follow me into the endless night

[goldtoxicity]

WHO: Josh Foley and YOU!
WHERE: Everywhere
WHEN: October
WHAT: josh does what he does best and parties his face off on the weekends, does the doctor thing during the day, and has a manifestation of all his loathing and hatred try to kill everyone it comes across.
WARNINGS: AMPUTATION, drinking, partying away all the bad feelings, heap of badly dealt with trauma, and body horror. will update as required.

checkups. - de chima hospital - open

[ 'doctor foley' on the clock is different from josh foley. he's polite, respectable, reliable and dedicated - and getting a little bit overworked. Maybe bouncing between partying and being a responsible adult is hard even if you're a biokinetic healer.

The door gets a gentle knock before he pushes it open, flashing the occupant with a smile as he grabs the chart and steps inside, shutting it behind him ] Hey! Hi, good morning.

I'm Doctor Foley. What brings you in to see me today?

party. - heropa - open

[ You can bet that if Josh is doing anything on the weekend, it's going out and partying. Somewhere with loud music and cheap (and strong) drinks.

Josh isn't particularly shy about sliding up to anyone who looks particularly interesting and offering to buy a drink, or pulling them up for a dance. He kind of lost his shirt somewhere between the first and third songs, but he's not particularly bothered and nobody seems bothered.

Well, aside from the people who are getting the glare off his skin. But he's taking a break, hitting the bar again - and he's truly drunk enough to kill somebody and he's only at a pleasant buzz, thanks healing factor. ]

Hey, you're lookin' kind of lonely. [ he cocks his head, grinning. ] You want some company for the next round?

shadow. phase one. open.

[ You might be approached by another Josh. Not that you could tell it's another Josh. Nothing but the glowing golden eyes would really give that away, bright irises where there's only white.

This one is less friendly. This one doesn't ask your attention, he demands it. He doesn't carefully filter his thoughts through whatever sensitivity he's learned over the years. He just blurts out precisely what he's thinking.

And he craves causing pain. He can't stand being alone.

Pass through the fog while Josh is nearby, spare a passing glance his way, and you might just find the shadow following you, reaching out to touch. ]

the fog. heropa streets.

[ There's someone following him in the fog on his way home. He's seen that thing in the fog by now - saw it with David and Damian, knows it has to be some terrible trick.

He guesses he's not surprised. Fog is a great place for monsters to hide in, and he'd just saw this shit go down with David and Damian. It matches his movement step for step, echoing down the dark streets. Josh stops twice and glances over his shoulder, finding nothing there.

He flips his hood up. Jams his hands deeper into his pockets and hurries his pace along. Any lingering drunkenness is banished from his system. He quickens his pace, aiming to get to the portal and to get the fuck back home.

The shadow takes his sweet time. But he's there. Lurking in the background. Waiting for just the right moment to pounce. The fog is so thick Josh can barely see, and so the first person he bumps into is getting the unfortunate experience of a very panicked Josh grabbing them by the arm and nearly being swung over his shoulder. ]

the shadow. phase two. - heropa streets - open

[ The shadow has taken it's final form by now. Josh is trying to keep paces ahead of it, to lead it away from people.

Unfortunately, it's not really working. The thing keeps veering away, keeps taunting him with how it holds all the power here. He's running away, like he always does, and the shadow is shepherding him like a fool.

And unfortunately, you just happen to be in the way.

It snaps a hand out. Fingers reaching to grab an unfortunate victim, leaning in close. It's breath rattles throughout the mask. It stinks of death. The laugh that bubbles out sounds like a dying man's last breaths. ]

Pathetic.

[ Josh bolts forward, bodily tackling the thing to the ground. It's hand comes up and hits his face - the skin practically sizzling as it struggles to heal against the decay against it.

