soul_logs | EVENT: The Attack of the Clowns

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EVENT: The Attack of the Clowns

Early in the morning, those who had brought one back would find the bird keychains they brought back from their trip to that skii resort doing something...strange. The small eyes on the things started pulsing with a faint light that might go unnoticed at first. It doesn't stop though, and keeps right on pulsing for the rest of the morning.

Shortly, before noon, the light stops pulsing and shines bright enough to be uncomfortable.

Two things happen at once when it does.

One of these things is this: within a 50 meter radius of every keychain, strange ripples appear in the ground. From these ripples, something that is barely humanoid in shape slowly ascend. Their colours range from red to silver to yellow to purple. When they've materialized all the way, the Clowns immediately spring into action, attacking anyone nearby and, if there is no one, move in whatever direction they were facing, seeking victims.

The other thing that happens is a voice, young, lilting and feminine, being projected through the keychains.

""Thank you for all that you have done: none of this would have been possible without your contributions. I would thank you all in person except I don't believe I am really welcome here. Which is a pity as I hadn't gotten to meet all of my lovely victims the first time around. Please accept these children as a token of my appreciation instead. They are a little, ah, crude, but I do hope you will all play nicely~."

((OOC: Please put [Character Name | Location | OPEN/CLOSED ] in your subject header! Event information can be found here.))

Threaded | Flat

[It had taken a while to clean up after morning training, and during that time, Rosalia had noticed the two little hummingbird gifts with her begin glowing. It was weird, but she didn't think anything of it. It had to be between checking in and going to feed her cat that everything began. Screaming caught her attention and her eyes widened when something spotted her. She really didn't know; it looked human, but something was wrong.]

[Purple... That's all she caught before it came running at her. She squeaked, keychains jingling as she ran in the opposite direction. Where she was going didn't matter immediately. At the very least, she knew not to head towards the clinic with the thing coming after her. She needed to find help.]

[She'd forgotten she'd even had the stupid keychain. It had been thrown into her purse at the resort and left there. She hadn't noticed it lighting up until she was on her way down the stairs, leaving Shibusen, and went searching for her lip balm.

So, it was on the steps with the keychain in hand, brow furrowed, when Akiha heard that little message. And really, with the way it was phrased, there was no doubt in the Meister's mind who it belonged to. Her free hand automatically went to touch the scar at the back of her neck where the madness chip had been from that time when the witches had captured and experimented on her.]

Hachi.

[And then as the air rippled nearby, she unleashed an angry yell and threw the keychain at the emerging silver figure.

...okay, so it had been a bit too much to hope that the witch herself was showing up, but it was best that wasn't the case. Akiha was without her partner right then. She was going to have to get to Sion... if she could remember where the alchemist was supposed to be right then.

In the meantime, the silver clown lunged at her far quicker than she was expecting and she raised her hands just in time to block the attack. But there was something off about the thing's hands, like it had claws but not, and it managed to cut her forearm.

Stumbling back, Akiha had to focus more on maintaining her footing on the uneven ground than launching any counterattacks. By the time she managed to gain the upper hand, using her unarmed skill along with both Soul Bite and Soul Menace, she was more than halfway down the steps. It launched itself at her again, head starting to elongate into what she could only assume would eventually become some kind of maw, and she finally was in the right position to use its momentum to launch it over the edge of the steps to splatter on the ground below her.

Hands on her knees, sweating and bleeding from several superficial wounds, Akiha panted as she looked down at the smear of silver on the pavement and the other clowns running amok down below. Without her partner... how many could she handle on her own?

It wasn't looking like the odds were in her favor if they were all as tough as that one...]

[Any surprise that the wolf was there? If she wasn't in her apartment or at work, Amaterasu would linger around the park. Most of the day, after training, there she could be found. Still, not a good time.]

[The moment the clown appeared, she was on it. Red though it was, she picked up on it fast. Ears back, paws lightly brushing the ground, the blind thing had difficulty hearing her and more heard people scattering at a distance. The hummingbird charm with her lay abandoned on the opposite side as she circled and it seemed more interested in that. Still, she had to make a dash.]

[To the left, and back right, the noise she made drew its attention. Hair whipping from its head trying to tangling her, but who ever created this thing didn't appear to calculate fighting an animal. Around, looping, she tangled it through a tree which quickly began to spark and weighted it down with a rock. Weapons left scattered by morning training, she got closer and closer. It wasn't human, but the way it was built.]

[She swerved until, utilizing her soul as Stein taught in those classes she came into. Pinned down, her fangs are at its throat, and with a snap after a thorough beat-down, she stood over it, growling still. The voice coming from the charm made her snap, crushing it in her fangs next. The Goddess snorted; splendid. A little Witch playing this way.]

[Head rising, her ears rotated and nose curled. She was done here, but this wasn't the only one. Springing from the corpse, she picked up the closest weapon and dashed to help. First Weapon she crossed, well, that would help all the more.]

