[hr][center][hider=linqian gets shot][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrIccKyFldQ[/youtube][/hider][/center][hr][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/FaCzAxe.png[/img]     [img]https://i.imgur.com/FePJtcZ.png[/img][/center]
[right][b]Interactions:[/b] Stormy [@Blizz], the Ugly AF Scorpion [@Punished GN] 
[code]Veni Vedi Veni - Parking Lot [/code][/right][hr]
Everything was going to absolute shit. 

Linqian backed away from the massive, grotesque scorpion monster that made her want to vomit. What the fuck was she meant to do here, why had she walked into a whole gang war- [color=CD5C5C]should’ve stayed in the car.[/color]

As it got hotter, Linqian got colder, lowering her body temperature to as cold as she could. She needed to run. No way she was sticking around for this. Stormy and Eve could do whatever the hell they wanted, she sure as shit wasn’t-

Things went from awful to catastrophic. Any thoughts of running disappeared when Sully was teleported across the parking lot and had a pistol shoved down his throat. Linqian would leave almost everyone here behind, but not Sully. No fucking way. 

Linqian reached out a frozen hand towards the scorpion, hoping to freeze off one of its claws. [color=CD5C5C]Deal with the immediate threat first.[/color]

[color=CD5C5C]“I would love to leave, but- fuck!”[/color] Linqian screamed in pain as a bullet tore through her outstretched hand, then another hit her side. She collapsed to the ground with a pained cry, spitting out a torrent of Chinese curses. She'd never felt pain like it. She could feel the burning hot metal in her side, as if she was on fire, while incredibly cold at the same time. Her blood coagulated in the open wounds before it could pour out. It only made it more painful, her rushing blood trying to combat her freezing skin. Britney got hit too - fuck, she couldn’t even help-

The oppressive wave of heat weighed down on Linqian. She felt like she was melting, her below zero body temperature only making the heat [i]worse[/i]. Previously clotted blood started to sluggishly leak out of the bullet wound, dripping down her side. She should switch to heat, it would be safer, she could cauterise the wounds, but if she did that now… She’d overheat and die. But she'd die from the bullets too. She needed to stop the bleeding before it got worse, before she warmed up and she bled to her death. 

Fuck, it hurt so fucking much. With an agonised groan Linqian slammed her bleeding hand against her bleeding side. The extra cold skin against cold skin helped coagulate the blood again, slowing down the flow to a dribble. It was excruciatingly painful pressing two bullet wounds together, like she was ripping them open again, but there was a wave of numbness and ice cold washing over the area too. 

[color=CD5C5C]”Stormy!”[/color] Linqian yelled through the pain, channelling the intense agony into anger. It didn’t help, but it let her get the words out. [color=CD5C5C]”Can you not get up a shield that blocks the fucking bullets?! Or literally anything?!”[/color] 

In the corner of her eye, vision blurry, she saw a car hurtling towards the scorpion. Fuck it. She reached out with her uninjured hand, trying to grasp the Scorpion’s foot - to freeze it, distract it, anything so it’d be hit by the car. 
[hr][center][h1]Bianca Manalo[/h1] [img]https://i.imgur.com/H0PZlqQ.png[/img][/center]
 [right][b]Interactions:[/b] Agent Phillips [@Punished GN], Stormy indirectly again
[code]Veni Vedi Veni - Parking Lot[/code][/right][hr]
Things were getting more and more heated (literally). Crouched as she was, Bianca realised she was out in the open. She needed shelter. Behind a car would be easiest. She spotted the nearest one, her phone buzzing in her pocket then.

She should get there first then answer- no, check the importance of the message. Bianca pulled out her phone again, skimming over the messages… ten minutes. Fuck. And it wasn't her fault she'd gotten involved! She didn't exactly have a choice. In a rather stupid move, Bianca responded with just that.

Then things got even worse when some of the Wolfpack started spraying bullets through the air with seemingly no care with where they were aiming them. Shit. She sprinted for the nearest car, trying to keep up her spells as she did- A bullet struck her lower thigh, causing her to fall onto her knees and drop her spells. She gritted her teeth, fighting through the pain and crawling forward to a car she’d almost reached. She collapsed behind it, back pressed against a tire - aching pain from her injury there adding to the agony that came with bleeding out. Blood stained her loose corduroy pants, gushing down her leg. She gathered up the thankfully thick fabric and pressed one hand against the wound, applying as much pressure as she could that way. She needed to deal with this quickly.

Bianca shrugged off her thick jacket, pulling off the cotton tank top underneath. This left her in just a plain bra, but it didn’t matter with how fucking hot it was, and the top had the best material to tie around her leg. Letting go of the wound, she ripped the bottom of the shirt into a long, uneven strip of fabric. She swiftly tied this above the wound around her upper thigh, shoving a hand into her coat to pull out a pen she thankfully had on her. She knotted it into the fabric and twisted it around until it was tight enough to staunch the flow of blood. 

