June 19th, 1983
Around five minutes before the attack on Nicholas and Eliza.
Jasper sat alone in the back of the cafeteria kitchen.
He was slumped against the wall, one knee bent, the other stretched out carelessly across the floor. In his hand, he held a kitchen knife, staring at the blade with blank, unfocused eyes.
The fluorescent lights above buzzed softly.
Somewhere nearby, a freezer hummed.
The whole kitchen felt too quiet.
At Jasper's side, Cosmo pressed against his leg, the dog whining softly as if he could sense something was wrong. He rubbed against Jasper again, desperate for attention, for reassurance, for anything.
Jasper let out a hollow breath.
"It'd be easier than living," he muttered, still staring at the knife. "But I can't leave you alone, Cosmo."
The dog let out a small sound and stayed close.
A moment later, the kitchen door creaked open.
Jasper barely looked up.
Another chef stepped inside.
He was a tall blond man with green eyes and a tired face that seemed even more worn than usual. Beneath the sleeve of his uniform, the edge of a crow tattoo could be seen if one looked closely enough.
Jericho.
Jasper blinked once, slow and dazed.
"Oh. Hey, Jericho," he said flatly. "Been a few days since I've seen you around."
"Yeah…" Jericho replied.
His voice sounded wrong.
Unsteady.
As if every word had to be dragged out of him.
"It's been a… rough few… days."
Jasper frowned slightly.
Before he could say anything, Jericho spoke again.
"We're all going to die," he murmured. "Ugly. Not very beautifully." His lips twitched into something that almost looked like a smile. "Better to be at ease."
He tossed something toward Jasper.
A plastic zip-lock bag.
Inside was a fine white powder.
Jasper stared at it for a second, then looked back up at him.
"Look, I'm not gonna judge how you unwind," he said, tossing the bag back, "but I'll pass." He frowned. "Honestly, I have no clue how you even smuggled that stuff in, let alone got past all the drug tests."
The bag hit Jericho in the chest.
At Jasper's feet, Cosmo suddenly started growling.
Low.
Ugly.
His fur bristled as he bared his teeth at Jericho.
Jasper glanced down at him.
"Easy, boy," he said tiredly. "He's a friend."
He paused, eyeing Jericho again.
"A little dumb, sure, but still a friend."
Cosmo kept growling, low and constant, even as Jasper tried to soothe him.
"Hey, easy…" Jasper muttered, pulling the dog closer and rubbing behind his ears. "I guess this whole dark, doomed atmosphere is getting to you too, huh, buddy?"
Cosmo didn't calm down.
If anything, his body only grew tenser in Jasper's arms.
Jericho stood there, swaying ever so slightly.
Then, after a long pause, he asked—
"Of all the women here… who would you say is the most… beautiful?"
Jasper blinked.
Then, to his own surprise, he laughed.
"Now that's a much better topic," he said, grinning as he kept petting the still-agitated dog. "Way more fun than mystery drugs."
He leaned back against the counter, actually thinking about it.
"Hard pick," he said. "There are a lot of beauties here."
He lifted a hand, counting them off lazily.
"Wren's really hot, but she gives off the kind of energy that says she'd stomp me into the floor if I seriously tried anything."
He chuckled to himself.
"Eliza's cute too, but Nicholas is terrifying, so that's an easy pass."
Then his grin widened.
"As for Dorothea…" he said, almost dreamily, "she's exactly my type. Nice body, nice attitude, and just enough fire to keep things interesting without being too dangerous."
Jericho's lips parted slightly.
"Dorothea…" he repeated.
His voice came out hollow.
"Fiery… fiery beautiful…"
Jasper frowned a little.
"Hey, you good?" he asked. Then he snorted. "What am I saying? You're probably high as a kite right now."
He pushed himself to his feet, still holding Cosmo close for a moment before setting him down.
"Can't really blame you," he added. "At this point, being blissfully unaware of the world might actually be the smart move."
Jericho stared at him.
Then, in that same broken voice, he asked—
"Are we… friends?"
Jasper paused.
For the first time, the question seemed to catch him off guard.
Then he laughed and slung an arm around Jericho's shoulders.
