capeandcowllogs | DRAIN YOU OF YOUR SANITY

Entry tags:

DRAIN YOU OF YOUR SANITY

WHO: The Emissary and co. versus everybody
WHERE: Off the coast of Battery Park and throughout the City
WHEN: Just before midnight October 31st (technically November 1st)
WARNINGS: Violence and frightening imagery
SUMMARY: Drawn by Illidan’s magic, a demon from beyond reality has come forth to help the Betrayer doom the world. The battle that saves or destroys everything has begun. Happy Halloween, Cityverse!
FORMAT: Paragraph to start, whatever works after.

It came.

The Moon of midnight on All Hallow’s Eve shone wetly on the waters of the City’s Harbour. From beneath the surface a rumbling could be heard, as though emanating far, far below, within abyssal depths and ancient fathoms that could not possibly be there. First there was a ripple, then a wave, then the creature began to arise from the waters. It slid upwards and upwards, rising smoothly and continuously out of the ocean like a living edifice, a vast Thing ancient and immovable, a walking island sunken no longer. The head then the shoulders then the wings then the misshapen body came forth, yet still more of Its bulk remained beneath the waters, with slow thighs beginning to move It towards the City. All around it the sky and the ocean seemed to darken with an almost positive quality, as though jet-black ink was spilling into the universe itself. The Emissary had come.

Water flowed off Its body in torrents, mixing with drool and ichor. An unending series of sickly slopping and slobbering noises came from the twitching forest of tentacles around Its mouth, the product of a ravening hunger. The ocean heaved immensely around the Titan form, waves thrashing from the power of Its body. How to describe such a thing? How to even conceive of such horror, outside of madness or nightmare? That immense octopus head crowning the terrible body, those dragon-bat wings sprouting from Its back, those rubbery, sea-green scales, the mingled and loathsome aspects of the reptile, the mollusc- and the human! For it was on two feet that It moved, and with two arms did the Emissary reach out toward the morsels It slavered for.

An aura of panic and despair announced It, greater than any herald’s trumpet. Merely to look upon that incomprehensible shape and its alien geometry was to gamble with one’s sanity. Its very presence emanated a sense of immeasurable insignificance and absence of meaning, as though all the Earth was plankton in the presence of a whale. It moved with a shambling, unwholesome motion that had nothing to do with clumsiness, gathering speed. A mountain walked or stumbled! Toward the City, toward the Well. Toward the end of the world.

[ooc: goddamndoomchat is open on AIM if anyone's interested! There are some people fighting the Emissary who have not been slotted into threads yet; we will work those out as we go along! The raid against Illidan in Central Park will be posted by Jill later. Have fun everybody!]

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Sofia was up in the air, she had been using her wind power to direct the debris away from those few trapped citizens, when she saw the wall of fire. Turning in the air she felt she felt a cold shiver of fear run through herself but she tried to push it away and landed beside her partner.

"This is nuts."

The Emissary cared little for Wesley's barrier. Whatever dark power the Porter had awakened within the human, the monstrosity had exponentially more. It strode through the wall of fire without so much as flinching, despite the blackening and peeling upon Its legs where the flames scorched them. The moment It was through the barrier, the wounds immediately began to heal as though they had never been.

Once the wall was breached, the Emissary took a moment to deal with the magical gnat. One massive clawed paw brushed the roof of a tower only a little, and cascading debris plummeted towards Wesley, a shower of jagged glass and steel. Then It saw Sofia, the source of the wind in the air. Its gaze fixed upon her. Powerful psychic energies began to probe at her psyche, the aura of despair and madness starting to make itself felt upon its target.

[ooc: No word yet on whether more characters will be joining this thread, so we'll carry on with this for now!]

Edited 2011-10-30 23:34 (UTC)

That was more than a little concerning. Wesley pulled deeper within himself. The veins of his eyes darkened and his once blue eyes turned black. Something in him stirred but he ignored it so that he could focus all his energy on sending the falling debris away from him and towards the massive thing before him heading towards its eyes.

