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

[aconitumferox.livejournal.com]

It takes about four minutes, and while it'll still ache like hell, it's healed. Muscles and bone knitting back together is always a painful process, though, that doesn't change just because it's faster. Six steps back, blood staining her hands just a little. She should have thought about that before, but...she's not exactly experienced in the field. Her doctor sister would scold the hell out of her.

She glances over at Jim with a small smile of confirmation--halfway there--and then looks back at Martel.

"There. Your ribs should be better now...and I didn't get the impression of any other internal injury." Breathing is now a possibility! "Do you want a painkiller or something?"

[captaincocksure]

Jim stands there, just staying out of the way though he watches intently. He can't see anything happening. Is it some sort of magic? Energy transference? Though to be fair, it's not like he ever knew what Bones was doing, either.

"Thank you," he says. And no, he's not the one who received the help, but he's grateful for Six being willing to give it, grateful Martel is now mended. Grace and good manners are something he's learned as he's grown into command.

[apostatised]

God in heaven has he accidentally adopted one of those.

(The dry look Jim receives over his shoulder is one of a man who suspects that now he's fed the stray, it's not going away. ...he's inclined to like him, he's just got to be himself about it. At all times.)

"No, thank you." Heaven forfend he even sidle towards the easy way of anything. "If you might do something about my back, the rest will keep." As he says this, he's straightening away from the table, peeling what's left of his shirt away from him. The scar on his chest is hard to miss when he turns briefly to get a better idea of the room they're in now he's not concentrating on not developing flail chest; something large went through him like a knife through hot butter and he should not be alive. "I'll take care of the small things," he says, briefly.

[aconitumferox.livejournal.com]

The scar is a little unsettling, but she chooses not to think about what did it (people don't survive chest wounds that come out the other side, and especially not if they're from a technologically deprived era and world). Or why. Not right now, anyway--later, she'll wonder, and maybe wish she'd asked, but presently it is not the time.

"All right. I'll disinfect first, and...for the record, it'll sting a bit." 'A bit' is, once again, sort of an understatement, though she goes around the wounds and not directly on them with the cloth she uses to clean up the blood. "Just stay seated, though, or I won't be able to reach very well."

Martel is a giant, okay, and she is small.

[captaincocksure]

He has indeed adopted one of those. But Martel's dry look is met with a look of polite confusion; you see, the those in question does not yet realize he's become one of those, it's an ongoing and pretty new process.

He leans on a wall, staying well out of the way. Instinct has him wanting to offer help but er, no, he's not the professional, here. He's a captain, not a doctor.

...He's got to stop reminding himself of home.

[apostatised]

Once he's eased down to sit, Martel's not inclined to get up again for the foreseeable future - so that's something. He rests his elbows on the table in front of him, his weight forward, and endeavours not to flinch inconveniently at the sting of antiseptic.

"I'm an old hand," he says, through his teeth, "I'll behave."