revivalproject | Out from ruins once possessed

Steve laughs, shaking his head. "Too many, man. Too many." In reality it might have been somewhere around twelve, maybe. He's not about to slut shame himself but still, it's a lot for just a couple of years. Gosh, almost like he was looking for some sort of love and affection wherever he could find it.

Weird.

The smell that Eddie catches hits Steve's nose too. Like ozone almost but rotten. He makes a face but follows along behind Eddie until this small, strange animal jumps into his face.

"AUGH! What th- Jesus Christ, what is that thing?!" It looked like an armless kangaroo with a trunk. Steve tries to inch around it before another bounces into him and all but knocks him into Eddie as he tries to escape. "Seriously. What the fuck is that thing?"

Eddie tries to chuckle in a congratulatory way, like he's appreciating Harrington's game and not...weirdly jealous in a way he doesn't want to address right not.

"Whazzit-" He spins round at Steve's shout, looking ready to smack the attacker with his device when Steve practically collides with him. Holding the other boy steady, Eddie looks down at the weird little fuckers, and tries to shoo them away with his foot. It doesn't move and Eddie looks momentarily horrified as his foot collides with it, though a moment later and it's back up on it's feet and hopping back towards them.

"I don't know- is it okay?? What's wrong with it??"

"I don't know!" Steve is holding onto Eddie as much as he's holding onto him and it might be embarrassing if he wasn't so freaked out. "How is that thing uglier than the demogorgon shit? God..."

He reaches for Eddie's wrist and tugs on it to get away. The thing is bouncing and following behind them and Steve moves a little faster, desperate to get away from its hideous, floppy ears.

"C'mon! I don't know what that thing is but I don't want to find out that it's got like...a stinger or spits acid."

"Why's it look like that??" Eddie presses, letting himself be dragged away, the pair of them only hyping each other's reactions. Their quick movements startle more of them from the foliage, leaping higher than something their size had any right too, Eddie nearly tripping over himself to push Steve to go faster as a few of them collided with him in error. "Jesus- Christ- fuck off," he tries to scare them away with a raised voice, but it doesn't seem to bother them much at all.

In their hurry they rush right past one of the warning signs imploring them to keep out of this area.

"How the fuck would I know?! And why are they able to jump so hi- AUGGGGH!" One hit him right in the face as he turned around to make sure Eddie was close. There was no fur on them. Just gross, fleshy skin. It was all the fucking grossness of the Upside Down animals but without the deadly parts of them. And the fucking trunk. Steve watched as one wrapped its nose around his sneaker's laces and kicked it away in horror. It just bounced like a hideous ball.

"Now I know why he wanted you to do this. Come on." He yanks Eddie again and pulls him the rest of the way without looking back once.

"Fucking aliens..."

"It's like an old man's balls," Eddie narrates colourfully, making a face. They didn't seem to be trying to eat them like the demobats, but that still didn't make the fuckers appealing.

He half stumbles as he's yanked, hurrying after Steve without protest. "I am really over weird animal swarms," he pants by the time they've managed to get away from the worst of it. Let's get this shit over with. You wanna take notes or take pictures?"

Steve can't help but laugh at that. "Seriously, you just attract them in droves, huh? Remind me never to run the bulls with you."

Steve pulls out his tablet and wrestles a bit with the different applications on it. "I think you'll probably be better with the words than me so I'll take the pictures, I guess." His tablet makes a snap and a picture of his own face is saved. Steve frowns for a second before fiddling a little more and pushing it away.

"Okay. Yep. That's how it works, just like I thought. Got it."

"Apparently!" He gives an exasperated laugh of his own.

He looks through the bag Wesker packed while Steve tries to figure out the camera, pulling out the notebook, missing most of Steve's fumbling, though he still notes with a fond smile- "Don't fuck this up or we have to come back out here."

He looks around. Organic. It's basically all organic, right?
"Okay, uh...how about this...leaf?" It's an entirely unremarkable looking leaf.

Steve looks at the leaf and then looks at Eddie. With a deadpan expression, he takes a picture of the plain old leaf and saves it. "Yeah. That's a good one. Keep finding winners like that, Munson."

He rolls his eyes and moves deeper into the area. The smell is deeper now. Stale and moldy. Steve takes a few pictures of the plants growing over walls and reclaiming the space. Nothing looks all that odd though. Just a normal abandoned area with plants. "He didn't give us any clue about what to look for?"

Steve frowns as he trips on something and has no idea what it was. If this was the Upside Down he'd be dead. Gotta pay attention.

"Maybe if we go in a little further? It's gotta be something more than leaves and moss..."

"Shut up," he mutters, collecting the leaf after he jots down some notes. He does the same for each of the ones Steve finds as well.

"He said- 'samples of as many organic materials in and around the building as possible'" he paraphrases, reaching a hand out reflexively to help steady Steve, his heart in his chest for a second. But it's fine. They're not in the Upside Down. There's some weird alien creatures and really strange smell, but no weird vines. Nothing that going to try and kill them. You know...hopefully.

"Yeah, I guess. Maybe there's something more interesting inside."

His hand connects with Eddie's as he regains his Steve figures it can't hurt and walks deeper into the area. The smell gets a little mustier and the stupid animal things that are still milling around get a little thinner, thank God. Steve slows down so he can walk next to Eddie. The nail bat resting on his back is a comforting weight even if he doesn't think he'll need to use it anytime soon.

About five minutes in, he shakes his head, frowning.

"Ugh. I didn't drink enough today. I'm getting a headache. Either that or maybe it's gonna rain again..."

"You okay?" Eddie slows to a stop to give Steve a once over, frowning faintly, patting down his bag despite knowing he didn't think ahead enough to bring any water.