[Thanks to the overenthusiastic resort owner, Lily had returned to Death City with several of the little stuffed hummingbirds, handing some of the extras out to friends who had stayed behind. A couple remained in the bottom of her bag, forgotten under old dry cleaning receipts, the other contents of the bag obscuring the lights and muffling the message so that she didn’t even realize anything was amiss.]

[Not until she put up a ‘back in 10 minutes’ sign and stepped out of Yesterday’s Magic to visit the coffee shop down the street. It was coming back that the cobblestone in front of her started to faintly ripple. At first, she’d assumed it was just a small mirage caused by the hundred degree heat but then the ground swelled, turning red as a crude figure rose out of the pavement before. It reminded the witch of an oversized wax poppet or worse, those oily black creatures that had appeared when the floating carnival fell.]

[Even more alarming was the sudden chill she felt when it swung one of those long hair-like pieces at her and the scent of singed fibers as a flame burned a palm-sized hole in the skirt of her vintage dress and charred the crinoline underneath. She doused it with her iced coffee and fled as a second rose from the ground. She sure as shootin’ wasn’t going to stick around for a witch burning! And there was no way for her to fight the dang things alone. She had to find Lezard!]

[So, Lily was running through town, trying to get to clinic. She managed to lose the red ones quickly but those strange figures in different colors kept materializing out of the ground, forcing her to frequently backtrack or take detours.]

[OOC: It’s already planned that Neji and Lee will eventually find her and help her get to Lezard but I’m open to having Lily run into other people before that!]

[The biggest advantage of being the one in charge of every surveillance camera in Death City is, without a doubt, spotting the first signs of trouble when shit hits the fan. Near is going through the surveillance feed and hopping from camera to camera when he sees the first clown, and he wastes no time in reaching for his communicator to get in contact with his Meister, warning him of the city’s newest threat.

A quick check of a few specific cameras shows him that his way back home is mostly clear for now, but he knows very well that things can change in the blink of an eye. Still, he’s the half of their partnership that is better equipped to deal with damage-- they’re completely screwed over if they’re separated from each other, but his Weapon form can withstand a lot more damage than Mello’s body-- so he decides that it’s better for both of them if he runs back home instead of Mello running to meet him.

He’s definitely not as fast as his Meister, but he’s considerably faster than when he arrived to Death City almost a year ago, and the increase in stamina and general agility means that he makes his way back to Tartarus Terraces faster than he’d predicted initially, but not without dodging an attack and barely avoiding tripping over a wounded civilian. Almost there, less than a minute away if he keeps up his pace...]

Edited 2014-01-12 05:22 (UTC)

[ Screams--?

Given Allen had no keychain (and wouldn't know what they are, that was before he even showed up in Death City) and hadn't wandered back to the residential area yet from morning training, he wasn't privvy to still more ~~what is his life even~~ monster clowns appearing at his feet immediately. But he could hear the city's reaction to them, certainly. And given his instincts, well—

There's no mistaking sounds of looming battle. And that's why he startles only for a moment, looking for the source, before taking off running. Without really thinking about, well—he's by himself at the moment. Just how much could he do

That doesn't make a difference.

One thing's for sure though. Wherever the sounds of screams or fighting might be loudest?

That's exactly where he's heading. ]

[The ripples in the ground surrounding the Watch office are alarming, and Neji instantly removes himself from one, ordering the rest of those in the office to do the same. Veined eyes watch the beings emerge; grotesque and accompanied by a sickly sweet voice he knows without question belongs to a Witch.

He watches the circles appear in the rest of the city, the strange beings emerging everywhere. Defenseless without his Weapon, Neji retreats outside, calling to Lee through their resonance to meet him.

And as he stands up on a roof above ground, he watches the peaceful air of the city collapse into chaos.]

Chika had been really lucky that she hadn't been crushed by a flying arcade machine. Thankfully it hadn't been all that busy at the arcade in the middle of the day, so there was only one of those clown things there.

But even one of these monsters was more than enough, and Chika had to duck behind the desk as it kept lifting game machines and stuff into the air with it's mind and, well, trying to smash her with them.

Her heart was beating pretty fast, and she couldn't help almost panic as she grabbed her communicator. But no. No panicking. Panicking wouldn't do anything but just get her killed. She needed to be calm.

Making sure that the communicator was just a text message, Chika focused on sending a message out to Asuka. No need to even make it grammatically perfect or, you know, use actual words.

Asuka! I need your help. Where R U?

He had been on his way to doing a check to his district when he had heard the disturbances around the city. It was not unexpected for some kind of attack to the city, but the sight of different coloured clowns caused him to frown. He had fought black clowns before, and they were very nasty and tended to respond to attacks. These seemed to be keyed in on certain people or objects.

