plot } the creatures descend.

[synergismus]

Who: Everyone!
What: Creatures descend!
Where: All across the city, although attacks will be most fervent at its heart.
When: Friday/Veerdi evening and into the week.
Notes: Slow and back-tagging is, as always, permitted. If you are confused, look at these two posts for more information.
Warnings: Violence, creepiness, swearing knowing these characters.

On Veerdi, the presence of the creatures reaches a fever pitch. Something has provoked them into launching an all-out assault, though it is one that begins slowly. The pipe-crawlers, generally harmless though they may be, are seen across homes in Baedal, sneaking up through the pipes and into bathtub drains or sinks. They come by the dozens, and their keening makes most homeowners nauseated--but it's their appearance that leads to a number of distressed Network calls.

This is just the distraction for the rest.

The call of the crawlers draws in the armored, sickly creatures with the tiny primates carried inside of it. They are inelegantly lumbering, but much faster than one might expect, and certainly hostile. They trudge across the city, barreling over anyone who gets in their path and leaving them half-crushed in the street. They're certainly unsettling in their obvious unhealthiness, and the disease-ridden animals they carry are downright vicious, especially once they escape (messily, bloodily) from their fleshy cage.

It's the birds that are the worst, though; the cleverest, and the cruelest.

These strange black birds are resistant to typical attacks and flying in large groups. They descend on pedestrians, picking at their eyes and faces, ready to rapidly tear flesh from bone until there's nothing left but skeletal remains. They fly out of range when they can, only to divebomb anyone who might think they've escaped.

Comments

[nojudge.livejournal.com]

In his head, all Balthier assumes is Oh, well, she must be a terrible shot, then, and thinks it's rather polite of her to decline. But alas, while he does have a sword strapped to his back, he's not particularly keen on letting anyone else touch the Masamune; katanas with the power to send building-sized monsters flying occasionally cause more problems than they solve them, when wielded by anything less than an expert. (Which he is.)

So he shrugs, re-holsters, and then gives Max a smile that's very c'est la vie. "The hope that you're very lucky, and wish me some."

And thus Balthier turns and heads inside, sliding his sword out of the sheath on his back as he does so, heading with cautious determination towards the unnaturally huge crow. Once he's in the foyer, he can tell that it's not just the shadows making it hard to discern. The thing isn't solid. Half to himself: "A mist creature?"

[aregulargirl.livejournal.com]

She's glad that he doesn't argue and insist that she take it anyway, because a giant killer bird is slightly more important than why she's not going to shoot (yes, she's had this argument before, obviously not in a situation exactly like this). She nods to Balthier but doesn't smile, and looks briefly at the ground to see if there's something she can use to throw at the bird should things go wrong, and ducks quickly to pick up a decent-sized rock at her feet. She stays in the doorway to observe, prepared to run in or throw it at the crow's head if it lashes out at him.

[nojudge.livejournal.com]

He's just wondering if he's got the time to try and configure Libra when the thing shrieks and lunges at him. Balthier darts away, unscathed, but it's further back into the restaurant. It's then that he gets a clear look at the people huddled back inside. All dead. Their faces all but torn off.

He whirls about when it comes at him again, and neatly bisects the thing with his blade, but - instead of falling, the pieces of it, already blurry-edged, drift back and begin to twitch in mid-air, re-connecting.

"We may have a problem," he calls out to Max, staring.

[aregulargirl.livejournal.com]

Max rears back to aim and is about to let the rock fly, but it darts away before she can let it go and her grip tightens around it instead, so she doesn't accidentally throw it at Balthier instead. Her eyes go wide and her mouth drops open as she watches him slice through the crow and sees it fuse itself back together.

Her eyes fall briefly on the group in the back that are now minus their faces, and a low, strangled sort of noise comes involuntarily from the back of her throat. For a moment, she thinks she's going to be sick again, but then she snaps out of it and focuses on Balthier.

"Get out of there," she says, her grip tightening on the rock again. "Now."