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[ferriswheelsandfootball]

Who: John Sheppard
Username: Pegasus
Warnings: gun violence; blood; talk of severe injury/death; supernaturally induced violence/aggression; mention of violence to animals; spiders/spider-bites; swarms of bugs/spiders; cosmic horror; induced madness; fugue state; body horror; PTSD; disassociation; paranoia;

[John does not look well. Haunted is probably the best description of his entire...everything, or maybe it's because he's still recovering from his injuries.]

Update on the blood river situation--there's a bridge made out of spider-webs that apparently can hold your weight. The spiders get upset when you stop for any reason, so you need to make it across fast.

Me and Rodney didn't exactly make it to the mystery building across the way, though. We had to stop for the night and--

--don't do that. Whatever you do, do not stay there overnight. It--

[He seems to be struggling to describe it. Something goes vacant in his eyes and threatens to take him back to that moment and he really can't be doing that on video, so he takes a deep breath and tries to calm down.]

Whatever is--there, whatever Dogtown is, it's-- [He can't describe it. How can he describe it?] --we shouldn't be there. They were angry at us. But there's something in that building across the river, I just know it. Maybe it's the answer to all of this.

[You know that thing about the Hunt where it's a fear that can manifest as obsession with pursuing a goal, chasing after something that can never be reached, and destroying yourself and everything you know and love in the process? That's it, that's what's happening.]

Comments

video; un: cupkate

[bossyboiler]

Why... [ A pause because she can't believe what she just heard. ] Why on Earth would you do that? What's wrong with you? Have you two been checked out my medical yet?

[ferriswheelsandfootball]

Because it was too late to go back the other way. I wasn't going across the stupid spider bridge in the middle of the night, then deal with the cursed birds and gunfire from nowhere. [Did they end up having to go through all of that anyway when the stars sent them screaming into the night? Yes. Yes they did.]

Medical was outside when we...got out. They took care of us.

[bossyboiler]

Maybe you missed the big burning orb in the sky slowly sinking toward the horizon. Most people don't. Why did you stay that long? You could have been killed.

That's good. Were you hurt?

[ferriswheelsandfootball]

Most people aren't stuck in a world that's constantly under attack by Lovecraftian entities and aren't in a spot where they have a chance to discover what's really going on and maybe, just maybe, something that will lead to A, fixing the problems of this world or B, a way home. And the people that are should probably be a little more proactive about it! I'm sick of this--why can't we go on the offensive once in awhile?

Yeah, we got shot at a lot. Bitten by spiders, so that's fun. I'll be okay. [Eventually. Maybe.]

video; cw: more talk about swarms of spiders

[energyfieldgood]

The spiders get upset? You will get upset! I was very upset!

[So. VERY. Upset.

Which is why that understatement brings him to the scene even though Rodney wasn't much inclined to discuss any of this with people.]

What Mr. Downplay is trying to say is that they will swarm you like they're competing to be the next scarab extra in the Mummy series. They will crawl on you and they will get everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. So you don't need to "make it across fast", you need to not set foot on that silky nightmare hammock from hell ever unless you want to add wearing a dress from Arachnid Fashion to your trauma bingo.

[It's a lot easier to complain about the spiders than talk about the stars because he is Not talking about the stars and mind-breaking cosmic horror, thank you very much.]

cw: more talk about swarms of spiders

[ferriswheelsandfootball]

[Come on, Rodney, he's trying to sell it so that people will actually make it to the other side of the blood river. What's a few hundr...thousand spiders in the name of discovery?]

You're making it seem way worse than it really was.

[For anyone keeping score at home, it really was worse.]

As long as you go across at a...brisk pace? You'll be fine. You were the one who made the bridge sway!

cw: more talk about swarms of spiders

[energyfieldgood]

I am so not!

[It was so much worse.

He's had so many bad and traumatic experiences in his life to compare and this one is still so very, very high up there. Which is why Sheppard's recount of things is currently pushing every agitated button that he has.]

