synergismus: (Default)
A Shadowy Cabal (Mod Acct) ([personal profile] synergismus) wrote in [community profile] multiversallogs2011-05-27 08:05 pm

plot } the creatures descend.

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.
rhinemaid: actress mia kirshner (only a fool would give out ♠)

[personal profile] rhinemaid 2011-05-28 05:39 am (UTC)(link)
The attacks begin to reach crescendo when Ilde is downriver; she spends the majority of her time in the water right now and intends to spend a solid amount of it there in the future, and as such she's making a significant effort to make herself known to the Gross Tar and the other creatures of it. (Partly to dissuade them from any foolish attempts on the territory in it that she's already marking out, partly because this is almost like the community she once pointed out she didn't have - it's interesting, appealing. A part of her is wary of a feeling that might begin tying her to a place she can't afford to stay.)

She watches from where she's sitting on the bank, at first, but she won't avoid attracting notice forever, and she slides back into the river (her tail forms and she pushes herself deep underwater) before she can do too much tempting of fate, kukri knife clenched in one hand as she begins to swim north toward Raven's Gate. She has things there to protect, and she'll need to catch Sonja, maybe some of those she knows here.

Periodically, she surfaces to see what the situation is above the water- the primates that wander nearest to her vantage point soon regret it.
primogen_vampirate: (Scared)

Mina's First Aid Station

[personal profile] primogen_vampirate 2011-05-28 06:02 am (UTC)(link)
When the attacks began (seriously began, that is), Mina was actually on her way to the Hellsing building. She wanted to discuss recent events with Integra. Strike that. Sir Integra. Who was Mina to cast aspersions about a woman taking on the title of a man? After all, she had been Mark for a number of years. She sometimes still was.

The creatures waylaid her plans.

Almost immediately, Mina heard screaming. It was just like the American Civil War again. And she knew there were going to be some serious injuries soon. Dropping her latest set of shopping bags, Mina slit her wrist with her fingernail, chanting softly to herself. She held up her palm, turning in a wide circle. Cruac was one of the few vampire magics with which she excelled and as she turned, a topiary wall of hawthorn formed around her, shaped in a circle, with a narrow passage opening the center up to the street. It wasn't much. It certainly wasn't impenetrable, but it would serve. Cutting her wrist again, she bolstered the hedge with a second spell, causing curling thorns to grow out of it in a thousand different directions.

Dipping her fingers into the remaining blood on her arm, Mina knelt down on the street, spelling out the words 'First Aid.' As an afterthought, she drew a cross as well.

She collected her shopping bags, tossing them against one of the hawthorn walls, all except for the smallest bag, which contained a few items that would serve as makeshift medical supplies. Mina pursed her lips, listening to the sounds on the other side of the hedge. What bothered her the most was her all-too-calm reaction to the sudden deluge. She was getting old, getting jaded.

With a sigh, she shook her head, taking out her CiD. This was an opportunity, she decided. An opportunity to prove her mettle.

Was it wrong that she viewed an attack by monsters in such a positive light?

( open to everyone, taking place early on in the attacks )

[identity profile] aregulargirl.livejournal.com 2011-05-28 06:32 am (UTC)(link)
Max is wandering the streets of the city when the swarms begin, and has no reason to believe that anything is out of the ordinary (aside from everything, as she's only just arrived). Evening's just begun, and she's shrugged on a jacket, mostly out of habit, since the climate in Baedal is considerably warmer than the one in Seattle. For the first hour or so, her walk goes mostly undisturbed, and she makes her observances of the places and the citizens who walk the streets without incident.

Then the pipe crawlers start to make their move.

She's stopped at the corner of one of the streets, directly in front of a nondescript building, when she spots something - a nasty, slimy, crawling thing - crawling across her path. It looks harmless enough, but something about it reminds her of Manticore's creations, of the nomlies she let out. She focuses closer, notices the strange arms, but before she can make much more out, she is suddenly and violently sick to her stomach, badly enough that she begins to pitch forward as her knees buckle and she tries to keep bile from rising in the back of her throat.