It hurt like hell, but it would stop her from dying until help got here. Namely Trevor and his healing. She was suddenly very thankful for the hours of emergency first aid training they got that she’d found incredibly boring at the time. 

Taking a moment to catch her breath, Bianca got back to replying. 
[center][hr][img]https://i.imgur.com/0471ohk.png[/img][hr][/center]
With a muted groan, Bianca leaned around the car just enough to see what was happening. The heat was getting more and more intense. She was almost glad she’d practically stripped off her top half (for practical reasons). So many of the Sycamore Tree coven were down - Britney, Linqian (shit the first time she’d seen her), Sully had a gun in his mouth… Bianca murmured under her breath again, recasting the boosting and range spells on Stormy that she’d dropped after being shot.

It was going to be a long ten minutes.
[hr][hr][center][hider=luca thinks hes a murderer for a second][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKc1V8gd5Hg[/youtube][/hider][/center][hr][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/QIUSezo.png[/img]     [img]https://i.imgur.com/ycOCuCr.png[/img][/center]
 [right][b]Interactions:[/b] Sloane [@Atrophy], Jack [@Blizz], Drake [@Punished GN] 
[code]Dairy Queen[/code][/right][hr]
[quote=Sloane]“Father Wolf was in the Coven.”[/quote]
Luca froze again, plastic cup in his hands beginning to silently sizzle underneath his fingertips. Plastic was always the worst, but the slowest, to erode. He hadn’t even considered the possibility. It wasn’t him, though. Or was it? There were blanks in his memories that he couldn’t account for. Did they coincide with the murders? He didn’t have the ability to, but the rot might.

More damningly, wood carving was the one hobby of his he'd managed to keep up in some form. Sure, he could only do it for an hour or so at a time on the best of days, but it was feasible for him to carve small, wooden statues. He had plenty of different small wood carvings lying around his apartment in varying states of complete, and varying states of decay. 

[color=6B8E23]"Ah, wait,"[/color] he realised suddenly, speaking his thoughts without really meaning to. [color=6B8E23]"There wouldn't be any bodies if it had been me."[/color]

[color=6B8E23]Oops. Didn’t mean to say that outloud.[/color]

Of course it couldn’t be him. There was also a reason the rot was so attached to his body - it was limited where it could go, and probably couldn’t make him teleport all across the world. He likely had blood on his hands, but it wasn’t coven member’s. 

[color=6B8E23]”I’ll be open about it,”[/color] Luca said. [color=6B8E23]”I don’t have an alibi. I barely leave my apartment. The last time I talked to someone was a week ago when I called Olivia’s parents, and that was only for a few minutes… Before that, when I talked to Olivia herself two weeks back. I don’t mind if you trust me less because of that.”[/color] He smiled ruefully, looking at Sloane. The only sign of his agitated inner state was the faint wisps of dust coming from his gloves as they began to disintegrate around his hands, and a light, acrid smell of the plastic cup degrading. [color=6B8E23]”Like Jack said, I’d like to trust everyone. Well, be able to earn that trust.”[/color]

Sloane’s conclusion did make sense, even if he hadn’t thought about it before. Maybe he just wasn’t smart enough to realise this was ‘obvious’, or he hadn’t thought about it enough. He [i]did[/i] trust most of the people sitting around this table. Maybe he shouldn’t? But he didn’t want to think so negatively about them all. 

If he was wrong in the end, well, at least he’d die quickly. 

[quote=Drake]"Like, what if it left some kinda... programming, or something in our minds that it could use to turn us into sleeper agents at will? I'm not sure how it would work, but what if the Snake planned for this and is using one of us to enact its revenge and break it free?"[/quote]
[color=6B8E23]”Mm, I understand,”[/color] Luca nodded, smile dropping as he thought about it. He probably understood the concept better than most. He already had a presence in his mind that was trying to take over to enact its own will. It wasn’t hard to believe that a being as powerful as the Stygian Snake was able to leave something behind in their minds, a presence that went unnoticed until it was too late. [color=6B8E23]”Maybe it couldn’t enact its revenge until now… Or there’s a reason it has to be now. It makes more sense than a coven member deciding to start killing us off after ten years. Like, most didn’t even bother coming back.”[/color]

[color=6B8E23]Is there programming in my mind?[/color] He asked the rot.

[i]That would have made things easier.[/i]

Luca snorted. Made sense, he’d joined late and barely been touched by the Snake’s shady mind powers. Just the presence he was used to coexisting in his body, then, trying to take over and enact a different kind of slaughter. 

[color=6B8E23]”If it's cause someone is a… snake sleeper agent, then there must be a reason for it happening now, right?”[/color] One he couldn’t figure out. All he had were questions, and not even an idea for the answers. [color=6B8E23]”And for whoever it chose. If it even chose at all. And that still means it could be anyone… Or everyone. It could be using everyone.”[/color]