multiversallogs | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Eddie isn't doing so well, staying put at the Inn. He isn't especially good at fighting, and doesn't know anything about first aid, either, but he has plans, always, and he wants to do something.

He's traded out the nice suit the city brought here with him for a cheaper shirt, and a long coat that's boring but that's the point. Once that was settled, he applied himself to the Inn's defenses as best he's able and as much as anyone in charge will actually let him assist. His ideas themselves are quite workable, but he's so darn overenthusiastic and convoluted about it. After getting into an argument with someone over whether or not their idea was completely stupid, Eddie heads over to the window to look outside, and sighs.

Rachel's attention is pulled away from her surveillance of the street outside at that sigh. She looks over at Eddie, offering a friendly, encouraging smile.

"Hey. Everything okay?"

"Hm," he says, considering his answer for a bit, when a simple "yes" or "no" would do. He isn't smiling, though, and only glances at Rachel briefly, keeping most of his attention on the world outside the window.

"I've been dropped into another universe where physics works differently, but I don't get access to the weird magic. I could be out there doing something. That's really frustrating, you know? No one's even said how common something like this is."

He taps the glass, then immediately wipes the slight, possibly non-existent smudge with the sleeve of his coat. Then he smiles and actually looks over at her. "But, I'm not bleeding or anything. How are ~you~?"

"Yeah, I noticed the brochure didn't mention this crap right here," Rachel says, sighing as she surveys the street beyond the window. "If the place regularly turns into Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom you think that's some stuff they'd bring up."

She turns slightly, so she's still got a view of the inn's entrance but she can also give Eddie her attention. "And thank you for asking--I've been better but at least I'm not outside."

That makes him giggle, looking back out the window. "I want Marlin Perkins to narrate this so bad."

Then back to her, again. He's a little restless, here. "Aw, at least it's safe inside, yeah. With nonsense going down, being safe and bored is a luxury. That's very true." If he reminds himself of that, perhaps it will feel that way.

"That'd make it like, way better, right?"

She smiles, but it fades as her gaze drifts back out over the street. "It is. But... it shouldn't be. Like--everyone should be able to be safe and bored if they want. They should have the choice. Not this."

Eddie's smile fades, too, mostly in response to her own reaction. He has to remind himself of these things, too. Right, other people take this kind of thing seriously. It is not a game when other people are in danger. It is not a game, even if it really does seem like a game. Even if people are getting pulled from their homes and set down in a neat little city in a bottle surrounded by monsters, it is not a game. Remember.

"Yeah," he says, resigned. "This sucks."

Oh, now she's gone and made him feel bad. She didn't mean to.

"Sorry. I'm sure things will be okay." She offers a faint smile. "I'm Rachel."

"Oh, yeah?" He doesn't cheer up, but tilts his head, considering. "We talked before, on the network? I'm Eddie."

"Oh!" She beams at him. "Hi, Eddie! It's nice to meet you in person. ...I'm sorry it wasn't under better circumstances."

A crow hits the window, making her take a couple of quick steps backward. But the window holds. She takes a breath, the smile coming back to her face.

"So are you still staying here at the Inn? Or did you come here to get out of--" she gestures outside-- "this?"

Eddie jumps when the crow smacks into the window, and then when he's recovered from his shock, and they're both still safe, he dissolves into relieved laughter.

"Aw, aw man, hah... nono, I'm staying here. I was going to start my job, and I'm sure that will all go as planned once ~the weather~ clears up. It's good to meet you in person, too!"

Now that she's sure the window will hold and there will not actually be any cases of Sudden Crow to the Face in here, Rachel relaxes a bit, smiling at Eddie. "So you found work? Where?"

"Organizational stuff for the paper." He waves a hand through the air. He is really glad to have work, but it's already beneath him. "I'm going to be doing puzzles for them, too. It'll be great. Once people can actually sit and read in peace, eh?"

He keeps watching the window, waiting for another bird to smack into it, because now it's amusing. "What are you going to do?"

"That sounds like a great job. I hope your work's really successful."

She's pleased that he's found work--she feels like doing that is one more step toward independence, toward trying to establish oneself here. The city's left them no choice.

"I'm working at the Shrove's Wing. It's a teahouse in Gallmarch. It's fun, so far."

And something to do, for money, until she finds something better. She wanted out of the inn, wanted to be on her own, and getting work was the only way to do that.

plot } the creatures descend.

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