"What the fuck," she mutters, reaching out and grabbing at the wall to stay upright. She manages to, but while the nausea ebbs a bit, it doesn't go away, and she wonders what the hell is going on.
Edited 2011-05-29 07:55 (UTC)

[identity profile] ofminastirith.livejournal.com 2011-05-28 09:31 am (UTC)(link)
Nobody in this city is particularly close to Boromir, which is why no one has realised that the man has been in a tremendous amount of shock since his arrival. He hasn't interacted with anyone unless out of common courtesy, determined that he should come to terms with his death and abduction by himself.

The stern faced man of Gondor is a confident yet unapproachable figure to those who might have seen him about town. He eats and sleeps at the Valhalla Inn. He explores the city calmly; watchful and deep in thought.

(And sorry Baedel, but you are complete arse compared to Minas Tirith, in his very biased opinion.)

The mounting number of crows have been cause for concern and he can't help but think crebain, ducking into buildings and alleyways whenever he sees them in large numbers.

The pipe-crawlers had also been troubling him. After squishing one earlier, he was greatly disturbed when inspecting its appendages. Still, no one else seemed to be too alarmed beyond their initial disgust. And as more of them appear, the more Boromir starts to worry. Where are the guards of this city? Why aren't they protecting their people?

He keeps looking at the CiD, contemplating what to do, who to talk to, when there is a loud crash further up the street. A stalker has appeared, and crushed into a group of pedestrians. He swings into action, sword at the ready, ducking, swerving and finally beheading.

As he rolls it over for inspection, the first gruesome little primate bursts out, and he jumps back. It springs away in the opposite direction of him and attacks someone nearby. Then another, and another. They are quick, vicious, and he can't keep up.

"Get off the street! Run, you fools!" he yells to anyone willing to listen, and battles on.
patricide: (a resolution hard to see)

Clark and Lex

[personal profile] patricide 2011-05-28 10:08 am (UTC)(link)
Lex is usually highly observant, but since arriving to Baedal he's had a bit of tunnel vision. The gradual changes of the city go unnoticed as he buries himself in his work both personally and professionally, striving to make a name for himself as fast as he can at the office and then coming home to work on building renovations. It's all a long process but one he knows he'll be satisfied with later.

The other downside to busying himself in such a way is that Lex hadn't allowed himself much time to spend with his friend from back home. He is treating Clark to a meal at a restaurant with an outside patio when the swarms of birds begin. He dives under the table for cover and pulls out his knife instinctively, doing what he can to hack at the birds but he knows it's a poor defense for their current situation.

"We're not far from where I live," he calls to Clark over the swarm, "at the soonest opening we need to make a break for it."

( all across town. )

[identity profile] tropfatale.livejournal.com 2011-05-28 11:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, this is familiar.

In some contexts, these are the sort of creatures Sonja would enjoy--even command. Since they've been tampered with (like her), she's not so inclined to keep them around, especially when they attack her, though she's thus far had better luck than some with going down the streets. Theoretically, she supposes, she could summon the full force of her presence and bypass them entirely.

But that wouldn't be as fun.

She has her bow for the flying creatures, her sword for anything low-hanging--but she's observed that the birds respond best (or at least die easiest by) to magic. Since she's not so keen on outing herself to the general population, she's trying to work either with Ilde, who knows, or by herself, but run-ins are inevitable. She nets three of the birds with crushing telekinetic influence, invisible, but pinning them to the ground. One of them breaks free from the side and makes a desperate lunge toward the sky, one of its fuzzy barely-real wings sticking out at an angle, the other dribbling strange pearlescent black beads.

