Horror Movies Suck. Yeah, You HEARD ME, SLOPPY BITCH!

[mrsklover]

WHO: Richie Tozier and YOU! Unless you're the asshole trying to kill him. GTFO then.
WHERE: The floor of the dance studio or his room. Also a video message.
WHAT: Richie got hurt, fam
WHEN: Time is an illusion. But now probs. He's got a concussion, who can say?
WARNINGS: A smartass got his shit rocked. This is pretty much an attempted murder so there will be blood, violence, and broken bones. Enter at your own risk.



THE CRIME

Richie didn't recognize the ID of the person messaging him. 'UNKNOWN' it had said which was concerning, honestly. Even newbies had their name on this shit. How could someone be 'Unknown' if they were dropped off by the Gooey Pink Godmothers? So that alone was enough to raise his suspicions. But when Richie answered it and got a weird, distorted voice on the other line? Yeah. Now he was alarmed. And at that point, the voice hadn't said anything other 'Do you like scary movies?'

It got worse from there.

The voice on the line, whoever they were, knew just how to get to him. Afterward, Richie would wonder how that had happened. How had this guy known about Eddie Kaspbrak? How had he known about their past and his death? Because that information had convinced him when the man said he had Eddie hostage. Improbable as it seemed, Richie had heard 'I have your Eddie' combined with a litany of facts as proof, and his heart stopped beating in his chest. He didn't dare hope that his friend would come back, again. He had given up that dream long, long ago. He had a new partner now and had moved on from the pain of losing his Eddie three times. But even so, the voice told him things that only Richie's closest friends would have known. Well, his closest friends and Eddie. So when he was goaded and asked if he was really going to let Eddie die again, there was only one answer.

Never. Never again.

The thing was, though, that despite how he played it off, Richie wasn't stupid. Even with the guy on the line apparently having his history on notecards to spit out, Richie knew there was a chance this was a lie. He couldn't risk it, of course--if there was even a chance Eddie was there and in danger, Richie owed it to him to rescue him. But he knew this could be some sort of trap. Unfortunately, he was in his room when the message came through, and the most dangerous item he housed there was a spray cleaner.

Richie set off for the designated location--the dance studio--with cleaner in tow. Along the way he found a stick that looked menacing enough and held onto it while keeping the voice on the line talking. If he was talking, he wasn't murdering, right? That was the logic, anyways. But lucky for Richie, the guy seemed interested in talking, too. But about...trivia? Scary movie shit that Richie luckily could answer but not without being a smartass about it.

"You know horror flicks never win Oscars, right? Because on the whole they're shit." Richie's self-preservation went out the window when someone he cared about was in danger. "I mean, they're fun to watch and get all spooked by. But I could crap out a script for a horror movie in like five seconds. There's nothing to them."

He was hung up on. There was a long, terrifying pause where Richie had no idea if he'd just killed Eddie or not. And when he got the call back warning him to stop running his mouth because Eddie didn't have a lot of time left? Yeah. Okay. He was a good game show contestant for the rest of the race to the dance studio.

When he got inside, there was no Eddie. The guy talking on the line didn't even seem to be the one in front of him because he didn't have a communicator on him. Or maybe he couldn't see it? Because the guy was covered in a black, hooded cloak. He stood there, some sort of strange white mask on that looked like it was screaming, maybe? Alarming. But not as alarming as the knife in his hand.

Okay. So this was a trap, after all.

"Warm in here? Your mask is melting a little. Right around....here-ish," he pointed to his own mouth. More confident that the Eddie thing was a ploy (and yeah, that's a fucking stab in the heart. Hopefully not a real one, given the knife), he's back to being mouthy. No response, though. Tough crowd. "I mean, I would start with taking the robe off? It's the summer, man. No creepy, ripped up bathing suit shorts for sale?"

Apparently, everyone is a critic. And this guy made his opinions known in fucking blood. The guy charged at Richie, full sprint, and Richie had maybe a second to think 'Fuck' before he turned and ran himself. He managed to get maybe halfway out the door before his arm was grabbed. Luckily, no the one holding the spray cleaner. Richie squirted it into the hollow eyes of the mask and got some grunts of pain that didn't sound like the voice on the phone. But that was about all he managed to do before a knife was swinging into his side. Richie yelled at the momentary feeling of sharp pain before it disappeared and was replaced with a fucking kidney punch.