Maybe you're the one who had a narrow brush with death. Maybe you're a bystander who made too much noise. But the thing's head snaps up, eyes fixing on you. It shoves Josh down against the pavement and springs up, lunging for you with glowing hands. ]

(( ooc: check out josh's permissions post for details as to what exactly you're in for when dealing with his shadow! i'm down for plotting out anything here. i expect it to be defeated + to heal itself + to be defeated again and again and again until he finally just accepts it.

if you'd like something more personalized or plot things out, hit me up at minimoffs @ plurk, pm me on this journal or dm me at FIST FIGHTS#6978 on discord!))

Comments

Shadow - Phase Two

[helpdesk_hero]

[Seriously, what is David's luck? First Damian's shadow, then his own, and now this. He'd been shopping and carrying things back, and then there had been Josh. Before he could even say anything, though, or call out to his friend, he catches sight of the other thing. He'd just been walking, minding his own business, and now the thing is lunging for David. Shit. David shudders and drops his groceries, dodging back a step.

Josh, but evil? Dark hands? Oh yeah, he could die here. Pass.]

[goldtoxicity]

[ Josh is on his feet in an instant, taking advantage of the stumble it gives once David dodges out of his way to slam a fist into it's back, driving it down. ]

David, run!

[ The right side of his face is badly discolored. Not gold, not dark, just swollen and an angry, sluggishly bleeding red. ]

[helpdesk_hero]

[Run? Hardly. David can see the pain, the damage, the bleeding. Things Josh shouldn't be doing. Once he's got to his feet he circles around.]

Yeah, like you ran? Not happening. We're in this together.

[goldtoxicity]

You're going to get killed!

[ It doesn't stay down. It twists at an unnatural angle to look at David, head twisted almost all the way back. ]

Don't you get how tired I am of lugging around all your dead weight? I gotta work so much extra every time one of you idiots throw yourself at the problem.

phase one babyyyyy

[fridgeflower]

[ Laurie’s leaving a party thrown by a friend-of-a-friend from school, non-imPort, the sort of thing that (she assumes) is pretty normal for the complexes surrounding the campus. It’s late, and she’s been drinking, but what’s a familiar walk home when you regularly peddle superheroics?

She makes a noise of annoyance at the fog settling in. The thing about this world is… There’s relatively harmless odd weather, and then there’s not-harmless-at-all bouts of odd weather, and it’s not particularly easy to tell which is which.

Is it a Halloween thing? Is it because reality is being plucked apart by the OTO and possible deities? Is it just fog?

The choices are turning back and sucking it up, and she picks that latter after pausing for a moment of debate. Then, naturally, she promptly hits a dent in the pavement wrong, rolls her ankle, and falls spectacularly.

After a moment of disorientation, she looks up to find someone standing over her. She impulsively starts to scramble, taking a breath in to scream, but-- ]

Josh, what the fuck. [ She’s not far from other parties, from other venues, so it’s not too weird bumping into him. She’d figured he might be out, and she’d resisted texting to ask.

So, yeah. Not too weird, except, y’know, the eye thing. ]

Did you develop weather-appropriate headlights?

[goldtoxicity]

You like them?

[ It's no surprise that he sought Laurie out. Of all of the things Josh suppresses, his feelings for Laurie and about Laurie are certainly the strongest. The expression he wears is nothing but fond, soft in a way he doesn't let himself be.

But the hand he extends to help her up is mottled with matte black. ]

[fridgeflower]

[ Right. That probably isn't good. She pauses, probably for too long, before moving to stand up without taking his hand. He'd made it a point to not touch her before, when the song-magic had somehow sank him low, so... Better safe than sorry, right? A withering arm is not a feeling she's keen to re-live.

She rights herself and dusts off her clothes, attempting to act casual. Her ankle hurts and she'd scuffed the heals of her hands, but-- Whatever. He's being weird, and she's not going to bring it up. ]

Yeah, they're great. [ Sure. ] What're you, like... on your way somewhere?

Shadow shenanigans

[kid_flash_found]

The fog had come in while Bart was scoping out the city, retracing some of his steps from the first days since his arrival with more of an intent to see what actually was around. Since he and Kon had started the wheels moving on getting their own place in Heropa, he wanted to get a feel for the atmosphere as well as where to shop and eat and such. But as the weather shifts, he's rethinking that plan.