Interesting. She pauses in her assault to advance and examine this more closely, toeing her booted foot at one of the dying birds.
wearyheadtorest: (gun leveled)

Dean and Integra

[personal profile] wearyheadtorest 2011-05-29 03:10 am (UTC)(link)
Dean huddles in a doorway, eyes up, tracking the movements of the crows. Every so often a few try to divebomb him, or one of the other entrances. "Everyone keep back!" he calls over his shoulder, to the people gathered inside. "They can't get you if you stay away from the doors!"

...He hopes. So far, however, so good.

But the flock of crows is growing darker. He knows that means they're growing in number. He's held them off with a few warning shots from his handgun but something seems to have shifted in the way they're circling the station. Dean has the decided sense they're plotting.

A knot of them slowly breaks off from the rest of the group. Dean swiftly switches out for his sawed-off shotgun and blasts them as they divebomb as one, trying to get in the door. He gets a few and the rest scatter, but he knows it's just a matter of time before they try again.

Integra's on her way. Maybe between the two of them they can make a bigger dent in these crows, get these people to better shelter.
gotbottle: (hands)

At the Valhalla Inn

[personal profile] gotbottle 2011-05-29 03:40 am (UTC)(link)
The front doors fly open and Rachel, who has been keeping watch through a window, calls out to someone trying to dodge some of the crows. "Come on," she urges, "in here, quickly!"

The poor man's a bit overwhelmed. Rachel hesitates in the doorway for a moment and then she ducks out, closing the door behind herself, grabbing a handful of the man's coat. "It's okay, come on."

They battle their way back to the entrance, Rachel using her grasp on the man's clothing to haul him to safety. She opens the door and stuffs him through. She has to fend off one last crow; she realizes, once she's slammed the doors against it, that it's gouged her arm pretty good with its claws. That's all though--otherwise she's fine.

The man seems reasonably okay. He can walk. "There's first aid back that way, go, have them check you out." She watches him go and she resumes her watch through the window.

She knows nothing about first aid or fighting. She figures this is the way she can best be useful. She watches the crows but from time to time her attention is pulled away by movement and sounds within the inn itself.
suninhades: (Default)

[personal profile] suninhades 2011-05-29 03:53 am (UTC)(link)
Before Integra left the guild hall, she made sure to pack up a number of supplies - far more than she usually bothers with, but the obnoxious creatures flooding the city are many-pronged and frustrating in their particular natures. She suspects, based on the intelligence she's gathered, that the crows are greatly unfond of magic. They fled before her and the Princess, after all, and the notion that they are magical beings and not merely spirits would explain their barely-corporeal makeup.

Unstable, she thinks. Not suited to being blasted with that which ties them together; perhaps it overloads them, or mixes poorly. Either way, it's going to be a headache extracting Dean and his cadre of civilians - Integra doesn't think that the bindings on her soul or the seals etched into her gloves will be enough to frighten the birds away like the presence of an elder fae being would, but perhaps in concert with silver bullets, it'll get their attention.

She comes over the bridge on horseback at a full gallop, stopping only when the station is in sight. For a moment she just assess the situation, and then, completely calm, takes out her modified SIG P226, and shoots the current flock leader in the head - from many yards away - causing it to instantly dematerialize. Then she shoots another. And another. She empties her 14 round magazine in short order, and as the whole shrieking murder of them explode into a frenzy, she ejects the spent magazine, reloads, and puts her side-arm away. The crows, thoroughly distracted from Dean and the civilians, begin to converge on Integra.

She merely waits.
wearyheadtorest: (gun don't play)

[personal profile] wearyheadtorest 2011-05-29 04:41 am (UTC)(link)
Dean would love to take a moment to marvel at that cool, collected display of badassery but he can't spare a moment. As soon as Integra starts shooting and the crows start freaking out, Dean realizes they're not trying to get at him or into the station building anymore. This is his chance to at least get these people some better cover until they can get them out of here entirely.

He scans the area around the station. There's a low, small structure about a hundred yards away, perhaps a storage shed of some sort. It's possibly not the sturdiest thing but it has no windows. If the people are inside and the door is closed the birds can't get them. Good enough, for now.

