capeandcowllogs | DRAIN YOU OF YOUR SANITY

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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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"You made me drop my other one," he teased, accepting the offer. "My lighter should be in the same pocket. You're sure you want to stay? I mean, I know you like watching me work, but..." His lips twisted around the fresh cigarette. Now was not the time to piss her off, so he bit back what he was about to say about protecting her. He still thought it, though.

He squinted ahead into the shadows, trying to discern what was coming from what was normally just darkness. It seemed to be a lot more than just one or two this time. There was a tearing of metal and the crashing that sounded a lot like parked cars being mangled, and then one of the streetlights down the block toppled like a tree in the wind. "Shit, here they come," Sanji warned Callie. "Stay behind me, I don't want to kick you by accident."

She laughed. A lighter? She just passed her hand over the tip of his cigarette and lit it on contact.

She then had to roll her eyes at him. "Oh come on do you know me at all? Of course I'm staying. Don't flatter yourself, I'm here to get my hands good and bloody." She heard what he heard, and chills ran down her back. She was planning on ignoring Sanji's warning, and just scoffed.

"...Hey, sorry about the coat."

Callie growled, letting her wings rip through the back of it, and flew ahead with a demonic screech. If Sanji had planned on making sure she wouldn't get hurt... he'd have to start running and catch up.

That was a great trick. He loved that trick. But Sanji had to just stand back with a sigh; he almost expected, as soon as she asked for the coat, that he wouldn't get it back in one piece. But he had other suitcoats. At least he didn't destroy it himself this time.

He sprang from his place and chased after Callie, head down and eyes forward. The shadows erupted with a number of grotesque forms, not a single one identical or moving the same way. Sanji slid between them with agile ease and stopped to lauch powerful kicks in all directions, scattering the pack of spawn and clearing himself space to move. He ducked the swiping claws of one and got inside its reach to kick straight up into what seemed to be its face. He backflipped out of the move and, while on his hands, whirled his feet around to deliver multiple kicks in succession, not only to that one but one of the others who had gotten up and rushed in foolishly. His last blow gave him a foothold on the second to vault up out of their reach, and while hanging in midair, he spun and gave it a hard heel strike to the side of the head.

And he was just getting warmed up.

It seemed to work out that she took flight. While Sanji was going on a kicking frenzy, Callie took to the shadows that made their way up to the buildings. From one beast to the next she seemed to be tearing right through... until there were at least three that had jumped down on her. Her amused, dark laughter was interrupted by a crash against a wall. With a grunt, she recoiled, hitting the ground. While she was strong and knew how to dismember a man before her in a matter of moments, that didn't to her a lot of good if a creature got the jump on her.

Sanji heard the crash, and turned his head just in time to see her body hit the ground. He bellowed, "Callie!" and in the next breath was tearing towards her, dodging and whirling to kick the thing that tried to grab him before he could get there. For good measure, he took an extra half-second to launch it a good ten feet in the air before returning to his mission.

He was at her side in moments, aware that the creatures were swarming on them without pause. "Callie! Are you all right? Dammit!"

Callie did have quite the fall, and the beasts swarming didn't make it any better.Damn did Sanji move fast because once she opened her eyes, there he was. Rubbing her shoulder she tried to sit up. "Oww... Yeah I'm fine."

Looking at Sanji her eyes focused behind him. "Augh! Idiot! Watch-"

A healthy group of hellspawn was right behind him.

The swiftness with which Sanji rose just enough to practically bend his leg backwards to kick was almost inhuman. He missed the one that would have knocked into all the others, though the one next to it sufficed just as well. It was a real power hit, and the thing went flying back as fast as it had been coming. Sanji's head was down, but anyone could still see his teeth gritted on his cigarette in pure fury.

"Don't you touch her!" he snarled, punctuating the word with a sideways kick to the face of the next one. He planted himself between them and Callie and just beat the ever-living crap out of any limb or torso that came within range of him for a few minutes, twisting acrobatically but not leaving that spot until Callie could get up.