"Yeah, man. Of course we are," he said. "Honestly, besides August, nobody around here really gets me."
He shook his head with a bitter grin.
"They're all a bunch of uptight sticks in the mud."
At his feet, Cosmo let out another low growl.
He was still staring at Jericho.
Still not letting his guard down.
"Beautiful friends," Jericho whispered, leaning his face in far too close to Jasper's.
Jasper immediately took a step back.
"Woah, man," he said with an awkward laugh. "Listen, we're good friends, but I definitely don't like you that much."
"Friendship…" Jericho muttered.
His voice sounded wet now. Strained.
"...that much… beautiful… but beautiful does not equal love."
Jasper's smile faltered.
"What are you even talking about?" he asked, frowning. "Are you really all there right now?"
He reached out and poked Jericho lightly in the head.
That was when Jericho's mouth began to open.
At first, only a little.
Then wider.
Then wider still.
Cosmo's growl turned vicious.
Jasper stumbled back as Jericho's jaw kept stretching past anything humanly possible. The skin around his mouth split with sickening little tears. His cheeks peeled apart. Bloodless cracks spread across his face as though something underneath was forcing its way out.
It looked less like a transformation—
and more like he was taking his own face off like a helmet.
His skin sagged loose against his skull.
Then the skull itself began to change.
Bone cracked.
Shifted.
Stretched forward with sharp, splintering noises, reshaping into the length of a grotesque bird's beak made entirely of exposed bone. The flesh of his face peeled back farther until his entire skull was visible beneath the torn remains of skin. His eyes turned a deep, furious bloodshot, bulging with unnatural pressure.
Jasper froze.
Jericho's body began to warp next.
His legs thinned and bent backward with violent snaps, becoming too narrow, too fragile-looking, and horribly wrong. His spine pushed upward beneath his skin, extending with a series of jagged pops that forced his whole frame taller. His neck stretched unnaturally long.
Then the feathers started coming in.
They burst from his flesh in ragged patches across his arms, chest, and back, wet with black fluid.
His arms twisted.
Bent.
Contorted until the bones rearranged themselves into massive wings. Where his hands had been, hooked talons jutted out in place of fingers.
With a violent shriek, Jericho tore at his own clothes, ripping them off in shredded strips. His talons raked across his skin in the process, carving long gashes into his flesh. Thick black liquid bled from the wounds.
Then something moved beneath the cuts.
Jasper's stomach turned.
Eyeballs pushed their way out from the slashes one by one, wet and glistening, as each wound widened into a new eye socket embedded in his body.
Dozens of them.
Blinking.
Watching.
"Beautiful friendship," Jericho whispered through his crooked beak.
Jasper staggered back, nearly tripping over Cosmo as he raised the kitchen knife with a shaking hand.
"Get back! Get back!" he shouted.
His voice cracked with panic.
Even so, he kept himself between the creature and the dog, angling the blade forward while trying to shield Cosmo with his body.
Jericho loomed over him, towering now in his warped avian form, his many eyes blinking out of sync across his body.
"Beautiful friend," he crooned. "Don't you want to be beautiful with me?"
Jasper's grip tightened.
Then, without warning, something came hurtling across the kitchen.
A microwave.
It slammed into Jericho's side with a brutal crash, knocking the creature off balance and sending it crashing to the floor in a tangle of wings, talons, and shrieking bone.
Jasper whipped around.
Dorothea stood in the doorway, breathing hard, one hand still half-raised from the throw.
"Come on!" she shouted. "Move, unless you actually want to die!"
Jasper didn't need to be told twice.
He grabbed for Cosmo instinctively.
"Come on, boy!"
Cosmo barked once and bolted with him as Jasper ran for the door.
Behind them, Jericho twitched.
Then slowly—
violently—
he pushed himself back upright.
His wings flared wide. His body shuddered. And with a screech so sharp it seemed to tear through the kitchen walls, he screamed after them—
"Come back… my friend!"
June 19th, 1983
On this day, the third incident within the Erebus Research Facility occurred.
The organism later designated as the Split-jaw Vulture initiated an attack on Jasper Quinn, later Dorothea Rose would join the encounter.