III - Halloween Hunger

[darknpc]

Who: Charlotte, Lucifer, Leviathan and everyone
What: Halloween Hunger
When: November 8, 2014 (06:00 to 23:59)
Where: All 5 cities
Warnings: Overeating, blood, excessive biting, excessive sexual desires, obsession, violence, possible death?

Once Lucifer's network post has ended, Genessia is left silent. As he appears from one city to another, people may find their vision hampered. People may think that the entire city has darkened momentarily. But it isn't the city. In reality, it is just their eyes. And for those people who weren't affected, they'd see a black cloud covering the eyelids of those affected, before the cloud enters through their eyes.

After a few seconds, everything becomes normal again. Everyone resumes what they are doing. Nothing explodes. No one dies. Everything is safe. But is anything really safe with Lucifer in this dimension?

For those who are observant enough, they would notice that the affected individuals are incredibly hungry. They hunger for food, for water, for blood, for attention, for sexual intimacy... they hunger for those things which society dictates them to control. Their hunger knows no boundaries. People can't get enough of the good stuff. They will continue to consume even if everything in their body tells them its wrong to go any further. Nothing will stop them. They want to stop. They know they should stop. But they don't. Because for those affected, nothing is more important than feeding their hunger.

The change is gradual, but as the hours pass, their hungers increase. All control is gone. Nothing is forbidden.

Comments

[tinystitches]

It's not going to take too much longer. Stein's running on adrenalin and hunger and fear right now, his head spinning and vision going grey at the edges. He's still clawing at Spirit, still trying to claw and bite and rip through the weapon's skin.

And that "I can't" has switched to "Let me go, let me go", like repetition will change Spirit's mind.

[notsoholyspirit]

A second bite gets into his arm, and Spirit grumbles, pulling his hand away. He had wanted strength to be enough to stop this, but it seems like that won't be the case.

He ponders on this for a moment more before rolling away entirely, hopping to his feet. Force won't stop this. He's not a fan of blood loss as a contributing factor either. But...he's got enough cleaning supplies in the closet. His feet are slippery from the blood that he'd already stepped in, but he makes a dash for the closet.

Spirit is fairly sure that he has ammonia for cleaning there. Unpleasant, but it would probably work. At least for now.

[tinystitches]

Spirit's gone. Spirit lets go of him, and Stein tears the dishtowel off his arm and claws at the flayed skin again. He needs. He needs this so much. His hand is shaking, the cut from Spirit's blade stings, and he's smearing blood everywhere. But as soon as he has his fingernails in his flesh, he knows this has to be done. He needs this so much.

[notsoholyspirit]

He isn't gone for long. Not much time passes before Spirit is back, again throwing himself at his meister. His goal had been to find something--anything--with fumes that might knock Stein out. Instead, he'd knocked over a bottle of bleach, then the bathroom cleaner, and hidden in a corner in the back of the cabinet is a small medication bottle. He recognizes the name from his use of it a handful of times when Maka was small and couldn't sleep. He'd even considered offering it to Stein when he'd been so wound up before. Dipenhydramine wasn't strong but it would work and he had no other choices.

He had the presence of mind to take the extra few seconds to crush the little pills, hoping they would act faster.

"Sorry, Stein," though the phrase is more to himself. One hand is reaching for the boy's head. The other is holding the crushed medicine; Stein is continuing to repeat that he can't, and he takes the opportunity to drop the three pills into the boy's mouth. They will dissolve fast, and the instant he's sure that they have he releases the boy. He's prepared to hold Stein down more, but he almost hopes that the meister strikes out at him. It seems appropriate after all, and it would at least mean less injuries for the already battered teen.

[tinystitches]

He's clawing at his own skin, tearing new marks and it hurts and it stings and he can't focus and he can't really see much anymore and someone's grabbing at him again and Stein just lashes out. He kicks and punches and bites, but every movement is weak and sloppy.

There's something in his mouth, powder and medicine and Stein thinks doctors and the smell of padded rooms and endless questions. His breathless repetitions turn into "No, no, no" and he starts clawing at his mouth instead.

[notsoholyspirit]

Great.

"Stop! Stop it, it's benadryl, if you can't stop yourself you have to let me help you!"

