This is the end, but still your need is driven on

[liebe_krieg]

WHO: The Major, the Doctor, and their game pieces. I.e. EVERYONE.
WHERE: Throughout the City.
WHEN: The nights of Friday the 6th to Sunday the 8th.
WARNINGS: Violence and death galore.
SUMMARY: The Major and Doctor Einsturzen go to war for fun, and drag the entire City along for the ride.
FORMAT: Whatever works!

Nightfall was marked by fire. The subway station at East 42nd Street and Park Avenue rocked as a series of explosives ripped through the tunnels, setting everything ablaze, lighting up the evening and filling it with the terrified screams of civilians. That was the first. It was starting.

Across the City, there was movement from the underground. Vampires in trenchcoats and gas masks emerged onto the streets, bloodthirsty and vicious. Hounds the size of bears or larger, barely recognizable as what they once were, prowled from the alleys, saliva dripping from their jowls. Children in canine masks darted across the rooftops. All the while, more explosions tore across the City subway systems, as if keeping time for the two monstrous armies marching towards each other.

Anything that stood between them would be consumed-- natives, ImPorts, businesses, homes. Nothing was safe. This war would be winner take all, a prize of bloodshed and destruction to the psychopath left standing. The nights to follow would be long and full of terrors.

Comments

[onblackwings]

[ Khisanth would have been enjoying this mindless killing much more if she weren't so pissed. She hates that she can't get into the building and grab her humans (and troll) for herself, she hates that she has to stay outside and wait for other people to do it for her. It's the first time her size has ever been a disadvantage, and she's not enjoying it.

So when Karkat makes an appearance on the roof, Khisanth's sharp eyes find him immediately. She folds her wings in, banking into an immediate dive, and doesn't flare them out to catch herself until she's landing directly behind — over, really — her charge. One swipe of her claws knocks away his vampire attacker, a second opens his chest. Body armor just doesn't do very much good against something as large as she is.

Only when that's done does she look down at the troll between her forelegs, angry orange eyes gleaming. ]

Finally.

[crab]

[ dealing with the same vampires he'd been dodging all night was one thing. their attacks were expected.

dealing with a gigantic acid breathing lizard landing near directly on top of him in one move and slaughtering his attacker in the next is another thing entirely and he is totally justified in his reaction, which is to let out a totally composed and dignified exclamation. ]

Holy noxious ass chunks, Khisanth, what the fuck?!

[ actually a pretty typical response to her. ]

[onblackwings]

[ She lowers her head until that giant snout and teeth are hovering just above Karkat, sniffing. She even flicks out a tongue to taste the air before she's satisfied. He doesn't smell bloody, so he can't be hurt too badly. That's good. Her spells have never included healing magic.

She looks up again just in time to blast a stream of acid at an onrushing vampire, then her attention returns to Karkat as the unlucky creature screams and sizzles. ]

You can ride or be carried. Decide quickly.

[crab]

[ he glares warily up at her when her breath ruffles his hair. his injuries are mostly bruises, bar four parallel gashes on his left calf and shin. trolls are sturdy creatures; karkat is fine, more or less. ]

Wh-- shit!

[ KHISANTH YOU'RE MORE INTIMIDATING THAN THE VAMPIRES ]

I'll ride. [ no way is he going to trust those claws around his person. ]

[onblackwings]

[ Well, those claws around his person is exactly what he's getting, because Khisanth doesn't feel like waiting for him to fumble his way up to her back. So she wraps one forepaw around his waist and simply lifts him into place between her wings. There's a pretty crude assortment of ropes in place there, which have already been used earlier today as a sort of makeshift saddle. Or at least a way to hang on while she's doing her crazy dips and dives. ]

Hold on.

[ And without actually waiting to see if he is or not, she snaps open her wings and leaps off the roof. Oh boy. ]

[crab]

[ he will deny to the ends of the earth and back that he yelps when khisanth picks him up. he grasps a hold of the ropes when placed between her wings to keep himself from immediately sliding off her back onto the roof again, suddenly wondering if he made the right decision here. he doesn't have much time to get settled before she's

taking off.

holy shit.

I HOPE YOU LIKE SCREAMING, KHISANTH, BECAUSE THERE IS SUDDENLY A LOT OF IT. this is worse than the roller coaster. ]

[onblackwings]

[ oh gods, that's pretty damn annoying. She's determined to ignore it though, and puts her concentration into winging out away from the building to circle upward. There's still gunfire to dodge, so it becomes a more involved process than it usually would be.

But eventually she's high enough for her own liking, circling above the building like a giant vulture. And only then does she twist her head around to snarl back at Karkat: ] Would you shut up? You're distracting and you sound ridiculous.

[crab]

[ the additional height and dodging of gunfire doesn't do much to calm him. his knuckles are white on the ropes and his heart feels like it's banging somewhere in his throat while the rest of his organs decided they would rather stay down on the roof.

he does need to pause for breath though, so when she turns to him, he stops to take a big gasp of air, complying for once. who would have thought.

when he speaks his voice is higher and more shaky than normal. ]

I'm so- [ wheeze. ] -fucking sorry for being slightly unnerved by being precariously balanced hundreds of feet above the ground with the only thing between myself and becoming a gory, unsightly smear on the pedestrian strip being a cluster of ropes I didn't even have time to grasp properly before you went flinging your scaly lard ass into the air!

[onblackwings]

No, it's a cluster of ropes and my goodwill.

[ Her eyes narrow at him for a second before she twists her neck back around again, eying the streets and buildings below. There... isn't really a safe place to store Karkat, as far as she can tell. Her swamp would be perfect, but she doesn't have the energy to teleport there and back, or the time to fly there herself. She wheels a while longer, thinking. ]

Do you have somewhere safe?

[crab]

[ karkat is silent for a few moments while he positions himself more securely so as to not bring the scenario he'd just outlined to fruition. he snarls back at her immediately after her second comment, however. ]

No, and I don't need one, because you are not dumping me off on the sidelines like some helpless wriggler.

[onblackwings]

Neither am I putting you down in the middle of all this. [ disdainful snort!! ] I may as well have not rescued you at all, in that case.

[ Oh hey, but something has caught her eye here, and she's circling a little lower, watching the ground a little more intently. ]

[crab]

I came here for a reason, Khisanth, I didn't just go blundering into the fray because I thought that sounded like a wholesome Friday night activity, like I thought it would be fun to take Gamzee out on a paledate decapitating mutant barkbeasts and being abducted by freaks in gas masks to be monologued at by a smug psycho douche for three days! I came here looking for people.

[ a beat ]

And I ended up losing Gamzee. I'm not going anywhere until I've found them.

[onblackwings]

[ She's hardly even listening, because by now she's pretty good at tuning out anything longer than five words that comes out of Karkat. She circles lower still, until she's sure of what she's seeing. It's an awful lot of purple blood, for one troll. ]

You're in luck. [ She angles her wings for a dive, BETTER HOLD ON, KARKAT. ]