBlunder78]

Darren looks on in horror as the grey figure reaches for Charlie he charges forward, swinging his baseball bat at the form crying out, "NOOOO!! IAN!!"

[Mephistophilis]

Timing his jump just a second too late, the creature slams into Charlie and grabs him around the neck with cold, stubby hands. He lets out a scream as it presses its featureless face up against his, blocking most of his vision with a wall of grey. A damp, wet smell suffuses his mouth and nose, choking him. Releasing the firm but also oddly soft grip around his neck with one hand it brushes his face and he feels clammy fingers probing inside his mouth, pressing against his palate and sliding to the top of his throat. The taste is wet and bitter but there's more than just the physical sensation - he feels a sort of pressure in his face, like something hard is pushing against...his brain...

Out of the corner of his vision he sees the shape of Darren making a wild swing for the creature that barely seems to connect.

OOC:   That'd be a Fighting (40%) roll for Darren, so a fail. Charlie needs to roll an opposed POW roll - he has surprisingly high POW but he's going to need to make it a damn good one!

POW 55%: 1d100 3

[Philulhu]

POW (75) 1d100

Regular success

Charlie squirmed against the creature’s grasp but he couldn’t break free and panic welled up inside him as he felt his brain start to go numb…

[BoyBlunder78]

Seeing Charlie struggling in the clutches of the thing, Darren desperately swings his bat again.

OOC:   can you spend luck on an attack roll? Would a regular success help?

[Mephistophilis]

The pressure at the front of Charlie's face - in his sinuses, his teeth, his jaw - it builds and builds, becoming more like a pain. It reaches a crescendo - an exquisite agony that Charlie's doesn't think he can stand any longer...then it's gone. A release.

-----

Pulling back his bat to take another swing, Darren watches Charlie struggling with the creature, its hands are clawing at Charlie's face and neck, he's frozen in a silent scream. Suddenly the creature seems to dive into Charlie's mouth, like smoke being sucked into a
ventilation system. The great bulky form squeezing into the restricted space of his mouth, slipping inside him and disappearing.

-----

In his mouth and throat, Charlie feels a rush of air, or smoke. Cool and wet, buffeting inside him. A cold that burns deeper into a sharp icy throbbing then seems to suffuse out through his body. For a second his head is throbbing again but then he feels confused and disorientated.

You struggle to keep hold of your thoughts. Pictures, images, thoughts, they rush through your mind. Relentlessly, like they're been forced into your head from outside, but you can't resist them. The images flash before you, emotions well up. And you recognise them, remember them. These are memories.

You're lying slumped on the couch, it's dark outside and the lights are down low. You look down at the needle sticking out of your arm. That familiar blissful calm as you inject the bubbling brown liquid - it spreads through your body, relaxing you all over. In the corner of the room you see Barry and the kid. He's shouting at her, he's got a belt in his hand and he's hitting her with it - over, and over. Screaming at her but you can't hear what he's saying.

I should stop him, you think. Poor kid, she's so young, she shouldn't have to go through this again. You try and stand up but you feel too weak. Barry, stop! Leave the kid alone... But it's so quiet. Neither of them hear you. And you don't do anything else, you just sit there and let the drugs wash over you. The shame, oh the burning shame. And the motherly concern. But the numbness is everywhere now, anaesthetising your body and your mind. Emotions, fears, they're just drifting away...

OOC:   That's a 1/1d8 SAN loss.

-----

Before Darren's blow can even strike the creature, it's gone. There's just Charlie standing there with a look of shock on his face - hands outstretched, grasping in the air for something that's not there. Little whisps of mist or smoke curling from the corners of his mouth.

He blinks a few times, his expression changes. It's weird, it doesn't even look like him. There's a hardness to it. His eyes are unfocused. His posture slumped. There's briefly a look of concern, of distress and he whispers in a strange, high-pitched voice like that of a woman, 'Barry, stop! Leave the kid alone...' Then he goes silent and his expression changes to one of dopey contentment.

-----

Charlie shakes his head. His awareness of the mist around him, of Darren looking at him incredulously, it's starting to come back. He doesn't know what that was but the memories are still with him. They can't be mine. But he can't really distinguish them from any of his other memories. They seem so real!

-----

OOC:   You can spend Luck on attacks - but not this time - there's nothing to hit

Merging with the remnant - 1d4 consequences: 1d4 3

[BoyBlunder78]

"What the....?" Darren mutters under his breath at what he's just seen. He runs up to Charlie and grabs him looking I to his eyes "Are you ok Charlie? whose Barry?"

[Philulhu]

SAN (74) 1d100

That’s a one point loss.

”Barry was… was… …” Charlie started to say before the memories overwhelmed him and he leant forward and vomited, an acrid, liquid stream that spattered his sneakers. He stood there for a moment or two, bent over with his hands on his knees, twin strings of saliva and snot reaching for the ground…

He hawked and spat, staggering back from mess and grabbing ahold of Darren so he didn’t fall. ”I was there! I remember being there! There was a kid - a girl - and Barry was hitting her with his bell and really screaming at her!”

”I don’t know who he is, or even who I was! I was… I was… …” Charlie had never even seen drugs before so just didn’t have the words to properly describe it. He took a deep breath and tried again, ”I was in someone else’s body - a woman - and I’d taken drugs. I’d got a syringe and a needle in my arm. I think the girl was mine, my daughter, I mean. I don’t know who Barry is or why he was hitting her… …”

[BoyBlunder78]

Trying to steady Charlie, Darren listens to what the boy says, shaking his head when finishes. " Christ Charlie thats effed up!
Where did that thing go? One minute it was there grabbing you then....?:

[Philulhu]

Charlie opened his mouth to speak but found that he couldn’t bring himself to.

He just tapped on his breastbone, looking glum, indicating that whatever it was, it was inside him… …

[BoyBlunder78]

" What are you saying? Its inside you? How? How do you feel? Can you feel it?" Darren asks as he cautiously takes a step back.

[Mephistophilis]

OOC:   Charlie, you don't feel any different - just...those memories are there. Like they've always been there. Just like all your other memories, even the bad ones...But these memories don't make any sense. You're pretty sure you're not a woman and you haven't got any kids, you're a 12yr old boy! These memories don't fit in with everything else in your life you remember. It's like they're someone else's memories, someone else's horrible, traumatic memories...and now they're stuck in your head.

[Philulhu]

”I felt it go in, but I can’t feel it now. I… I don’t really know how to explain it,” said Charlie. ”And that memory in there,” - he tapped the side of his head - ”I can remember it like I remember the first day I moved here, except it happened to some woman, not me. Somehow, I’ve got her memory!”

He shuddered and looked around. ”Let’s get out of here.”

[BoyBlunder78]

"Thats weird, sure your ok?" Darren says, concern in his voice. " I thought I heard voices coming from over there, just before smoggy grabbed you."

[Philulhu]

Charlie looked down, running his hands over his chest. ”Yeah, I think so. Look, let’s get out of here - this is just too creepy for words!”

[BoyBlunder78]

Shining his torch in the direction he thought he heard the voices, Darren cautiously lead the way.