[Event] Invasion!

[soul_mods]

Characters: OPEN to everyone!
Location: All over Death City
Rating: Various
Time: February 2nd
Description: Witches have invaded and are attacking the city!

The attack, when it comes, happens quickly enough that Death City would have been caught flat-footed had there been no prior warning, but it's not completely unexpected because of the city's heightened state of alarm the past day. Warning sirens start sounding to alert the citizens and guests the moment a dark, slow-moving mass out in the desert to the south-east of Death City is spotted by Shibusen sentries. There's even time for civilians to run and hide before the mass is identified as an army of what looks like decaying, shambling corpses. The city's defenders are slow to move, however; most of them are distracted and are having trouble dealing with the black blood in their bodies. While agents are gathering to head out to deal with the zombie threat, that's when the witches make their move.

Portals begin opening in the skies above the city, disgorging hideous familiars: bulbous spiders and leggy ants the size of dogs. They drop hundreds of feet down into the streets and alleyways of Death City, and scuttle off in search of victims. The spiders are poisonous and can spin copious amounts of web to capture their targets, the ants spit acid that cause agonizing, paralyzing pain. Their masters bear down on the city in a cloud of black shadows--massive ravens strong enough to carry off adult men. There are five witches, women on broomsticks, beautiful if not for their crazed grins and obvious glee at the chaos descending upon the city. At some unknown signal--maybe the cackling from a couple of them--they dive in concert and disappear into different areas of the city.

Their masterful plan has begun!



ooc: Feel free to make your own threads. Please follow the format: [Character][Location/Time][Open/Close]

- if you want your character to run into a witch, please comment here!

Comments

[megitsune]

"Very well," she agreed with a curt nod. She went over to fetch the sandal she'd thrown at the insect and slip it back onto her foot. "I don't think anyone will mind."

Megumi climbed the steps ahead of him to wrestle the heavy modern door (did they all have to be made of metal? Honestly?) open for her injured defender. She stuck her head inside, looking this way and that. It appeared to her to be a parlor of some sort, or perhaps a waiting room? There were those strange Western cushioned seats to sit on all around the room, lamps and tables. "No one is inside," she commented. "And no monsters, either. I'll take it."

She swished a hand in the direction of the door. "Come along, then, quick. Let's not waste any more of your blood."

[pawned]

It was a haven compared to the tension the city had been suffering outside, at the very least. Itou bolted the door and carefully looked at his feet to make sure that he wasn't tracking blood on the floor -- that would be most impolite, after all -- before looking at the rest of what was a household's living room.

Itou eased himself painfully to sit on the table, mostly because it would be easier to clean bloodstains off it than the couches, before finally letting go of the sword enough to start briskly unbuttoning his shirt. "It's not serious," he said helpfully.

[megitsune]

Leaving her sandals inside the door, Megumi knelt on the floor, placing her medicine chest there and peeling her bloodied apron off. She went about tying her hair and her long kimono sleeves back to keep them out of the way. "Good," she commented. "Then it won't take too many stitches to close it up."

Business-like, she opened her medicine chest and took out a bottle of water and rice-wine antiseptic and a bowl to use to wash her hands. Flicking the liquid off onto another clean cloth, she went about sterilizing her sewing needle and thread with clean alcohol. "Let's see it," she recommended, nodding to his side.

[pawned]

He shrugged off his shirt with some difficulty, internally thanking some deity somewhere that he hadn't been wearing the Shinsengumi uniform that Hijikata had given him when he arrived here. It would have been terrible if he'd gotten that cut up.

"Interesting," he said, watching her prepare. "You use sanitation methods ahead of your time." Which was likely barely ten years behind his, but before the Amanto came, doctors did tend to be a bit obtuse when it came to medicine. But he did present his side to her. The cut was long, but not too deep, thankfully.

[megitsune]

"Ahead of my time?" she asked, staring up at him with wary eyes. "I haven't told you a thing about my time. How would you know...?"

[pawned]

"From your state of dress, manner of speech, and the medical equipment you're using," he shrugged a shoulder, the one not directly above the cut. "I'm a member of the Shinsengumi, albeit it's possible that we're from completely different worlds. Are you familiar with them?"

He could only guess her general era, after all, but he hadn't yet managed to pinpoint the year, if she had been before all that chaos or after, when things were a little less chaotic but also more bloody. Of course, she might not even be from a world whose Japan had to deal with Amanto, but Itou knew that his own world was really one of those historically inaccurate ones.

[megitsune]

Megumi dropped her utensils right into the antiseptic when she heard that, growing even paler white and blinking. She swallowed, feeling her blood run cold, a clammy sweat come over the back of her neck. She couldn't bring herself to look at Itou, not after he'd said that.

