The City at Large & Mission Alpha

[baedalites.livejournal.com]

Who: OPEN to all residents.
What: The ant-situation is changing!
Where: Throughout the city.
When: NOW. This thread will likely cover a few days.
Warnings: To be updated.

Dear Mission Alpha,

It is your undeniable privilege to bring back as many of the so-called 'crow pearls' as possible to the Temple. Any temple. No one important cares how you do it, just get it done. Try to be substantial about it, let's say more than 50, hmm? The actual task here is to deprive our deranged ant-friends of as many pearls as possible, but no one is going to be rewarded for stories like 'oh we absolutely threw two tons of pearls down the whirlpool, we swear on our broodmother's grave', okay? Okay. Peachy. Bring me the pearls, chop chop.

Your totally sweet gods have decided to lend you some ...boons I guess, however that goes, to aid you in your quest. Useful objects. For you, my gifted pilferers and negotiators:

A Skeleton Key - it will open any unwarded lock. It will not open warded locks. That means magical locks. No magical locks will be opened with this key. Unless the magic is broken first. Good luck with that.

Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card - I realize no one has bothered to build proper jail cells in Our City yet so it's more of a Fend-off-The-Local-Authorities-Free Card but that's not as catchy. Think of it as An Official Voucher From the Gods that says you're on Official Twelve Point Business and can't be arrested right now. Keep it for the Sheriffs as it might not have the desired effect the Militia.

Privacy Ward or App For Your CiD - Well you don't want to get caught leaking signals and communication everywhere, do you.

It is a week and some change after the ants first noticeably began their labour and it seems they have finished rebuilding their houses. It's hard to see exactly what is going on from the ground, but the brave few who have ventured into and up the hives or climbed neighbouring buildings get a good enough view. The rooftops are now crowned with organic spires, much like malformed and undernourished termite nests reaching for the heavens. They are not the best constructs, some of them have broken off or imploded, but the majority of the spires stand.

Then one morning, individual ants are seen climbing to the very top of their towers. They then sit still, mandibles locked and antennae arched. It's hours before any change becomes noticeable, and by then it's too late. The ants have sprouted strange fleshy fungal tentacles, all filled to the bursting with spores.

Soon there after, reports come in from all across the city about people acting out of character; some have become catatonic or violent after brief a period of sickness. Individuals have been seen entering the ant-occupied buildings to help defend the ants against intruders, others have attempted to climb high points in the city or thrown themselves in the rivers.

Once again the City is under siege, but this time the enemy is invisible.

Comments

[apostatised]

"Good man." The nearest hive isn't that far away, and Martel's inclined to ride hard - but navigating the streets without actually riding down civilians (at this proximity, Jim can probably feel the momentary hesitation when he nearly does it anyway) requires enough finesse that he's not making the pace he'd prefer.

Almost as an afterthought, taking a corner and jerking Kalten away from oncoming pedestrians, "Martel of Damerel, by the by. Lord Margrave, but who's counting here-"

At this point, Jim's grip is a very good thing as Martel's weight shifts and then Kalten jumps someone's rudimentary blockade.

[captaincocksure]

He's impressed with the horse handling; he's got enough experience to recognize what's happening, the control, the choices being made. (And just enough to know he couldn't do it with such skill, but shhh.)

"Good to meet you, Martel," he replies, loud enough to be heard over the din of their surroundings, the movement around them. "You can call me Jim."

He feels Martel move, realizes he's readjusting his balance for--there it is. Jim shifts too, holding himself up through the jump. "Nicely done. So what do we gain by you bringing one of these things down?"

[apostatised]

"The illness originates there," he explains, pushing Kalten faster as they strike a clear path away from milling civilians - there are fewer wandering ill as they get away from the riverside and the fog. "In each of those. The Candlelighter creatures have been protecting them, as well as building more. I'm inclined to think if they're worth protecting, they'd ought to be destroyed."

...simple, yet elegant. The Elene fetish for logic leads men like Martel down some truly fascinating paths.

[captaincocksure]

Jim can't argue with that reasoning. It's good tactics.

...If Spock were here he'd maybe declare Martel's logic sound. Jim has a pang of missing his First Officer, just for a moment, but then the moment's passed and his focus is back on the plan.

"At the very least it's worth kicking the front door in to see what's inside. I'm with you. Let's do this."

[apostatised]

"The door's been kicked and the information's been taken," Martel says, matter of fact, "all that's left now is to bring down the building."

He isn't, notably, explaining how he intends to do that; that's not accidental. They don't have time for Kirk to decide he's a madman and argue the reality of sorcery - god only knows the man's context, but even in Martel's own world the believers are few and far between outside of the knighthoods and Styricum - so he's not going to bother with it. He'll see it for himself soon enough.

