Workout [Open log]

[not_good_not_wicked]

Who: Marisa Kirisame, Ryou Bakura, anyone else who goes to the Gym
What: General interactions (open), creepy Vermini encounter (closed)
Where: Bob's Lift to Win Gym
When: Late enough that it's dark out
Warning: Sweat. Bugs.

Marisa emerged from the women's locker room in her street clothes, feeling tired, sore, and healthy. Ever since she had realized that this whole numbers business was potentially seriously dangerous, she had been coming here twice a week to take a self-defense class. She liked to imagine that she was a bit more capable now than she had been a few months ago, but realistically still placed her own skill level at Rank Amateur.

She stopped as she was walking by the snack bar by the exit, lured by the thought of smoothies. After a moment's thought, she decided that the grilled cheese sandwich she'd made for dinner wasn't cutting it, and stopped to get a snack. Nothing like a delicious apple/peach smoothie after a long workout on a hot night. She leaned back in one of the leather chairs by the snack bar and took her time enjoying it. Anyone from the network who goes to the gym can probably recognize her.

[Later, closed]

Marisa finally left the building and immediately noticed that the sun had finished going down while she had been drinking her smoothie, and that the lights in the parking lot were on the fritz, leaving it almost pitch black out. Combined with the total lack of people around for the moment, she was more than a little bit creeped out.

Fortunately her truck wasn't far. She could make out its silhouette from here.

Comments

[shiromadoushi]

He paused, looking up, lock in hand before jangling his keys around to the small flashlight on the chain, aiming the thin beam of light at her feet.

[not_good_not_wicked]

Mirroring the flashlight, Marisa slowly looked down. The ground was covered in about an inch of squirming black cockroaches, all skittering over her feet and across the parking lot in the same direction.

She gave a painfully loud scream and actually leaped off the ground and onto the hood of her truck, frantically beating at her own feet.

[shiromadoushi]

"Holy--" Bakura stared, eyes huge as he backed away. "Never seen so many... Gah!" He quickly got onto his bike, starting to circle around the truck, making a line of squished bugs where his tires had been. "The hell is going on?!"

[not_good_not_wicked]

"What the shit!? What the fuck is that!? Oh god they were crawling on me! What the fuck!"

The quiet chittering that was noticeable when you knew to look for it, was already starting to fade as the bugs ran off on their own inscrutable business. Also, oddly, Bakura's tires were leaving behind occasional little puffs of steam.

[shiromadoushi]

The chittering, he noticed first, the steam mostly bugging the edge of his vision. It was hard to see much of anything in the low light, especially after being in such a brightly lit gym.

"Shut up a second, listen," he ordered, frown deepening as he continued to slowly circle. "The fuck is that noise?"

[not_good_not_wicked]

Marisa forced herself to stop yelling and tried to listen, though she had trouble hearing over her own heartbeat and breathing. That had scared her more than she would have guessed it would.

"...the roaches? I didn't think they made any noise."

[shiromadoushi]

"They normally don't..." Bakura scowled. He shined his light on his front tire, watching as he ran over another bug.

... "Fucking little... Did you see that? That puff of steam? Those little..!"

He all but threw down his bike, starting to stomp in earnest. "Get in your truck! Run over as many of those little fuckers as you can before they get away!"

[not_good_not_wicked]

Marisa blinked.

"What? Why?"

She was scrambling off the hood, at least.

[shiromadoushi]

"They aren't normal cockroaches! They're like those damned Grue!"

Stomp stomp stomp squish. Like an angry kaiju flattening the screaming masses at his feet...

Remember that conversation got OOCly deleted

[not_good_not_wicked]

"The heck's a grue?"

Yep, I remember!

[shiromadoushi]

"The things from-- Fuck, you're a newbie, I friggin-- just squish em! Explanations later!"

Re: Yep, I remember!

[not_good_not_wicked]

"Whatever."

She slid into her truck and started it up.

Or tried to. The damn engine sometimes took a few tries to start up. "Come ooooooon, I'll change the oil tomorrow, I promise!"

Nothing.

"I'll take you to a car wash!"

Nothing.

"I'll get you waxed!"

The engine roared to life, finally. She muttered "This isn't a healthy relationship, you know." as she swerved out into the lot, leaving a smear of steam and bug guts behind her. Not as much as could be. As suddenly as they had appeared, the roaches were vanishing into the night.

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura jumped back the second the truck sputtered to life, grabbing his bike and pedaling the heck out of the way, watching the carnage from a safe distance and stomping any stray bug that scuttled his way.

[not_good_not_wicked]

The truth was most of the roaches had gotten away, but there was still a whole lot of dead bugs in the parking lot. Marisa stopped her truck, leaned her forehead against the steering wheel and waited for her heart to slow down.

After a minute she stepped out and looked over the trail of carnage she had left. "Okay I'll bite."

She looked up at Bakura. "What the heck was that?"

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura spent a that moment trying to get the guts off the bottom of his sneakers. Ew. As she spoke, he looked and headed over.

"Long story short, before you got here, there were these weird shadowy thingis I called Grue that would possess stuff like birds and cats and give them hands and teeth and crap like that. Pretty sure they're the same as those damned bats were and connected to the Gardners."

[not_good_not_wicked]

She shuddered slightly, remembering the feeling of bugs on her legs, but sounded more irritated than anything when she spoke, "Wish I knew who was behind all this so I could give them a piece of my mind."

[shiromadoushi]

"If that forum's still up, I'd say have at it, but pretty sure it's gone. Bunch of people already made idiots of themselves anyway on it and putting yourself out there to be personally stalked by these things is damned stupid," Bakura countered.

[not_good_not_wicked]

"Yeah it's a bit of a pipe dream, I know."

She looked down at the mess on the ground distastefully. "Well, at least they didn't seem to be interested in us. I'm going to go home and try to forget this happened for the night."

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura nodded, rolling his shoulders to release the build up tension and aggravation in them. "Sounds like a good idea."

He paused. "Hey. You play any MMOs?"

[not_good_not_wicked]

She had played on pirate servers for obscure Korean games.

"I dabbled for a little while. Why?"

[shiromadoushi]

"Wanna go trolling on a free-to-play server when you get home?"

One of the more fun ways to relax. Make a new character, run around like an idiot abusing emotes and being a Leroy.

[not_good_not_wicked]

Marisa preferred action games to RPGs, though RPGs do a better job at satisfying her packrat instincts.

Still, distractions sounded lovely right now.

"Sure. I've got Ragnarok Online and a trial key for Galaxy of Fantasy."

[shiromadoushi]

"Awesome, keys for Galaxy are stupid easy to find, we can set up camp and go nuts! When I get home and get it installed, I'll text you which server to meet up on. Sound good?"

[not_good_not_wicked]

"Done and done."

This time, now that time wasn't an issue, the truck started on the first try. Marisa waved out the window as she pulled away.