"You wanna take a break?" It's not like there's a hard time limit on this or anything.

"Nah, I'm fine." He is. This is like a 1 on the Steve-Headache Scale. Unless they get to the high sixes or a 1 on the Steve-Migraine Scale, he was good to go. "When your head gets knocked around a bit you start getting fun symptoms. Headaches and migraines are just part of it. I've learned to work around them."

Steve keeps walking, moving in front of Eddie as he sees something that looks a little different. Like a flower, almost. He goes to take a picture of it and waves Eddie over.

"C'mon. Look at this. It's definitely organic something..."

It doesn't do much to make Eddie's frown fade, still concerned. He make a mental note to secure some pain killers for Harrington, and make sure he carries some with him in future. That and water.

"...K, just, let me know if anything changes."

Oh, that's kind of pretty actual. Eddie approaches with a curious smile, scribbling down a few notes and stepping down to collect a sample (as well as get a closer look), when he finds himself being accosted by apparently very angry vines. "OW, Jesus- fuck-" He stumbles away, but more vines spring to life, smacking him like he's personally offended them by existing.

"Wha-"

Steve's mind immediately goes to the Upside Down. It's such a sudden and visceral reminder of that time that, for a second, he's frozen. The vines are whipping around Eddie, going for him like they had for Robin and everyone else they wanted to kill, down in that hellscape. But this isn't the Upside Down. And Steve isn't going to just let the vines do whatever they want to his friend.

"Hey!" He has no idea why he shouted at vines. Something tells him they don't have ears. Still, he pulls off his nail bat and smacks at one of them and then turning and batting away another. "What the fuck? Why do these places all have fucking vines?!"

Eddie grits his teeth, surprised how much a stupid vine can smart and trying not to let his mind go to that same place that has Steve momentarily frozen. God, they were going to need this weed when they get done with this place.

"I don't- ow- I don't know-!" he hisses, struggling to get his hand close enough to one of the flowers to pull it free, a number of pink lash marks crossing his hands and arms by the time he manages it. "At least these one are less into bondage."

Steve spun the bat, gaining momentum before going straight for the three vines closest to Eddie. The swing manages to split two of them in half but the third is just shoved aside before doubling back and going for Steve's hand. The smack is fucking painful and Steve curses as he grabs it, loops it around his hand, and then steps on the middle so he can rip it like a demobat.

Turns out that move works even without biting.

"Get the fucking flower shit and let's get out of here," he hisses as a vine hits him in the back of the head and he swings out blindly to just give them both some space. "I think we earned that fucking weed and then some."

Why is that so fucking hot? Even in the midst of being smacked to shit by these stupid plants, Eddie feels his throat go dry. It takes Steve's hiss to snap him out of it, shoving the half crushed flower into the kit and making a break for it.

"I can't believe I thought this was going to be easy. I swear, we're going to need to smoke that whole bag just to come down from this."

"You're telling me!" Steve goes for his tablet in the small gap between the vines whipping at him. He's got his hand closed on it right before another vine smacks the inside of his wrist and there's a sharp pain there that hadn't been there before. "Shit," he hisses, looking down. There's a narrow cut bleeding there and that must have been a real fast hit, right?

Nope. Another smack to his side and the cloth of his shirt is torn. Because the vines, suddenly, are developing thorns.

"Shit..." Just trying to avoid the vines now, Steve uses the tablet as a shield and takes off running.

The wrong way.

"Steve?" Eddie curses, out of breath as he sees Harrington take off running, "....shit," he hisses, hesitating only a moment before running after him.

"Ow- little fucker- Steve? Wait up, man-"

He realizes he's going the wrong way a few seconds after there's anything he can do about it. The vines are getting more aggressive now and the flowers are getting dense along the walls. In the attempts to get away from them, he's just moving deeper.

And his head is starting to properly kill.

"Get out!" Steve knocks two vines away while another one tries to lash out toward Eddie. Steve steps on it to halt any progress. "Seriously, dude. These things are fucking insane. And I..." He glances over his shoulder, wary about a distant lump thing he sees. "I think something bad is down here..."

"Nnn-" Steve's warning draws Eddie to a conflicted halt, wincing and swinging the bag to try and knock a vine back.

"What kind of bad??" Nope, not the point. "Don't fucking go closer to the bad, Harrington-!"

He squints and hesitates for a second. If he doesn't go and get a picture of this thing, who will? And it's something that they're living near. Ignoring it isn't going to make it go away after all. And with the plants all curled around it and growing from it? Steve can do this. He just needs to be fast.

And fast means dropping weight.

"Give me two seconds. I just want to grab a picture and then we're getting the hell out of here."

He drops the bat and protects the tablet against his chest before using his athletic history to take off at a sprint.

"God...damn it!" Eddie swears violently as Steve takes off, and before he's even aware he's doing it Eddie takes off after him. He stoops to grab the bat as he runs, gritting his teeth and swatting violently at a vine that leaves stripes across his face, not letting it stop him.

"Steve!?" he calls angrily as he catches up to him, "The fuck man?!" He brings the bat down on the fuckers trying to entangle and strike Harrington, pausing only for a moment to share at...whatever the hell that thing was. Bad might be the right word for it. "Come on-" He grabbed the heroic idiot and tugged him back, "You trying to give me a heart attack, go-"

Steve turns and his vision swims. He sees Eddie swinging the bat and for a second feels a fluttering in his chest that he can't entirely understand. But then a vine almost catches his neck and that's about all Steve wants of this place. Luckily, Eddie tugs him then and from there it's easy to keep the momentum going and to run --the right way, this time.

"I told you to go!" Steve complains as he smacks what he can with the tablet. "Heart attack is your own fau- fuck! He better find more pot for this shit. Jesus Christ."

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