The Agrii, fucking late, it should be mentioned, disposed of the knife as soon as it stabbed him. Cool. Thanks, a little, he guessed. But then the tall figure got the stick out of Richie's hand and the aliens seemed to care a whole fucking less about that as it was cracked over his head.

After that, things got blurry.

Richie had no idea how much time passed. A lot, probably. Or maybe that was optimistic and this guy could just do a lot of damage in a short span. Either way, eventually, it was over. Richie was still, glasses broken along with some bones, watching the man as he stood and walked away. His vision went black for a time and came to just in time to see the fuzzy outline of a guy in a jean vest, splatches of color on it. That was it before he finally let himself pass out for a bit.

Moral of the story, he supposed: don't shit talk horror films.

Noted.





THE AFTERMATH

Richie's face is a mess of blood and swelling. Bruises are forming around a nose that he's sure is broken. His glasses are...somewhere. Probably a few somewheres given that he's sure they're broken. He might actually have some glass embedded somewhere. That will be fun for later.

Once he wakes up, he barely manages to see his communicator enough to open up a video message to send out to the city. He can only hope the person who sees it first isn't the one who beat the shit out of him.

"Uh..." he waves a hand vaguely where he thinks the comm's camera is. "Three things: One, I got beat up by a melting ghost. Can someone who isn't said melting ghost come pick me up? I might be unconscious when you get here, just a warning. TWO! I got beat up by a melting ghost! I think...I think they were a person, but I don't know. Just be careful. Don't trust unknown callers. And THREE! Uh. I forget. It was important, too. Fuck. Shit... Whatever. Stay in school. Richie out."




THE RECOVERY

Once Richie is back in his room and feeling a little bit better, he's ready to talk about what happened. All of it. Someone has to find who did this and make sure no one else gets hurt. Richie managed to live but he has a broken nose, rib, and shoulder. He was stabbed. If the Agrii hadn't taken the knife, who knew what would have happened. And, really, WHO THE FUCK WAS GONNA TELL THOSE FUCKERS THAT STICKS ARE DANGEROUS TOO?!

"Look. Just... Just ask whatever you want, okay? It hurts to breathe so I would love to be unconscious as fast as possible. Especially because my stupid fucking addiction means I can't take more than hopes and prayers for my pain. You have maybe an hour. Go."

Comments

aftermath;

[faceguy]

Whoa okay. This is a mess that Leo didn’t expect to see on his comm tonight. If the insomnia weren’t already keeping him awake this would do it.

He tilts the camera up and clicks it on. Say hello to the teenage turtle sitting on the edge of his bed, something large and metal just barely in frame off to the side.

“How can a ghost be melting? Is it made of ice-toplasm?”

Haha! …Wait, no, there’s a situation here.

“Anyway, you got any more info on where you are besides “dirty floor”?”

[mrsklover]

Richie's laugh sounds about as painful as it was. He coughs and hopes the definitely broken rib in his side isn't poking anything important. He squints at the screen, then around him, then back to the screen.

"The place that was gonna be a dance studio at one point? Across from the amphitheater. If you walk that way, you'll see me. I'm sort of half in the door and half out. I made it real easy."

He coughs again and there's blood splatter on his hand. Okay. Not ideal. But probably from his mouth and not his lungs. Yeah, let's go with that.

"Why do monsters with fucked up faces want to kill me? First a clown and now this ghost motherfucker? Jesus."

[faceguy]

He has no time to unpack why a clown wants to kill this guy. He also has no idea which building in this dump was going to be a dance studio. The amphitheater, though, he can find that.

The factory where he and Donnie live is pretty far away, but Leo has a way of moving fast.

“I can probably find it. Hang tight!”

He stands up and lets the comm hang at his side (sorry for anyone watching who gets motion sick). There’s a flash of blue light, and when Leo raises his comm again he’s by the fountain.

“Amphitheater… Just a big fancy book word for outside theater, right?”