Dean ducks back inside and rounds the dozen or so people up, giving them quick instructions. He's the last one out of the building, covering the rest of the group amidst an intermittent hail of... what the hell is this, black marbles?

The firing stops and the birds change course, gathering and heading straight at Integra. Dean wants to rush in, to do something, but he's got to get these people to safety first. He reaches the door to the shed and he busts the lock with the butt of his gun handle. "Keep this door closed," he orders as he herds everyone inside.
suninhades: (Default)

[personal profile] suninhades 2011-05-29 04:57 am (UTC)(link)
For a moment, if Dean happens to watch her while he's moving his wards, it looks as if Integra might be preparing to light a cigarette - but no, it's a flare. A dull copper-colored one, that she lights with one hand while jerking her horse's head up with the other. With the birds just tilting into their attack run directly at her, she hurls the lit thing at them, and then digs her heels into her mount's flanks. The horse bolts, taking Integra right under them and out -

- Over her head, the flare combusts in a loud, blinding explosion that seems too light and too far-reaching to be the work of something as mundane as gunpowder. The crows shriek, burning, panicked, apparently melting into nothingness right before their eyes. That trick didn't get all of them, though, and the remaining ones dart up, uneven and shell shocked.

"Take a note," she calls out to Dean, pulling out her side-arm once more as the surviving birds begin to collect themselves. "They don't like magic."

[identity profile] manipulativni.livejournal.com 2011-05-29 05:19 am (UTC)(link)
Since hearing about the attacks, Katherine has been doing her best to hide away, although she could easily fight off her fair share of monsters. She's done it often enough before. But she's far more experienced with running, and she doesn't necessarily want to expose herself as a vampire to the city, at least not yet. And while she can play the part of a frightened teenage girl well enough...well, eventually, she needs to eat. And while she could easily make a meal of someone else who's staying at the inn, it's too risky to do so when there are so many people crowding the place, trying to avoid being attacked.

Which is why she's outside, finishing off a young man who was stupid enough to believe her sob story about needing shelter from the birds. She makes sure to leave the body a bit messy, tearing his clothes and smearing some leftover blood before leaving it in the street (there's one upside to these attacks, a dead body will be far less suspicious).

She happens to be by the river, and she hears Ilde before she sees her. Curiosity compels her to head in her direction, and once she spots her form, she stops and calls out.

"Hello? Who's down there?"
rhinemaid: actress mia kirshner (a horse at my window ♠)

[personal profile] rhinemaid 2011-05-29 06:24 am (UTC)(link)
The sensitivity that Ilde has to other beings of a supernatural origin is...well, frankly, most of the time it's essentially useless to her. The feeling doesn't mean anything yet; her instincts don't come with a manual, and much of what she learns about herself is trial and error. Some of it is instinctive enough that it's easy, and other things are less intuitive (or maybe more, depending on how you look at it) in ways that she finds frustratingly elusive.

...but it does serve well enough to let her know there is something there, someone there, and though she doesn't hear the call, her tail breaks the surface once before she twists in the other direction to come up and look for what she's registered near her. Her first thought is that it's a threat - under the circumstances, she can hardly be blamed - and the knife in her hand is held ready-

"Katherine," she says, a little blankly surprised for a moment.

(Isobel has never looked like this.)

[identity profile] manipulativni.livejournal.com 2011-05-29 06:54 am (UTC)(link)
Katherine's eyes go a bit wide for a moment as she notices the form as something entirely foreign to her, unlike anything she's ever seen. She wonders for a moment if it's one of the creatures that's recently been set loose on the city, but then she notices the knife and wonders what else it could be.

And then it addresses her by name, and she recognizes the voice and the face, even if the features are quite clearly not human at the moment.