It's getting harder to really see, and while he can mentally retrace his path, that doesn't take into account things like other people and traffic. Or that growing sensation that he's being watched. Heropa looks a lot spookier in the fog, and it makes him feel really uneasy, like almost anything could come out of it.

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

[goldtoxicity]

The creature in the shadows isn't doing much to hide himself, but at the speedster's word he steps out from the alleyway he'd been standing is. His head tilts to the side, going a little too far to be comfortable or natural, the heavy beak of the mask almost too much for him.

"There's something interesting about you, isn't there?"

[kid_flash_found]

It's the mask that makes him the most nervous. It was the mask of a medieval plague doctor, the long beak meant to hold sachets of herbs and distance the bearer from the ill humors of the infected. Why anyone would choose that symbol to embrace was beyond him.

Bart takes a half-step away as he turns, letting the motion seem almost intentional, and he considers. That angle seems unnatural for a human, but there are non-humans represented among the population. And the question was puzzling.

"Me?" he asked, frowning a little. "I'm nothing special."

He wasn't, at least not for a speedster. Sure, he could retain knowledge no matter what speed he learned it at, but that was a minor thing, and more curse than gift. Other than that, he wasn't anything unique.

Phase One

[topmeup]

[One of his last trips into Heropa as part of his spokesperson duties and things are already pretty weird. Max can tell something is up, but not really what. It's like one of those itches you can't reach irking you are you go about your day.

He can see Josh from a mile away--hard to miss--so he raises up a hand and waves at him.]

Yo! Been a long time, Carat Top.

[Glowing eyes are hard to miss when he gets closer.] You feeling the vibe around too?

[goldtoxicity]

Hey! Max, right?

[ Someone who'd been nice to him. He doesn't immediately need to be lunged at or hurt. "Josh" grins. ]

I dig it.

[topmeup]

Yeah. But I'm not sure this is my kind of thing.

[What with the eerie fog and everything else.]

You been doing good?

slides in with starbucks and zombies

[besainted]

[Josh and his poor patient are, with a quick tearing-fabric sort of noise, very suddenly not alone.

It's a weird kind of day that leads you to stumbling suddenly into a doctor office via magical portal, splashed with a healthy dose of blood and feeling — or imagining you're feeling — something awful coursing through your veins. He can't tell if that's psychosomatic; he supposes it doesn't matter. He supposes he should also feel proud that he's gotten the knack of portaling to someone without knowing quite where they are.

He doesn't. He just feels panic, like ice, clutching at his stomach. Panic is on his list of emotions under a necessary tight control, but today is really pushing his limit so far; his blue eyes are verging toward orange under the pounding of his heart. He clutches at his left forearm where someone has attacked him with their teeth, the sleeve of which is particularly bloody, and stares at Josh from the instant his foot skids to a stop on tiled floor. Behind him is a city street in chaos, screams and running bodies — he quickly slams closed the portal on all that, though. ]

Hello. [ That's for Josh, clipped but calm. And to his patient: ] I need to borrow him for a second.

[goldtoxicity]

[ What the hell is that.

There's so much radiating off of Damian that it's difficult to wrap his head around what any of it is. The racing of his heart, the - the infection radiating from what should be a relatively fresh wound.

It's necrotic. And worse, it's familiar. Death incarnate. The cells are dying but not totally and he can literally feel the static in his mind as he tries to parse it out.

It's a bite. It's a bite but it's something else. The second Damian is in the room it overwhelms his senses, a goddamn mach truck. The man with the sprained ankle on the bed jolts at the sudden intrusion, opening his mouth to protest until the good doctor his grabbing him by the scruff of the shirt and shoving him out the door. The ankle is healed as he stumbles onto it.

He throws it shut. Locks it. ]

Sit down let me look.

[besainted]

[ It's probably a testament to just what kind of weird life Josh has led so far that he reacts so quickly and so well; Damian was definitely ready to drag him away from whatever audience he had to, but Josh has already taken care of it. He wishes that were worth any relief.