[captaincocksure]

"Then it's coming down. I'll cover you, just show me where."

He assumes Martel has a plan. It hasn't occurred to him to ask what the plan is, exactly. So much is happening at once, and Martel seems like a guy who knows what he's doing. Get things done now, sort it all out later.

[apostatised]

Martel wheels in close to the hive-house - ants and infected civilians alike mill around it, and as he'd suggested earlier, the citizens in evidence weren't all human. They seemed disinclined to engage anyone, but it was clear enough that the hive was their priority, and that they wouldn't care for intervention.

"Here," he says, tersely, vaulting down smoothly and resisting the urge to draw his sword; he's going to need both hands for what he plans to do, and it's not a weapon terribly useful in a non-lethal capacity. When Kirk is down, too, he sends Kalten charging through to scatter them as an initial distraction before he starts moving toward the hive itself.

[captaincocksure]

Jim jumps down right after Martel, taking a moment to assess the situation. The hive is this way, and for the moment, thanks to Kalten, the people and ants are tearing in about twenty different directions, all away from the hive.

"Go, go, go," he urges, waving. "I've got you."

He moves toward the hive, too, but backpedaling slowly, watching for the shift back he knows must be coming if what Martel tells him about the protectors is right. The activity dies down and there's a momentary lull as all parties involved stop and think about what happens next.

And then they begin to converge, coming back from all those directions in which they'd scattered. Kirk steals a glance back over his shoulder; Martel has moved closer and so far hasn't been blocked or bothered.

He braces, watching the ants and people move closer and closer.

[apostatised]

The hum of Martel's power building as he works is like a bell tolling to the magically sensitive - he's still refining the finesse he had before, handling his own power in his own hands without the assistance of a god moving in tandem with him, but in this case, the brute force of his power and his skill is precisely what he needs. If he miscalculates and it comes down harder-

Well, so much the damn better.

(His mastery improves every day; this will be just one more.)

[captaincocksure]

"Ladies and gentlemen-- and ants. I need everyone to take three steps back right now."

He's sure the request will get him nowhere, no matter how authoritative he sounds. But it's the rules of engagement--give the civilians a warning before you go in, fists flying.

They don't listen. It's creepy, the way they all advance toward the hive as one. Arms and hands start flailing as they approach striking distance, trying to scare him off, clear him out, knock him down. Jim uses those to his advantage, grabbing, twisting, casting bodies aside.

The ants... he wishes he had a phaser now. He grabs a long piece of wood, a scrap from something overrun to make this hive, and he swings it in a wide arc, batting a pair of them to one side and forcing the others to stop. They hang back and he's sure they're merely recalculating their advance.

The people regroup. His wooden weapon gets turned on them too, carefully-aimed blows meant to take people off their feet and knock the wind out of them without permanent damage.

[apostatised]

Kirk's on his own with them, with Martel unable to afford to split his attention; he's aware enough of his surroundings to make sure his movements around the hive itself keep him out of easy reach, but his mind is necessarily elsewhere, following the smooth and practised motions of his hands, dipping into his well of power and feeling it moving through him, out into the world, changing and shifting-

The moment he releases the spell, nobody in the vicinity needs to be sensitive to realize. The change comes suddenly but in segments, bringing the hive down from beneath as the supports of the structure begin consecutively turning into sand, rushing out-

Martel, in the midst of this, is doing his best to bolt through the rushing sand before the whole damn thing comes down his head, but it's fast and forceful and he's stumbling, sweating with the exertion that was the spell itself in the first place.

[captaincocksure]

Jim feels the hive start to fall, senses it, before he sees it. He's aware of movement behind him, shifting, the sense of something coming down. He glances back to see it start to crumble, then his attention returns to the still-advancing people and ants.

...And then he has to hazard a second look because in the instant it took him to look away he processes that he saw Martel in the thick of it. In the falling, crashing sand, not at a safe distance.

Jim flings his makeshift weapon at the crowd, knocking a few back. He whirls and dives into the shifting sands, hunting for his comrade. "Martel!" There's sand coming down all around him and the would-be protectors of the hive are incensed by this development, clambering after him.

[apostatised]

The internal monologue of one Martel of Damerel is presently not anything he'd repeat in mixed company, a litany of curses intermingled with the inevitable satisfaction of his own brilliance (...look). Mixing with the sand is the debris of the structure that was above, and it's that that strikes him in the back, driving him down to his knees as he drags himself through the sand on the ground. His hands scrape against the sand and the stone beneath, his shirt is torn and bloody at the back, and he's familiar enough with broken ribs to know he's going to be feeling today for a long while.