[mrsklover]

Richie watches the sky as Donnie does...whatever it is he's doing. It's blurry. Everything is blurry. Fuck, he's gonna need new glasses. That was gonna be a bitch and a half. Dazedly, he turned his head to see if he could find some glass on the floor. Maybe, his concussed mind thought, he could put it back together. Like a jigsaw puzzle.

"Buh?" The turtle with the Zorro mask had asked something. "Oh. Yeah. Books." Not the answer Donnie was looking for, probably. Richie blinked and considered the question again. "No, not books. Library, no. Theater, yes."

Recovery (sorry richie)

[buildingitsir]

It's a little difficult to find Richie at first. Unfortunately for the human, this android's circuits are running hot with anger (and some worry in there), so it doesn't really take long per say. He just checks the bar, the library, and also the hospital (last, for some reason) for the guy. It's getting to the hotel room that he finally finds the guy.

Just seeing one of his stand-in dads is enough for him to bang the main door open the rest of the way to slam against the wall. "RICHIE!!", he yells, marching over to him. "What the absolute ever living FUCK?!?!?! You got the shit beat out of you over an unknown call?!"

<3

[mrsklover]

The slam makes Richie flinch hard. Which makes him groan in pain because, ow. Rib. "Dude. Chill out with the banging and shit. I got attacked. People bursting into my room is not great."

Still, he smiles at the android. It's good to see him, even if he's yelling. But at the reminder of what happened, the smile fades. "The guy said he had Eddie. My Eddie. He knew shit about him. I just... couldn't take the risk."

[buildingitsir]

"Shut up!" Yeah, good job getting York to chill out. "I can see you got fucking attacked, I saw your video." He looks like he wants to finish the job the attacker botched, but instead goes to shut the door. Which does result in him slamming that shut just like he opened it. Whoops.

He marches right back over and sits down on the bed next to where Richie's laid out. York doesn't really know the whole story about Eddie, but does know the guy means a lot to Richie. As much as Reeve did, probably.

"Did you ask for proof? Did you check the roster on the phone to see if he really was here?"

[mrsklover]

Yeah. He knew he was gonna get chewed out about this. If he was lucky he wouldn't get punched again.

"The guy knew things no one else should have known. No one except Eddie or my friends. And none of you would have done this to me." He frowns. "I didn't think to look at the roster. It all happened fast. They kept asking me if I was gonna let him die again and I just...couldn't take the chance, you know? I just couldn't."

Recovery

[plate_builder]

Listen, there might have been a particularly large bolt of lightning that struck a tall building in Temba when Reeve got the news. Anger wasn't something he was prone to, but this had been too much.

Which is why Reeve has been there, fussing over Richie ever since the medic finished with him. But he had headed out to pick something up.

"What about alcohol?" he asks as he comes back in, with a bottle of replicated bourbon. If not for Richie, then for himself. "Chilled if you desire."

[mrsklover]

Richie isn't used to being on this side of care. It's weird, being stuck in a bed and wrapped up in bandages. It also really hurts. Really fucking bad. So when Reeve comes back in with bourbon, he's ready to propose marriage.

"You...you are my favorite. I couldn't adore you more." He makes a grabby hand for both the bottle and Reeve, smiling. "You're drinking with me though. It's only a problem if you do it alone. That's the rule."

[plate_builder]

Propose it. Reeve might even say yes. He doesn't smile as he settles by Richie. Instead he sets the bottle aside and produces glasses from the pockets of his over coat.

"Chilled or not? And it's a problem whether it's social or not, but this will help with pain and as you are more or less immobilized, I control your intake."

[mrsklover]

"Warm is fine. I've had enough ice pressed to pieces of me to be off the stuff for awhile."

He watches Reeve quietly for a second before wiggling his hand a bit, more for his partner than for the alcohol. "Hey. Thanks, sweetheart. I appreciate you doing this. Not just the carefully delivered doses of booze. Just...you know. Being here at all."

audio

[cactusy]

Specifics. What did they look like besides 'melting'?

[mrsklover]

Uh. Does your universe have the painting 'The Scream'? If so, sort of like that. The mouth was really long and the eyes were like long jellybeans. Whole thing was white. Thus melting ghost.