"Ilde," she replies, relaxing her stance (she hadn't quite been battle-ready, but some tension had built up in her body, preparing to move quicker than the blink of an eye if needed). "So this is what you usually look like."
rhinemaid: actress mia kirshner (that you're like stars ♠)

[personal profile] rhinemaid 2011-05-29 06:59 am (UTC)(link)
"Feet optional," she shrugs - when she has legs, there's a tattoo high around one thigh, but as a tail there's only an indistinct black stripe-like marking below her backside. So Katherine isn't human, she thinks; that doesn't tell her what she is, and having some mastery of tact she chooses not to ask. It isn't her business; Sonja doesn't advertise, either, and Ilde knows how to keep secrets. "Are you safe out here?"

open for trollan'.

[identity profile] birdofhermes.livejournal.com 2011-05-29 07:17 am (UTC)(link)
If anyone's taking misdirected glee in the presence of these creatures, it's Alucard. It shows plain on his features - or at least, what of them can be glimpsed as he moves through the streets of Brock Marsh. The vampire himself is hardly visible between his own rapid movements and the descent of what crows he's tempted into attacking him. The growing assault is probably valid cause for alarm - in these numbers, the birds would have no trouble maiming a man and picking his skeleton clean.

Fortunately, Alucard is a different case. It isn't obvious at first glance, that he has a plan - one that's working quite well, considering the circumstances. Anyone who pauses to pay attention for more than a moment will be able to tell that the monster under assault is at little personal risk.

Guttural, almost otherworldly sounds punctuate the crows' neverending shrieks. There are glimpses, however brief, of glowing, red eyes - more than just two, far more, but what they belong to is difficult to discern under cover of darkness and the avians alike. The occasional flash of yellow-white teeth shows through the blackness, and careful observation will reveal something that makes the crows appear downright cuddly.

What used to be Alucard's arm has shed its form, taking on one of sheer darkness, black dotted with red that extends far further than anyone should be able to reach. There isn't any appendage to be seen. Instead, it's the head of a giant dog - one that looks as if it might be a descendent of Cerberus itself - made visible with each successive gnash of fangs, if only briefly before the crows again block it from view. The sound of the creature's teeth interlocking is paired with a sickening crunch, and almost immediately, what's happening is wholly evident.

He's eating them.

[identity profile] manipulativni.livejournal.com 2011-05-29 07:37 am (UTC)(link)
If Ilde's sense of smell is strong enough, she may be able to smell the blood on her breath, which would be at least a hint if not a dead giveaway. But with the attacks, there's plenty of injuries and possibly fatalities, so it may not mean as much as it typically would.

"As safe as I ever am," she replies, which, here, is a considerable amount safer than she is at home even when she's not trapped and starving in a tomb. "What about you?"
rhinemaid: actress mia kirshner (i reserve the right to love many ♠)

[personal profile] rhinemaid 2011-05-29 10:52 am (UTC)(link)
Ilde lifts up and arches back in the water - flexible little thing - to display the healing wound they'd discussed when Katherine first saw her on the network. It's better than it was, and getting better every day (the river does her a world of good), but it's not gone yet and after she's done a full circuit and come back up to break the surface again, she shrugs her hair back over her shoulders and says, "If I stay in the water. I'm going north, near the falls."

Her head tilts. "Behind you." Fucking monkeys.
rhinemaid: actress mia kirshner (if i'd ruined your life ♠)

[personal profile] rhinemaid 2011-05-29 11:04 am (UTC)(link)
The instant she surfaces in Brock Marsh, Ilde regrets it - she doesn't need to be on dry land to see how much worse it is here, and she sinks lower in the water (eye-level) before she can draw unwanted attention. She shouldn't linger here, she knows, she should dive deep and swim much faster...but there are a few of those little primate bastards near the river's edge, and Ilde has a good arm, and it's just a little too tempting.

The monkey she catches first - she launches herself backwards out of range of the others after snaking one away - is bleeding to death already as she flings it through the air, but it probably won't die before she can find out whether or not Alucard will catch it in his mouth like popcorn.