The second the door closes behind the guy, Damian is tearing off his jacket. Most of the blood on it is superficial, peels away harmlessly with nothing to show below -- except for that arm. That only gets bloodier as he tosses away the jacket, begins to roll up the sleeve of his shirt with a shaking hand. ]

It's --

[ How the hell does he even describe what's just happened? Someone bit him and popular culture has informed him exactly why, and exactly what's in store for him? Observation, too -- he saw one unlucky soul begin to shake and rage not five minutes after being bitten.

So his answer isn't much of an answer; he just stares in mute terror at his own bloodied arm, trying to sort out words and stamp down panic, and definitely does not sit.]

Shadow - Phase One

[stlg13bomber]

[The air feels...weirder tonight. Carter can't put a finger on it. His shoulders hunch as he walks through the streets, trying to keep out a chill that his coat can't seem to address properly. When he sees the golden-eyed man in the street he gives him a brief stare for those golden eyes, then reminds himself of politeness and hurries on at a quicker pace.

When the man starts following him he thinks it's coincidence at first. After two blocks he throws a glance over his shoulder, wondering when the other man will peel away and go another direction. Something about him is just...unsettling.]

[goldtoxicity]

[ This one he doesn't know. Hasn't met before, has no connection to - but hadn't liked the way he'd looked at him. That quick temper and thirst for violence has him following him, making little effort to hide his presence.

It's only when Carter looks back that he bothers to pick up the pace, offering a lazy smile. ]

Guess we're heading the same way, huh.

[stlg13bomber]

Guess so! [The smile Carter offers is strained. Every animal instinct is screaming at him that this is a predator, but...it's just a guy. Has to be a false alarm, right?] How's your evening going?

party

[heartstings]

[Kenzi's settled in enough that heading out to a club sounds like the perfect remedy to finding herself dragged back to this world after four years. At least, that's what she hopes.

She isn't in the club long before Josh saddles up beside her.

She motions to herself, looking slightly offended before she glances around. He's not wrong.] Lonely? Moi?

[She shrugs as she looks him over, not being all that subtle about it.] Well, I've never been one to turn down free drinks from a cute guy.

[goldtoxicity]

[ He responds with a wink and a grin. There are definitely some loners in here - usually regulars who just want to feel the atmosphere without dealing with the people - but she doesn't seem like one of them. ]

Great, it all works out. I like buying drinks for pretty girls. Name's Josh.

[heartstings]

[Sometimes the atmosphere is enough. Sometimes just hitting up a club full of folks having a good time is what she wants because it means they're too distracted to keep up with their valuables. But right now she wants more than just take in everyone's else fun or to take their things.

She can't help but grin in response to his words.] Kenzi. [Sure she could give an alias but he's clearly an imPort so why bother.]

So is this how you spend your weekends? Hitting up cute girls in the club?

( heropa / phase one )

[melodramagic]

[ The main reason Sabrina is even in Heropa is to pay that deli Zelda had been temporarily put up in a visit. She's overheard rumors someone accidentally sliced their hand open on the meat slicer, but given Zelda's aggravation when Sabrina had gone to meet her there, chances are it's a simple hex she needs to undo.

It's done with quickly -- no more locals slicing any parts of their flesh open. Sabrina heads out and begins the trek back to the Porter station, only briefly noticing Josh on the opposite street. She thinks about stopping to say hi, but he seems distracted so she carries on.

At least until a block down the creeping sense there's a figure trailing her makes its way up her spine. When he manages to tap her shoulder, she pivots on her heel, defenses up. But seeing it's only Josh, she lowers her guard. ]

Jeez, Josh! You don't have to sneak up on me like that.

[goldtoxicity]

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

[ He laughs, drawing his hand back and stuffing it in his hoodie pocket. There's something not quite right about the smile. ]

You should seriously be more careful. You never know when there's some maniac hiding behind a corner. If I wanted to hurt you I could've seriously hurt you.

[melodramagic]

I'm being careful.

[ She knows about the anomalies happening and she's... relatively on guard.

Relatively. ]

That's not really funny, you know.