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

"Not in my experience." Balthier crouches down across from her, getting a closer look at the things. "I've seen some bizarre wild creatures, but never in a civilized area like this. And certainly not ones that inspire people to cast off their insides."

Ew. He wrinkles his nose, though there's more serious thought happening behind his dramatic little reactions. "It looks like something a child mashed together," he remarks. "Brought to life."

Somewhere up the street, there's a startled shriek, and a few people run noisily out of a cafe. Balthier raises his eyebrows.

A child with a seriously twisted sense of curiosity. "I was just thinking the same," Max agrees with a nod as she stands. "I've seen things similar to it - things that looked like they were made in a lab, but they looked that way for a reason. I don't know - "

But then she hears the scream, and turns to see the group running out. She looks back at Balthier with a frown. She's not feeling sick this time and no one else seems to be either, so it's got to be for another reason.

"Now what the hell is going on?" she asks, not expecting an answer or waiting for one to come. She gets to her feet and starts running for the building.

Fantastic. Running about with everything going to hell. Balthier heaves a sigh, slightly dramatic, but heads after Max a moment later, tapering to a halt in front of the doors of the restaurant. He squints to see into the darkened room, and there's - what? A bird? Some great black corvus perched on the bar, blood dripping from its beak.

"Something isn't right," he states, and while yes, that is quite obvious, thank you Balthier, it's worth mentioning, he feels. This is too many bizarre events in the span of five minutes to be a coincidence. Calling out: "Is anyone hurt in there?" He can see several people huddled in the back, still.

It's worth mentioning, and he might as well have because Max can't summon any words right now. She can see in the dark, and the threatening shape is, indeed, a bird, and there's also a few shapes that look suspiciously like bodies littering the ground.

"I'm not so sure they can hear you," she says, her voice wavering in a manner totally uncharacteristic for her, because seriously, what the fuck. She clears her throat and calls out again anyway, just in case: "If anyone needs medical assistance, call out."

Silence.

Comforting.

He glances over at the woman beside him. "I'm Balthier."

... A short moment, apparently on the precipice of something he's about to follow that up with.

No one's answering, and Max's spine stiffens as she backs slowly away from the doorway. If the bird's still hungry, she doesn't want to be dessert.

The guy offers his name, and after a moment she glances up and him and nods, swallowing hard before speaking. "Max."

"Max." Allrightythen. Balthier takes out one of the guns he's carrying in belts slung across his hips, and hands it to her. It's not anything particularly Earth-specific, looking more like some kind of twisted hybrid of a flint-lock pistol and an automatic rifle. (Video games. It happens.) "If you would be so kind as to shoot that thing if it cuts me in half, I'd appreciate it."

He's going in there? ... Seems that way.

Not an unreasonable request - at least, it wouldn't be for anyone else on the planet, especially one with a military background - but Max shakes her head, keeping her hands at her sides.

"I don't do guns," she says, her voice firm and unwavering on the subject - it's been a personal rule of hers since she was nine, she's not about to change it if she's not going to be forced to (arms training was the first thing they started her on during her attempt at reindoctrination at Manticore, she'd hit every target perfectly and then spent a solid hour getting sick once she got back to her cell). "What else you got?"

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?"

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.

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.

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."

plot } the creatures descend.

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