She would've gotten up sooner but, yes, she couldn't help but watch. The fact he came to her aid, and was actually kicking ass doing it...? "Oh you're so getting laid tonight." It was hot, but right now wasn't the time to get excited. She knew she couldn't stay down for much longer, the demons were building up in numbers.

She transformed into full demon, just in time to stop one air-bound hellspawn from getting at Sanji. Her fighting style had become much more feral, biting its throat out and ripping off its arm to use as a weapon to hit another oncoming creature. It was a rush. A great one. One she hasn't felt in a long time.

Another came at her from behind, to which she ran against a wall with a grunt. "Sanji. Get over here." If it kept up like this, she'd have to kick it up a notch.

Sanji broke free of his spot once Callie was in the air, squashing down his reaction to getting to see her full demon form. There were more important things to worry about now, he could gawk later. All that mattered was, she was on his side. He was the last one to dismiss a monster, after all.

A few ridiculous acrobatic kicks later, he had beat the hellspawn off of him just enough to allow him to back away from the thick of it and go to her aid. "Damn bastards, get off her!" he snapped as he raced over, springing up to slam his foot in an Escalope shot to the head of one of them. "Callie!"

She latched onto him and flapped her wings, flying out of the crowd just to gain some distance. "I'm going to ask you to do something. Don't freak out."

There was one barrier between this form she currently took and the horrifying one that happened when she took out her soul. She took one of his hands and placed it on the slit above her belly button and under her ribs. Sanji surely noticed a scar there, not thinking much of it, but she breathed low. Clearly it was a sensitive area. "Reach in there until you feel a small orb. Pull it out and hold onto it and don't let anything happen to it, you hear me?"

Just in case he couldn't bring himself to stick his hand inside her torso she got him started and pushed his hand in... in reaction to the feeling, letting out a noise of pleasure.

If he was shocked of her demonic appearance now...the one to come would probably stop him in his tracks.

"O-okay..." Generally, Sanji wasn't that squeamish - he handled animal guts all the time without flinching - but sticking his hand into her torso like that while she was alive and well and one of his favorite people? That was a bit different than gutting fish. He did it anyway, clinging to her with his other arm just in case. He felt the orb, got his fingers around it, and with a small wince, pulled it free.

"Got it," he breathed. "I'll protect it with my life..."

With that, Callie transformed from something slightly intimidating tosomething horrifying, causing more rips and tears into the jacket as she easily grew another foot. If she could smile with her demonic features at this point, she would.

"Good." She flew down, letting him down. "Now don't worry about me. Worry about my soul. I'm going to demolish every last one of them."

Well that was...unexpected, to say the least. Sanji leaped out of her arms and landed agilely on the street, clutching the orb to his chest. "Your...soul? Callie!"

She had trusted him with it, though, so he took his duty extra-seriously. It was even more important than caring for a woman's heart. Fortunately, his style of fighting meant as long as he didn't do many handstands, he could protect the orb and kick some ass himself. There were plenty to go around, he wouldn't have been able to handle them all alone anyway - he knew it.

Ducking claws, tails, and tentacles, Sanji ran through the hellspawn like some kind of bizarre obstacle course, relying solely on his feet to clear his path, bestowing quick kicks where needed. He had a precious mission, though, and that meant turning his body to take a hit now and then, in order to protect the thing he held close to his chest.

His response was curious. She wasn't sure if he was confused about the fact that it was a soul or the fact she had a soul to begin with. Either way- that was a conversation for another time.

Callie didn't linger. After telling him what she had to, she went out and like the she-demon daughter of the Devil she was. She fought like a berserker without any restraint. To the creatures that attacked her when her back was turned, she compensated with her size and strength, peeling them off her body and ripping them in half.

Sanji would realize the soul he was holding was small and chirped, glowing and rolling in his palm.

Curling his long fingers around the soul orb, Sanji kept a good solid grip on it while he leaped and dashed, dispensing with strategy and going for a full course of heavy-hitting blows instead. He didn't know how intelligent these things were, or whether aiming for traditional vital points as if they had traditional bodies would do any good. But they had bones, and those could be broken easily. He relished the visceral feel, the way bodies lifted into the air under the power of his feet. Unfortunately, much like the zombie invasion, there seemed to be no end to them. He could barely stop to catch his breath before more came down the street.