He drew one of his katanas from his back before not having to reach far within himself to make contact with his partner. He knew Sephiroth would come, but it would take the man time, and he had some battling to do. He needed to get people to safety, and once Sephiroth arrived, they could start to cut a proper path through these clowns.

He gathered himself to resonate with himself and began to head towards the nearest sounds of trouble.

[Ever since the ski trip, Genesis had kept his share of hummingbird keychains at his desk in the Agency. So, he didn't really notice them glowing or even letting out that painfully bright light around the time before he heard a voice... a Witch's voice. He knew something was up when he stepped out and saw Near making a run for it. And so he rushed over to Edgeworth's office so they could move together. However, they were a little too late.

As soon as he exited his Meister's office with the prosecutor in tow, the ground around the Agency's entrance began to ripple and from it rose three of the clowns: one purple clown, one mustard yellow clown, and one red clown.]

Well, looks like we've got some work ahead of us, partner.

Having not participated at all in the ski trip, Shinji was largely unaware of the existence of the keychains, and even less so of their odd behavior through the day. As it was, after training, he was looking forward to going back to the apartments and taking some time to cool off.

The odd rippling in the street was more than enough to stop him in his tracks, and the silver colored... thing that followed the odd occurrence drew a strangled "A-ah..." from Shinji's throat. Rather than stay frozen to the spot, though, he slowly began to back away, hoping that it had neither heard nor spotted him. Ah, is only he could be so lucky...

~~He wasn't down to Clown.~~

Goddamn Clowns. It was enough that another Witch had a plan, but he had to wonder why. Nothing about this felt 'normal' among attacks upon the city, and his suspicions would only build as he took on the creatures with twisted smiles and strange powers. He thought they fought with blood because they WERE blood.

"..You sure? There's nothin', I dunno, weird about 'em? Weirder than usual??"

Things had been quieter lately. Though L and Light had opted not to go on the ski trip, they considered it an indicator of the fact that, despite the war and the international missions, things were not so dire that occasional leisure trips could not be scheduled and executed. They had shrugged, moved on, and given it no further thought. In hindsight, the two of them probably should have known better than to let their guards down so easily and regard the entire thing with so little suspicion.

The silver apparition appeared suddenly in a sea of ripples, barely giving L time to blink and question whether or not his lack of sleep was catching up to it before it started barreling toward the pair.

[The clowns are kinda freaky looking but Morgan doesn’t especially care about helping when she first sees a silver one chasing after a screaming local. She just shakes her head and crosses her arms and keeps walking. The Pirate Hunter’s Code says not to kill anyone without being paid so unless there’s a bounty for those things, it’s not her problem.]

[But that doesn’t mean the clowns won’t try to make it her problem. A purple one materializes out of the ground in front of her and reaches for her arm, causing her to feel a moment of tiredness.]

Hey! Get your hands off of me!

[She pulls her arm out of its grip, gives it a kick and draws her cutlass.]

Edited 2014-01-16 03:44 (UTC)

Nanami didn't have one of those cheap keychains she had noticed popping up a lot in the past few days. She had shrugged it off a some silly fad people would get over soon enough.

This morning found Nanami on her balcony at home on the third floor of Fatality Condominiums. A commotion had carried its way up and through the windows and walls of her apartment and she was observing it from behind her safety rail.

"Seriously? Again?" There is far more annoyance than fear in her voice. Nanami moved back into the apartment to collect some items and when she emerged again, she had several bottles of wine both empty and full, dish washing cloths, tape, dish soap and a lighter. At least the monsters here made themselves easy targets. She prepared a few moltov cocktails, only vaguely aware of how to make them from books she had read before leaning over the rail with a bottle in one hand and the lighter in the other. Luckily for her, all her roommates had been wine people.

She had mastered the art of hitting targets with shoes last time, this time the projectile was heavier and on fire so it might take a few practice shots to get it right. She could only hope that wine was a workable substance since she didn't have motor oil or gasoline in the apartment.

Momentarily she was raining glass and fire down on and near unsuspecting colored clowns while making an honest attempt to not hit innocent bystanders.

[ Hiding her worry was one of her bigger concerns. She had lost contact with Akiha for a while and Sion was searching for her. Almost frantically (she had to keep her cool, just barely), she searched for her partner across a good part of the city. Sion hoped that she would find the half-demon in good shape. Being apart from her this long, it felt like any problems Akiha would have would be Sion's fault. ]

[Eve had noticed the strange stuffed bird's eyes glowing when she'd gone to her bag to get something after she left for an early lunch. She was staring at it curiously when the voice started speaking.

She clenched her jaw and dropped the thing on the ground and turned back the way she came.

She dodged the Clowns that were starting to emerge as best she could. Luckily she hadn't been that far...]

Threaded | Flat

Rosalia + Mondo | Outer Residential Quarter One | Closed

Akiha | Shibusen Steps | open

Amaterasu and Psiioniic | Park | Open