The Shinsengumi. She was alone, in a room, door bolted, with a member of the Shinsengumi.

Surely she was going to die if she didn't choose her words and actions very, very carefully here. She took a deep breath and prayed that if this person was anything like Saitou Hajime, that Ken-san would stay far, far away from this place. On the other hand... she couldn't help hoping that he'd come and save her from what was most likely a very painful death. Hiratsuki wasn't used to tickle people.

"I'm.... from Meiji. Meiji 11," she managed, picking up her needle and thread. Her voice was very, very soft. "There's nothing strange at all about my technique. I was trained not only in traditional herbal medicine, but also in the style of the foreign studies schools in Nagasa--"

It was then that she realized she'd said something extremely foolish. The Shinsengumi had been out to 'purify' Japan of foreign influences, and preserve the old ways. Megumi halted her syllables right there, and racked her brain for how to talk her way out of that.

[pawned]

Interesting. Itou gave her a long, thoughtful stare, not even bothering to hide that he was assessing this strange reaction to him. She knew as well as he did that she had given herself away in some manner, he just needed to figure out what.

"I'm from about that year," he replied slowly, rolling the words in his tongue. "But yes, we must be from rather different worlds, given your reaction to the name. Is it because you're using foreign influences in your medicine?"

[megitsune]

Megumi figured that even if she tried to hide the truth, it'd end badly for her in this case. She nodded, still afraid to look up. "My f-father," she said, stumbling over her words. "Takani Ryuusei. You may have... heard of him." In her own Japan, Takani Ryuusei was a well-known person among intellectuals all over the country. The man was famous for his highly advanced medical skills, disregarding social status and pursuing equality in treating others.

"When I was a girl, he took us all to Nagasaki, to study what the Dutch and German foreigners knew about medicine," she admitted, her voice quite timid. It didn't matter if this fellow had no katana on him, or if he was missing an arm. He was a lot younger than Saitou, and she'd seen first hand how ruthless that sadistic old man was. "I do love my country, but the fact is... there was much they'd discovered that we had not yet. And... as a doctor, my father taught me that-- we must do what is best for the patient. If there are new theories or learning, it doesn't matter what country they came from, if they save lives," she finished, the sweat on her forehead beading.

[pawned]

Itou had been getting so accustomed to her sass that the change surprised him quite a bit, making him blink behind his glasses. He didn't think such behaviour had a place with her, given all the toughness she'd been attempting to exhibit since they met a while ago.

"You're more fortunate than most. The only way to keep an edge in a rapidly progressive world is to keep up with developments and new ways of doing things, after all," he remarked diplomatically in an attempt to reassure her. Even if he was used to scaring people where he was from with presence alone, he hadn't exactly been doing anything here but sit on a table. He didn't really like unexpected things.

Still, it was best to clear things up. "Where I'm from, foreign creatures from other planets -- other worlds, practically -- took over Edo and our government. We lost the war and the Shinsengumi is the force that quells rebellion from overthrowing the aliens from the country. The technology we employ there now is even more advance than this world, though of course, our people have kept their traditions in many ways." Japan was good at that, at any rate, adopting the things that they liked from other cultures and making it suit their own.

[megitsune]

"You aren't... that does not sound like my world at all," she admitted, finally daring to take a glance up at the man on her makeshift examination table. "Don't get me wrong, I'd treat you whether you were going to slay me after or not. But I'd hoped to never have to see another Shinsengumi at work again as long as I lived."

She lowered her head, picking up her clean cloth and getting to work cleaning his wound. "I'm from Aizu," she said, as if he should know what she meant from just that statement alone. "We came back from Nagasaki with special traveling permission just in time for the the war between the Shinsengumi and other Shogunate forces fighting against the Imperialists there." It had been gruesome and horrifying, that much was plain to see in the whiteness of her cheeks and the shudder she gave after she finished speaking.

[pawned]

Itou turned his eyes away politely, not certain if she would want him to see her weakness. He didn't really know how to deal with women, let alone those from another world. Aizu, though. Aizu was very close to foreign land, among the provinces. It made sense that her venerable father would have more opportunity to be exposed to outside influence.

"My world isn't what you'd call historically accurate," he said with a shrug. "Commander Kondo Isao, Vice Commander Hijikata Toshirou and Captain Okita Sougo are here with me, too." He was careful to pronounce their names carefully, so she might recognize that it's slightly different from those of her world. "Don't get me wrong -- I fought against the invaders with the rest of the country, too, but that time's long passed us. We lost. It's futile to fight progress when it only makes the country suffer under new powers. And the Shinsengumi I come from is made up of a bunch of idiots and fools. Of the literal sort."