It was hard to tell which of the creatures sprawled all over the avenue were still alive under the debris and body parts raining down from Callie's carnage. It shouldn't have surprised Sanji that he missed one or two, but the tendrils snaking up from under broken glass did anyway, latching onto his ankle before he could get away and dragging him back. As he slammed in the ground, he extended his arms and cupped his hands to protect the soul orb, refusing to let it get the least bit damaged. The thing was on him that quickly, snaking up him like a boa and pressing a big claw down on his chest. It either didn't notice his arms outstretched, or it didn't care, but Sanji managed to keep the orb clear - sacrificing himself for it. He heard the snap and felt the oh-so-familiar burn of a rib breaking, but he ground his teeth on his cigarette and forced himself to stay conscious until he could get a foot free and kick it away.

Having a much larger wing span, Callie was moving pretty fast. While she would try not to be obvious about it, she would check periodically to see how Sanji was doing... and he seemed to be doing okay for a while. She had a couple tangles with some tentacles herself, but after literally ripping the spine from one beast to hit another- she saw Sanji on the ground, hands cupped overhead and something on top of him.

"Sanji!" Damn it, with a demonic howl Callie made a bee-line to the creature, hitting it hard enough to send it through the nearest building. Breathing heavily she looked down. Her shoulders heaved up and down, looking out to notice there was a slight lull in the army of darkness. She knew it wasn't going to last long.

"It's not going to let up." In a way she was jealous. She wished she was the cause of all this. In all actuality she probably should've been on their side. She sniffed the air and looked back down at him, soon kneeling over him. "Are you okay?"

Sanji laid gasping for a moment, and then grinned hazily up at her, raising his hand to show the orb still safe and sound. "Never better," he said, although he definitely had a stitch in his side and at least one busted rib. He'd had worse. "You?"

He could lay there for another minute, until the next wave. He just needed to catch his breath and he could go on.

"Glorious." She was loving this. Even if it wasn't intended- this was probably the best date she ever had. "I know you can take a beating, but damn... I don't want you dead, you moron." That's Callie being concerned for you damn it.

"I'll be fine." To prove it, Sanji rolled to a seat and got up, brushing his pants off. "I'm more concerned about you. You'll be all right without this?" He rolled the orb between his fingers before closing his hand safely around it again. "I'll live, but I have a feeling I might need more cigarettes pretty soon."

Alas, there were more on the way. Sanji took a couple of deep drags off his cigarette, ignoring the twinge in his chest, and then crushed out the butt on the sole of his shoe before dashing off to meet the invaders. They'd have to break a lot more than a few of his ribs to slow him down.

"What's one measly soul? I'm fine. Just don't lose it." Funny enough she's gotten rather attached to it.

Watching him dash out and truck on was the single most sexy thing she had ever seen him do. She got up and flew forward. She'd give him a cigarette later. More heads needed to be ripped off.

[ooc: and off to Halloween shenanigans! :D continue later!]

She was seeing him in his element; Sanji hadn't gone to sea to sit around a kitchen and be a waiter, after all. Despite the size and strength of these bastards, they were really nothing more than cannon-fodder, and he was not wasting any of his best moves on them. At least, he wasn't calling his shots. That was for one-on-one, when he had the breath for it.

The busted rib was going to hamper him, though. He had powers fueling him, mending the wound slowly and boosting his stamina, but they weren't magic. He didn't miss a step but more claws found him before he could dodge, now. He got knocked over a few times, but went to his shoulder and rolled out of it, protecting that soul orb all the time. That one occupied hand remained close to his body, while the other he didn't mind planting on the ground or the sticky shoulder of a spawn in order to give his kicks new and exciting leverage. At last he was face to face with just one, and this one knew how to dodge him. "Oh, you want a real fight?" he taunted it, pausing and sizing it up. Dripping with sweat and blood, he was driven by adrenaline to take it on all the same. "All right, then. Come at me, if you can."

[ooc: oooooo enjoy your shenanigans!]

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DRAIN YOU OF YOUR SANITY

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