Out from ruins once possessed

[the_freak]

Who: Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington, Albert Wesker
What: Collecting Radioactive Samples for Wesker
Where: Temba Green 22 ✧ Laboratories
When: Early/Mid Month
Warnings: TBD



"So- when he gives me my shit, I say we hike out to some clearing and smoke under the stars," Eddie mused as they walked, though hiking didn't seem so appealing in the moment. Why'd this place have to be so far away? "You know, that way we don't have to worry about Max walking in on us or anything?" Not 'cause he thinks she has a delicate constitution or anything, but because he's not sure he trusts his non-sober self to refuse her if she asked to join. And he had a feeling Harrington would object to any of his nuggets seeing him messed up.

He pulled up the map again, attempting to orient them and make sure they were still heading the right way. "Should be just around here if I'm reading this right."

Comments

[the_freak]

"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.

[farrahfawcetts]

"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..."

[the_freak]

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.

[farrahfawcetts]

"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?!"

[the_freak]

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."

[farrahfawcetts]

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."

[the_freak]

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."

[farrahfawcetts]

"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.

[the_freak]

"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-"

[farrahfawcetts]

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..."

[the_freak]

"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-!"

[farrahfawcetts]

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.

[the_freak]

"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-"

[farrahfawcetts]

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."

[the_freak]

"What happened to don't be a hero, huh Steve?? Fuck- Christ that smarts. Ugh-" Eddie groans, so not built for this, but he does his best to keep them clear as they run.

"Guy's a scientist- he fucking clone it if he has to, he owes us-"

[farrahfawcetts]

Steve, if nothing else, is made to take a hit. He speeds up when Eddie starts talking about the pain and loops an arm around his back to help push him faster. The closer they get to the front the less aggressive the vines seem to be and that is at least a good change. Just need to get out and back to the old man ball creatures.

"Yeah, I've decided: alien worlds suck. Not that I wanna go back to Hawkins, but Chicago would be cool."

[the_freak]

Once they're clear of the god damn vines Eddie literally falls to his knees, shaking his head, needing to catch his breath. Those stupid little creatures are all ready taking notice, but after vines, and shit Eddie doesn't even care, giving a breathless laugh.

"Hhh....Chicago," he agrees, "Let's-...fuck- let's hope they are full up of...I dunno, vampires in the shadows with our luck. Are you okay? How do you run like that, Christ? I think my lungs are going to fall out."

[farrahfawcetts]

Steve's head is killing him. He falls next to Eddie, panting himself but mostly from the sudden and stabbing pain. Definitely an eight on the headache scale. Whether that was from the weird thing he took a picture of or from the whole fucking mess they just went through, anyone's guess.

After a second or so, he was able to push it away and choke out a laugh. Even had a smile that wasn't 100% grimace.

"If you went to gym class instead of wherever the fuck you went, you could run like that too." He ignores the question of how he is and shifts closer to Eddie, hand going for his chin so he can inspect the scratch on his face. "Are you okay? Jesus..."

[the_freak]

Eddie's brow furrows in sympathy, and he half swears he can feel an echo of that pain. Maybe he should be drinking more too.

"...I went to smoke," Eddie supplies to help distract him with a laugh. Definitely not helping with the running. He stills at the touch, cheeks a bit pink under the direct observation, and he moves easily when prompted. "M'fine. Missed my eyes. We can handle a few scrapes and bruises by now, right?"

[farrahfawcetts]

Steve laughs and the sound echoes against his temples like a fucking gong was rung. Yeah, he was gonna get a migraine. It was just a matter of time. Fuck. He should have some time before it sets in though. Priorities.

He frowns at the scratch and prods it a bit with his thumb. "It looks a little red already." He glances at his own wrist and it looks the same. "We should probably wash it out or something. You get hit anywhere else?"

[the_freak]

Honestly, he wants to itch at it, but that's probably not going to help matters. Eddie looks himself over uncertainly. He knows he got smacked by those things a ton, but he's not sure how many managed to get him with their thorns that he might have missed.

"I don't see any...?" he shifts to try and see if any jump out to Steve, taking a cursory glance over him while he's at it. "What about you?"

[farrahfawcetts]

Steve looks down at himself. The wrist that got him first was the most obvious. The one that got his side seems to have only gotten the shirt, really. There's an itch on his ankle that makes him check there to see another shallow scratch. Nothing too bad though. Nothing that is gonna kill him anytime soon.

"Nah, I am good. Only looks like they got two good hits. At least with the thorns."

He smirks up at Eddie. "You're not too bad with that bat..."

[the_freak]

"Yeah we'll see if we bruise up," Eddie shares a small laugh, "We're going to look like we had a very good time or a very bad one."

He gets a bit bashful then and shrugs, "You just got here man, you can go running off and dying on me yet."

[farrahfawcetts]

It's a mirror of the conversation they had just recently. Steve telling Eddie that he just got him back and didn't want to lose him again. The idea that Eddie could be seeing him the same way is like a shock to the system. For a moment Steve doesn't even know what to do with it except feel vaguely warm. Cared for, maybe.

It's nice.

"I'm not going anywhere, Eddie. If the Upside Down didn't take me out, plants aren't gonna."

lol, *can't* go running off, pretend I said *can't*

[the_freak]

"You better not." He fixes Steve with a faux hard look, but doesn't last long before breaking into a small, absently shooing the creepy little creatures away. "M'getting used to having you around. Let's get you home and get some water in you before your head gets any worse. Then I can pick up our payment."