DRAIN YOU OF YOUR SANITY

[fakethulhu.livejournal.com]

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!]

Comments

[burning-fists.livejournal.com]

Kyo was bringing up the rear in this case - fighting off a bunch of hellspawn or whatever these things were didn't exactly help him out in getting set for this part of it. But there was fire blazing in his hands, he was ready to slug whatever this thing was and send it back crawling to wherever it came from.

It'd be a nice warm-up for when he got back to beat the crap out of Ash, anyway. Besides, this gave him an opportunity to test out a new move he had developed: Ame no Murakumo. Though he wasn't going to do much all the way back here outside maybe a couple random fireballs, so running it was.

[fakethulhu.livejournal.com]

The Emissary bellowed in response to Ysera's challenge, a terrifying scream from another world, a world beyond sanity or light. In answer to Its call hundreds of Spawn burst forth from the waves It had emerged from and charged forward to meet the army Ysera had manifested. Running into battle without the slightest heed for their own safety, driven on by their own bloodlust, the smaller demons made contact with their enemies in seconds. There was a horrific crash as their ranks slammed into Ysera's, and the park became a scene from a medieval nightmare as the two groups of creatures tore into one another with preternatural ferocity.

As the small ones clashed around Its feet, the Emissary gibbered something horrific from its quivering mouth-feelers. Insofar as this creature was even capable of thought and speech as this universe could comprehend it, the noise probably roughly translated as 'bring it.' Sickly-green ichor burst forth from Its skin wherever it was pierced by Ysera's thorns, a vicious bubbling poison that browned the vines and ate away at their strength like a vile acid. Surging with power beyond measure, the Emissary broke free from the trap and stepped forward to meet Its foes, ignoring the boulders and tree-spears pelting it from all angles. The monster flung Its great arms out wide to grapple with whoever dared to challenge Its strength. It was giant wrasslin' time.

[ofthedream.livejournal.com]

No fool, Ysera didn't move in to grapple with the Thing. She wasn't ready to give up her aerial advantage. More massive roots burst forth, seeking to at least slow it down and hamper it's movements. With great sweeps of her wings she rose higher for a better angle and opened her jaws wide to spray a stream her own acid toxins at what passed for the Fiend's face.

[rock-it-punch.livejournal.com]

The acid spray sure looked to Santo like an opening, and it wasn't one he was going to pass up before he let this thing get back on its...feet...stuff. This wasn't his first time fighting a horrible eldritch monster, though it was the first time he was able to fight on somewhat of an equal footing, and he was going to relish it.

Rockslide charged across the park, grabbing at the beast's arms after the dragon's breath wasn't in the way and attempting to drag the horror to the ground

[burning-fists.livejournal.com]

Kyo was forced to duck and weave around the ensuing fight on the ground, especially considering that he had no way of getting there quicker, no flight or teleportation capbabilities. For a fleeting second, he thought he was well in over his head with this, but that thought was driven out of his mind as he leaped, crashing down on one of the demons with a fantastic arcing kick, only to twist around and swing forward with a fire-laced bunched that exploded into a veritable inferno upon contact - Orochi Nagi. he'd have to keep an eye on his reserves though to make sure that he didn't get too worn out before actually reaching the main target of this mess.

"Phew ... thought Orochi was an ugly fucker. This guy takes the cake!" He said to nobody, considering everyone else was way too busy fighting off the creature or its hordes of minions. It was unfortunately going to take him a bit to reach the center stage, but he supposed that the others that were here with him would be able to take it on until that point.

[fakethulhu.livejournal.com]

Jellylike flesh bubbled around the Thing's face as Ysera's natural toxins scarred and corroded the Emissary's unnatural form, yet It seemed to pay no heed either to the acid or the new roots snatching and tangling at Its feet. The Emissary did at least come to a halt, at least for the moment, in order to properly engage with Its rival giant.

As Rockslide seized hold of Its arms, It remained standing tall despite the immense strength trying to pull It downwards. It stood like a mountain and laid claws on Rockslide's own arms, and It squeezed. From where It gripped Santo's stone surface came the sound of rock being strained under impossibly strong pressures. The Emissary intended to crush Rockslide to rock powder with Its bare hands. It was so focused on Santo and Ysera however that It paid no mind to Kyo burning a swath through Its minions, getting closer.

[burning-fists.livejournal.com]

A few barbequed mooks later and Kyo was staring up at the Thing, making a face at it. "Yup, definitely uglier than Orochi."

Then again, at least Orochi just looked like a giant snake with multiple heads in its true form. A deep breath, and flames erupted from his fists again. Now or never, time to test out the new move. He knew the Ame no Murakumo would do something, but how effective it would be? Well, no time like the present to see.

He charged forward, letting loose with a few fire-laced punches to start, spinning around to kick, then throwing one arm forward, pillars of flame erupting from the ground behind him, only to blast forward and head staight for the monstrosity in front of him. "COME ON!"

[ofthedream.livejournal.com]

Seeing an opportunity as the Thing grappled with Rockslide, Ysera reached out with her power and shifted the landscape to match her imagination. The solid ground beneath the Thing's feet suddenly became a slurry of sucking mud at least fifty feet deep. The ground beneath Santo, however, stayed solid and firm.