[megitsune]

Megumi just stared quite blankly at him, trying to take this all in. The names, the... "Idiots and fools? You are pulling my leg," she said point-blank. "Aren't you."

[pawned]

Not for the first time, Itou wondered how he would even begin explaining just exactly what their series was to anyone. It gave him a headache every time he thought about it.

"I'm not really the type to share jests with others." Another shrug, but he hadn't been careful this time and it was quickly followed by a wince. "My name is Itou Kamotaro, adviser to the Shinsengumi." If she was from Meiji 11, she was even ahead of him in years. Itou had died well before that, and yet she was as backward as Japan had been when he had been born.

[megitsune]

"You're not going to run me through with hiratsuki because of aku, soku, zan?" she asked dryly, dropping her voice to a deadpan imitation of a certain worthless cop on the Shinsengumi's famous motto.

[pawned]

He snorted. "I hear enough of it from Hijikata-kun. But if you really want to hear it, I would be happy to oblige. We have forty-five, though. Not three."

[megitsune]

"Good god," Megumi snorted in return. "Forty-five reasons to kill, that's just peachy. Don't you dare share those with Saitou, I'll track you down myself and give you what for."

Then she remembered that Itou had pretty much demonstrated that he wasn't like the ones she knew. "Er. Excuse my vitriol. You had me sure I was looking at my death sentence and now I'm shocked to be alive still. The Shinsengumi from my own world... they were ruthless killers, and I have very good reason to hate them."

Megumi nodded to his disinfected wound, a very thin needle threaded and ready in her hand. "Excuse me-- I'll start the stitches now. I won't lie to you, it'll hurt a bit, but bear with me."

[pawned]

"Or more like forty five reasons to have Hijikata-kun's boot on your backside," he replied. Their series wasn't really serious enough to warrant rules on killing, although a fair amount of their villains and side characters died. Take Itou, for example.

He warily eyed the needle for a moment, but resigned himself to her care. "Pain, I'm familiar with. Only do make sure your vitriol is all spent up. Is there anything you need me to do apart from not be a noisy, whining patient?"

[megitsune]

She shook her head. "No, just hold still. Unless you think I need to tie you down and give you a strap to bite down on?" she half-teased, referring to what was usually done for surgical patients in Meiji-era medical practice. "But I don't think I do? You look like like a boy who can handle a few stitches, Itou-san."

She used her thumb and forefinger to gently hold the laceration together. "My hands are cold, sorry," she informed him as she made her base stitch. Megumi was quite experienced at making stitches (even on herself), it was one of her best skills as a physician and had earned her quite a reputation among patients in her Tokyo neighborhood. When the needle went in, Itou would feel a small prick, but no pulling on the thread or dragging through the wound. She went about this as casually and smoothly as if she were sewing a silk handkerchief, concentrating wholly on her work.

"Tell me about yourself, why don't you?" she recommended, eyes on her stitchery. "That's usually the best way not to think about having this done. You've lost a good lot of blood, I don't want you fainting on me, now."

[pawned]

"I can handle a few stitches and some cold," he agreed, not biting on what could have been a euphemism like the rest of his barbarian Shinsengumi would have. Instead, he occupied his time by watching her as she worked. Itou couldn't very well see his side without moving too much, so he settled for watching her forearms and her hands when they came into view. She was very brisk with her craft, plying her trade well, and he didn't feel the thread going in and out as he thought he would. No, the burning, stinging pain was normal for this sort of wound, nothing more.

The offer of helpful conversation almost made him chuckle, and he only caught himself because that would only hurt him in the end. "You'll find that I'm a sturdy sort of man, not queasy at all. Also that I've very boring with not much to tell about myself. In fact, my most interesting feature is that I'm currently deceased." This, said in the same tone one would say that the sky was blue. It didn't seem fortuitous for a first meeting to talk about how he'd betrayed the Shinsengumi a few months ago.

"Will you tell me your name instead, so I don't have to think of you in terms of 'as that lady doctor who put my guts back in me after an ant bit me too hard'?" The title wasn't even all that bad. His castmates might even be proud of it. If he wasn't as polite as he was, he might have added foxy to it, but that was inappropriate. "You mentioned your father was Takani, but I'm not certain if you still carry the name."

[megitsune]

"Deceas-- ah, you're right, I haven't told you my own name. How rude of me," she said, her eyes widening a bit even though she didn't take her gaze from her stitching. She'd ask him about the deceased part after properly introducing herself, it was only fair. "Goodness. I'm Takani Megumi. Of course I still carry the name, silly. Come now, what man in his right mind would take a university-educated woman for his wife! And still let me do my work?" She clucked her tongue and let out a little rueful huff, unable to imagine a man who wouldn't lose his shit at such a concept. It just didn't work that way where she came from, she had no way of guessing that things weren't that way everywhere.

