St. Peter In Chains: The Collection. [OPEN!]

[meanwhileback]

Who: Penelope Lane, her models, her muses, her admirers, the curious and the critics. ANYONE. EVERYONE. GET IN HERE!!
What: Penelope's long-awaited runway show! Finally!
Where: St. Peter In Chains, abandoned cathedralish church.
When: Friday, June 29th! Eveningtime. Show starts at 7pm and goes... well. Until everyone isn't there anymore, I guess!! For whatever reason.
Notes: IMPORTANT: There's going to be a bunch of subthreads for different parts of the night. Feel free to tag around in them as you want! I'd like fabulous things to happen here, people. Fabulous. Things.
EDIT: NOW WITH ADDED TERROR!! SEE LINK BELOW!!
Warnings: Scary things, NPC death, injuries... horrors!!

The venue has been done up quite well for the occasion, all things considered. The old pews that were still salvageable have been repurposed and rearranged to face the aisle down the center of the enormous main room, where a raised runway has been set up. Lighting and temporary walls, and even an audio system have been brought in and installed for the occasion, and the impressive wreathed columns have been dramatically lit from below to emphasize the height of the room.

All told, it looks like it cost absolute scads of money to renovate an abandoned space to this level of elegance; whether this is actually true or not is largely immaterial. As with so much of society, it's the appearance of the thing that matters most, not the reality of it. Perhaps that's a statement Penelope Lane is making intentionally. Everyone knows the designer is one of the most outspoken members of her cohort, after all, and not one to misrepresent herself.

And she is, tonight, for one, brief, shining moment, entirely in control. Take plenty of pictures; it won't last long.

AND NOW: THE REAL SHOW BEGINS

Comments

[yeouiju]

It's different, something Sunny hasn't been confronted with before, Jae like this. Yes, there was the river monster thing, but if you weren't petrified of that thing than there would be something wrong with you. This is different to that, and he just keeps a hold of Jae's hand, and considers if he'll mind flying.

Possibly. But the thought doesn't gain much traction by the time Sunny hears something above them. He is immediately alert in the way predators can be, head tilting to try and catch a glimpse in the gloom. Something crawling. Something with wings.

Something that might not understand subliminal messages that Sunny is bigger than it. "Go that way," he advises, without looking at Jae, as he moves from sit to crouch. "Stick to the wall, circle round to the way out." A glance, then, to see if that's fine, banking on the evening out of Jae's demeanour from just several moments ago.

[boomvox]

Jae doesn't move right away: his nerves are a little too shot to obey that order from his brain, and also he just - there, Sunny glances back and Jae meets his gaze. Wordlessly, he says he isn't thrilled with leaving him (and being alone, and letting Sunny go head-first up against something so unknown) but he trusts him, and he's going to move, he just. Needs a second. To breathe.

- And also to release Sunny's hand from the death grip he has it in.

Carefully, a bit stiffly, Jae creeps back, angling to try and move down the spiraling stairs. It would be difficult enough considering the failing integrity of the tower under mundane circumstances; it's Olympic-level caution, at present.

[yeouiju]

And so this is how the night is wrapping up, and Sunny, for all his power, is much more used to fighting those in a more human shape, with human rules of combat. Fronting against monsters like this make him want to change and yet, he doesn't consider the possibility -- the tower needs to remain standing, for one thing, while Jae is still in it and people are below. He slowly stands from his crouch, keeping his eyes up ahead--

There.

The thing leaps first, plummeting down. It's-- alarming, with a spread of bat wings that could almost reach wall to wall if it tried, long muscular arms and clawed fingers, and no legs -- in place of them, its human torso narrows sharply into a fleshy point, barely elongated enough to be called a tail, ending in a bony tapering of spine. When it opens its mouth, a snaky tongue unfurls, barbed at the end.

Sunny throws up a hand, a rushing wall of kinetic energy coming upwards soundless and shimmering colours in rippled air that smacks into the creature. Animal instinct alone saves it from a dislocated wing or concussion as it banks left, veers around, heads for Jae--

Which is not allowed. Sunny leaps after it, needing not to rely on wings, landing hands and knees on the things back ad driving both it and himself into the ground in a messy tumble.

[boomvox]

Jae's a couple of meters down the spiraling wall-clinging staircase when the creature heads for him - but he'd been watching, slowing his progress but unable to just run blind of what's happening above his head. It's an arm's length away before Jae gets a good look at it, though it lasts only one terrified heartbeat before the gravity of Sunny's impact sends it down, only barely skimming the protective barrier Jae summoned around himself once he'd taken a few steps.

Now he's good and proper stuck, though. The exit is down there on the ground floor, where Sunny is current wrestling one of the most grotesque things Jae's ever seen. He freezes where he stands, initially at a loss, before crouching down on the most stable stair he can find and attempting to be as quiet and unobtrusive a target as he can be. He can't go sneak by that brawl without endangering himself or distracting Sunny, and there's nowhere else to go.