Kyo might be in trouble from all that quicksand-like mud, though. So she sent a dragonhawk (http://www.wowpedia.org/images/3/33/Red_Dragonhawk_Mount.jpg) to try to pull him out and give him a lift if he got caught in the mud.

Ysera herself suddenly rushed forward, aiming to dart past, over the Fiend's hideous head. As she did, she lashed out at it's eye with the massive boney club on the end of her tail.


[ooc: Lii, let me know if you don't want the assist for Kyo and I'll change it.]

s'all good! :D

[burning-fists.livejournal.com]

He growled as he landed, nearly slipping into a full-on split thanks to the mud, only to right himself at the last second. "Great." That would not have been fun to explain to Cass and the others once this whole fiasco was over. Well, if they had any students to work with when this was over, anyway.

He nearly tumbled off the dragonhawk as it swooped down to pull him up and out, clinging for dear life. He then pulled himself up proper, letting out a sigh. So it looked like he would be taking the aerial approach for now. Alright.

[rock-it-punch.livejournal.com]

Santo strained to get away from the horrific monstrosity, not wanting to stay this close any longer than he had to. And in the process, his arms finally broke, sending Santo stumbling backwards with rocky stumps. "Christ, how strong is this thing?" He grumbled as he stuck his arms to the ground, dragging more stone out of the earth to form new limbs.

[fakethulhu.livejournal.com]

The Thing emitted a sort of warbling hiss when Ysera's tail smacked one of Its eyes into green jelly. Something oozing and pulsating began to plop out of Its head, dribbling out of a cavernous socket and down Its face. Halfway down though the flow abruptly, impossibly reversed itself. Like a film being run backwards, the smashed eye flowed back the way it came and reconstructed itself in seconds within the monster's head. Truly, this creature cared nothing for physics or causality.

The delay had made the Emissary impatient, and It was determined to force a way past these annoyances. Santo's broken rocky fists were still in Its hands, and it threw them like missiles with uncanny accuracy, one flying towards Ysera, the other towards the hawk Kyo had mounted. Its dragonlike wings began to beat as It surged forward through the mire, blasting spattering gusts of mud-filled wind ahead of It.

For a moment it seemed like Its might had finally reached a limit, that the quickened bog Ysera had created would suck It down like a dinosaur into a tar pit. With fifty feet of mystical mud pulling at It, escaped seemed an impossibility.

But conventional realms of possibility were like tinkertoys to this Thing. Perhaps Its physical strength was too great or perhaps Its eldritch magic did something inconceivable and nonsensical to the laws of mass, weight and density. Whatever the reason, the Emissary burst free of the slurry with a sudden massive heave accompanied by a series of grotesque slopping noises. Striding past the ruined ground of the Park, it moved forward, bellowing, towards the Financial District.

[ofthedream.livejournal.com]

Even as Ysera had circled back around, she paused in shock as she watched it's ruined eye reverse itself. She recoiled as she felt the very laws of Nature twist and warp into maddening perversion as it escaped her mire. She was so shocked that she missed seeing the massive stone missile until the last moment - just enough time to twist enough to avoid it crushing one of her wings. But it was still enough to knock her out of the sky with a bellow of pain and shock as something in her side gave way.

She cried out and tumbled down to crash into some of the few remaining trees even as their limbs seemed to stretch and reach to catch her. It still hurt, but the trees were enough to cushion her fall to avoid broken wings. She snarled in frustration and tried to scramble to her feet. But there was a sharp pain in her side and her limbs were tangled in the tree limbs. She clawed at the ground as she thrashed to untangle herself from the wreckage of the trees. Blood oozed from her side where her scales had broken or been torn away by the impact. It hurt to breathe or move, and she was fairly certain at least one rib was broken.

She limped slightly, on the side she'd been hit, as she struggled out of the impact crater she'd made. It hurt just walking, and would surely hurt more to fly. But she wasn't out of the fight yet. Whatever it wanted up ahead, she wouldn't let it get to it.

[burning-fists.livejournal.com]

Kyo let out a yelp as the dragonhawk tried to swerve out of the way, only to nearly be thrown off as it began to tumble to the ground. But there was no way he was going to go down without a fight in this case - he was already reaching for something to either slow him down or make sure to cushion the fall. Seeing nothing in the immediate vicinity, he knew that he couldn't stop here and now, flames erupting from his hands, flinging it forward to try and at least slow the creature down as he was falling.

[fakethulhu.livejournal.com]

Fireballs smacking into Its skin irritated the Thing enough to give It pause. It turned and saw that the source of the fire had an imminent and likely unpleasant date with the ground- not worthy of Its attention. Still, out of mingled cruelty and caution Its Spawn were telepathically commanded to converge on where Kyo looked like he was going to land. They would await him with open jaws and reaching tentacles.

The great dragon though, was possibly the only being in this City that could come near It for raw size, power, and magic. The fact that she was still moving earned her another attack, if only to keep her down and out of Its path.

It lumbered forward until It was within reach of the Financial District's first building. Then, latching onto the office block's roof with Its claws, it wrenched the entire top floor straight off the structure. Water dripped from the chunk of building through broken pipes and wires dangled beneath it like entrails as the Emissary raised it over Its head and tossed it towards where Ysera was regaining her feet.