in the woods dark and deep I offer you eternal sleep

[aarnethompson]

Who: Alba, Alexia Swiftdawn, Anna Demirovna, Bruce Wayne, Cliona Donovan, Data, Don Draper, Ilde Decima, Irene Adler, Jae-hyun Kim, Jaime Lannister, Kalinda Sharma, Marie-Sixtine St. Vincent, Martel, Nuray Amedi, Penelope Lane, Odessa Wander, Pepper Potts, Rex Lewis, Seoraj, Shrieky, Sunny, Wolfgang Einhorn, Xas
What: Something bad is afoot, and you must help.
Where: Abrogate Green, Badside, Barrackham, Chnum, Echomire, Flag Hill, Gallmarch, Ketch Heath, Pelorus Fields, Raven's Gate, Sangwine, Serpolet, Sobek Croix, Stoneshell, and the northern woods
When: July 22nd to the 30th
Notes: People are slow right now and a few are on hiatus, so slow-tagging and back-tagging are totally fine. Please check the accompanying OOC post for info and to coordinate.
Warnings: Disturbing content, will include violence, choking, drowning, body horror, and animal death.

Strange events tend to go unnoticed in Baedal, compared to the much stranger things happening around them. People don't tend to be noticed when they go missing, either. The city takes these things in stride. After all, people get called back to their homeworld all the time, or they die. Everyone knows this.

Still, rumors start cropping up around the city about the sudden appearance of twelve identical towers positioned around the city like the face of a clock...

ALBA ♞ Cliona Donovan
DON DRAPER ♞ Pepper Potts, Kalinda Sharma
ILDE DECIMA ♞ Irene Adler, Marie-Sixtine St. Vincent
JAE-HYUN KIM ♞ Sunny
MARTEL ♞ Data, Jaime Lannister
NURAY AMEDI ♞ Alexia Swiftdawn, Anna Demirovna
ODESSA WANDER ♞ Rex Lewis
SEORAJ ♞ Bruce Wayne
SHRIEKY ♞ Xas
WOLFGANG EINHORN ♞ Penelope Lane

Comments

[aarnethompson]

The chimera lets out one fierce roar (hiss?) before it lunges, narrowly missing having its face split open by Jaime's sword. It is pretty unfortunate that both ends tend to operate both independently of each other and in tandem. Moreso than most creatures, anyway. It swipes its paw at Jaime's leg, back leg imitating the motion at Data, the snake-head lolling there and wide open, venomous fangs out. Of course it has no reason to know they're useless from this end.

In the end, it puts up a good fight, but it's true that lions tend to kill by suffocation and it doesn't have much room to maneuver. It needs to have all three heads cut off before it will finally stop moving.

[asimovsdream]

Data isn't too concerned about the snake's head; it's the paws he needs to avoid. Being torn at by claws would cause worse damage than potential puncture wounds from fangs, and the snake's venom doesn't pose any threat to him. He sees the opening just as Jaime does, and, as planned, they attack together.

Quickly, dexterously, Data darts in to grab the monstrous snake's throat. His fingers barely reach from one side of its jaw to the other, but his strength makes up for his poor grip—it struggles, but it can't escape. Feeling the creature squirm in his hand inspires a chain reaction of uncertainties, but Data knows he can't waste any time.

One slash with the knife is enough to take the serpent's head nearly off, but it's not a clean cut. It hangs by a stubborn strip of flesh, some supernatural force keeping the snake hissing and writhing even as blood starts bubbling up through its severed neck and running down over Data's fingers. He has to strike again, and it costs him a couple valuable seconds; even as he succeeds in separating the snake's head from its weakly thrashing body, one of the beast's paws swipes out at his leg again. The tip of a claw catches his pants, catches the surface of his skin—he can sense the pressure as it pulls him open.

Retaliation isn't in his nature. None of this is in his nature. The blood on his hands isn't something he's used to; it's not something he's ever seen before. He's doing this to save the city, possibly to save this world, but it's an act of violence. This being doesn't even seem sentient, and yet they're hacking it to pieces.

Instead of striking out at the chimera in self-defense, he backs away to assess the damage and consider how to deal with its third head.

[regicidium]

Questions of its sentience, of the purpose of this attack, do not occur to Lannister. It is in its way, it would harm him if he could, and he's hacked many a thing to pieces as the quickest means of problem solving. Jaime buries a long length of sword into the thing's leonine throat, spilling scarlet, and still it wars like no beast he's encountered.

Irritating, but different, at least. Jaime withdraws the sword with the efficiency of a soldier, but brings it down like a butcher -- his weapon doesn't hold the beauty and sharpness of the King of the North's execution blade, but it has a similar weight and carries Jaime's strength true enough to cleave the lion's head almost off it's neck. It takes another swipe before it goes rolling.

He huffs out a breath and glances sideways at Data. It seems the thing will continue to tangle for as long as it has its last remaining head. Wordlessly, Jaime presses back into the fight.

A couple of well-aimed blows disables a leg, creating an opening to hack off the last head. Jaime is not completely unscathed, which is annoying, but so long as he doesn't get drastically injured on this foolish errand, then his employer has no cause to smirk at him.

"What comes next again?" he puzzles, wry, taking out a cloth from a pocket to wipe down his blade.

[asimovsdream]

“Finding the ladder and the scissors. They may be nearby,” Data replies, observing the dying chimera for a moment before going over to Jaime and offering his knife back, handle first.

His walking, he notices, isn't hindered; the gash on his leg must only be skin-deep, which is fortunate. He crouches down and takes a quick look to assess the damage, and finds that the tear is a long one, and has parted his skin completely—it will leave the more delicate electronics underneath vulnerable. When he gets back to the city, he'll need to acquire bandages for protection.