Ginny was frightened in a way she had not been since the Battle of Hogwarts. All around her, it seemed like the world was ending. She had thought she would die before. She had stared it in the face and survived because her friends had fought alongside her. She was unwavering in her belief that the same kind of unity could turn the tide now. She hurried to help, adding her magic to that of the man who was fighting the creature with Sofia. That emission of fear and despair hit her as she got closer, and her reaction was instinctive. She drew her wand and thought of home, her whole family around her and Harry beside her. Holding onto that thought, she cried "Expecto Patronum!" and a silver Patronus shaped like a horse erupted from the end of her wand. It raced upwards to help, combatting the Emissary's aura of despair.

Sofia's eyes widened and she took a step back. A cold weight settled around her heart. She began to wonder why she was here. Now that she had seen the enemy, how were they going to stop it? They should have left the city along the others and let him have the city. She shook her head, no, they had to stop it, but they couldn't. It felt like there was another voice in her head with her own voice trying to tell her that was the voice to listen to. She barely noticed Ginny joining them her eyes were locked on the monster.

Her wind started to die down, she wasn't even sure it was doing anything.

The Emissary saw the pile of debris being magically directed towards Its face, turned Its great head slightly, and opened Its mouth wide. Its tentacles moved to funnel the razor glass and crumbled concrete and splintered wood straight into Its maw. Its head pulsated a couple times with chewing, and then the entire jagged mass was swallowed with contemptuous ease.

Yet now there was something new in front of It, a tiny silver bit of magic fashioned like a tiny insignificant animal, but somehow the power within that thing was great enough to disrupt the Emissary's aura. It was a little lantern of hope within the darkness, and it was unacceptable.

Stomping Its feet, the Emissary began to move past the three heroes, unwilling to be delayed any longer. Around Its terrible progress It brought ruin. Walls collapsed into the street, vehicles were smashed flat beneath Its weight, fire hydrants were knocked over to release streams of water bursting upwards.

With every step the Emissary focused Its terrible psychic and magic powers, extending and intensifying Its aura, trying to drown the very concept of hope or meaning beneath a tide of darkness. The darkness of Halloween midnight seemed to intensify all around the creature, light fading or becoming insubstantial. Courage was futile, sanity an illusion, the Earth a speck of sand- this was the nightmare revelation with which the creature tried to fill the minds of Its targets.

That was frustrating. Wesley frowned and stood his ground as the ground around them shook. Whatever the Weasley girl was doing upset the Thing enough to cause a reaction. Looking at that bit of bright magic something in him recoiled, but he didn't waver. They had to stop this monster and Wesley would easily die trying to do just that.

Ignoring Ginny and the other girl Wesley focused in on that little seed inside himself letting it take hold of him and use his body. This was more magic than he had ever attempted and yet it was still just a tiny bit compared to a seasoned user. His eyes became black and just for a moment he radiated darkness. He could feel himself drying up. This was something his core wasn't used to and it rebelled against him. With the last of his energy Wesley released a binding spell; Infinite Agonies was a terrible thing to unleash even upon an enemy.

Blood began to drip from Wesley's nose and he was falling to the ground without even seeing if the dark spell affected the monster.

She wasn't sure it had been a good idea to venture out from the clinic, but -- well, she was very certain that there were going to be people out in the field who needed help, and she couldn't just leave them to die.

It was the dark magic that drew Wesley to her attention -- even if she didn't have much practice using it herself, she'd seen enough of it done to know what it looked like. Her first thought was Severus -- then Tom Riddle, which would be equal parts horrific and wondrous -- but when she arrived at the source, she was surprised to find a familiar face.

She pursed her lips. Hn. Maybe that was why he was Severus' friend.

Andromeda dropped to her knees next to Wes, muttering a handful of protective charms before she started to hover her wand over his body. As long as no literal red lights went off, she'd be able to transport him to the emergency clinic. Side-along apparation wasn't something she'd done much of yet, so she wasn't exhausted from it.

Uninjured but completely exhausted Wesley didn't even stir at Andromeda's arrival. The blood that had come from his nose was already drying, but should anyone check his eyes they would see that the veins and iris' were still black. Dark magic was nothing to play around with when you were unused to your own abilities.

