Angela: Monday 26, July 1999, afternoon
Angela spends the weekend in a jail cell. She get the harassment from other inmates a new arrival should expect. She sleeps in a cramps room with no privacy. Her bed is not her own. Her clothes are not her own. She doesn't even get space to herself, as she shares the cell with a fat woman named Francian who has some major BO and snores like a thunder storm. Fortunately, while irritable, Francian is not a violent offender.
Come Monday Angela gets to wear some of her own clothes again, and is escorted to a courtroom when she is allowed to state her plea. Then the lawyers and judge to the rest of the talking while Angela is left to ruminate on her circumstances. As the hearing goes on she sees a dark shadow wash over the courtroom and settle on the judge. Something does not feel right. This is no natural shadow. Nothing has changed in the lighting to create it.
After the darkness settles on the judge, the man's eyes melt away, sinking into black caverns. His face turns gaunt, his skin pales, and his cheeks hallow. The changes are there, then gone a moment later, and the shadow is gone. But the feeling of unnatural wrongness sticks with Angela to the conclusion of the hearing. It is ruled that Angela will be allowed to post bail, but the price is high. Far higher than Rachel had estimated. Farshine and Angela will have to take out an unreasonably large loan from a bail bondsman in order for Angela to get out on bail.
Angela is able get out on bail though. She's able to have that illusion of freedom for a while longer. Touching bases with Alan Darwin she learns that while he is still in poor health, he'll be discharged from the hospital today. The two agree to meet up at a coffee shop near the hospital to have a more indepth discussion.
Alan: Monday 26, July 1999, afternoon
Alan's attention dwindles from the moment and he has a 'Peanuts Moment', wherein the doctor's voice fades into the background and becomes little more than jumbled mumbles. Something about his wounds looking like they had gotten worse since the previous day. Alan was on auto-pilot for the duration of the encounter however. Later Saturday he learned from Natasha that his insurance was going to cover all of his hospital expenses and that they had cleared him for a receiving a personal nurse should he opt to seek to be discharged from the hospital prematurely.
It was odd. His insurance was OK, but it wasn't that good. Still, Alan was getting stir crazy with all the limitations of being watched like a hawk by hospital staff and forced to rest rather than do. There was also the growing likelihood that he was in danger if he remained at the hospital any longer. Angela, Blane, and he has stirred something up ... and his nightmares had been getting worse.
All the papers were signs, forms filed, and legalities covered. Alan was going home Monday. It was on Monday that he also learned of Angela's situation. At least that she wasn't in jail at present. After some talking the two of you arrange to meet up at a coffee shop not that far from the hospital to talk, and maybe try to figure things out.
Henry struggles futilely against the cold vice-like grasp on his throat. Fingers dig into his neck. His airway constricts. He isn't getting any oxygen. He can't breath. In his efforts to break free he kicks his legs under him and hits something other than the creature crushing his throat. Whatever it is, it rattles loudly on the pavement and makes a metallic clang as it hits something further into the alley.
Alan and Angela, eerily arrive at their destination at roughly the same time from different directions. Walking towards each other, they can see one another as they close in on the 'Green Bean' coffee shop. Up ahead, from an alley, they hear a commotion. When they move to investigate they come upon the scene of a Latino man behind held by the throat and pinned up against a wall by a
thing dressed in jeans and a button down blue shirt. Immediately they smell the stink of cologne mixed with rot. They see the pale and decayed skin of a corpse.
OOC wrote:At this point we unpause Henry.
I forgot to note that Henry is Suffocating. He has 14 rounds before he needs to make checks. I don't expect we'll get that far, but you may want to keep anyway.
The PCs may act at this point. No need for rolling Initiative, there is only one antagonist. You may act in any order. Henry needs to make a DC 20 check, using the lesser of Strength or Dodge, to get free of the Grab. If he fails, that is another round of Suffocating that goes by.
Angela and Alan get a free activation of Self-Control and The Sight for this scene.