[identity profile] ofminastirith.livejournal.com 2011-05-29 01:37 pm (UTC)(link)
At some point, Boromir manages to make his way through streets of hurried, screaming city goers, fighting as he goes along. He is extremely lost (not that he has anywhere to really go, or anyone to miss him). And so he finds himself doing what he always does in this particular situation in the wilds of Middle Earth -finding a water source and following it.

He sees another stalker, but this time has the advantage of being behind it. He beheads it, before quickly turning the beast over and ramming his sword into its diseased appendages again and again.

Grim faced and with his fair share of scratches, he scans this area of the Gross Tar for familiar scenery.
rhinemaid: actress mia kirshner (still behold me at your side ♠)

[personal profile] rhinemaid 2011-05-29 01:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Perhaps if Boromir is observant, he'll realize that he's being studied back - big blue eyes, so dark they appear black at first glance, just barely above the water-line. Ilde isn't interested in getting caught in battles before she reaches Raven's Gate and her own territory, but it pays to know what's going on and this is not the first time that she's used an ability to move through the water for something like reconnaisance.

It's always an interesting experiment in stifling instinct; luring humans into the water is mischief more than anything else, most of the time, a gleeful pay attention to me! from the fey creatures that lurk there, but now's really not the time to start playing games with people who are heavily armed. Or anyone, for that matter, since she's got more important things on her own mind, like 'not dying'.

(The mind is a tool; Ilde's could really use a manual in a language she knows how to read. And a psychiatrist.)

If her eyes don't catch his attention, the death-shriek of the monkey whose neck she just snapped might do it.

[identity profile] returntous.livejournal.com 2011-05-29 02:13 pm (UTC)(link)
This was not the weirdest thing Mabel had ever taken a baseball bat to, or even the scariest, but it was not fucking easy.

The Brock Marsh street she had been walking down exploded with claws and feathers, to the horror of her and everyone else. She'd dragged two boys into the closest shop - a bookstore with the world's most unfortunately large windows - and had them and the shopkeeper brace shelving against those windows as much as they could. The birds furled against the windows like an angry cloud; at the sight of the first crack, Mabel had banished the other three to the windowless thick door of the storeroom in the back. She'd barricade them in, if she had to.

The windows were tougher than they looked. The small window on the front door was another story, those black furious balls trying to squeeze through the break in it all at once. They manage it one by one, only to be bashed into submission by Mabel wielding the shopkeeper's bat. The cracks in the larger windows were getting bigger and the crows weren't going down without a fight.

Her arms are starting to bleed.

[identity profile] ofminastirith.livejournal.com 2011-05-29 02:16 pm (UTC)(link)
There's someone in the water. The thought comes quickly to his mind, and he knows just as quickly that that person isn't drowning or in danger, and his instincts tell him that there isn't something quite clicking into place about it all.

He makes his way cautiously to the river's edge, not ready to fight but his sword isn't going away either.

"Who goes there?"
rhinemaid: actress mia kirshner (that's a good time to be leaving ♠)

[personal profile] rhinemaid 2011-05-29 02:19 pm (UTC)(link)
While some impulses it's important to resist, others it is less so, and frankly she isn't that good at it in the first place - that's why she worries about the important ones, and tends to let everything else go. That's logical. It's sound thinking.

(She was terribly proud of herself for that one.)

So, peering up at him with a bloodied knife in hand, "Who wants to know?"

[identity profile] ofminastirith.livejournal.com 2011-05-29 02:44 pm (UTC)(link)
She is-

He's spent the past year in the company of Halfling, Dwarves, Elves and Maiar (although he doesn't know the last part, but Gandalf was old when his grandfather was young and so it wouldn't have surprised him). Before that he spent the better part of his life fighting the hordes of Mordor. And then he died. And he was brought here. Even today's events haven't felt that unusual in the grand scheme of his life.

Still, this is a different kind of -xenian? That's the word they use- than the ones that live in Middle Earth. And he is not easily surprised, so congratulations.

After a pause, he replies, "Boromir, son of Denethor."

Page 1 of 18