A fact that really, really begins to suck truly and completely when something begins to shamble down the stairs after him.

He can't see what it is at first, and then he's not sure if he believes what he sees. A pair of legs held together by a distorted middle, tentacles textured like organs crawling, waving out from the great wound, assisting its unholy progress downward. It seems blind, but clearly possessing senses, and even looking at it is disturbing. Jae stays where he is and watches it tensely, suddenly fearing it falling and knocking Sunny somewhere vulnerable.

[yeouiju]

Wrestling with this thing is getting ridiculous. Its shape is awkward and yet it moves as if it were whole, its arms strong, its wings frantic. Long tongue keeps lashing out for Sunny's throat and face, and it's all he can do to twist aside before that barb can find a place to stick. He doesn't even notice what's going on beyond his immediate battle as he struggles to fend off attacks, before finally--

They roll as one, Sunny's hands gripping it at its throat, an arm, and even as claws tear at his back, he focuses. It doesn't make a sound, save for a hissing wind-like effect of rushing air as offshoot energy fritters into nothing in a ring around them, disturbing dust and debris. Beneath Sunny's hand, flesh and muscle and bone wetly shatter, the demon's head going rolling, a gory mess ripping through its torso and rupturing everything within.

It's still. Sunny has gotten his nice clothes dirty, where they weren't already torn. Huffing out a sigh, he crab-walks away from the mess, lands on his butt, and twists a look up the stairwell.

"Jae?"

[boomvox]

Up the stairwell, there's a sight that's nearly comical in its absurdity - or it would be, if it was painted in anything besides H.R. Giger's entrails.

Jae, protective barrier-bubble around him, is sitting with one heel jammed on the edge of the crumbling stair, the other foot vanished into a hole on the next one down, one arm bracing him to the wall as best he can, other hand clutching the side of his face. Behind him is the other half of the monster, pinned and struggling, attempting to strangle Jae but having a very difficult time of it with his protection spell going.

"I'm fine," he says, and the tone of his voice says exactly the opposite.

[yeouiju]

Okay, well.

Sunny starts up the stairs, levering himself over where they've fallen in, lifting his weight off in subtle levitation when he feels vulnerability in certain steps. He doesn't appear injured-- at all, in fact, despite the state of everything else about him, and any weary drag to his limbs is more an expression of his mood than actually feeling tired.

"I'm gonna just-- okay. Count of three and I'm going to kill it." If Jae wants to-- duck somehow, or drop the spell, or simply brace himself, he can do that. The count down is pretty curt, and on the beat after three, Sunny throws his hand out once again in careful aim, making the immediate air rushing past Jae feel slightly warm, sound distorting just a little as the strange other half monstrosity is sent careening back with a telling squelch and snap. of impact.

A leap propels Sunny more towards where Jae is, offering a hand up that is more urge to get moving, help him down the dubious stairs.

[boomvox]

He does duck, kind of curls in on himself but doesn't move (because one foot is still stuck in a hollowed out stair step and he'd just fall over). When his spell dissipates he feels exhausted and shakey for having kept it up with such intensity for so long, and he also feels - monster goo, left over and having finally fallen on him now without that bubble.

Great.

Jae staggers up and down, hand in Sunny's again, wasting no time getting down the goddamn stairs now that they aren't being beset by whatever-the-fuck that was. Stiffly, "I don't even care what's happening out there, can we just go back to your apartment and take a shower and adrenaline make out and go to fucking sleep?"

[yeouiju]

That sets Sunny off, halting once they're at the foot of the stairs to kind of bend double with his hands against his knees to giggle. Once he's up again, he has a smile, hooking an arm around Jae's waist in a companionable doggish lean into his side as they walk. The clatter and clamour of drama echoes from distant corners of the building, but they aren't the only sane people making for an exit.

And Sunny has priorities. "All of those things, in that order."

[boomvox]

Jae curls his arm around Sunny's shoulders, painting a picture a bit like some kind of drunken stagger as they get out, amongst the throng of people still evacuating - Hellsing agents filtering in, medics setting up, chaos in a shoebox. They're going to have to walk for blocks to get a cab in this mess, but he just -

- stops for a second and leans over to kiss Sunny (out of order) because Sunny is amazing and Jae was so fucking scared, and he forgets to stop walking as he does this so he has to untangle for a second, walks backwards for a step, then takes Sunny's face in his hands and kisses him again, decisive, still tasting like stress and bottled-up fear in some slim way he's burying already. A run-on of events as much as that sentence; he rights himself again and grabs his partner's hand once more.

[yeouiju]

There are a lot of questions brewing between them, probably, or at least, the seeds of necessary conversations being sown. Sunny appreciates that right now, he can still be kissed, his hand coming up to grip Jae's arm and remaining almost passive-- receptive-- save for the fact he responds, a breathy laugh sealed off and cancelled.

His head rests on Jae's shoulder for just a moment before they have to split apart properly, hold hands, and go home.