At the moment, Spirit feels like the absolute worst person in the world. Stein's kicked him in the stomach as he struggles, but his focus is more on gripping the wrists of small hands as he tries to claw at his tongue.

The frustration and anxiety is starting to show; Spirit's grip is tighter than it might need to be and he forcibly pins both arms to the ground, leaning forward. He's almost in Stein's face, obscuring the child's vision of anything else, using all of his weight to hold him down.

It would take time. If he had the presence of mind to glance at the clock, he'd notice it's hardly been a minute yet. At least twenty-nine more to go, give or take.

"I'm not trying to hurt you! I'm trying to stop you. Please, Stein."

Because the begging is starting to be just a little too much.

[tinystitches]

He struggles, tries to push away from Spirit but gets nowhere. He doesn't think about his tone, but he's probably trying to sound forceful, and it's coming out desperate. He keeps repeating refusals, but there's blood coating his tongue and he feels like he's about to be sick.

Restraints, and he normally doesn't care, he normally just shrugs it off as just another thing that they do to him to try and force him into their world, but there's that brighter-than-blood red of Spirit's hair and the wide blue of Spirit's eyes and that's his weapon, that's his weapon holding him down and shoving drugs in his mouth.

The mantra changes, switches from "no" to "I need to".

[notsoholyspirit]

It's not the look of madness in Stein's eyes that gives him pause. It's the fact that this has even become necessary at all. Spirit had been told once or twice about the strange things that happened in the town; he'd been lulled into a sense of security until this moment. Stein knew--even the closest he had been to madness as a child--when enough was enough. When the situation was getting too dangerous. When to stop. But all of that was gone now and Spirit had no idea whatsoever of what else to do but wait and hope that he can get the boy appropriate medical attention before he bleeds to death on the kitchen floor because his weapon was out of ideas.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what else to try."

His reply is inappropriately rational for the situation but there it is. The weapon doesn't move from his spot, holding Stein down. "I can't let you go right now. I'm sorry."

It's only been three minutes, maybe even less. At least the tourniquet has stopped the profuse bleeding from the one arm and the pressure he has on Stein's other wrist is slowing the bleeding from his hand.

[tinystitches]

Stein goes limp. Spirit's pinning him down and Spirit's forcing drugs into his mouth, and Spirit's not letting him go, and Stein's bleeding out slowly, and Stein goes limp for a moment (hopefully Spirit will get confused and relax). Then Stein tenses and tries to throw the weapon off.

[notsoholyspirit]

Small miracles. The relief at Stein's stillness was so great that Spirit of course let go. The guilt was overwhelming and the idea that he could focus on doing the right thing, now, on fixing cuts and wounds so he could get Stein to a proper doctor.

He's completely caught unaware by the sudden strength, and Stein is successful in knocking him away. Spirit slips on the floor, fabric soaked through and offering no traction as he tries to get himself back to the meister. There's so much blood, he can't even tell if it's all Stein's and it shouldn't be, because nobody should still be able to move after that much blood loss.

Spirit turns as soon as he can, whirling back on the meister, desperately grabbing for the wrists that he's lost hold of. "Stop it!"

He'll keep saying it. If he keeps saying it, maybe eventually it will happen.

[tinystitches]

That worked, but not for long. Spirit stops him again, and Stein gives up. It's real, this time. He's dizzy, and he knows he's lost too much blood. There aren't any other options, and so he does stop. He slumps against Spirit and closes his eyes.

[notsoholyspirit]

He'll take that as the victory it will have to be. Spirit doesn't waste a lot of time; he carefully wraps up both hands so that there is at least a little bit of time if Stein were to wake up and try and hurt himself again. Then, Spirit hefts the boy piggyback style, and grabs a blanket, throwing it around both of their shoulders. It was safe to assume the average passerby might be concerned by an adult carrying around a bloody kid, not to mention it was getting cold.

All of that squared away, he leaves the apartment to get Stein to the hospital. There would be hell to pay later, of that he was at least somewhat sure--for both the events themselves and what Spirit had to do to stop the meister during them--but he had to do what he thought was best. There was no way he could handle a wound as deep as the one on Stein's arm, anyway. They needed a professional.