"I'll be a Takani till I die a crazy, weird, and opinionated old bat, and I'll be damned proud of it," she said, running some gauze around the pad of her thumb and smoothing across the last few stitches she'd done, to catch a drop of blood that had decided to squeeze out. Her brown eyes took on a hazy, wistful expression as her thoughts shifted. "My father," she said very softly, remembering. "He was a true hero... and I don't think anyone I've ever known can surpass him in my eyes."

[pawned]

"Where I come from, such a thing is highly valued among the powerful. Of course, the traditional sort of thinking is still vastly prevalent, but options are not closed." Not to mention that an Amanto or two would probably take a liking to her, but not in a way that she would approve.

"Your father seemed like quite a character," Itou remarked, a smile playing on his lips to hide the grimace trying to make itself known, a natural effect of being cut up and stitched up. "I suppose you're well on your way to becoming a hero, too, Takani-sensei." Itou's language was so polite as to approach the extremely formal, twisted in what would be a mocking sort of tone if it wasn't overlapped all in all by an obvious teasing lilt to his voice, good-natured as any under circumstances. His speech pattern was as complex as any diplomat could make it, and he was trying to be a bit more charming. After all, she was the one helping him out now.

[megitsune]

Megumi huffed a bit, rueful. "Oh, please. Now you are just trying to butter me up, Itou-san," she remarked, teasing right back. She was actually enjoying herself now, and to think, she'd been sure he'd end her life just a little bit ago. "And I know it's because I have a sharp needle in my hands and you want me to be kind with it. I'm onto you, with your crafty words, sir."

"I don't know anyone I'd consider powerful. So I suppose I'm out of luck until we get some kind of incredibly accepting men around here who're like the ones in your world. With huge, beefy, rippling brains." She checked her last stitch and began the back-stitches at the end of the row to keep them from unraveling with body movements. This was important for proper healing without any re-opening, and Megumi was chagrined that the doctors she saw in the Edo area just didn't bother doing this right. "Until then, I'm satisfied to be me and do things my way. One person to clean up after suits me just fine, thanks."

She shook her head to deny the hero comment (oh god he really didn't know her, did he-- if he did he'd take that back right away), but then Itou called her "Takani-sensei" with no problem at all, the way he would if she were a normal, respectable, male doctor. That in and of itself made her actually pause and glance up from her last stitch in surprise. She was used to her patients calling her things like "onna-sensei"-- woman doctor. They seemed to feel it was necessary to put the "woman" in there to distinguish her from the real village doctor. Sometimes it wasn't even "sensei," just "pretty lady" or "onee-san."

Takani-sensei, huh. She.... didn't think it sounded so bad.

Blinking rapidly to clear that awfully vain thought from her mind, she lowered her gaze once again to Itou's side. With two more passes of her needle, she had finished off her stitches. She picked up some clean gauze to use to clean the edge of the stitches one more time.

[pawned]

She wasn't quite so terrified or wary of him now, at least, and Itou congratulated himself for achieving that much. He didn't enjoy tension any more than the next person -- it was bad for negotiations or any potential acquaintanceship, really. "You'd be rather disappointed if you were to go to my world expecting beefy brains. I'd say most of them had beefy... elsewheres, instead." Hardly appropriate to indulge in bathroom humor with a lady.

"But I daresay it worked rather well, considering how kind you're being. In your self-sufficient and stubborn way, of course." Another teasing lilt, and he craned his neck down to peer at his own injury. It seemed competently done. Nothing like magical healing, but Itou admittedly preferred methods that he could recognize, and this was as straightforward as medicine went.

"Will it last through another battle?" Itou asked inquiringly, his abdominal muscles cramping from staying still for too long. Probably his muscles softening through the past two months here or something horrific like that. There was a long line of a scar crossing diagonally from his shoulder to his nearly his waist, and he fingered it as he waited for her to patch him up.

[megitsune]

"Another battle?" Megumi asked, with an emphasis (albeit gentle) that meant she figured he'd certainly done plenty for now if he wanted to rest. She turned and got out a little jar of ointment, and busied herself dabbing it onto the stitches with a clean gauze pad. "You told me you were recently deceased, I'm almost starting to believe it," she hummed with a tiny smirk. "You'll be going for a second time, will you, then?"

Oh, these swordsmen, they really were all alike. She raised an eyebrow at him, but her tone was something akin to bemused. After all, Kenshin would be doing the exact same thing, and she understood exactly why. "I'm guessing no amount of blood loss or nagging from me will stop you, am I right?"