Down the street, Kalten's muscles bunch as he clears a second blockade to charge back towards his master and his master's new friend, through the hive's guardians.

[captaincocksure]

The giant ants and the enchanted people giving chase to Jim stop short of where the sand is rushing down from on high, survival instinct kicking in for just a moment. That's enough time for Kalten to rush in and scatter them again.

Jim very nearly reaches Martel before he's knocked down, vanishing momentarily under a flow of sand. Everything is still for one second, two, three, and then there's a small explosion of sand, Jim popping up from below.

"Martel!" He clears the sand from his face, coughing to clear a bit of grit from his airway, and then he's dragging himself through the sand, feeling this way and that.

[apostatised]

The clatter of hooves, the rush of bodies and his name all sound irrelevant as all the nerves in his body scream a protest at their treatment - sand streams into the open wounds on his back, his ribs jostled painfully as he struggles to get from his knees to his feet. Kalten is wheeling around for a second approach, and through the ache and the sand and the rush of his own blood in his ears, Martel is relatively sure he can catch the reins this time.

He grasps Jim's arm when they reach each other, and his voice is rough and low when he says, "You'd damned well better be able to steer," because they need to get away from here and his head is still ringing where stone rolled down his back and left a bloody lump before it hit the ground and drove dust up into his eyes.

[captaincocksure]

"I can." It's said with conviction, confidence. He may be many years removed from regular horse riding but the basics never leave you.

Martel's hand closes around his arm, and Jim raises his other arm to grasp Martel's wrist. "Can you stand?" he asks. He wants to get Martel to his feet but he doesn't want to bodily haul the man up if doing so would damage him further.

Kalten is bearing down on the others again, scattering the few that had the nerve to regroup and make another attempt to get to Martel and Jim. He readies himself, thigh muscles tensed and ready to lift them both if Martel gives the word.

[apostatised]

"I will." Which isn't exactly the same thing as being sure he can or even should, but he is perhaps best described as unrelenting and there are few exceptions to that rule. If any. He keeps a firm grip, and when Kalten's close enough- "Now-"

[captaincocksure]

He doesn't miss the choice of words--if the guy says he will, then he will, and Jim's going to trust in that. Kalten draws near and they rise as one, the horse's reins caught to stay him while they climb back on.

"Fastest route out of here?" Jim demands as he takes the reins. "We should get to one of the temples, or somewhere else safe. I know someone who can offer some medical help if you need it."

[apostatised]

"Left, forward," Martel half-groans, fabric and blood and sand and torn skin scraping against each other whenever he shifts or is jolted by the movement of the horse beneath them. "Further into the city, avoid the river. Who?"

[captaincocksure]

Left and forward Kalten goes, indulging Jim's guidance. "Marie-Sixtine St. Vincent," he calls over his shoulder, and if either of his best-officers-slash-close-friends were here they'd be staggered at him getting the pronunciation exactly right, he imagines. "I spoke with her about the same time I did with you. She offered her assistance if it was needed. I think it's needed."

He steers the horse away from the river, easily leaving behind the infuriated masses at the toppled hive.

[apostatised]

"Her?" Of course. He remembers her - the woman he stole from birds. What a day this is becoming. "I grant I've had better days." Much better days. Worse ones, too, as will become apparent when he inevitably has to discard his ruined shirt. "Her, then."

[captaincocksure]

"Her it is," Jim replies, and pardon if there's a tiny hint of a knowing smile in his tone. He and the lady are obviously acquainted.

He gets out his CiD at once, managing to properly set up the call and make it while steering Kalten deeper into the city. He explains, as brief and thorough with Six as she was with him earlier today; she gives him directions to the temple where she's taken shelter.

"She'll be waiting," he calls back over his shoulder, stowing his CiD. "You all right for now?"

[apostatised]

No less dry for being all the more hoarse, Martel says, "I'll live."

...it's sort of a private joke.

[captaincocksure]

Joke or not, Jim will take it.

He speeds toward the temple--God, he's missed this, you know, tearing along over the ground on a horse--and he pulls Kalten up outside the doors, taking a moment to secure the horse's reins.

He hops down and stands ready to help Martel down if he needs it. "She's inside."

[apostatised]

Whether he likes it or not - he doesn't - Martel catches a firm, slightly bloody grip of Jim's shoulder (which just digs grit and grime into his scraped open palm) as his dismount bears a far too close resemblance to 'falling off'. Now that they're out of the chaos, it's easier to see how badly off he got himself, the mess that's been made of his back and how much it costs him to stay upright and steady.

But he does, of course, because his ego is damned near to being a physical force. Inside, then.