Time for some fun with corpses [closed to foreverafter]

[unpurify]

[Smoke, blood, dust and time. Fire and Sugar.

The Batter remembered those things. That was about all he remembered, beyond suddenly being in possession of a killer headache. Someone or something had knocked him unconscious. That was all the purifier could think of. He just needed to wake up and he'd be back in Zone 3.

Counting to three, the Batter slowly opened his eyes and sat up. Almost immediately the whole 'back in Zone 3' thought jumped out of the window of thoughts. He was no longer in Enoch's playpen of fate but what appeared to be a dilapidated classroom. Holes dotted the ground, the wood having rotten and broke under the weight of age, and destroyed desks made for children were still in their rows. There were windows but all the Batter could see out of them was nothing but darkness.

The phrase "we're not in kansas anymore" never applied more to things then they did now.

That said, the Batter does not panic and instead makes a mental note of what he could see. He was still armed with his bat but his Add-Ons were gone. If they were still in this place, he did not know. He also pokes his head out long enough to find a sign above the door to inform him he was in classroom 1-A. There was also a notice on the wall beside said door but he hasn't read it yet.

Standing in front of the chalkboard, the Batter takes a deep breath. Okay, let's start. Goal: find an exit.

Let's begin.]

Comments

[foreverafter]

[ An eerie chitter of laughter rings throughout the halls, as if Zacharie's warning was in fact a trigger for their appearance-- though they don't appear.

If the Batter is to wander from here, reading newspapers and scraps or not caring about them entirely, more spirits will be forced out of hiding. These spirits don't even enter a battle screen, they just need to be graced by that bat to disappear and scream into the ether as all their thoughts, memories, dreams-- disappear into nothing along with their pain.

Sachiko is throwing softballs at him to see what he'll do.

The typical standard-- four children killed, one spared, a middle aged adult who was the son of a principal-- is on most of the notice boards and isn't hard to piece together.

Down the hall, something appears, nearly makes eye contact...



And fades away.

Another Earthquake sets in. ]

[unpurify]

[Throw as many softballs as you like at him Sachiko, the Batter's response is the same: fight. He won't exactly go out of his way to do so but any spirit directly in his path is purified, especially if they attack him first. Your collection of Red Spirits is going to be in the negatives if this keeps up.

The information could prove useful so he does read it and it's pretty obvious what happened. The end result was the school's closer, but what exactly caused it to turn into a nightmare zone was probably a different case.

Planes. He probably wasn't even in his world anymore.

The Batter catches sight of the girl - a much younger girl by the looks of things - for the briefest of seconds before the school once again is rocked by an earthquake. Keeping an eye out for anything that'll drop on his head, the Batter waits it out as best as he can.

Once it's over he will look up and down the hall to see if anything in his immediate vicinity has changed.]

[foreverafter]

[ Nothing up here.. though the boards have fallen back around the nurse's office, so you can't go back there. The only way downstairs is the long way around, which is uneventful but for putting a few boards into place. If he chooses to go downstairs, though...

Why is that hallway longer? Even worse, there's a boy spirit sitting on one of the planks, watching towards the entrance. Don't look him in the eye! ]

[unpurify]

[Two things of note: longer hallway and another child ghost. That brings it up to two ghosts with a physical appearance here - three if the black ghost was counted but it did not have much form here as it did mass. He also appeared to be around the same age as the girl.

The Batter can feel something unsettling radiating from the ghost, almost as if he wasn't meant to be looked at. So, keeping his eyes to the ground, the Batter will wait a moment before moving on, just to see if the ghost does anything.]

[foreverafter]

[ And of course, the thing chases after him. Or follows in his footsteps step-for-step, speeding or slowing if he needed to. It's probably best to get out that hallway downstairs, don't you think?

Or, you can play ring-around-the-rosie with this ghost, up to you. ]

[unpurify]

[Yeah, skipping the ring-around-the-rosie bs and just running for it. Not killing this ghost is annoying but the Batter was willing to give Zacharie's suggestions a try before going back to his own method. It better pay off soon though.

So he'll just run until the ghosts gives up, even if it means moving to a different floor entirely. Hopefully it's enough to get the child off his tail for a little while.]

[foreverafter]

[ It works! Hurrah! Though the floorboards to the nurse's office are still gone, it seems there's a new tape here! ]

[creditless]

Merchant's Tape 3/5

[ I was not built for survival horror, ha ha ha.
These things are like homing devices. They know when and where you are, and you constantly have to shift walking around to avoid them.
They don't go into the second building, though, for whatever reason. I found that place during one of the earthquakes. As terrifying as it still was, there were far less hauntings there.
I want to find it again. If I hop the fence this time, maybe I'll get out of here...
Or be stuck in a recursive loop, haha.
Even now, that sounds better.
[ His camera catches a glimpse of blue, then cuts out. ]

[unpurify]

[Here we go, info dump time.

The thing that stands out the most here is the mention of a second building. The Batter had not spotted an entrance to said place before but he hadn't been looking. That and Zacharie said he found it 'during one of the earthquakes'. Did that mean it was only open during the earthquakes or after one?

And a fence that might be able to be hopped. That 'stuck in a recursive loop' comment is not helpful, however. And clearly Zacharie was running out of time, by his comments and the blue flash before the feed cut out.

If he was referring to the ghosts homing in on them, that was fine in the Batter's case. Depending on how they saw the purifier he probably wasn't hard to miss anyway.

Okay, new objective: find the second building. Zacharie said it was still terrifying but it seemed like that was where he was intending to go. So off we go.]

[foreverafter]

[ If you go back downstairs, the ghost child went back to his spot, unblinking, unchasing, not peering towards the Batter's way. The hallway had elongated to accommodate a doorway outside. And it's raining, raining so hard and fiercely that it's a comfort there's any overhead at all. This must be the path to the second building... whatever that was.

And on entering, it is indeed more quiet than the other building. It's not soothing, but it is in comparison-- if such a thing makes sense. ]

[unpurify]

[He is there again but to avoid playing cat and mouse, the Batter isn't going near the ghost with a ten-foot pole. For once in his life, actually.

The second building is disconcerting in a way the Batter can't put his finger on - it's probably the silence - but that doesn't matter. There are two exits from the entrance that he can see, one to the west and one to the east.

He'll start with the east one.]