[cactusy]

Right. And you only think they were a person, so I'm guessing we're not talking masks here. I'm guessing some kinda shapeshifter, because someone who looked like that all the time would stick out.

[mrsklover]

It... could have been a mask? Honestly I was rescued by a giant turtle and I have been here long enough to see all sorts of fucking shit. If I was back home, sure. Definitely a mask. But right now...I don't know. It could have been. Could have just been his face. He didn't speak or move his face at all for the whole thing.

And then, later, I saw a guy in a jean vest coming from where he went. With like. Patches or something? It was blurry.

Aftermath

[crystalmaster]

Radley is horrified by the message when he receives it. Richie looks awful. And this news is more than a little alarming. First vampires, now other nutcases trying to murder people?!

"Hey, stay with me here," he says kindly, trying to keep the worry out of his voice. "Do you know where this happened?" Maybe he's hurt so bad he doesn't....

[mrsklover]

"Near...near the amphitheater," he recalls well enough. "There was this building that...it was gonna be for dance or something. But now it's just for murder, I guess." He groans a little, his rib aching with the effort of talking.

"Do you know how to pass out? I'd really like to pass out for awhile. It's just. Not happening..."

[crystalmaster]

"I think I know where that is," Radley says.

He gives a regretful look. "I'm afraid I don't know how to do it on purpose. As miserable as it is, you probably need to stay awake until you can be checked out. I'm coming out right now."

Recovery

[manofmanynames]

Investigating things is something Fang is good at. Kind of. And he sure doesn't wanna be the next victim. So he's hoping to learn everything he can about what's up here.

"Okay, so. Can you give a better description of the guy who did this than you did on the network? What he looked like, what he sounded like, if he moved funny, that kinda thing?"

He's ready to take notes.

[mrsklover]

Richie sighs and sits up, ready to go through this again. Tiring though it is, each time he remembers something more. It'll be interesting to see what comes back now.

"I think...I think it was maybe two people? There was one voice on the network that kept quizzing me about horror movie trivia. Same Earth timeline that I'm from, I guess, because I was getting them right. But then in the room, the guy didn't seem like he was on the phone. He was just there. Tall. Had a knife. Moved pretty fast..."

[manofmanynames]

"Horror buff, huh?" Fang frowns. "Almost sounds like they decided to make their own real horror flick." And off-hand, he can't think of anyone there who fits the bill. But there has to be somebody among them who did it.

"Tall guys who move fast.... Could you tell if he was muscular at all?"

THE RECOVERY

[winsomelosesome]

Jan and Richie haven't really met, but they had some vague face time at her party. Still, she feels a little awkward visiting him, but it doesn't stop her from placing a little vase of flowers by his bed and taking a seat.

"I'll try and be quick," she promises, well aware of the struggle addiction can make an sort of injury, both in her life as an Avenger and a socialite, she attracts a lot of loved ones with battle scars. She'll never claim the title herself, but really, what Avenger doesn't drink a little too much with what they see?

"They really fucked you up, huh? You mind walking me through what happened? I'm sure you've had to tell the story a lot..."

[mrsklover]

Richie sits up a little straighter. Jan. He knows her in passing but this is a hell of a way to get more face-time. He offers a smile of thanks at the attempt to keep this fast. He also glances at the flowers and smiles wider. "Thanks. This place was downgraded like ten beauty points just with my mug in here." He waves a hand over his face. "Even before the make-over."

Which. Alright. Time to go again.

"I remember something more each time I go through it, so. Here it is...

"I got a message about a friend from home being back and in danger. I fell for it and went out to the place they asked me to go. While I was walking, this weird voice was asking me horror movie trivia? And I knew the answers, so the person was from the same Earth as me, probably. Focused on the classics, too..." He just realized that. "It's not gonna narrow the pool much, but they didn't know or ask about current movies. Either they're from before they were made or just hate the 2000's cinema?"

[winsomelosesome]

There's a kind smile, and Jan laughs softly.
"I'm sure the room and I have both seen worse," she assures.

She listens carefully to commit as much as possible to memory. She really should have found one of those recorders Jon seems to have in abundance.

"No, that's helpful. Narrows the pool a little bit. Can you tell me what the voice sounded like?"