There was still a feeling of dark around him, but that could just as easily be coming from the beast as it could be coming from Wesley.

Possible, but not -- probable. She frowned. Taking him to the clinic could be a risk if he'd somehow gone off the magical deep-end, so she settled for shifting her arms awkwardly around him and apparating them both to a spot just outside the gym's doors.

They collapsed there a moment later, Andromeda sagging with the effort of holding Wes up. At least now that she didn't have to worry about apparation as well, she could levitate him if she had to. She laid him gently on the ground, checking his pupils and then giving him a gentle shake. Maybe he'd ... just wake up, maybe not.

The appararation stirred him, calling for him to try and reach inside for that dark magic again. His fist clenched as he forced himself to ignore that siren's call and tried to wake. The change in scenery was disconcerting.

"Mhmn." He wanted to talk, to get up and move, to do more magic, but he was tired enough to simply and happily lay there.

"You're at the emergency clinic, Wes." Hopefully her voice sounded familiar enough that he wasn't going to lash out at her or anything like that.

"It seems that you ... passed out from exertion, I'm guessing."

The words flew over his head, but the voice he recognized. "Andromeda..." He tried to open his eyes but his lids felt like lead.

"Demon. Did the spell hit?"

"I didn't stick around to find out. Call me crazy."

Not dying seemed more important, at that point. She shifted to place a hand on his forehead and check for a fever.

"How do you feel? Aside from, I assume, a bit drained." Possibly literally.

"Sore. Tired. Not sick." He didn't flinch from the contact, but he was surprised at how cool her hand felt. Sighing heavily he opened his eyes slightly. They were beginning to fade back to blue.

"I suppose I have you to thank for the save then?"

She nodded.

"The dark magic sort of sent up a mental flare for me -- I thought it might've been another wizard I knew."

When he opened his eyes, she was glad to see the blackness fading from them. "Apparently not. You're feeling a little warm -- but it might still be good for you to come into the clinic to get checked out, just in case."

That was...slightly worrying. He didn't want her to get the idea he was a bad person, not that it mattered what she thought, but still...

"I'd rather not be subjected to being poked and prodded. I'll just sit, or lie, here and then go home when I can actually move of my own volition." Wesley paused and thought about something. "How did we get here?"

"I'd feel better if you at least got some fluids in you. I promise I'll be the only one poking or prodding, if that helps."

She smirks, shaking her head. "I apparated us. One of the more useful magical tricks of my world, evidently."

"I have water at home." And alcohol which would probably make his headache worse, but it would also dull the ache in his body.

His eyebrow raised and he nearly grinned. "I'm full of jealousy right now. Such a trick would come into great use."

"I wasn't talking about water -- electrolytes. It'll help you feel better faster."

Andromeda laughed at his statement. "It's come in more useful here when there's fewer people who know to make magical barriers to keep it out."

Ginny was worried. Andromeda was helping Wesley, but Sofia still appeared to be suffering, and Ginny's Patronus wasn't doing enough. She moved closer, trusting her spell to keep herself safe from Cthulu's aura of despair.

"Sofia, can you hear me? Come close to me, I can help you!"

That probably meant needles since Wes was not about to drink a bottle of Pedialyte. "I have sports drinks at home although I doubt cabs are answering calls at the moment."

He sighed and tried to sit up. "Really Andromeda, I thank you for your help, but I'm quite capable of taking care of myself." And just to prove that point he fell back down too tired to actually sit up on his own.

"I doubt very much that you are capable of taking care of yourself, Wesley. A strong wind looks like it might blow you down at any moment." And then -- well, it turned out he didn't need to even have a wind do that for him.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "I'll be gentle, I promise."

"That's somehow less than comforting." Still he manages a slight smile and gives into her care. "Would you then be able to get me home? I really would rather convalesce in my own bed."

"I think I could manage to swing that if you promise to sit through a banana bag. Do you think it'll be safe where your home is, though?" That was an important question.

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