WEEK ONE: meet and greet the meat

[theparasite]

Date & Time: 6/3 -> 6/9
Location: various.
Characters: various, the Nightcap.
Summary: it's very important to make lots of friends right away, to lay down roots.
Warnings: violence. lots. lots of violence.






The norm was to wind up in a big party, wasn't it? Some dull-eyed doorman with a few insultingly sparse words – as if welcome or you're here for a reason would've made a difference. As if someone would be a lot more keen to the idea of being abducted from whatever-they-were-doing in wherever-they-were-doing-it because someone had the courtesy to say hello.

What would a big party and a welcome have done to have altered the Nightcap's stay in Exsilium? What would have changed?






The body count, maybe.




[enclosed is WEEK ONE of the Nightcap; those interested in an encounter or a finding this or the upcoming weeks should poke this post!]

Comments

[whatsupcroc]

The pain was exquisite. Having felt worse didn't make it more pleasant; breaking away from the woman she can only shy away from the man, too, not sure if he'd turn around to protect the apparent person over the animal bleeding and snarling and looking wildly for the door.

It's closed again. Collette wants to scream, cry, anything: the dang door is closed!

She scrambled away, living up to her own mental entreaty, light burning her eyes as she refused to turn her back on assailant or new stranger. She slams her eyes closed a moment too late to prevent being partially blinded by the light.

< Stay away from me! > she calls out. It's a warning to both parties, ignoring the blood staining her sides red, matting her fur and showing the muscle underneath. Collette doesn't register Ashraf as Ashraf yet, doesn't recognize his smell through the blood and burning particular of any kind of light concentrated in a given area, let alone the result of that light touching flesh.

Bad memories. It's all a rush of bad memories, and all she can be thankful for is that fire isn't direct her way -- yet. Growling, blinking blinded eyes rapidly as she jerked her head between Nightcap's direction and where Ashraf stood, she calls out at last for the names of people who she swears should have been here. < Barnaby! > Gone, and she knew that, revising mentally. < Drift! > Her friend who faces down his own demons, convinced all he can do is destroy. < Caesar! > Who she can't call for, because he can't be here. He can't be around any of this. < Vanadi! > He's always shown up before. But things change, he's changed, who knows where he is now? < James! > She feels her mental voice breaking off into a cry of a different sort of wordless pain. < Where are you? >

The rest is locked within her own mind. Why aren't you here? She isn't always brave on her own. She edges further back, seeking to get away. If they keep each other distracted...

[theparasite]

Not so demonic, but Ashraf is lucky: the Nightcap wasn't made to endure such foreign elements. Over Collette's cries, Regina Darkov's own swallowed them up, loud and shrill as she twisted and writhed on the ground. The monster, too, suffered: bulging and bubbling in places, the hat looked less a hat and more a boil ready to burst.

No! Auuugh–! NO!

Pain. Personal pain – not just information fed from the girl. And it was terrible. Tendrils burst from the already broken shape it had once been, flailing and stretching and searching blindly for some means to ease the pain.

[highhealplz]

[ What he'd assumed was a hat is -- proving itself very not a hat. But Ashraf only takes a split second to watch with horror, and then his attention is on the coyote again. Before he's gone more than two steps he throws out holy magic again. It's not meant to harm, this time, but to heal. Soothing green light floods her form, but Ashraf can recognize that the damage is extensive. It'll take more than that.

He strides toward her, casting heal after heal as he goes. The creature on the woman's head will be given time to recover, although he hasn't forgotten it. As soon as he's convinced the animal is well again, he'll get right back to it.

He lowers his voice as he draws nearer to Collette: ] There you are, it will be alright -- you're almost done --

[whatsupcroc]

Collette couldn't feel the difference. Not at first -- the edge of pain slacked, slowly getting more and more dull, but the panic didn't. She scooted back and away from the approaching Ashraf, only slowly, slowly realizing who it was she saw.

< Ashraf? > she asks, and she collapses down to her belly. Collette starts demorphing, not because it's a good time, and not because she thinks it's a great idea, but she needs out of the pain and she knows Ashraf is supposed to be one of the good guys and she needs out of the coyote morph before the idea of what's been happening sticks around and devours her into something gross and dark and hard to get back from.

"Ashraf, watch out, it's screaming, where is it, it has these needles --"

The cold air is a shock on her lungs, and the human Collette starts coughing, a wrenching, whooping sound that shakes her body and leaves her with her face turned into the arm not supporting her up and away from the cold dampness of the roof. She's naked, and the rooftop around her is splattered and pooling with blood.

[theparasite]

It rolled on its side, a hand patting and dragging across the ground, curling into a fist and uncurling to lay flat, to start helping it push itself up, still groaning and gurgling and grunting with each move. The pain had been so very raw, but the impact was receding quickly. The Nightcap's shape began to quiver itself back down, hugging tightly to the scalp of the girl who suffered, less a hat and more a dye job gone horribly wrong. It sank down under her jaw, against her ears and eyes and the neck, house of that all-important brain stem. There was more pain there, but more control, and the girl had to move.

"Guouwh...gnahrh. Ha. Ah..."

Spit, it insisted.

She spat, leaving black and red behind.

As it slowly rose, staggering to stand, tendrils lifted and pulled eyelids open to peer, blearily, at the moving, speaking shapes before the Nightcap. Two.

"H-hoh..."

There was a squelching sound, quickly proceeded by the tinny whistle of tiny needles zipping through the air. Three, four, five, six–

oh god look at that, quicklog is just so engrained in me

[highhealplz]

Collette's warning after her surprising transformation is almost enough. Almost. It takes three of the needles finding his back and side before he gets out his spell. A green mist swirls to life at his feet, cleanly swallowing the other three. Well, so much for his idea of giving her his robes, now that they're pinned to his skin. That will have to wait.

"I'm sorry," he murmurs, "Just wait a little while longer, I have to deal with her."

He turns back for Nightcap, but without leaving Collette defenseless. He takes a second to weave a spell over her, one which disappears after a brief, honeycombed shield shines into place around her. It will come back again in full force to defend against any blows sent her way though, up to four times.

And with that done, he's once again calling for the holy light, sending it streaking painfully for their attacker.