I was the-- You were the one holding out a hand crawling with spiders to me! Why don't you tell people that, huh? Why don't you tell them about your spider hand! It was all spiders!

cw: more talk about swarms of spiders

[ferriswheelsandfootball]

Enough with the spider hand! Will you get over the spider hand?!

[It’s just you seem quite fixated on this in particular.]

Sorry for trying to help you!

video; un: jelica

[musicdied]

Who is this "they" that was angry with you?

[Yeah, the rest of this is potentially useful, but that part? That part seems important.]

[ferriswheelsandfootball]

The Stars, of course.

[He says this like it's completely obvious. What, you've never encountered angry stars before?]

They were...shall we say, unfriendly.

[musicdied]

The...stars?

[She's frowning slightly, head cocked, like she's not entirely sure she's heard correctly.]

Why do you think the stars were angry?

[ferriswheelsandfootball]

I have no idea. I couldn't exactly--understand them. Maybe because we were there at night, I don't know.

[He seems to be struggling with how to describe it--and even trying is threatening to take him back to then which he cannot be--]

Just--just trust me, okay? It was really bad.

Text; un: trashmammmal

[demaelition]

Woah you look like shit
Maybe don't cross bridges made of spiders and camp in a place with a blood river?

Did you try taking like energy drinks with you? The like 6.5 hour ones? Maybe you could pound one of those and a Snail Energy drink at the same time, go all night.

[She's...helping.]

[ferriswheelsandfootball]

[This is helping so much.]

...thanks.

I'll keep that in mind.

It wasn't just being tired, I don't think I got a wink of sleep that night, it was--being there late at night that seemed the problem.

[demaelition]

[Wait...]

You mean like...like the very air around you is sucking your energy away and making your head all messed up and, like extra crazy?

[ferriswheelsandfootball]

It wasn't so much an energy thing as the entire cosmos and night sky personally came down to yell at us and then messed up our heads. I don't even remember how we got out, it was just...

[There's no word great enough to describe what happened. He stammers a little, struggling to put it into words.]

...I don't know. I'll--never know. I don't understand it.

video; un: piltoversfinest

[clavesregni]

Who are they? And do you suppose the building can be reached without needing to spend the night there, or would an overnight stay be necessary to reach it?

[ferriswheelsandfootball]

The Stars.

[What, they're totally sentient and yell at you a lot if you make them mad.]

I think you can get there much faster than we did, if you go quickly. It took us a long time because we were exploring and kept running into...hazards. There's an area of the forest that has ghost bullets that are activated by sound, and then about a quarter mile past that you need to wear earplugs because the bird song makes people aggressive.

[clavesregni]

The... stars? [The stars in the sky? Those stars?]

If this building truly holds answers, as you believe, then it ought to be investigated as soon as possible. We could gather supplies and set out within the next day or two. [She's assuming John obviously wants to go with her and obviously wants to go immediately. There's answers out there, who could resist!]

[abrightboy]

The spiders probably weren't upset. They were probably hungry. Prey causing their webs to vibrate is how they know dinner is ready.

[ferriswheelsandfootball]

[Now he is torn on whether he should relay this delightful information to Rodney or…pray he never sees it.]

That’s…

…you know, I’m actually really glad I didn’t know that when we crossed.

[abrightboy]

Never read Charlotte's Web as a kid, huh?

video; un: johnrobie

[conning]

They. [Neal is afraid to ask and also knows he needs to.] You mean the... Entities? The things we're fighting?

[The things he has a very personal interest in defeating.]

[ferriswheelsandfootball]

Yeah. Them and the Stars.

[Honestly he isn't sure that what they saw wasn't actually seeing an Entity directly, but if they were in any sense Lovecraftian it would make sense that it drove them mad upon seeing them.]

[conning]

[Neal has an inkling that he might try to spend a night in Dogtown except that would be stupid, right? That would be stupid. That would be really stupid. He shakes off the thought.]

The fact that we shouldn't be there might mean it's the place we need to go to put an end to them.